Luxuries had by this time given out. Our store
had never been a large one, for before leaving Gyantse
we had collected what we could from the different
messes, and as may be imagined the aggregate was
not very great. Wood and Bailey, when they were
on march from Lhatse Dzong, learnt that no more
eggs would be procurable on ahead, so a messenger had
been sent back to collect what he could. In numbers
he was very successful, for he obtained seven hundred.
Great was the disappointment, therefore, when on
cooking them, they were found to possess no whites,
and that the yolks were merely little frozen balls,
varying in colour from a pale yellow to a vivid red.
Since the day we left Shigatse we had been slowly
but steadily rising, and were now at an altitude of
15,000 feet. The Brahmaputra, now much diminished
in volume, could be seen several miles to the south of
the road, twisting and turning amongst the sand dunes
in its effort to leave the plain. The river had so
dwindled from two causes, firstly, on account of the
numerous tributaries already passed, and secondly, on
account of the snow having ceased to melt. Even
in the full rays of the sun the warmth emitted was
hardly sufficient to soften the snow on the slopes,
and had no effect at all upon that which lay on
the level ground. In the narrower reaches of the
river, itself the ice floes had in many places blocked
the channel, thereby forming rough but safe causeways.
So firm were these bridges that it was over one of them
that Ryder, with his yaks and ponies, passed from the
southern to the northern bank, on the day he rejoined
us at Tra-dom.
Ryder and Bailey reached Tra-dom about midday
in a snowstorm, which was not, however, sufficiently
heavy to keep down the clouds of dust swept up by
A C h o r t a n o n t h e r ig h t b a n k o f t h e B r a h m a p u t r a .