the dead brittle shrubs of wormwood that gave promise
of greenery on the plain of Phari. Two streams, hard
bound with ice, lay across our path, and Tuna was
not to be seen till we were almost upon it. When it
at last came in sight it seemed a strange place, indeed,
for the residence of a British Commissioner for the
Tuna. Here the Mission spent three months on a treeless plain at a height of over
15,000 feet.
whole winter. Backed by arid sand-stone dunes 600
or 700 feet high, its only outlook is towards the snow-
fields, peaks and glaciers of the dividing range between
Bhutan and Tibet, culminating to the west in the
gigantic mass of Chumolhari. There had been nothing
to do all the winter. There was little game to shoot,
and the only walk, unless one climbed the hills at the
back of the post, was “ there and back again ” across
the accursed frozen waste. As we came near, the
houses which the Mission had originally occupied
appeared. They are squalid in the extreme, and one
could well understand that Colonel Younghusband and
his men had early preferred to brave the cold of the
winter in their tents.
The Tibetan wall at the Hot Springs. The Tibetan name is Chu-mi shenga. But it
was never known by that title, and I insert it here in deference to Capt. Ryder.
On our arrival we had luncheon with the Mission—
these were the days before the stores began to run low
— and a surprisingly good luncheon it was. We heard
the latest news. The Tibetans had been watched
for some days ; they had built a wall across the road
at a point between six and seven miles to the north,
and there was no doubt that, besides the force (then