150 Historical 



I have crossed many passes, but until today I had never expe- 

 rienced the terrible sensations which almost made me crazy before I 

 was halfway and long after I had left the great heights. My sufferings 

 might have been aggravated by my illness, but in any case, they were 

 crushing. I lay down on the ground at Dora, more dead than alive, 

 and my servants made me a tent of blankets. I was in such a state of 

 prostration that not only was I unable to rise, but I could not bear 

 to be carried in a "dhoolie" .... A violent headache, unbearable 

 nausea, hasty palpitations, and the inability to breathe deeply, such 

 were the symptoms of the well known bootie, which attacked me more 

 severely than ever before I reached the summit of the pass. I am sure 

 that if I had stirred about for a quarter of an hour during these 

 horrible sensations, some blood vessel would have broken and I should 

 have died on the spot. Just speaking was a painful exercise, which 

 brought on copious hemoptysis and increased my pulse rate far 

 beyond 100 per minute. I was terribly nauseated, and the exhausting 

 power of this distress can be compared only with the nausea of sea- 

 sickness. I was also very wretched and my sufferings were intense 

 yesterday. Even today I cannot breathe without pain, and my heart 

 beats violently and irregularly; I have not yet forgotten the rarified 

 atmosphere of the pass of Rannoo. 



As they were carrying me yesterday about a half-mile from the 

 summit, Ghaussie called my attention to one of my servants, who 

 was lying unconscious on the snow. They woke him easily, but he 

 refused to move, saying that his head "was going to split in two." 

 After a slight struggle between humanity and strongly rooted prej- 

 udices, for the sick man was a sweeper, the lowest class of servants, 

 I sent him my own pony to carry him; if he had been left there, he 

 would certainly have died during the night. 



While I am speaking of the illness on this pass as a case of 

 bCwtie, I must confess that I did not see a single plant of the particular 

 kind of moss, which, in the passes of Ladak and Lahoul, are considered 

 as poisoning the wind and causing the painful illness which I have 

 described. 



One of my servants from Cashmere was the only other person 

 among my attendants to be affected; distress in high altitudes is 

 therefore not a rule without exception. (Vol. II, p. 367-370.) 

 And the next day, as she set out from Scheerebookhchun, she 

 wrote: 



I shall travel by moonlight, for I have been so sick all day that 

 I have had very little desire to move. If I let myself be governed by 

 the painful sensations which have tried me so much, I should not 

 start now, but that might be impolitic. In my opinion there is 

 nothing like exercise to overcome our little bodily and mental troubles. 



I must practice what I preach, and ride horseback this morning, 

 sending my dhoolie on ahead. (P. 378.) 

 She set out at sunrise, and went on horseback to Kulatsey. 



I was then so sick and so exhausted that, not finding my dhoolie 

 there, I lay down on my shawl on the ground for several hours. At 



