254 The Crossing of Tibet. 



violent the entire day, the desert treeless and without water, the 

 route lined with the carcasses of camels and their drivers, the 

 only fuel the dung of ^^^andering yaks or caravan camels, and the 

 trail so indistinct that at times the}" marched by compass. The 

 elevation gradually and steadily increased to 15,000 and even 

 16,500 feet; the mountain fever became worse, the storms more 

 violent and continuous, and the temperature ranged from 7° 

 (—14° C), with wind, at midday to 30° below zero (—33° C.) at 

 night. One by one their horses and camels died, and also an 

 old Kirgese who followed them. Extensive glaciers were passed, 

 from which flow on the one side the Salouen and Mekong into 

 Indian ocean, and on the other the Yang-tse to China sea. On 

 January 8, 1890, the;^ skirted a large unfrozen lake named Mont- 

 calm, 50 miles long by 12 miles wide, and on January 14 trav- 

 ersed Duplex pass, 20,000 feet elevation. On the 31st they 

 finall}'- ran across a man, a wild Tibetan, small, thin, with enor- 

 mous lips, long knotted hair, clothed in sheepskin and armed 

 with a saber and flint-lock gun, whom they called " appa " 

 (father) ; he knew neither Chinese nor Mogul, but spoke Tibetan 

 of which the travelers knew scarcely a dozen words. Other 

 Tibetans, with flocks of sheep, soon appeared and sold them 

 mutton, a little salt, and rancid butter, and then folloAved on 

 horseback for fifteen days without losing sight of the explorers. 

 Often they' were counseled in Mogul by those in authority to 

 turn back. 



In the middle of February they reached lake Nam-tso 

 (" heaven "), or Tengri-nor, a large frozen body of water. Out 

 of 40 camels only 15 remained, and. of 20 horses but one sur- 

 vived ; three of the party of seven were in desperate state of 

 health, while all were worn out and almost without provisions. 

 They were finally obliged to stop in a mountain pass of the 

 Nindjin-tangla, which led directly to Lassa, then not more than 

 sixty miles distant. On February 17 the Tibetan authorities 

 sent a large party to meet them and ask their intentions. Mis- 

 taken for Russians, it took 13 days to convince the authorities 

 that they were French. They received presents from the au- 

 thorities and obtained costumes from Lassa, but found it impos- 

 sible to visit the "holy city." After 49 days of negotiation, on 

 April 5, provided with arms, provisions and horses, and also a 

 safe permit from the Talia lama to cross Tibet to Batang by an 

 unknown route, they started eastward, on a course nearly paral- 



