fort is an imposing structure, crowning, in the usual
Tibetan manner, the crest of a sharp hill J the plain over
which Kamba-jong dominates is a wide, flat stretch,
separated only by low hills from the main Himalayan
ranges. This first view of the world’s backbone from
the north is, from one point of view, disappointing,
because of the great height, 15,000 feet and more, from
which it is seen. But the distant view of Mount Everest,
here clearly distinguishable from the surrounding icefields,
is imposing, though nearly a hundred miles away.
The plain of Kamba is a bare stretch of earth and wormwood,
dotted with big boulders, and here and there
affording a scanty pasturage of coarse grass.
The camp was pitched in two portions and earthworks
were thrown up | small as it was, it would have
been a difficult camp to take by storm, and here the
Mission waited in patience. For the reasons I have
just suggested their patience was not rewarded;
emissaries did, indeed, come down from Lhasa, but
after a formal visit to Colonel Younghusband, who
followed Mr. White after an interval of a few days, they
shut themselves up in the jong and had nothing further
to do with the Mission. At times a Chinese official,
more out of inquisitiveness than anything else, came
into the camp. Always there were a few Tibetans
lounging outside the earthworks in mild curiosity,
but the days went on and nothing further was done
than the surveying and geological work of the Mission
experts. Mr. Hayden, of the Geological Survey, was
entrusted with the latter w o rk ; Captain Walton,
I.M.S., here began his natural history notes and collections.
Mr. White roamed about the district as
far as the Tibetans permitted him to go. Life was