Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/24

xvi the Shuga range as very steep: 'Le mont Chuga était peu escarpé du côté que nous gravissions' (ii. 213). The great trouble in passing it was owing to a strong icy wind and deep drifts of snow, in which they had to pitch their tent and dig for argols.

As regards No. 7 I can find in Huc no marvellous stories. He speaks, indeed, of the terrors of avalanches, though probably meaning only the perils of snow-drifts. The snow lay very deep when he passed, and it is conceivable, pace Col. Prejevalsky, that the course of a ravine may not have been the path adopted under such circumstances.

As regards No. 8 there is nothing I think in Huc absolutely inconsistent with his having followed up the great river after crossing it. But Prejevalsky himself is, according to his countryman Palladius, not quite correct in saying that the road in question follows the river to its source. And moreover there are three roads on towards Lhassa from the point where the river is crossed.

In cases 1 and 2 it is probable that Huc was filling up a mere skeleton diary from memory, and the experience of many will recognise that in such a process natural features will sometimes exchange characteristics in the recollection. This has, possibly, been the case with the Pouhain-gol and the Tsaidam river in Huc's narrative; whilst it is by no means made certain that there are not routes, more or less diverse, and parallel to one another, which are adopted according to circumstances. Altogether Col. Prejevalsky's criticisms are a little too much in the vein of Huc's countryman: Je ne crois pas aux tigres, moi, parceque je n'en ai pas vu!'

As for No. 5, 'the gas on the Burkhan Bota,' it is absurd to make even the suggestion of bad faith in regard to this;