THIBET.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 518, 13 May 1869, Page 3

THIBET.

A learned Pundit, of India, who has penetrated the unexplored regions of Thibet, has desoribed the gold-diggings of the upper readies of the Indus : — The plain is covered by a Tibetan standing camp, very large and. very merry, for as the Pundit approached he heard 1 the singing of the diggers and their families at work. The vast camp is at the height of. 6,330 feet above the sea, and is swept by an. intensely cold wind. The people wear furs in the winter, and their tents are raised in hollows dug in the earth to keep off the wind. The diggers, nevertheless, prefer to work in the winter, when there are 900 tents, as the frozen soil does not then trouble them by falling in. There is no wood ; dried dung only is used as fuel, and the water is so brackish that it is i^ot drank till it has been frozen and remelted. All Tibetans sleep with their knees drawn to

their heads and resting on their knees and elbows, while all their clothing i 3 on thoir backs, to economise heat. They live on yak's flesh, barley cakes, buttermilk, and tea 3tewcd with butter. The Tibetan word for gold is sar, and a sarpon, or gold commissioner, superintends the diggings, with an assistant supervising the turn-out of eacli field. Anyone may dig on paying an annual tax of two-fifths of an ounce of gold. The price of gold was rather less than L 3 an ounce. There were two goldsmiths in the place. The pa-is being worked in August, 1867, was j ' v p-eat excavation, from 10 to 200 paces in width, and 25 in depth,' and about a irile in length. The 'bottom, • like the tots, is reached by steps and slopes. The ;%'J'~o is carried on by a long-handled .i'lnl of spade and sometimes an ?ron hoe. A stream runs through the bottom of ihe excavation, making it a quagmire ; bui it :'b dav.jjjed up by the diggers, who allow 'i; io e^cftpo down a slope on to a cloth placed on an uneven bottom, which receives the gold. One man carries the gold ear in to the channel, and another lets the yr.Ler go down. Judging from ihe number of abandoned diggings the men of Taok Jalung are quite as capricious as those of Australia or California. — WestpoA Times.