102 Doker-la—the Sacred Mountain 
feeding him chiefly on lightly-boiled eggs, of which we had 
brought a moderate supply from Aben. It seemed to-night 
that I was destined to sup off ¢saméa, eggs, and brick tea, 
not a very satisfying meal at this stage of the journey, 
but Gan-ton came to the rescue with some toadstools and 
bamboo shoots, the latter being roasted by the simple 
expedient of throwing them into the fire and leaving them 
till, on stripping off the outer burnt leaves, the inside was 
found to be soft and succulent. As to the toadstools, a sort 
of morrell, | knew nothing about them and had to trust to 
Gan-ton’s empirical knowledge of jungle produce; but he 
ate some himself, so that, unless his colour carried with it 
immunity from the effects of vegetable poisons, I anticipated 
no evil results. A minute but ferocious insect like a sand- 
fly existed in the forest here and gave us a bad time, settling 
on our faces and wrists in hundreds, and biting us till they 
raised most painful bumps. 
June 24 was our last heavy day, but I now felt very 
weak from lack of accustomed food, the continual change 
of weather, and sheer weariness, so that even the sombre 
and bulky yak easily kept in front of me. Gradually we 
emerged from the forest into a region of alpine meadow 
dotted with willows, and covered with beautiful flowers, 
such as yellow salvias, purple columbines, and masses of 
the red /ritzllarza Souliez, which grew waist high. Craggy 
limestone cliffs rose on every hand, but the whirling mists 
hid the view. 
Lunch was taken under the shelter of some boulders 
amidst patches of snow, whither I was the last to arrive, 
feeling very bad. Suddenly there came a hail from one of 
the Tibetans just outside our little shelter, and everybody 
scrambled excitedly for the open and climbed on top of the 
boulder; sacred Doker-la had become momentarily visible 
through the driving mists. 
We had now reached the belt of alpine grass-land or turf, 
also represented on the Mekong- Yang-tze divide, though the 
rainfall is not there sufficient to give rise to a definite belt 
of alpine meadowland. The ascent to the pass was as 
usual extremely precipitous, and nothing being visible 
from the summit save tantalising peeps through the ever- 
shifting cloud veil, I was glad to descend. A driving wind 
