kes it for its own use. In
passing through the province of Kham, we often remarked women and
children busily employed in pounding coal, sulphur, and saltpetre. The
powder thus made is certainly not so good as that of Europe, yet, when it
is put in a fusil, with a ball upon it, it is sufficiently potent to
project the ball, and make it kill stags in hunting, and men in battle.

After five days' repose, we resumed our route. Immediately at the
outset, the caravan began to ascend the lofty mountain of Angti. We met
neither red horse nor white knight, and no genius took us on his crupper,
to bear us away to his solitary abode. On every side, we saw only snow,
but that snow was so abundant that even on the most noted mountains, we
had never found so frightful a quantity. Frequently the guides, mounted
upon long-haired oxen, entirely disappeared in gulfs, from which they
could only disengage themselves with great difficulty. More than once we
were on the point of retracing our steps, and giving up all hopes of
reaching the summit.

The small Sinico-Thibetian caravan that had joined us at Tsiamdo, and
that had never left us since, presented a spectacle worthy of the utmost
compassion. We forgot, in some degree, our own sufferings, when we saw
these poor little creatures almost at every step buried in the snow, and
with hardly strength enough to cry. We admired the intrepid energy of
the Thibetian mother, who, so to speak, multiplied herself, in order to
rush to the assistance of her numerous offspring, and who derived, from
maternal tenderness, superhuman strength.

The mountain of Angti is so lofty and steep, that it took us the whole
day to ascend and descend it. The sun had already set when we managed to
roll to the bottom. We halted a few minutes, under some black tents
inhabited by nomad shepherds, swallowed a few handsful of tsamba, diluted
with brackish tea, and then resumed our route along a rocky valley where
the snow was all melted. We followed for two hours, in utter darkness,
the steep banks of a river, of which we heard the waters without seeing
them. Every instant we trembled lest we should be precipitated into it;
but the animals, which knew the road, and which we left to their
instinct, conducted us safely to Djaya.

Our arrival in the middle of the night put all the town in commotion.
The dogs, by their fierce barking, gave the alarm. Soon after, the doors
of the houses were opened, and the in