LAKE LIGHTEN—INTENSE HEAT—AN OLD FIREPLACE—SERIOUS ACCIDENT THROUGH OVER-HASTE OF MULES TO DRINK—A COUP D\'?IL—THE FIRST FLOWER—OUR PET SHEEP—ANOTHER FRESH-WATER LAKE—A PLEASANT BATH—DEATH OF ANIMALS AND DEARTH OF GRAIN.
We were now reduced to twenty-eight animals, and we knew our muleteers to be so careless and untrustworthy a lot, that we resolved that henceforth one of us should always remain with them and the mules—never, in fact, let them out of our sight. This would ensure the animals being properly cared for, and would be a prevention against the muleteers forming any scheme for desertion. We decided, too, to make very easy marches. We continued to see snow mountains in all directions, and somehow or other managed to steer our way amongst them, either east or north-east, over valleys and plains or stony nullahs, but we were most unfortunate as to finding good grass. It must have been too early in the year, for in many places it was just beginning to sprout.
Owing to the heavy loss to our transport we could only march some four or five miles the next day, which brought us to a big fresh-water lake, completely frozen over, resembling a large white sheet. Here we resolved to lighten our loads, and left on the ground a number of cartridges, horse shoes, cooking utensils, clothes, candles, etc., besides giving the mules and ponies a feast of forty pounds 91 of flour made into bread. Some old pistols, rather heavy ones, which we had brought with us as presents for natives, we allowed the men to carry themselves, on the condition that should we require them as presents we would buy them back from them, otherwise they might retain them for ever. Every one, too, carried a certain number of cartridges, the men doing so under the proviso that we would lend them a rifle when game was close to camp.
LAKE "LIGHTEN" (WE LIGHTENED OUR LOADS HERE).
To celebrate the occasion we christened this lake "Lake Lighten." The size of this frozen water was deceptive. Our direction took us over a portion of it which we reckoned to be about a mile across, but in reality this turned out to be six miles. On the other side we found good grass, and in a snug corner a very tiny fresh-water lake, or what we should call at home a duck-pond. Here were geese, antelope, and kyang, so we were able to make a substantial addition to our larder, which at that time was in the same state as Mother Hubbard\'s cupboard. This spot, too, became famous in its way for two events. First, it was 92 here discovered that one of our carbines had been left behind the day before, and the men were so unwilling that none would go back to fetch it. To do more than they were obliged to do was quite against their grain. Secondly, another mule had to be shot, for he was too weak to rise and march. The next day another pony met the same fate, and we began to think our ammunition was more useful for this purpose than for killing game, which, as a rule, was scarce. Our march took us another six miles over the ice, and on the way we narrowly escaped losing one of the best mules, who dropped his hind legs in a crack; luckily, he was extricated unhurt, but he might easily have broken a leg.
On the 13th of June we camped by another salt lake. From the top of a pass we had been rewarded with a very fine view of it, for the water under a cloudless sky was of a wonderfully bright blue, backed as it was by massive snow mountains, but detestable when near for its uselessness. As we marched along its banks, the heat was intense, the maximum thermometer registering 105° in the sun, and although there was no fresh water to be seen, we found some by digging, though not enough to satisfy our mules, and on making our tea, its constituency was, to say the least of it, thick; perhaps Esau\'s description of it was nearer the mark, for he said it was like jam. On warm days like this we were always glad to discard our heavy boots, and coats, while our little terrier Ruby could only lie and pant for breath. Such heat in the Chang at a height of between fifteen and sixteen thousand feet may seem to some people incredible. Its effect upon our animals was most disastrous, sapping their strength in no small degree, and on this account we decided in future to make an earlier march.
In this little nullah we found three stones which from the way they were placed showed that they had been used for a fireplace, but not at any very recent date, more likely 93 two or three years ago. This was the first sign of mankind since leaving Lanak La, and had probably been made by some nomads who had wandered in this direction. We here consumed two more of our remaining three bags of bhoussa, thereby still more lightening our loads.
