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466 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
not make a ferry-boat, and convey the animals round
one by one ? But whilst we were considering the matter
a way was opened for us. When we first reconnoitred
the place, the lake showed open water, but during the
first night a thin sheet of ice formed upon it ; and twenty-
four hours later the ice was two inches thick. Thereupon
we made a big wide sledge out of the camels’ pack-saddles,
and as many of the men crowded on to it as would corre-
spond to the weight of a camel. Then we pushed it round
the promontory ; but as the ice began to crack ominously,
first one man jumped off in a hurry and then another,
to the no little amusement of those who were dragging
the sledge. The ice was as bright as crystal, without a
single bleb in it, so that it was like walking on tranquil
water, while far below we could see the dark-backed fishes
gliding in and out amongst the algae at the bottom. We
could hear the ice-sheet clicking and crackling, and some-
times it sounded as though a projectile from a big gun
were being discharged along it, the report dying away
slowly with a long lingering whine in the far distance.
One day more we had to wait patiently and watch the
ice growing thicker. Then before sunrise on the following
morning we transported the whole of our baggage on the
sledge round the interposing rocks, and after strewing about
thirty sacks of sand on the ice, and so making a path-
way for the camels, we led them round cautiously one by
one, and fortunately got them all round without any
mishap.
We marched for nearly a dozen days along the shore
of this fairy-like lake and those of another, the Panggong-
tso, a salt lake, the magnificent scenery of which my pen
is all too feeble to describe. After almost superhuman
exertions we managed to scramble over another tiresome
projecting cliff, and on the 13th December finally reached
the western frontier of Tibet. Here, to our indescribable
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