144 Historical 



we next went toward Wakhan, I counted the pulse of my companions 

 every time I recorded the boiling point of water. 



The changes in the pulse thus form a sort of living barometer, 

 by means of which a man accustomed to examining himself can, 

 at great altitudes, estimate roughly the elevation. 



On Pamir, the pulse rate gave the following figures: 



Myself 110 Scotland fat 



Gholam Hussein, Munshi 124 Jasulmeere fat 



Omer-Allah, muleteer 112 Afghanistan thin 



Gaffer, servant 114 Peshawuree thin 



Dowd, servant 124 Kabul robust 



The elevation of the snow line in this region is above 17,000 feet 

 (5180 meters). (P. 352.) 



Lieutenant Wood was accompanied for part of his journey by 

 Al. Burnes, an envoy to Caboul. October 19, 1837, two others of 

 their companions, Lieutenant Leech and Dr. Lord, went to recon- 

 noiter and cross a pass of Hindu-Koush, going to Caboul. The 

 pass is about 15,000 feet high; the snows would soon render it 

 impassable; the ascent was easy. However, says Burnes:--' 6 



The horses were in a very pitiful condition, and they had to 

 dismount and walk. No one had any symptoms, but the natives 

 informed them that they themselves were frequently attacked at this 

 point by vertigo, faintness, and vomiting. (P. 152.) 



Some years later, a French traveller, who travelled over not 

 the Himalayas, but the much less lofty regions of Upper Tartary, 

 made a pitiful story of his sufferings. It is true that one must be 

 on his guard against the statements of Father Hue,-'- 7 whose credu- 

 lous simplicity is almost boundless. Nevertheless, the vivid pic- 

 ture which he has left us of the sensations experienced during 

 the passage over Bourhan-Bota, a mountain the height of which 

 he does not give, and which seems to be situated about longitude 

 95° E. and latitude 40° N., deserves to be reproduced here. The 

 day of the ascent is not specified, nor is the temperature of the 

 air: 



We prepared to cross Bourhan-Bota, a mountain famous for the 

 pestilential vapors in which, they say, it is continually enveloped .... 

 Soon the horses refuse to carry their riders, and everyone proceeds 

 on foot slowly. Gradually all faces grow pale, nausea comes on, and 

 legs refuse to function; one lies down on the ground, then gets up 

 and makes a few steps more; then one lies down again, and this is 

 the miserable fashion in which one climbs this famous Bourhan-Bota. 

 Good heavens! What wretchedness! One feels his strength broken, 

 his head whirls, all members seem to be disjointed, one feels illness 

 exactly like seasickness, and in spite of that, one must save enough 



