all slimy and musty, while greasy mud
oozed perpetually from the interstices of the stones on the floor. No
sunlight ever reached this dark passage, so that the moisture could dry
no faster than it was replenished by that hidden spring in the rock
which apparently was its source. The only suitable habitable rooms were
high up at the top of the jong, and these were designed as barracks,
hospital, store depot, and post commandant's quarters. But every time
any one went outside the jong from his quarters, he had to go down this
slimy black artery and return the same way.

After halting one night at Pete-jong the column marched on in soaking
rain to the foot of the Kamba-La. Here we were to leave Lake Palti and
mount the pass that stood above our camp.

CHAPTER XVI

OVER THE KAMBA-LA: THE LAND OF PROMISE

About a thousand feet of zig-zag climbing were to bring us to the top of
the pass, where we would again for the moment stand over 16,000 feet.
The morning was fairly fine, and the clouds high. It took hours, of
course, before our five-mile-long column had reached the top. We toiled
up slowly, many of us with sad misgivings, for that supply column in the
rear was grievously light, and its further depletion would mean much to
all of us. To any one whose thoughts were for official reasons specially
driven into this channel, the moment of arrival at the cairn that marked
the summit of the Kamba-La was perhaps the most critical moment of the
Expedition, if not even its veritable turning point. Since leaving
Gyantse we had marched through a country that seemed to grow more and
more destitute of the supplies we needed. Chance had given us an
occasional largess, and here and there we had lighted upon something of
an oasis; but latterly in places upon which we had set our hopes we had
found nothing. And here we were leaving even the sparsely cultivated
shores of the Lake Palti, climbing into the barren mountains, and then
descending into the unknown. But, as that eventful summit was reached,
what a view met our gaze! Beyond us a deep gully sloped down to a valley
four thousand feet below. The descent for the first two thousand feet
would be over bare bleak hillside: after that we would descend across
the wood-line, below which firewood, at any rate (an article for which,
in certain altitudes, yak-dung had often been substituted), would be
found in plenty. And below that belt of forest, and on either side of a
broad rive