ROUND THE SNOWY RANGE INTO THIBET

Fei Yue Pass — Brick-Tea Carriers — Phcenix Flat — Tung River again — Cascade of Rocks — Buddha's Ear Precipice — Boundary between China and Thibet — Seven Waterfalls uniting — Frontier Town — Flowers by River Path— Luting Bridge — Men stationed to help Travellers across Bridge — Granite Mountains — Thibetan Villages — Thibetans — Letters to Dead Relations — Thibetan Names — Bullock Hide Coracle— Vertical Granite Wall— Tiled Temple Village — Tung now known as Golden Stream — Tarchendo Ravine — Thibetan Suspension Bridges — Arrival at Ta Chien Lu — Buttered Tea and Beef Steak.

第十一章

繞雪山進入西藏

飛越關（Fei Yue Pass）——磚茶搬運工（Brick-Tea Carriers）——鳳凰平原（Phcenix Flat）——再次看到銅河（Tung River）——石瀑（Cascade of Rocks）——佛耳懸崖（Buddha’s Ear Precipice）——中國與西藏的邊界（Boundary between China and Thibet）——七條瀑布匯合（Seven Waterfalls uniting）——邊境小鎮（Frontier Town）——沿河小徑的花朵（Flowers by River Path）——瀘定橋（Luting Bridge）——幫助旅客過橋的站立人員（Men stationed to help Travellers across Bridge）——花崗岩山脈（Granite Mountains）——藏族村落（Thibetan Villages）——藏民（Thibetans）——寫給亡親的信件（Letters to Dead Relations）——藏族名稱（Thibetan Names）——牛皮筏（Bullock Hide Coracle）——垂直花崗岩牆（Vertical Granite Wall）——瓦頂寺廟村落（Tiled Temple Village）——銅河現名為金流（Tung now known as Golden Stream）——打箭爐峽谷（Tarchendo Ravine）——藏式吊橋（Thibetan Suspension Bridges）——抵達打箭爐（Ta Chien Lu）——酥油茶與牛排（Buttered Tea and Beef Steak）。

September 3. — Heavy showers all night, and having a long day's journey before us, started at six in heavy rain up a slippery, muddy ascent of looo feet, 15 li, to breakfast at a clean mountain hamlet called Kao Ch'iao, or " High bridge." The river flowed deep down below in a limestone gorge scarcely ten yards wide. As we looked back down on the prosperousseeming town of Itu, we could see that its site was a plateau of red sandstone which here, as elsewhere, and especially at Hanchen, which we had traversed the day before, overlies the limestone. The strata appeared to run in the direction most usual in Szechuan, viz., N.E. and S.W., dipping N.W. at an angle of about 30°. Thirty-five It of continuous ascent, at last up an uninhabited grassy glen, the green hills on either side hidden in clouds, the bottom carpeted with an extraordinary profusion of wild flowers, and traversed by a small stream of ice-cold water. We tiffined at an isolated co

162 MOUNT OMI AND BEYOND

of those tiresome zigzag ascents in the clouds, over the Fei Yue Pass (" Fly beyond "), 9400 feet, beyond which lies the vale of Hualin and the Tung river. It was impossible to enjoy our usual tifSn, as the poor people where we halted at one o'clock had neither wood nor charcoal. We at last reached the summit dripping wet, the gap being enclosed by a ruinous guardhouse, partly unroofed, in which was an old man, the only survivor of the military guard once stationed here, whom we found crouching over a wood fire, whose warmth we were glad to share for a time while we boiled our thermometer, almost blinded by the wood-smoke. We made the height 9400 feet. We met very few people, only some brick-tea carriers — men, women, and children — the men carrying fifteen or sixteen mats of fifteen catties* each, and boys of ten or twelve three or four such mats. At about every 200 or 300 yards they stop and rest their loads on a crutch which they carry in their hands for the purpose, while they scrape the perspiration off their dripping bodies with a wisp of bamboo, worn as a bracelet. They make five or six miles a day over such ground as this, and are the most pitifullooking objects one can conceive. The women, though in rags, had the healthy rosy complexions common to mountaineers, and wore broad white turbans. We met, however, few women, but many children. We now descended rapidly by a like path on the other side, and as soon as we got below the clouds enjoyed a wide view over the picturesque and finely wooded valley in which stands the imposing scarped plateau of Hua Ling Ping, well named " Phcenix Flat." A limpid torrent flows at the foot of its cliffs, and at the junction of the valley with a ravine opposite, through which flows an affluent in a narrow limestone gorge, stands a most elegant and beautifully situated monastery, surrounded by magnificent trees, and with a fine forest running up the mountain side at its back, the whole forming one of those exquisite wide pictures which are the despair of the photographer. On our way the whole steep valley was, like so many others in this region, cut out of red sandstone, alternating with

• A catty = I J lbs.

