It was a long day's journey, for in many of the tents the people refused to give us the help we wanted, and therefore we passed on to the great tributary Gyang-chu, which comes from the south and receives many streams from the northernmost range of the Himalayas.
I have no time to give an account of the geography of this region on the south side of the Brahmaputra. I will only say that during the following days we were cut off from the main river by low mountains, and that we did not encamp again on its bank till July 6, when we came to the Cherok district. We had left several tributaries behind us, and the main stream carried only 1554 cubic feet of water.
After another short day's march we rejoined Guffaru's party in Shamsang (15,410 feet) on the great high-road, where twenty-one tents were now standing. The chiefs of the neighbourhood were very attentive, and did not say a word against my proposal to go up to Kubi-gangri, which shows its snowy peaks to the south-west, and in which the sources of the Brahmaputra were said to lie. They procured us provisions for twelve days, and we had not had so free a hand for some time. Here nothing had been heard of Chinese or Tibetan pursuers from Lhasa.
[Illustration: 238. WOMEN IN THE VILLAGE OF NAMLA.]
[Illustration: 239. INHABITANTS OF THE VILLAGE OF NAMLA.]
IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCE OF THE BRAHMAPUTRA
Now we were already far to the west; the force of circumstances had forced us to leave behind us step by step ever larger areas of unknown country to the north. I was vexed, but I would, at any rate, endeavour to do all that was possible in my hampered condition. At Shamsang, Ryder's Lahtsang, we were at the place where the actual source streams of the Brahmaputra converged from various directions. I had long determined to push on to the unknown source, unless the Tibetans placed unsurmountable obstacles in my way.
The learned and clear-sighted Colonel Montgomerie had sent Nain Sing in the year 1865 up the valley of the upper Brahmaputra (Illust. 380). From our Shamsang the Pundit crossed the Marium-la, and said in his report that the sources of the river were certainly in the huge chain seen in the south, and were fed by its glaciers. He did not, however, go to look for the actual sources, but continued his journey westwards.
