36 SPORT IN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASHMIR chap. 



were astir soon after. J ebb then found that his eyes 

 were affected by snow bhndness, and that he would be 

 unable to attempt the Pass that day, so he sent a 

 messenger off to Srinagar to try and get some medicine, 

 and settled to stay where he was. By 3.15 a.m. the 

 loads were all made up, and I was standing outside ready 

 to start. There was a misty moon, luckily only a day 

 past the full, and this was a great help. The early start 

 was necessary, so as to get over as much of the road as 

 possible while everything was frozen. Once the sun got 

 up the snow would melt, and the labour would be greatly 

 increased. The Zogi La (La is the Tibetan word for 

 Pass) is one of the most troublesome that the traveller 

 going north from Srinagar encounters, mainly on account 

 of the snow that is found on it at almost all times of the 

 year. It is only 11,500 feet above the sea, but is rarely 

 quite clear of snow. The bends in the path between 

 Baltal and the top are something like those in the letter Z. 

 We travelled first, in the teeth of a bitter wind, up a 

 gentle incline going north, or nearly so. Then we struck 

 east, straight across a number of avalanches, climbing up 

 and down huge masses of hard snow, tons in weight. 

 This brought us to the mouth of the gorge over the 

 frozen river, and up this we kept between high perpen- 

 dicular rocks, till, after ascending for some time, we turned 

 north once more. This was the steepest part, and we 

 practically here went up a set of steps made by the 

 coolies who preceded us. At the top of the ascent we 

 turned up a gentle slope towards the north-east, and a 

 short time after had got over the highest point, and 

 were actually, though we did not know it, descending. 



