272 THE RETURN. 



an addition to their simple farinaceous diet most accept- 

 able. Resorting to every possible precaution to promote 

 warmth, I put on three flannel shirts, one amazingly 

 thick, drawers, flannel trowsers, flannel coat, nightcap 

 tied on by a voluminous merino neckcloth also encircling 

 my throat, and on my feet, my principal place of suffer- 

 ing, three pair of woollen socks, then over all a woollen 

 gun-cover, in which my feet are inserted, then the long 

 ends folded round and secured. Thus clad, with double 

 blanket, felt ditto, mackintosh, and warm choga envelop- 

 ing me, I may surely hope for enough of caloric for 

 comfort and repose ; though that terrible wind is howling 

 its menaces, and the frost set in hard. I wish I was safe 

 in the Lobrah valley. "Well, well, a few days say seven 

 and we shall (please God) be at Chanloong ; formerly, 

 how despicable a place ! now, how ardently longed for ! 



9th September. Sunday. A very indifferent night; 

 my feet numbed and chill, in spite of all my manifold 

 coverings ; my lungs much oppressed, and continually 

 calling me to consciousness by a sense of impending 

 suffocation. On the sun's rays being distinctly recognised 

 by the growing transparency of my tent, I emerged from 

 my many wrappers. The outer atmosphere was intensely 

 severe ; ice everywhere it was possible ; and a wind that 

 found its way to one's marrow. My tent had been well 

 secured at foot to exclude this assailant, as also, by-the- 

 bye, the poor goats, which, unhappy sufferers, made several 

 efforts to repeat their invasion of Friday night, when two of 

 them established themselves under my bed, driven to this 

 bold intrusion by the severe cold, and little Sara, as though 

 in appreciation of their sufferings, and compassionating 

 them, offered no opposition. Nor should I have taken 

 measures to exclude them, poor things ! but that they kept 

 me awake by their constant restlessness and unusual noises. 



