GYANG-TSE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 160, 11 July 1904, Page 3

GYANG-TSE.

THE MAKING OF A JONO, WHAT IT COSTS. BOMBAY, July 8. ttU admitted by the head lama at Qyang-tee that the fortification of the Jong involved an expenditure of «J.O,W>O. SUFFERINGS FROM COLD. HARDSHIPS OF THE BRITISH MISSION. (Per Ventura, at Auckland.) VICTORIA (8.C.), June 13. A tale of suffering from the seven Cold by the British TMSbetnii expedition is contained in the mail advices hist received. A writer in Victory, a, inembec of Colonel Younghusfoand's force, declares that "a dash for the Pole could mot be one whit more trying than this march of ours." The cold has been intense. The maximum temperature was on January 28th, when it was 12deg. The lowest recorded was 33deg. below zero, on January 9th. Fuel, which is quite insufficient to warm, fills the rooms with a choking smoke, that affects the lungs and causes sore throats and hacking coughs. Alter a few weeks! of hovels at Tuna, the garrison Abandoned them for tents, preferring cold to filth. The native troops have also suffered severely from the cold. The daily Allowance of firewood is one pouud per man. When the cold was* severest tiie oil in Lire maxiuis end rifles congealed so that they could

not ha fired. Writing from Tuna on March 30th, one of the party shows mission is adding to the . world's «tock of geographical knowlodge. He says of Jus surroundings : '■' The. country is totally unexplored. To the west ice-clad peaks extend from here, as far as the eye can . see, to unbroken succession, and do not bend away to eastward, as was previously 'hriievod." In ario'Uier Bote he says -.—"The camp to-night Is ynder Mount Tangia, at an elev- ; atiou of just one hundred feet lower t than Mount Blanc. The country is barren and desolate; not a flower . or insect is to .be found ; only stray blades of withered grass, wild asses and gazelles. The march in these high altitudes is very exhausting, anu many auicjng,the troops ore prostralad with mountain sickness. Rarefied air and the glare of the mirage produce giddiness. One is liaible to sunstroke any day from Mount Tan,,gla, and yet the cold is always .numbjng."