152 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



protected from the wind to over i6o° Fahrenheit ; so 

 that at an elevation a Uttle higher the sun was actually 

 hot enough to boil the kettle. When we came to exposed 

 places, or when night came on, the cold wind was most 

 cutting after the heat of the mid-day sun, and our faces 

 were burned and blistered beyond recognition. Our noses 

 suffered most, and became cracked across the bridge in 

 several places, open, bleeding gaps down to the bone. 

 The eyes were also affected from the glare, and if our noses 

 had been seared with red-hot irons they could not look or 

 feel worse. It took many months for these scars to heal. 

 The Bhotias gave us some excellent ointment called 

 fulteel, made from a tree in Nepal. It was like spermaceti 

 ointment and had a pleasant smell. With this we covered 

 our faces daily, and made nose caps of fur to keep off 

 the cold wind, which it was agony to face without some 

 protection. We looked as greasy as the rest of the in- 

 habitants. Washing operations were not a luxury, the 

 water being generally about freezing-point in the morn- 

 ings ; but we usually postponed them till breakfast, or 

 rather tiffin-time, when the sun was strong. Life in this 

 grand, bracing air is thoroughly exhilarating ; one feels 

 always hungry, and muscle and condition become of the 

 hardest. But there are drawbacks to one's comfort ; and 

 being on the tramp day after day from 6 a.m. often till 

 10 p.m. is trying and desperately hard work, especially 

 as sleep is disturbed at night from the high elevation. 

 No wonder that the natives are a lazy-looking lot, and 

 never walk a yard if they can ride. The rare atmosphere, 

 luckily, does not affect the ponies, which seem in capital 

 wind, and clamber up the steep hills without showing 

 distress. Some of the ponies will not stand too pro- 

 tracted marching, and go lame from the toes wearing away 

 and the blood coming, but after a few days' rest the horn 



