TO THE KARAKORUM. 



211 



which I attribute to rheumatic pains contracted from 

 exposure to the hitter cold blasts here blowing. The 

 stupid fellows have left their tent-poles too high ; so that 

 the foot of their shuldary allows a space of two feet open 

 for the draft to rush through, and as they sleep on the 

 ground the effect must be striking. I had advised them 

 on this point, but Asiatic-like they would adopt no pre- 

 caution. I again pointed out to them this objectionable 

 gap, and cheered them up the miserable beings !- 

 telling them they would be all right to-morrow, as we 

 expected to meet game. I got them out of the dumps, 

 and gave them some sugar for their tea, and they retired, 

 and immediately docked their poles. It was intensely 

 cold, so I retreated early to the shelter of my canvas. 



13th August. I got comfortably through the night 

 under piles of clothes, and roused up at dawn, the ther- 

 mometer in my tent at freezing point. The shikarries 

 had allowed their tats, after being driven in, to run off 

 again, so I started with Abdool. We got well across the 

 snow to the foot of the glacier, where we found no 

 regular path, but had to scramble up a mass of stones 

 and debris on one side of the ice, almost perpendicular. 

 I feared for the baggage animals. The road was exe- 

 crable ; nothing but rugged masses of loose sharp-pointed 

 stones. Of course, riding was out of the question. One 

 side of the pass the northern was free from snow, but 

 piled on high with these masses of stone : the south side 

 was filled with snow to the consistency of ice a foot or so 

 from the surface. I should calculate its extent to have 

 been some four or five miles, with an occasional break 

 where was a basin and a pool of green water. The route 

 was most uneven, presenting a succession of ups and 

 downs all but impracticable from the stones. This gorge 

 was strewed with the skeletons of horses, of which we 



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