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at first, but nearly eight thousand maunds* of grain and
tsamba were found inside the store-rooms of this fort
alone. Two positions were selected by the military
authorities as suitable for the residence of the Mission.
One of them, Chang-lo, lay at the head of the approach
across the Nyang chu, 1,35° yards from the large
modern barrack round which the defences on the jong
were centred. The other lay within 500 yards of the
rock, and (as the jong was not occupied by our troops)
would have proved utterly untenable in the circumstances
which afterwards resulted in the practical investment
of the Mission post. As it was, Chang-lo,
the , place occupied by Colonel Younghusband, was unpleasantly
near and a thousand yards within the range
of a Tibetan jingal. The following day the work of
collecting the foodstuffs of the jong began under the
able generalship of Major Bretherton, and the long
convoys of mules began to go backwards and forwards
between Chang-lo and the jong. Small bodies of
mounted men went out to report upon the stores that
could be supplied by the surrounding villages, and the
amount far exceeded that reported as likely by the
Mission. On the fourth day, Colonel Younghusband
and the men moved into the smaller of the two compounds
which comprise Chang-lo. It was a pretty place.
A beautifully painted and columned open room opened
upon a small courtyard, in the south wall of which
was a gateway leading straight out on to a gravelled
court in which the finest poplar trees we ever saw in
Tibet rose bare and branching over our heads. The
* The maund used in the north-east of India weighs 80 lbs. This was, during the
expedition, the accepted unit of measurement, and was also the normal weight carried
by a single coolie.