disproved their claim to belong to the salmon tribe.
In colour they varied. Some were of glittering silver,
heavily mottled with splashes of rich, blue-black ;
others were of a quieter pattern of greenish and yellowish
grey. Their bones are bifurcated and innumerable,
and the flesh was consequently hardly worth the trouble
of eating.
On the 24th, we crossed the Kamba la, and descended
3,000 feet into the valley of the Tsang-po.
There are two passes over this cup edge of the Yam-dok
tso. The other, the Nabso la, was used by the troops
on their return journey. There is not much to choose
between them, but the ascent of the Kamba la from
the Tsang-po is terribly severe, the entire rise of 3,000
feet being accomplished in about five miles. From
a halting place about 200 feet before the pass is reached
from the Yam-dok tso, a wide view can be had of the
lake from east to west, and I suppose that few travellers,
even the most unobservant, have ever reached this
last point without halting to look at the magnificent
scene at their feet. Trama-lung lies below one in a
deep, short valley of which the head rests against
the barrier of the Kamba la itself. It is a plainly built
little cluster of flat roofs, bearing every sigh of poverty
and insignificance. To right and left of it sweeps the
blue of the lake, which had deepened in intensity with
every step upwards that we took. Once on the other
side of the pass, the cultivated fields of the Tsang-po
valley stretch out beneath the traveller on either
side of the sandy river-bed, intersected with its innumerable
channels. The ferry by which we had
to cross at Chak-sam was not now visible, but we could
see a hide boat being slowly manoeuvred across the
yellow waters of the great river. The road to Shigatse
branches off at the very level of' the pass, and curves
by a very slight gradient to the west; its course is invisible
in a quarter of a mile behind a projecting spur.
The track to the Tsang-po descends abruptly to
the little village of Kamba-partsi, where, compared with
Westward from below the Kamba la. The road up to the pass begins the ascent to the
right. There are two or three tents pitched on the shore of the lake. Pe-di jong is
just visible across the centre of the distant water.
those we had left behind, the greater prosperity and
comfort of the buildings on the shores of the Tsang-po
and its tributaries were at once apparent. Poplars,
willows and large thorn trees dotted the lower slopes of
the valley, and there were several cultivated fields,
lying immediately round the hamlet.