304 TIBETAN ATMOSPHERE. 



the purplish-blue of the snow-crested mountains that bounded 

 our view of the lake, where it takes a leftward turn for some 

 twelve more miles. 



The strangely wild beauty of this scene was enhanced by 

 the extreme clearness of the air, which in Tibet renders sur- 

 rounding objects, and their black clear-cut shadows, almost 

 startlingly distinct, and distances most deceptive. A natural 

 consequence of so transparent an atmosphere is, that the sun's 

 rays strike through it with the most astonishing power. In- 

 deed, from the moment the sun appears over the horizon it 

 commences pitching into your face, and especially your poor 

 nose ; and even although these may be shaded from its direct 

 beams, the radiation from the dry stony ground is so great as 

 to make some sort of covering for the face very desirable. 

 And oh ! the merciless, marrow-searching wind that hardly 

 ever ceases blowing on these bare Tibetan steppes, except 

 for a few hours in the morning, and not always even then. 

 How it, combined with hard frost every night, parches and 

 cracks the sun -scorched skin on your face and lips, until 

 speaking becomes painful, to laugh is a torture, and to wash 

 is almost impossible. Day after day the skin peels off your 

 face and hands. There is no escape from this evil in Tibet ; 

 it is the great drawback to a trip there. I generally wore a 

 kind of mask made of thin cloth, extending down just over 

 the nose, with apertures for the eyes, and always kept my face 

 well smeared with a salve composed of bear's grease and sper- 

 maceti, which acted like basting to roast-meat, inasmuch as 

 it prevented the skin from being quite frizzled up. A large 

 carriage-umbrella, which can so easily be carried by one of 

 your attendants, will be found most useful for setting up, to 

 rest and have your " bite " under, on those arid shingly up- 

 lands, where a spot of shade is so seldom to be found. How 

 often I wished I had brought one with me ! Yet, with all its 

 inconveniences, the light dry air of Tibet is singularly exhil- 

 arating, and notwithstanding the sudden and extreme varia- 



