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Updated: June 6, 2025
On the following morning I was awakened by the shrill cries of the Tibetan maidens, calling the yaks to be milked, "Toosh toosh toooosh," in a gradually higher key; to which Toosh seemed supremely indifferent, till quickened in her movements by a stone or stick, levelled with unerring aim at her ribs; these animals were changing their long winter's wool for sleek hair, and the former hung about them in ragged masses, like tow.
They had evidently been imported by man and yaks, and as they do not occur in India, I could not but regard these little wanderers from the north with the deepest interest.
Built on a majestic spur of rock rising on one side 2,000 feet perpendicularly from a torrent, the spur itself having an altitude of 11,000 feet, with red peaks, snow-capped, rising to a height of over 20,000 feet behind the vast irregular pile of red, white, and yellow temples, towers, storehouses, cloisters, galleries, and balconies, rising for 300 feet one above another, hanging over chasms, built out on wooden buttresses, and surmounted with flags, tridents, and yaks' tails, a central tower or keep dominating the whole, it is perhaps the most picturesque object I have ever seen, well worth the crossing of the Shayok fords, my painful accident, and much besides.
We pitched our camp a little farther on, and next morning we saw this curious and singular caravan pass by. It was a great contrast to the fine camel caravans of Persia and Turkestan, for it marched like a regiment in separate detachments of thirty or forty yaks each.
The wagon was now brought up close alongside the clump, and with their bolos a considerable space of the densest part of the brush was cut away, so as to form a retreat for the yaks, and thus assure them from harm by any attacks with arrows or spears.
The boys looked at the Professor in amazement. They were too much excited and concerned at the new situation to be able to interpret what the sudden disappearance of their team meant. The Professor turned to the boys: "Are you sure the yaks were tied before we left them?" "I was particularly careful," answered Harry, "to tie both of them."
There was a south-westerly breeze blowing. It was hard work to have to cross the river, chase the yaks and bring them back to camp; then, exhausted as we were, to get the loads on them. We followed the stream on the right bank. It wound in and out between barren hills, afterward flowing through a grassy valley three-quarters of a mile wide and a mile and a half long.
Wild yaks are found in considerable numbers near the limits of perpetual snow, but at the approach of winter they descend to the wooded valleys just below the snow line. During the summer they pasture on the higher elevations. In their wild state yaks are fierce and dangerous. Being accustomed to high elevations, they fall sick and die when removed to the lowlands.
We were, in fact, treading all along on the footmarks of their ponies. We had to cross a river and a number of rivulets. So troublesome was it each time to take off our shoes and clothes in order to wade through, that we bundled up our clothes on the yaks, and travelled along for the rest of the afternoon barefooted and with nothing on but a loincloth, in the style adopted by fakirs.
The snow having disappeared from elevations below 11,000 feet, the yaks, sheep, and ponies had just been driven 2000 feet up the valley, and the inhabitants were preparing to follow, with their tents and goats, to summer quarters at Tallum and Tungu.
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