t here and there,
where the footprints of the last nomads with their sheep, ponies and yaks
have destroyed the grass.

Half a mile on the other side of the river was an encampment of some
fifty or sixty tents, with hundreds of yaks and sheep grazing near it.

At this point my two yaks, which I noticed had been marching with more
than usual smartness, bolted while I was ordering Chanden Sing and
Mansing to take down the loads, and went straight into the water.

In attempting to make them turn back, Mansing threw a stone at them,
which, however, only sent them on all the faster. The current was so
strong, and the bottom of the river so soft, that they both sank, and
when they reappeared on the surface it was only to float rapidly away
down stream. We watched them with ever-increasing anxiety, for they
seemed quite helpless. We ran panting along the river bank, urging them
on with shouts to drive them to the other side. Alas, in their desperate
struggle to keep afloat, and powerless against the current, the two yaks
collided violently in mid-stream, and the bump caused the pack-saddle and
loads of the smaller yak to turn over. The animal, thus overbalanced and
hampered, sank and reappeared two or three times, struggling for air and
life. It was, indeed, a terrible moment. I threw off my clothes and
jumped into the water. I swam fast to the animal, and, with no small
exertion, pulled him on shore, some two hundred yards farther down the
stream. We were both safe, though breathless, but, alas! the ropes that
held the baggage had given way, and saddle and loads had disappeared.
This loss was a dreadful blow to us. I tried hard, by repeatedly diving
into the river, until I was almost frozen, to recover my goods, but
failed to find them or even to locate them. Where I suspected them to be
the water was over twenty feet deep, and the bottom of the river was of
soft mud; so that the weight of the loads would have caused them to sink
and be covered over with it.

[Illustration: RESCUING A YAK]

Diving at such very great elevations gave one a peculiar and unpleasant
sensation. The moment I was entirely under water, I felt as if I were
compressed under an appalling weight which seemed to crush me. Had the
liquid above and around me been a mass of lead instead of water, it
could not have felt heavier. The sensation was especially noticeable in
my head, which felt as if my skull were being screwed into a vice. The
beating at my t