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336 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
quently they never saw our signal box, nor the camel either ;
hence we never knew what became of him.
We saw any quantity of yak-signs, but we never saw the
animals themselves. It was as though they had all been
spirited away. Three times, too, we passed indications of
recent fires, namely, circles of stones with a heap of ashes
in the middle.
The 2oth July w^as a hard day, leading us up to higher
and more inhospitable regions, for we now had to cross the
stupendous mountain-range I have spoken of. Its summit
was rounded, and the pass itself was bordered on both sides
by broad glacier arms, from which brooks of clear water
radiated, making the ground soft and treacherous. On the
way up we were met by a terrific hail-storm beating directly
in our faces, so that our bashliks afforded us very little
protection. Below the glaciers there was a small army of
yaks grazing, over three hundred altogether, but they
retreated as we approached. Slowly but surely we worked
our way up to the summit of the pass, where the instrument
showed an altitude of 17,920 feet. Over on the other side,
that is, to the south, was nothing but a tumbled confusion
of mountain-ranges. A brook led down from the pass,
gathering tributaries from both sides as it went, until
finally it swelled into a pretty big river. Here the dogs
made a reckless attack upon seven old yaks ; four of these
at once took to flight, though three stood their ground with
their noses down to the earth and their horns ready for
instant action ; but when the dogs concentrated their
attack upon one of the three, the other two retreated. The
last of the seven had no end of trouble to shake off his
assailants, and only managed it at last by adopting the
cunning tactics of taking up his station in the middle of the
rushing stream, where the dogs were completely non-plussed.
After a while two of the yak’s companions came back to see
how he was getting on ; but by this the dogs had grown
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