TO LADAK. 125 



obliterated the tracks. I regret this loss much. It was 

 such a splendid animal, the pick of the herd. 



2nd July. On turning out of my tent, dressed and 

 ready to march, I found that a hard frost had come on 

 in the night, and much snow had fallen on the mountains ; 

 in consequence of which the glacier was declared to be 

 too dangerous to attempt to cross, as the numerous rents 

 and fissures would be thinly coated over with frozen snow, 

 rendering it impossible to detect and avoid them. I 

 submitted the more patiently to this delay, as the swel- 

 ling behind my knee was considerably enlarged by my 

 struggles over the slippery ground on Saturday ; and I, 

 somehow or other, clung to the forlorn hope of there 

 being a chance of retrieving the lost ibex, if we remained 

 here ; that a flight of vultures, buzzards, or crows might 

 point out the carcase. 



But no such good fortune appears to await me, as I 

 have been scanning the mountain side till almost blind, 

 but no favourable augury in the skies. The ibex must 

 now be given up as irretrievable. 



3rd July. Although rain had fallen, and at early 

 dawn the weather was very unsettled, the shikarries 

 roused me up. I had made up my mind that they 

 would not think it advisable to move, so had composed 

 myself to another allowance of sleep ; but was soon 

 dressed, and on the march. 



The glacier, which we now had to cross, has all the 

 disagreeables of that peculiarity without its redeeming 

 features, its varied and brilliant tints, such as are re- 

 nowned in Alpine scenery. This was an ugly, dull, 

 dirty, stony mass of ice and snow filling up the gorge in 

 the chain of mountains, forming the pass through its 

 ridge from the Wurdwan to Sooroo. The ascent was 

 not difficult, except from the cumbering rocks and stones 



