122 On the Road to Batang— 
danger zone, where the path had been ploughed up by the 
falling rocks. Following up the arid gorge of the Garthok 
river till mid-day we finally struck up towards the plateau, 
passing through a country of red sandstone, much dissected 
by torrents, which flowed in deep straight-sided gullies. 
At the village where we halted for lunch was a small 
lamasery, much decayed. 
The hill sides here were very barren, probably visited 
by rare but furious rainstorms, which, leaving little time 
for the water to sink into the soft sandstone, tear deep 
rents in it, and flowing into the Garthok river below, 
colour it a light chocolate red. This sandstone forms 
a very important feature of the scenery in S.E. Tibet, 
and | traced it right across the gently undulating plateau 
country which I traversed. 
The lower mountain slopes were strewn with boulders 
of harder rock, evidently carved out zz sz¢u. Sills of this 
rock, a closer-grained sandstone, or perhaps an iron-stained 
limestone, stood out boldly in many places, forming con- 
spicuous ledges, and being well jointed, they often exhibited 
an incipient hewing into separate blocks. Cliff sections 
sometimes showed large boulders embedded in the soil, 
and all doubt as to their origin was removed when 
I saw blocks of stone only recently detached from a sill 
lying about in all stages of exfoliation from cubes to 
spherical boulders. The obliteration of Tibetan inscrip- 
tions cut on way-side rocks, many of which were certainly 
recent, since the colours in some cases had not had time 
to be effaced, testified to the softness of the sandstone. 
Higher up in the hills trees appeared—willows, Zhzza, 
f1ippophaé, and so on, with patches of grass-land and fir 
forests. 
Later in the afternoon it began to rain with amazing 
violence, the slopes streamed with water, and the ponies 
slipping dangerously on the slimy red surface, we had to 
go dead slow. At six o’clock we reached the miserable 
village of Chia-ni-ting utterly drenched, and took refuge 
in the largest house we could find. It was so cold that 
I was glad to have a fire, but it went out during the night, 
and being unable to sleep I got up at half-past three 
and roused Gan-ton, who set about preparing breakfast. 
