was worked by bullock-carts. Government carts are built to carry 11
maunds (880 pounds), but contractors often load theirs with 15 or 16
maunds. As the carrying power of mules, ponies, and pack-bullocks is
only 2 maunds, it will be seen at once that transport in a mountainous
country, where there can be no road for vehicles, is nearly five times
as difficult and complicated as in the plains. And this is without
making any allowance for the inevitable mortality among transport
animals at high elevations, or taking into account the inevitable
congestion on mountain-paths, often blocked by snow, carried away by the
rains, and always too narrow to admit of any large volume of traffic.

In the beginning of March, when the line was in its best working order,
from 1,500 to 2,000 maunds were poured into Rungpo daily. Of these, only
400 or 500 maunds reached Phari; the rest was stored at Gantok or
consumed on the road. Later, when the line was extended to Gyantse, not
more than 100 maunds a day reached the front.

In the first advance on Gyantse, our column was practically launched
into the unknown. As far as we knew, no local food or forage could be
obtained. It was too early in the season for the spring pasturage. We
could not live on the country. The ever-lengthening line of
communication behind us was an artery, the severing of which would be
fatal to our advance.

One can best realize the difficulties grappled with by imagining the
extreme case of an army entering an entirely desert country. A mule, it
must be remembered, can only carry its own food for ten days. That is
to say, in a country where there is no grain or fodder, a convoy can
make at the most nine marches. On the ninth day beasts and drivers will
have consumed all the supplies taken with them. Supposing on the tenth
day no supply-base has been reached, the convoy is stranded, and can
neither advance nor retire. Nor must we forget that our imaginary
convoy, which has perished in the desert, has contributed nothing to the
advance of the army. Food and clothing for the troops, tents, bedding,
guns, ammunition, field-hospital, treasury, still await transport at the
base.

Fortunately, the country between our frontier and Lhasa is not all
desert. Yet it is barren enough to make it a matter of wonder that, with
such short preparation, we were able to push through troops to Gyantse
in April, when there was no grazing on the road, and to arrive in Lhasa
in August