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i8c ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
fore, began to grow thin and weak. Cherdon’s horse, of
which he was especially fond, and which would come when
he called it, was the first to succumb. The nature of the
ground, too, was trying in the extreme. We were inces-
santly going up passes and down glens and gorges, thread-
ing a perfect labyrinth of mountains. Almost every day
I had to send one or two men southwards to find out a
path by which the caravan could advance. Day by day
we penetrated some twelve or fifteen miles further towards
the heart of unknown Tibet. But in proportion as the
animals’ strength gave out so did our store of provisions
shrink, though this helped them by making their loads
gradually lighter. We had not the heart to slaughter our
four remaining sheep, which now followed us of their own
accord like dogs, and fortunately we had no need to do so,
for in the entrance to a glen Aldat managed to surprise and
bring down two orongo antelopes, creatures which have
elegant, lyre-shaped horns. Cherdon’s cartridges were now
all finished, and the only ammunition we had was that
which Aldat used for his old-fashioned musket.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed the journey, and rejoiced in the
knowledge that I was the first European who had ever
travelled amongst those mountains, where tracks there are
none save those made by the wild animals, and footprints
there are none except those impressed by yaks, kulans and
antelopes. It was a No Man’s Land ; rivers, lakes and
mountains were without names. For the space of some six
or eight weeks I felt as if it were my kingdom—a land of
stupendous earth-waves suddenly converted into stone !
On the night of 6th August, when, after a hard day’s
work, I went out of my tent, the sky was clouded ;
but far
away in the south there was a massive glacier, the broad
firn expanses of which shone pale and cold under the mid-
night moon. My men were all fast asleep, the caravan
animals all secured, the camp-fires burning low, and not a
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