9-4 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



CHAPTER VIII 



What, shall those flowers that deck'd thy garland erst, 

 Upon "thy grave be wastefully dispersed ? 



T. Nash (1 595). 



For the second time am turned back by snowy passes My 

 camp and I have a difference Compensating circum- 

 stances Hot march and a rose-strewn grave. 



WHEN, after several hours' sound sleep, I awoke, it was 

 to find the earth clean, washed, and glistening in the 

 warming sunlight, a deep blue sky overhead flecked with 

 white clouds and cut by white peaks that, rising tier 

 above tier like vast giants in serried ranges, stretched 

 away on every side, cutting off the tiny green merg 

 where I was resting from all contact with the outer 

 world save by two precarious paths. The coolies, 

 backed by the lambadar (village headman) resolutely 

 refused to push on while the weather was so uncertain. 

 Heavy snow was reported as having fallen during the 

 night in the Zogi La, and they determined that it would 

 be risking too much to attempt its passage. I regretted 

 much not being able to cross the pass, but snowstorms 

 are inconvenient things and liable to prevent all locomo- 

 tion, and they certainly stop most effectually all distant 

 prospects. So as time was some object, and I had no 



