is a very painful operation
for human beings, the rarified air making the effect of such exertion
almost suffocating. Yet Kachi, having overcome his first surprise, was
soon chasing the escaped beast, and, urged by the cheers and shouts of my
other men, who seemed much concerned over this new calamity, he
succeeded, after an exciting chase, in capturing it by its tail, a feat
easier to describe than to accomplish, for Tibetan sheep have very short
stumpy tails. Kachi fell to the ground exhausted, but he held fast with
both hands to his capture, and eventually the animal was secured with
ropes. This was the sort of minor trouble with which we had to contend at
almost every turn during our journey, and although it may appear trivial,
it was exasperating enough at the time.

On fairly undulating ground we gradually rose to a pass 15,580 feet high;
then traversing a wide flat land, we followed the Kuti River with its
high snowy mountains to the West and East. The snow-line was at 16,000
feet; the snow below this level melts daily, except in a few shaded
places. Red and white flowers were still to be seen, though not in such
quantities as lower down, and I saw enamoured couples of small black and
white butterflies.[12]

After a while there was yet another bitterly cold stream to ford; two
small lakes to skirt; three more deep rivers to wade, with cold water
from the snows up to our chests, and then we had to make the best way we
could through a large field of rocks and stones showing strong
indications of iron, my compasses being at once affected, and becoming
for a time quite unreliable owing to the deviation. A curious flat
circular stone, resting on the top of others, was pointed out to me as a
wonder; the accepted legend of the Shokas being that, centuries ago, one
of their countrymen halted by the side of this rock, and having baked a
_chapati_, laid it upon the rock, proceeding to make others, when to his
great astonishment, on raising his hand to take his first _chapati_, he
found it had turned into solid stone, and had furthermore assumed
gigantic proportions. A few feet farther on I was pointed out another
wonder, a great human hand (as the Tibetans and Shokas call it), which is
supposed to have belonged to the maker of the _chapati_. Not being
satisfied with his first experience, he laid his hand on the rock, and
there it remained, petrified, and in this case also, increasing tenfold
in size. I could see, with som