442 HOSPICE OF THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. 



with both guides, and saying a few words in English, not 

 understood. About 4 p.m. the weather cleared, and the 

 guides made their way to the Refuge des Bosses, arriving 

 there in a pitiable condition." * 



The losses on the pass of the Great St. Bernard, 

 and the story of the monks and their St. Bernard 

 dogs, is a history of which almost every child has 

 heard; and though the path is here clearly marked, 

 and generally very easy to follow, the winter previous 

 to our visit to the Hospice f a party (if we remember 

 correctly) of no less than five Italians, were all lost 

 in a snowstorm, by which they were overtaken while 

 attempting to reach the Hospice from the Swiss side; 

 and in 1825 all the dogs and three servants belonging 

 to this Hospice were destroyed by an avalanche. 



But this is as nothing compared with the much heavier 

 losses, which are of frequent occurrence among caravans 

 crossing the high passes of the Himalayas. In these 

 wild and lofty regions, tragedies of appalling magni- 

 tude have been recorded. For instance Mr. Knight, 

 in his recently published book, mentions that a few 

 months before he passed that way, a caravan of 300 

 mules and their drivers were overtaken by a storm 

 and lost on the Gilgit road in North Western Kashmir. 



" One has (he says) to pick one's weather carefully to cross 

 a Himalayan pass in winter and spring, and when one does 

 get a chance one must hurry over quickly, for the sudden 

 fierce winds that often spring up are very formidable, and 



* London Times of Aug. 29, 1892. 



f Height over sea-level 8 1 1 1 feet, and said to have been founded 

 about A.D. 962 (see Murray's Handbook for Switzerland, 1891, 1 5th 

 Edition, part ii., p. 433). 



See Murray's Handbook for Switzerland, part, ii., p. 536. 



