ble information from any one who had had actual experience.
So far as I could see with the aid of my telescope, the rock seemed to be
standing firmly on a very solid base. To my regret also, I was unable to
visit the curious hot sulphur springs on the Darma Ganga, and the strange
cave in which much animal life is lost owing to the noxious gases rising
from the ground. I gathered from various reports that this cave or grotto
is packed with skeletons of birds and quadrupeds who have unknowingly
entered this chamber of death.

CHAPTER VI

Highways and trade routes--The Darma route--The Dholi River--A
rough track connecting two valleys--Glaciers--Three ranges and
their peaks--Altitudes--_Darma, Johar_, and the _Painkhanda_
Parganas--The highest peak in the British Empire--Natural
boundaries.

THERE are two principal highways from Khela to Hundes: one by the valley
of the Dholi or Darma River, the other along the Kali River and over the
Lippu Pass.

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE HIMAHLYAS--SHOWING NANDA DEVI AND TRISUL
PEAKS]

The trade route _via_ Darma is less frequented than the one by the Lippu,
but it is nevertheless of considerable importance, inasmuch as a certain
portion of the trade of South-west Tibet with India is carried on through
the medium of the Darma Shokas. It consists mainly of borax, salt, wool,
skins, cloth, and utensils, in exchange for which the Tibetans take
silver, wheat, rice, _satoo_, _ghur_, lump candied sugar, pepper, beads
of all kinds, and articles of Indian manufacture. For a mountain track,
and considering the altitudes to which it rises, the Darma way is
comparatively good and safe, notwithstanding that in following upwards
the course of the Dholi River the narrow path in many places overhangs
deep ravines and precipices. There are many Shoka villages and
settlements on the banks of the stream, the most important ones being the
Nyu, Sobala, Sela, Nagling (9520 feet), Bahling (10,230 feet), Sona and
Tuktung (10,630 feet), Dansu and Yansu, where there is a bridge. On the
north-east bank is Goa, facing Dakar, and farther up, at an elevation of
10,400 feet, the Lissar, a rapid tributary with muddy water.

The Dholi springs from a series of comparatively small glaciers
north-east of a range forming a branch of the higher Himahlyan chain, and
extending in a south-easterly direction as far as the point where the two
streams meet. It receives, on its precipitous