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strata of white limestone. Hua Ling Ping stands upon a flattopped, quadrangular cliff, the walls, as is often the case in Chinese mountain towns, carried out to the edge and forming a crown to the cliff. We entered into a broad street, parade ground, or market-place — we did not find out which — and then turned off into the narrow main street, where we put up at a plain unpretentious, but perfectly comfortable inn. We had made 75 mountain It, and had descended to 7000 feet. Here we met our first Lama, in a gown of old gold, covered by a cloak of crimson felt, and realised that we were now really on the Thibetan border.

9月3日——夜雨連綿，清晨六點冒雨啟程，展開漫長旅途。首先攀登一段1000英尺高、15里長的濕滑山路，抵達清幽的山村高橋（Kao Ch'iao, "High Bridge"）用早餐。下方石灰岩峽谷不足十碼寬，河水蜿蜒其間。俯瞰繁華的伊圖（Itu）鎮，其建於紅砂岩高原之上，此處如同漢源（Hanchen）等地，紅砂岩覆蓋石灰岩層。地層呈四川常見的東北-西南走向，向西北傾斜30度。

連續上行35里，進入一處人跡罕至的幽谷。兩側青山雲霧繚繞，谷底野花盛開，一條冰涼小溪穿谷而過。午時抵達一處孤寂的山舍，因無柴火，只得略作休息。

繼續攀登飛越關（Fei Yue Pass, "Fly Beyond"），海拔9400英尺。穿雲而上，關口處有座破舊哨所，一位老兵獨守殘垣，圍火取暖。我們亦就火測溫，濃煙瀰漫，幾難睜眼。測得此處高度9400英尺。

路上罕見行人，偶遇運茶挑夫——男女老幼皆有。成年男子背負十五、六捆，每捆15斤（22.5磅），稚童亦挑三四捆。每行二三百碼，停歇於手持支架，以腕上竹條拭汗。日行僅五六里，景況淒涼。婦女雖衣衫襤褸，卻面帶紅潤，頭纏白巾。女性稀少，童工較多。

越過關口，沿坡急降。雲開霧散，眼前景致壯麗：青翠山谷中，華嶺坪（Hua Ling Ping, "Phoenix Flat"）巍然聳立。懸崖下清溪潺潺，對岸峽谷中支流穿石灰岩而出。匯流處佇立一座雅致寺院，古木環繞，後依密林，美不勝收，令攝影師嘆為觀止。

此處山谷如同周邊，皆由紅砂岩與白色石灰岩相間而成。華嶺坪（Hua Ling Ping）據守方形峭壁之巔，城牆延展至崖，宛如天際冠冕。入城經過寬闊街道，或為校場抑或市集，未得而知。轉入窄巷，投宿一家簡樸雅致的客棧。

是日行程75山里，降至海拔7000英尺。初見一位喇嘛，著金袍，披緋紅氈衣，標誌著我們已踏上藏區邊界（Thibetan border）。

September 4. — -The houses here are roofed with loose planks weighted with stones, so that it probably can blow here in winter, still as the air generally is in summer. Off in the cool morning, with the thermometer at 60°, down a very steep crumbling path of loose shale, upon which it was not easy to keep one's footing. The path was very narrow, very steep, of crumbling shale, and broken up by landsHdes in all directions — down 2500 feet, along, sometimes high above, sometimes close alongside of, the ruddy, ever widening stream, and on to its junction with the mighty Tung, which we reached again after a fortnight's absence. We are now little over 4000 feet above the sea — we last stood on the banks of the Tung at Kin Kou Ho, 1 700 feet above the sea; thus the Tung falls 2500 feet in about lOO miles. A road cut in the cliffs which line its banks would give an easy, gradual ascent instead of the three high passes of over 9000 feet, besides innumerable lesser ones, which we have come over. We crossed the many channels of the wide delta of the stream — two or three square miles of big red, white and green boulders, a mile or so above the town of Sheng Chfin, perched on a high flat composed of rocky detritus in the angle formed by the left bank of the Tung and that of its affluent. One of the customary temporary rickety bridges, formed of a couple of young firtrees, propped on a pile of boulders at each end, rendered the main channel just passable ; our pony was driven into the torrent by the men and urged to scramble through with shouts

i64 MOUNT OMI AND BEYOND