oss a river and a number of rivulets. So troublesome was it
each time to take off our shoes and clothes in order to wade through,
that we bundled up our clothes on the yaks, and travelled along for the
rest of the afternoon barefooted and with nothing on but a loincloth, in
the style adopted by fakirs.[9]

The sun was extremely hot, the ground marshy, the air thick with huge
and troublesome mosquitoes. We were quickly covered from head to foot
with bites, which caused intense irritation. Halting on the right bank
of a large stream at 15,600 feet, we named this spot "Mosquito Camp."
At sunset swarms of mosquitoes made us very miserable, but fortunately
the moment the sun disappeared the thermometer fell to 33 deg., the
mosquitoes vanished, and we had a peaceful night.

In the evening we saw a number of horsemen riding full speed on a course
about one mile south of ours. No doubt they were sent to keep the
authorities ahead informed of our movements.

The next day the water of the stream was so clear that we could not
resist the temptation of having a good cleaning up, washing first our
clothes and spreading them to dry in the sun, then cleansing our faces
and bodies thoroughly with soap, a luxury unknown to us for ever so
long.

While--for lack of towels--I was drying myself in the sun, I admired the
scenery around us. I registered at 211 deg. (b.m.) a very high snowy peak,
and a lower one at 213 deg. 30' forming part of a beautiful mountain chain.
There were mountains on every side of the plain. Another very high peak,
of which I had taken bearings on a previous occasion, was at 20 deg. (b.m.).
A break occurred in the hill range to our north-east, showing a narrow
valley, beyond which were high snowy mountains. We made a long march
along the grassy plain, and encamped on the bank of the Brahmaputra,
there a wide, deep, and rapid stream. We saw hundreds of _kiang_ and
antelopes. Shortly before sunset I took a walk toward the hills to try
and bring back fresh meat to camp. I stalked a herd of antelopes. When
some five miles from camp I was benighted, and on my return in the
darkness had the greatest difficulty in finding my men. They had been
unable to light a fire, and as they had both gone fast asleep, I
received no answer to my calls. We had selected a sheltered hollow in
the ground for our camp, and as there were hundreds of similar
depressions everywhere round it, and no landmarks to guide me, it was
not easy to