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48 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
was the rugged crest of the Choka-tagh, cutting the sky-
line like a gigantic hog’s back. I niade up m}^ mind I
would walk right over it. I had to cross it anyhow in order
to complete the map I made in 1895. The shepherd
mumbled something about the distance being " a vast
sight greater than it looked ; we should not be back at
our camp before the following morning." But I did not
hear him ; my resolve was already taken, and when it is
talking is useless. Besides, when it really is necessary, I
do know how to walk. But we should have to get back
to camp before midnight, else my chronometers would
stop, and that would be serious.
It was already three o’clock in the afternoon, and the
evening star was showing bright above the summits of
the Tuzluk-tagh. Leaving Islam to look after the boat,
I set off at a round pace, followed by the other two men.
We made straight for a low pass "or saddle in the crest of
the range. We walked for one hour, we walked for two
hours, before we came to the gravelly scree which stretches
down from the outermost foothills. The wind had died
away, and it was perfectly still. A couple of roe-deer
fled up the mountain side, as lightl}^ as a dream, taking
long agile leaps, so that their feet scarcely seemed to touch
the ground. Our shadows were already portentously
long when we breasted the final slopes leading to the
summit of the range. Upon reaching it we thought we
were entitled to a few minutes’ rest.
The thoughts which here crowded upon my mind recalled
the saddest and most sorrowful days I have spent in Central
Asia. It was from the southern shore of the lake at my
feet that on 23rd April, 1895, I set out with a strong and
first-rate caravan to cross the terrible desert of Takla-makari,
a caravan destined to perish amid the most horrible suffering
that it has ever fallen to the lot of an Asiatic traveller to
witness.
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