A SUMMER IN HIGH ASIA. 



another by singing and shouting at the top of 

 their voices (hardly, one would have thought, the 

 best way to recover their wind). Some of the 

 Kashmiris felt pains in the head, some in the back, 

 and some in the neck, whilst, for my own part, I 

 suffered chiefly from my face becoming blistered 

 and almost flayed from the glare and the atmo- 

 sphere. One of my Kashmiri coolies was really 

 ill near the top of the Pass, but recovered suffi- 

 ciently to struggle over. I saw Babu Lai take off 

 his own thick stockings and give them to this man, 

 almost the only instance in which I have ever seen 

 one Oriental help another of a different race and 

 creed. The scenery of the Pass was a chaos of 

 rocks and snow, and on the top, which consists 

 of a sharp ridge, I saw two little birds hopping 

 about and apparently quite cheery. For some 

 distance before reaching the summit I had observed 

 a beautiful purple auricula, which grew in the snow- 

 water under sheltering rocks. Unfortunately the 

 heavy clouds and mists hid what must be a magni- 

 ficent view of mountain ranges, more especially 

 towards the north, but we were lucky in our day, 

 as there was neither sun to soften the snow, nor 

 cold wind or snow-storms, which would have 

 greatly increased the difficulties of the Pass. 

 Arrived at the summit we rested for a short time, 

 and I made my entry into Ladakh with a glissade 

 of some 1,000 feet down a snow-slope, an easy 

 and pleasant mode of progression after our toilsome 



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