KASHMIR. 223 



ridge. But instead of a descent to Dras, I saw be- 

 fore me, with dismay, a large valley of snow, athwart 

 which ran the tracks of Chota Khan's party, rising 

 up into a higher mountain-range beyond. It was, in 

 fact, a sort of double pass we were on ; and though 

 the descent between the two ridges was not great, 

 yet it was sufficiently formidable, and the distance 

 between them was enough to alarm one in the cir- 

 cumstances. How weird that scene was in the grey 

 fading light ! The cold made me shiver to the bone ; 

 but there was something in the scene also to make 

 one shiver, so cold-looking was it, so death-like. A 

 crescent moon gleamed in the sky with exceeding 

 brightness, and the whole disc of the moon was dis- 

 tinctly visible ; but its light was insufficient to dispel 

 the darkness which seemed to be creeping up from 

 the valley over the wastes of snow. We had quite 

 sufficient light, however, to take us over the second 

 summit of the pass ; but I suffered much from the 

 cold, being insufficiently clad, having had no expecta- 

 tion whatever of being up about 16,000 feet at such 

 an hour. It was with a feeling of great relief that I 

 learned that we had now only to descend, and had no 

 more snowy ridges to surmount on our terrible way to 

 Dras. 



But how to descend 1 ? That was the question 

 which immediately forced itself upon me. I was in- 

 clined to stick to the pony so long as I did not find 

 it upon the top of me ; and fortunately it was a won- 



