406 THE ICE-FALL IN THE HIMALAYAS. 



ciers ; in their lower parts not at all. As the ice-fall in these 

 mountains is much higher and more difficult of access than 

 in the Alps, the ordinary traveller, who here usually sees 

 only the lower and more level portions of glaciers, is apt to 

 imagine them to be totally devoid of the beautiful colouring 

 of Alpine ones. There is just a possibility that, if it is less 

 vivid here, this may be due to the fact of Himalayan glaciers 

 lying at much higher elevations, where the air is thinner, and 

 the refraction of light consequently less : but the probability 

 of such being the case I leave for scientists to determine. 

 The following account of a trip over a high and difficult pass 

 between Pindree and Murtolee, in Kumaon, by Colonel E. 

 Smyth (to whom I am indebted for several interesting and 

 graphic accounts of his mountain adventures, which he has 

 kindly permitted me to insert in these pages), gives an excel- 

 lent idea of the higher regions of a Himalayan glacier : 



" This pass had only been crossed twice within the memory 

 of man once about fifty years ago by Mr Traill, and in 1855 

 or 1856 by one of the Schlagintweits. I crossed it at the end 

 of September 1861. I sent my baggage and servants round to 

 Milum and Murtolee by the regular road, and merely took one 

 load of bedding and clothes with me, and accompanied a friend 

 as far as Pindree. Next morning my friend went with me, 

 and we breakfasted on the glacier and then parted. He 

 agreed to remain at Pindree until he could be certain that I 

 had crossed safely. I took eight or nine Danpore villagers 

 with me. My guide was old Earn Sing, so well known to all 

 travellers to Pindree. He was one of the finest-made hill-men 

 I ever knew, and though more than sixty, I found he had 

 more pluck and endurance than all the rest. He had crossed 

 this pass on the two occasions I have mentioned. 



" My road lay up the right bank of the glacier for seven or 

 eight miles, and I bivouacked in a cave at an elevation of 

 15,000 feet, overlooking the Pindree glacier. In this seven or 

 eight miles, I had to cross two or three small side-glaciers. 



