a third Journey to the Yang-tze 179 
main valley ahead. Under the trees however it was soon 
pitch dark, so that we had to proceed with the utmost 
caution, the path skirting a deep ravine. In order to keep 
awake and at the same time relieve the porters, I went in 
front leading my pony, and on one occasion having lost the 
path and finding myself on the sloping face of the cliff, I 
had to crawl for safety on my hands and knees. In some 
places it was impossible to see five yards ahead, and we 
were lucky perhaps to get down without accident or the 
loss of an animal. 
At last we emerged from the forest on to level ground 
to see the sky blazing with stars again, and then we found 
ourselves amongst some black shapes grazing in a meadow. 
At the same moment came that most familiar of all sounds 
on approaching a Tibetan village at night—the deep baying 
of dogs. About 9 p.m. with wild war-whoops a weary but 
elated party crawled into the little village of Tsa-lei, and 
exhausted after our twelve hours climbing we found shelter 
in the hut where we had slept the night four months 
previously, on the road to Batang. 
There was the same difficulty and delay in getting off 
next morning that we had experienced on the previous 
occasion, and my advice to travellers is to give Tsa-lei a 
wide berth. I paid off the Mo-ting men, and to their great 
delight gave them something extra as they had done so 
well on the previous day, but I could not prevail upon 
them to go with me for another stage. Moreover the 
Tsa-lei trade-union of porters, as it were, strongly objected 
to Ssu-chuan porters carrying my loads in Yunnan, though 
they were in no hurry to do it themselves. It was ten 
o'clock before we made a start, and some of the loads did 
not leave the village till mid-day. 
The sea-buckthorn trees lining the stream were now a 
mass of orange berries and the Tsa-lei-la was under fresh 
snow, though nowhere was it very deep; probably it would 
melt on the south face in the course of the next day or two. 
From the summit we looked southwards over a magnificent 
panorama of snow-clad mountains, amongst which the 
pyramid of K‘a-gur-pu was a conspicuous object. 
We camped for the night at the edge of the forest once 
more and next evening, October 25, we reached A-dong. 
a] 
