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other side the saddle over which I had come, I concluded that the saddle
itself could not be less than nine thousand feet high; and I should think
that the river-bed, on to which I now descended, was three thousand feet
above the sea-level. The water had a terrific current, with a fall of
not less than forty to fifty feet per mile. It was certainly the river
next to the northward of that which flowed past my master's run, and
would have to go through an impassable gorge (as is commonly the case
with the rivers of that country) before it came upon known parts. It was
reckoned to be nearly two thousand feet above the sea-level where it came
out of the gorge on to the plains.

As soon as I got to the river side I liked it even less than I thought I
should. It was muddy, being near its parent glaciers. The stream was
wide, rapid, and rough, and I could hear the smaller stones knocking
against each other under the rage of the waters, as upon a seashore.
Fording was out of the question. I could not swim and carry my swag, and
I dared not leave my swag behind me. My only chance was to make a small
raft; and that would be difficult to make, and not at all safe when it
was made,--not for one man in such a current.

As it was too late to do much that afternoon, I spent the rest of it in
going up and down the river side, and seeing where I should find the most
favourable crossing. Then I camped early, and had a quiet comfortable
night with no more music, for which I was thankful, as it had haunted me
all day, although I perfectly well knew that it had been nothing but my
own fancy, brought on by the reminiscence of what I had heard from
Chowbok and by the over-excitement of the preceding evening.

Next day I began gathering the dry bloom stalks of a kind of flag or iris-
looking plant, which was abundant, and whose leaves, when torn into
strips, were as strong as the strongest string. I brought them to the
waterside, and fell to making myself a kind of rough platform, which
should suffice for myself and my swag if I could only stick to it. The
stalks were ten or twelve feet long, and very strong, but light and
hollow. I made my raft entirely of them, binding bundles of them at
right angles to each other, neatly and strongly, with strips from the
leaves of the same plant, and tying other rods across. It took me all
day till nearly four o'clock to finish the raft, but I had still enough
daylight for crossing, and resolved on doing so at once.

I had selected a place where the river was broad and comparatively still,
some seventy or eighty yards above a furious rapid. At this spot I had
built my raft. I now launched it, made my swag fast to the middle, and
got on to it myself, keeping in my hand one of the longest blossom
stalks, so that I might punt myself across as long as the water was
shallow enough to let me do so. I got on pretty well for twenty or
thirty yards from the shore, but even in this short space I nearly upset

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