According to our intention, camp was astir at 3.30 a.m., and we were well off before 5 o\'clock, and even at that hour it was so warm that our gloves were not even wanted. It was a grand morning, and as we faced the glorious rising sun, we were blinded by its brilliancy and found it most difficult at first to see precisely where we were going. After passing into a fairly grassy valley, the home of the kyang, we descended to a fresh-water lake. At the time when the caravan was approaching this water, we were both some distance off, shooting and taking observations, and blamed ourselves afterwards at having left the muleteers. These men knew the animals had been short of water lately, yet took no step to prevent the calamity which naturally occurred at the sight of a clean fresh-water lake. They, poor brutes, forgetful of the loads on their backs, with one accord made a simultaneous rush to satisfy their thirst. The water, although only two or three feet deep, concealed a treacherous bottom of several feet of soft mud and as they plunged in further and deeper, a general collapse ensued, and the mules and ponies lay in a heap unable to extricate themselves, with a good chance too of being drowned. Nor did any of our baggage benefit by the soaking it received. Each animal as he lay had to be unloaded separately, no easy undertaking, and then pulled out of the mud on his side by head and tail, by four or five men. Furthermore the weight of each load was considerably increased by this disaster, and as the going along the edge of the water was not of the best, there were more stragglers than ever into our new camp, two of them not even getting in at all. Around the lake were several antelope, while geese and Brahmini ducks were fairly plentiful. 94
There appeared to be no outlet, and from the nature of the soil for some distance round the lake, we judged that its size varied in accordance with the rainfall. From this lake two routes were open to us, one running in a somewhat northerly direction through a good, grassy, watered valley, which we should have liked to have taken; but as the other route led almost due east, we took it, and perhaps made a wrong decision, for we came to a dried-up country, with small salt lakes, and had to dig deep in a dry river bed for water. The antelope we had slain made its mark upon the men, for the quantities of meat they ate made them lazy and late in making a start the next morning.
As we moved off at six o\'clock, there was a light mist hanging over the land, with no breath of wind to dissolve it, a pretty sure sign of a hot day. We began ascending for some miles, and then dipped into a dry river bed. This looked a likely place to find water again by digging, and as fair grass grew around, we decided to halt. We had only marched seven miles, yet there were stragglers, and four loads had to be abandoned. This loss we could ill afford, so agreed to halt another day, when we could send back some of our stoutest mules and recover the baggage. We had no fear whatever of a stranger turning up during the night and running off with some of the goods. As we intended remaining another day at this spot, it was indispensable that we should contrive some means for watering the animals properly. We found water flowing three or four feet below the surface, but a single hole was very quickly emptied, and then we had to wait until it had refilled, so that watering in this kind of way would have taken half the day. Every one, therefore, was set to work to dig water-holes. We carried with us a large waterproof sheet, and having made a trench in the sand, in the shape of a trough, we spread the sheet over it, and then filled it up from the various holes. In this way the mules and 95 ponies could come and drink as often and as much as they liked, and they probably would have drunk more than they did, had not the water been somewhat saltish, with certain purging qualities. We also set about lessening the loads again, and many of the articles which we had imagined before to be absolutely necessary were here discarded. Two of our five little tents were abandoned, and we took the opportunity of photographing our last entire camp. Other things, too, were left, for our animals were dying at an alarming rate. Out of our original thirty-nine only twenty-one remained, including the riding pony of Shahzad Mir. Our own riding days had before this come to an end.
17th JUNE. THREE OF OUR TENTS ARE ABANDONED AT THIS SPOT.
Yet we had only come 150 miles from Lanak La, but our hopes of coming across nomads, from whom we might 96 either purchase yak or exchange some of our own worn-out mules, strengthened us in our determination not to entertain for a moment the idea of turning back. The men, too, were so confident that we should ere long fall in with nomads that they became lavish with their rations. Instead of continuing the practice of doling their allowance out to them every three or four days, they had latterly been permitted to have the full run of it, after being made well aware how long the rations should last if they never exceeded the amount agreed upon. This plan was instituted because in spite of all our endeavours to regulate the consumption of food, yet in the dead of night they would undo and take out whatever extra they fancied, even when the foolhardiness of such a procedure was carefully explained to them. Nevertheless, we reaped one advantage from their avarice, namely, that the loads grew lighter in a shorter time than they otherwise would have done. One man, Mahomed Rahim, annoyed at being upbraided for his laziness and sulky temperament, threatened to turn back. This we gave him full permission to do, much to his astonishment, and on second thoughts he withdrew his threat, and even our own persuasion would not induce him to go.
During our halt we were able to overhaul all the luggage. Some of it had suffered from the immersion in the lake, notably the contents of our dispatch box, for all our papers inside it had had a thorough soaking, and each one had to be put under a stone to be dried again, and to save it from being blown away by the strong wind.
About half a mile from our camp was a solitary hill rising up between eight and nine hundred feet above the level of the camp. I climbed over the rocks to the summit of this to spy out the land, and see which would be the most favourable route to take. South-east of us lay a fine range of snow mountains, and I reckoned that if we 97 could manage to steer just north of these, there would be no more difficulty about water to annoy us. All the ranges, large and small, seemed to run east and west, and it struck m............