A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



were to cross the Zogi-La, the pass through the 

 only real depression that occurs in the main range 

 for many hundreds of miles on either side. The 

 pass is not a high one (some 1 1,500 feet), but it has 

 a bad name, chiefly, I think, because of the sudden 

 high winds which, accompanied by freezing snow- 

 storms, come sweeping along the main range, and 

 are carried through this funnel, as it were, into the 

 country beyond. Usually after the month of May 

 (the date, however, depends on the snow-fall of the 

 previous winter), the path winds up the hill on the 

 N.W. side of the ravine till it reaches the summit 

 of the pass, some 2,000 feet above the huts at 

 Baltal, but till then, the slopes being covered with 

 snow and very steep, the road lies up the bed of the 

 chasm, which makes it fairly hard work to cross, as 

 the ice and snow, filling the ravine, present a series 

 of steep ascents to get up which steps have to be 

 cut. When we arrived the summer path up the 

 slopes was not yet feasible, though uncovered in 

 places, but the way up the nalah had been pretty 

 well trodden by the many travellers who had 

 already crossed. It was nearly five o'clock on the 

 following morning before we were off, but as the 

 sun does not reach the snow on the Kashmir side 

 till it has been up some time, it is not so important 

 to make an early start here as is the case on some 

 passes. At first our way lay up the frozen ice- 

 slopes in the bottom of the ravine and it was pretty 

 stiff going, but after climbing for some two or three 



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