408 HIMALAYAN GUIDES. 



descent from, but they returned unsuccessful. It was now 

 about 2 P.M., the clouds had come up, and it began to snow and 

 hail. The wind at the same time arose, and the snow was fly- 

 ing about up our noses and into our eyes, ears, &c. These 

 coolies who had been so lively but a few hours before began to 

 give in ; some lay down to go to sleep. There was a ledge of 

 rocks that seemed to run up from below to within a quarter of 

 a mile of where we were. Earn Sing and another man took 

 the two axes and commenced to cut steps towards these rocks 

 along this steep slope of snow. I employed myself in keeping 

 these wretched coolies from going to sleep until Earn Sing and 

 his companion had proceeded about 100 yards. I then made 

 them all get up and follow. We kept along the same level, 

 and the slope was so steep that while standing upright our 

 left hands were buried in the snow as we proceeded. It took 

 us two hours to go over this quarter of a mile. A false step 

 would have sent any one of us 2000 feet down the snow, pro- 

 bably into a crevasse below. My left hand soon became quite 

 benumbed from cold, and I did not quite recover from its 

 effects for several months. We reached the ledge of rocks 

 safely, and climbed down to the glacier below, and then went 

 four or five miles over the glacier to an empty kurruck (or 

 shieling) below. Next morning seven or eight miles took me 

 to Murtolee. Tradition says that this pass used to be in com- 

 mon use ages ago, but has been blocked up by glacier. 



" Two or three of my Danpoorees were snow-blind for a day 

 or two after this trip." 



People in India have not yet taken to attempting ascents of 

 the highest mountains. Of late years the few members of the 

 Alpine Club who have come to the Himalayas for that pur- 

 pose, have found the native shikarees and guides, who are un- 

 equalled as cragsmen, to be quite useless as ice-men. The fact 

 is, they seldom have any occasion to cross glaciers. Very few 

 of the passes usually traversed lead over them, and in the pur- 

 suit of game glaciers are avoided, as no game is found near their 



