XIV MOUNTAIN SICKNESS 239 



and every one was pretty miserable. About six 

 o'clock my wife and I crawled into Debring, which is 

 simply a nomad's encampment, and found our tent just 

 pitched. 



Here we found Major Morland, but we were feel- 

 ing too ill to partake of the tea he had thoughtfully 

 provided against our arrival. He gave us, however, 

 some chloride of potash tabloids, which are considered 

 a specific for mountain sickness, and they seemed to 

 do our headaches good. Morland was the sportsman 

 who had taken the Baralungma nala in Baltistan, and 

 whom I nearly overtook during that hurried march from 

 Skardo. My wife had met him in Leh, and he had seen 

 our servants come in and pitch our tent. When our 

 things were fairly straight I went over to his encamp- 

 ment, and he showed me a splendid Ovis auimon head he 

 had got near Sangtha. It was 48 inches round the curve 

 by i8|- in girth round the base. 



The real distance from Gya to Debring is about 22 

 miles, not 12. 



Owing to the bad time we had all had the day 

 before, I thought it best to halt at Debring on the 1 7th. 

 It was well for other reasons too that we did, for it 

 enabled us to answer our letters, which reached us about 

 noon, the first post we had had since leaving Leh. I 

 had arranged that the Wazir, or head native official at 

 Leh, should take delivery of our mail of the 13th and 

 14th, and send it on to us by a coolie, and this he had done. 

 That evening the same coolie started back with a receipt 

 for the mail he had brought, and accompanied by a 

 Debring man, who took the letters we had ready, and 



