PRELIMINARIES 5 



The 3ist of March, therefore, saw us in 

 a village a few miles from the foot of the 

 pass we were to cross on the morrow. We 

 spent the day in much talking, there being 

 distinct differences of opinion as to the 

 possibility of getting over. The winter had 

 been a very severe one, as I have already 

 said, and the snow in the Cashmere valley 

 even was three feet deep ; while where we 

 were, it was some ten feet everywhere, 

 and twenty to thirty feet in the many 

 drifts. But owing to the intense cold its 

 surface had become so firm that the men 

 from the north of the pass had hardened 

 their hearts, and in spite of danger had 

 crossed into the Cashmere valley to get a 

 few luxuries for their great festival day, the 

 Eed ; and here they were now collected at 

 the foot of the pass, trying to make up their 

 minds to go back, and yet not liking to be 

 the first to prove it " open " again ; I say 

 " again," because a snowstorm had been 

 raging for the last three days, and, though 

 the weather had cleared, the newly-fallen 



