ficent proportions, and as we were, from the reason
mentioned, almost committed to a direct attack, if full
use had been made by the Tibetans of their unique
position, we naturally expected that some severe loss
on our side was inevitable. We moved on from Ra-
lung, on the 17th, to the Plain of Milk.
Over the Gom-tang plain foxes and gazelle moved
away as we approached. Fine grass covered the quagmires
with which the plain is carpeted, and in between
the tussocks, where the clear brown water straggled,
tiny pink primulas lay out in the sun ; through the
gorge below the glaciers of Nichi-kang-sang, we passed
young tender nettles and purple flowers, which looked
like drooping cowslips ; saxifrage was there, with white
blossoms, and vetches, both purple and blue. Almost
on the same spot as that on which Colonel Brander’s
force encamped a halt was made for the night. Macdonald
himself went out, and from a distance reconnoitred
the position. He found that the reports were
true, and that a second wall had been built almost across
the valley, but this was not all, for the Tibetans had
learned the use, for the purpose of defence, of advanced
sangars, and these had been built on both sides of the
gorge, right up to the crowning cornice from which the
Pioneers two months before had, after a terrible climb,
dislodged the defenders of the single sangar, down
below.
But the Tibetans’ courage was oozing away. They
have since admitted that the fame of our guns was
widely spread in all parts of the country, and the fact
that the cornice above referred to was held may,
perhaps, have been the reason why our opponents did
not stay to defend the position they had chosen with
such care. For from that cornice they could see over
the Karo la itself on to the Plain of Milk, and there
they could see with unpleasant plainness the slow
accumulations of men, munitions, beasts and tents
The Tibetan wall at the Karo la being thrown down by our troops.
The glacier lake feeds the little stream, and is itself hidden by the
mound to the left.
which accompanied our march. It is difficult to say
when the bulk of the enemy deserted their defences,
but on the following morning, when the first line, composed
of four companies of the Fusiliers, flanked on