drove them away from the track,
they showed a great disinclination to move, whereas they proceeded
willingly enough while we were on the highway. No track was visible
except here and there, where the footmarks of the last nomads, with
their sheep, ponies, and yaks, had 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, instead of having the desired effect, sent them on all the
faster. The current was strong, and the bottom of the river so soft that
they both sank. When they reappeared on the surface it was only to float
rapidly away down-stream. We watched them with ever-increasing anxiety.
They seemed quite helpless. We ran panting along the river-bank, urging
them on with shouts in order to drive them to the other side. In their
desperate struggle to keep afloat, and powerless against the current,
the two yaks collided violently in mid-stream. The bump caused the
pack-saddle and load 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. In order
to save the load, 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-stream. We were both safe,
though breathless; but, alas! the ropes that held the baggage had given
way, and saddle and load had disappeared. This loss was a dreadful blow
to me. 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. The bottom of the river was of soft mud, so that the weight alone
of the loads would cause them to sink and be covered over.

Diving at such great elevations gave 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