146 The Wonderful Mekong 
valley than the storm burst upon us with amazing fury. 
The whole earth seemed to rock to the thunder-claps, as 
the echoes tumbled from side to side amongst the hills; 
the hail lashed into the short turf with a sharp hissing 
sound, and drummed on our hats and cloaks. Rills boiled 
up into streams in an instant and came frothing down the 
grassy slopes. In less than half an hour the valley was 
wrapped in a shroud of hail more than an inch deep, and 
looking at those white mountains so bleak and bare, from 
which lower down a few black clumps of fir trees stretched 
their grim spires up towards the leaden sky, I thought that 
winter had already breathed again over the grass-land 
plateau of dréary Tibet. Yet it was scarcely mid-August. 
Wintry enough it looked and felt as I rode behind, 
following the deep imprints stamped hard in the carpet of 
hail. Now the ponies cantered and galloped to keep warm, 
turning their heads sideways to avoid the fusillade of ice, 
crunching and slipping on the slopes, shying at the dark 
ribbons of water which every few yards opened up before 
them, sliding down the muddy banks of the streams, 
plunging up to their girths in the swollen river, and 
stumbling in the concealed pica-burrows which honey- 
combed the ground in all directions. 
Presently we came to signs of habitation—small fenced- 
in portions of the grass-land where barley was ripening, 
and scaffold frames had already been erected for stacking 
straw. But there were no houses. Lower down, where 
the trees began, we passed a few yak herders huddled 
under a tree, their long coarse cloaks wrapped closely 
round them, a black smoking fire their sole comfort. Wet 
and cold as we were, our plight was far less miserable than 
theirs, though they were doubtless quite happy. To keep 
up our spirits Gan-ton and I sang songs as we rode along ; 
after all there was a fine feeling of freedom and irresponsi- 
bility while in the company of these happy-go-lucky re- 
sourceful Tibetans, and when a man feels in first-rate 
health, a few hardships only make him more conscious of 
his fitness. 
At dusk we reached the last house in the valley, a big 
solid two-storied building, and entering it we were at once 
made welcome; indeed the good people built up such a 
