IN THE HIMALAYAS 89 



them, and tiny children carried the gun cases 

 along. 



Aziz Khan had caught somebody's little pony for 

 me to ride; he was very clever in knowing what 

 was safe snow to cross and what not. We had 

 crossed several snow bridges, and then came to one 

 that he quite refused to go over. He stopped, put 

 his nose down to it and smelt about. I stupidly 

 tried to force him on, but he still refused it, put his 

 head down and nosed it again until I pushed him 

 at it. He went on one step and then the whole 

 thing broke through with him and he fell over on 

 to some rocks below, which luckily were not far 

 down. His fore legs were high up against the rocks 

 and he was standing on his hind legs almost upright. 

 I tumbled off and rolled against his hind legs, that 

 I had to pull myself up by. He stood absolutely 

 still till I had got clear of him and then he scrambled 

 up the rocks. He was very much frightened, but 

 he behaved wonderfully well; and after that I left 

 everything to his better judgment. 



We crossed the Bhot Kol pass again on the way 

 back ; it had been covered with snow when we came 

 and was straightforward marching, but now that 

 was melted and all the walking was on the glacier. 

 It was a very rough road and there were any amount 

 of crevasses that we had to circumvent or jump over. 

 On the top, as we were sitting down for a rest, a 

 long string of men with their half-bred Yaks, carry- 

 ing loads, passed us. They stopped to talk to our 

 men, all except one of them who went on alone a 



