- Struck our camp at sunrise, and crossing the torrent,
which still accompanied us, descended the Pass by a slight
decline.
During the day we passed through numerous gorges, studded
with giant masses of rock, and bounded on all sides by rugged and
inhospitable mountains. We only saw one village, and that some way
off the road - Kurroo, the guide called it. Breakfasted under an
overhanging rock on the mountain side, just where our path was, hemmed
in by the torrent, and were disturbed during our repast by several
volleys of stones which rattled down over us from above. They were set
free by the melting of some large masses of snow, which, being covered
with sticks and dirt, we had not noticed when we chose our breakfast
parlour so close to their uncomfortable proximity. To-day we met
more salt-carrying parties - uncouth-looking savages in pig-tails,
speaking a language that not one of our party could understand. We
also encountered an original-looking gold-washing association of
five, who were wending their way towards the snow with their wooden
implements. They were all also weighted with bags of grain, to keep
them alive during their search. Their labour consists in sifting
the fine sand which comes down in the snow-torrents, charged with
minute particles of gold; and the proceeds, from the appearance of
"the trade," would not seem to be very great. They say it amounts
only to a few annas a day, but would probably not allow to the full
amount for fear of being taxed.
At our breakfast-halt we saw the most primitive specimen of a smoking
apparatus probably ever invented. It consisted of a dab of mud stuck
in a hole of a tree, about five feet from the ground. Two small sticks,
inserted in this from above and below and then withdrawn, had evidently
served to form the smoke passage; while the bowl as evidently had
been fashioned by the simple impression of a Thibetian thumb, the
whole forming, for the use of needy travellers, as permanent and
satisfactory a public pipe as could well have been devised. It had
just been in requisition before we passed, for a small quantity of
newly-burned tobacco lay in the bowl; and a fresh patch of clay on
the mouthpiece had probably been added, either in the way of general
repairs or by some extra-fastidious traveller, who preferred having
a private mouthpiece of his own. After rather a severe march through
rocky mountain gorges, we reached Chungun, a little oasis of about
five acres of standing barley, with three or four flat-roofed houses
dotted about it in the usual Tartar style of architecture. It also
boasted four poplar-trees, standing in a stiff and reserved little
row, evidently in proud consciousness of their family importance
among such rugged, treeless, iron mountains.
It was altogether a refreshing little spot for a halt, after the
savage scenery we had marched through; and pitching our camp in it,
we were not long in introducing ourselves to the little brawling
stream of clear cold water to which it owed its existence.
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