KASHMIR VALLEYS 217 



course. I loved the blue pines before ; I now owe them 

 a gigantic debt of gratitude. 



The descent having been stopped, the difficulty was 

 to return. There was not the slightest track, and the 

 hill was literally like the side of a house. My sandals 

 had been almost torn off my feet, my skirts 

 were suggestive of the wandering minstrel's garb, 

 my solar topee was a broken relic, and face 

 and hands suggested a bear's greeting. Some- 

 how I clambered up, chiefly by my hands, for my 

 ankles were weak and strained, and arriving above, 

 shamefacedly edged round the merg, hidden by the 

 woods from the unsympathetic sight of man! A warm 

 tub did much to relieve the soreness after my too close 

 embrace of Mother Earth, and fresh garments and 

 soothing ointment to my face restored my self-respect. 

 Breakfast having put fresh life into me, I determined 

 to carry out such parts of my programme for the day 

 as I was capable of. 



My men, who forgot their own grumblings and 

 misery directly I was in difficulties, improvised an 

 excellent dandy or carrying chair, and bore me away 

 to a small height to the south of the merg, from which 

 I knew a grand view could be obtained, and I was not 

 disappointed. Towards mid-day, peak after peak 

 appeared, range behind range showed glistering, and 

 when all the ranks of snow heights were uncovered, 

 there arose, ninety miles away as the crow flies, great 

 Nanga Parbat, nearly twenty-seven thousand feet, one 

 of the great triad of mountains that dominate the world. 

 I had never before seen anything like it! 



I tasted eternity that day, and felt myself 

 immortal because I had realised the everlasting 



