Mountain Journeys 137 



During the descent, I felt again the symptoms of headache, and 

 they did not leave me until after noon; I went out to get flowers, but 

 I was obliged to return to camp (12,800 feet). I awoke at daybreak, 

 unrefreshed by sleep. I had the same feeling of weakness and languor 

 as on the ascent, but not so bad. (P. 315) .... 



My visit had removed my doubts on the phenomena of new snow 

 in the passes in July and August, and I had hardly any reason to 

 doubt the strange tales of the dwellers at the foot of the mountain 

 about the symptoms which sometimes attack travellers crossing it. 

 They say that the phenomena of drowsiness and weakness are much 

 more to be feared in the rainy season .... 



The people who live at the foot of the mountain and who breathe 

 in a very much rarified air, or who are accustomed to climbing their 

 steep slopes suffer much less than those who inhabit a lower zone 

 in a denser atmosphere; but they know these effects very well, and 

 describe their sensations with ingenious and very interesting sim- 

 plicity .... 



Between Koonawur (where the people seem born to live and die 

 in inaccessible regions) and the Indian slope of the mountains, we 

 travelled for a long time on the crests of mountains, at a positive 

 elevation of 16,000 feet: I met every day a crowd of people laden 

 with grain; they were walking slowly, stopping often to get their breath, 

 and they seemed to suffer from a uniform oppression. I have not 

 ascertained whether they are subject to an illness like the one I 

 experienced, and yet it must be so, and it is undeniable that above 

 a certain height, the effects of the rarified air upon the functions of 

 animal life are permanent and that neither habit nor constitution can 

 conquer them. (P. 320.) .... 



Sandy and I, in our excursion to the peak 19,500 feet high, 

 although unable to take a dozen steps without being exhausted, and 

 finally being hardly able to move at all, nevertheless were better than 

 the villagers who accompanied us, and who live at the altitude of 

 12,000 feet. In the interior of the country, where the ground is very 

 high, the most dangerous symptoms appear while crossing the moun- 

 tains. Between Ladak and Yarkand, an intelligent servant of M. 

 Moorcroft told me of the fatal consequences of lack of precaution. 

 He says that the passage of the highest range should be made fasting, 

 and recommends frequent doses of an emetic during the journey. He 

 told me the story of a Russian merchant in good health, who was going 

 from Ladak to Lee to see M. Moorcroft, and who died while crossing 

 one of the passes because he ate a good meal before starting. Death, in 

 such a case, should be attributed to the drowsiness brought on by the 

 cold and the extreme rarity of the air which predisposes to inactivity 

 and leads the traveller to his last sleep. (P. 325.) 



I took a little walk over the cliffs, but the sensation of fullness 

 in my head forced me to return. Since I arrived here, I have been 

 more or less affected by headaches, particularly violent at night; the 

 pain was not like that of ordinary headaches, but as if an over- 

 whelming weight (a dead weight) was attached to all sides of the 

 head, pushing it in different directions. Tea relieved me, but only for 

 a short time. (P. 325.) 



