PRELIMINARIES 7 



At five in the evening we arrived at our 

 last bit of shelter ; great deodars, with their 

 black leaves and stems standing out in bold 

 relief against the white snow. The valley 

 we had been marching up for the last five 

 miles was dense with them, but now they 

 stopped and ran obliquely up the hill on 

 both sides, leaving us face to face with a 

 steep mountain of snow, its top shrouded 

 in a frosty mist. A keen wind blew like a 

 draught down the valley, sighing, whistling 

 and rattling ; the black deodars threw their 

 arms wildly overhead, and seemed to warn 

 us against the attempt to cross the forbid- 

 ding range in front ; while the river, flow- 

 ing under our feet through its continuous 

 tunnel of snow, kept up an ominous bass 

 accompaniment to the wind's high-pitched 

 treble. Something uncanny and eerie 

 weighted my heart, and those of my hill- 

 men ; but the thought of " that fellow " be- 

 hind spurred our courage ; and we de- 

 termined to get over, come snow, come 

 devil. 



