A TOURMENTE. 281 



which were game to the backbone and as sure-footed as goats. 

 One of them, notwithstanding, lost its footing on a steep slope 

 of nevd, and went rolling and sliding down until it was 

 fortunately stopped by a friendly rock, otlierwise it must 

 have disappeared for ever under the glacier, and with it my 

 dear old Whitworth rifle, which, among other things, it was 

 carrying. On regaining its feet the creature merely shook 

 itself, and on being disentangled from its load soon clambered 

 up again. 



For the last three miles of the ascent our way was over 

 the glacier, where we waded and floundered through the soft 

 fresh-fallen snow, with an occasional dive into it up to the 

 middle, as we followed in the steps of our Tartar leader, who, 

 in order to avoid hidden crevasses, cautiously sounded the 

 way with his long mountain-pole. Here we experienced a 

 regular tourmente, for, besides the falling flakes, the dry 

 drifting snow was whirled up into our eyes and nostrils by 

 the freezing blast, causing a suffocating sensation which was 

 most trying, and the cold was so intense that my beard, from 

 my breath on it, became a mass of ice, and was frozen hard 

 to my coat.^ Whilst on the glacier all the marks we had 

 to indicate the right track were the giant outlines of the 

 white eminences rearing up on either side, and these only 

 occasionally loomed dimly through the driving snow. Never 

 shall I forget the ludicrous picture of utter misery presented 

 by my Hindustani cook as he sat resting himself on a bank 

 of snow, his head closely enveloped in a black blanket, and 

 his beard covered with icicles. Blank despair was depicted 

 on his face as he gazed ruefully, through a pair of green 

 goggles, on the bewildering scene around him. Eight glad 



^ With reference to what I have already said concerning the effects produced 

 by rarefied air under different conditions, I may here mention that when cross- 

 ing this high pass, which is approached from the south by a very steep ascent, 

 and is flanked on both sides by high eminences, neither my companion nor 

 myself felt any of the more disagreeable sensations, such as headache and 

 nausea, even under such circumstances as might have been expected to induce 

 them. 



