366 A TOURMENTE. 



For the last three miles of the ascent our way was over 

 the glacier, where we waded and floundered through the soft 

 fresh-fallen snow, with an occasional dive into it up to the 

 middle, as we followed in the steps of our Tartar leader, who, 

 in order to avoid hidden crevasses, cautiously sounded the 

 way with his long mountain-pole. Here we experienced a 

 regular tourmente, for, besides the falling flakes, the dry 

 drifting snow was whirled up into our eyes and nostrils by 

 the freezing blast, causing a suffocating sensation which was 

 most trying, and the cold was so intense that my beard, from 

 my breath on it, became a mass of ice, and was frozen hard 

 to my coat. 1 Whilst on the glacier all the marks we had to 

 indicate the right track were the giant outlines of the white 

 eminences rearing up on either side, and these only occa- 

 sionally loomed dimly through the driving snow. Never 

 shall I forget the ludicrous picture of utter misery presented 

 by my Hindustani cook as he sat resting himself on a bank 

 of snow, his head closely enveloped in a black blanket, and 

 his beard covered with icicles. Blank despair was depicted 

 on his face as he gazed ruefully, through a pair of green 

 goggles, on the bewildering scene around him. Eight glad 

 were we all to at last reach the top, where we sat down for a 

 short time to rest our weary limbs and to admire the grand 

 landscape before us ; for the snowstorm had passed over, and 

 the blue mountains of Spiti were gradually becoming dis- 

 closed to view through the broken masses of cloud and mist 

 that came rolling up from below. 



But our day's work was not to end here, for the descent on 

 the Spiti side of the pass was so steep and rough, that even 



1 With reference to what I have already said concerning the effects pro- 

 duced by rarefied air under different conditions, I may here mention that 

 when crossing this high pass, which is approached from the south by a very 

 steep ascent, and is flanked on both sides by high eminences, neither my 

 companion nor myself felt any of the more disagreeable sensations, such as 

 headache and nausea, even under such circumstances as might have been ex- 

 pected to induce them. 



