4o8 SPORl^ JN THE HIGHLANDS OF KASH.^HR chap, xxii 



There had been recent snow on the Fotu La above 

 Lamayuru, and a lot of this had melted and made the 

 road very bad going. It was also exceedingly cold 

 crossing. At Kharbu the thermometer stood at 29° in 

 the tent when I got up, and the cold was bitter as we got 

 over the Namika La. 



We crossed the Zogi La on the 12th of October. 

 The whole of the road from Mataiyun to the Pass was 

 under snow, trodden into slush by the traffic, and in 

 places very slippery. At the top of the Pass itself there 

 was hard snow, but the descent was all slush, and it was 

 very difficult to keep one's feet. Riding going down 

 was impossible. 



The rest - houses at Machahoi and Baltal were a 

 sight. In the former there are three rooms. One was 

 partially dry, but the two others were deep in mud, 

 owing, apparently, to the melting snow and to animals 

 having been kept there. The entire verandah was a 

 swamp, well trodden by ponies and cattle. Apparently 

 it had been regularly used as a stable. 



At Baltal one room was occupied by some six or eight 

 coolies, who had lighted fires on the mud-floor and were 

 cooking. This was the room the Rentons had when they 

 were here on 29th of March. Part of the roof and of the 

 wall of the next room had been broken down, there 

 being a large hole open to the sky, and just below another 

 large hole communicating with the next apartment. This 

 room, like the one in which the coolies were, was dry, 

 but the next one was 2 or 3 inches deep in slush. The 

 verandah, as at Machahoi, was entirely liquid mud, 

 thoroughly churned up by the animals that had been 



