150 Sport and Life in the Further Himalaya 



tween two of his satellites. They accepted and 

 ate it without any symptoms of unusual pleasure, 

 and we proceeded on our way. A hundred yards 

 farther on we came to a rock face with a narrow 

 ledge running along it in a downward direction, 

 and then zigzagging to some little platforms 

 below us, on which a number of miners were 

 standing near some holes on the hillside. These 

 were the mines. We proceeded carefully down 

 the ledge, as a slip would have meant an un- 

 pleasantly rapid journey to near the bottom 

 of the gorge. The holes were about the size 

 a hyena might walk into without much incon- 

 venience. On my arrival five or six men 

 crawled out, their faces covered with yellow 

 dust and their eyes somewhat bloodshot, giving 

 them a peculiarly ghastly appearance. The orpi- 

 ment, I was told, induced a peculiar condition 

 of the hands of the miners, but was not other- 

 wise injurious to health. The former was obvious 

 enough, the hands of many of the men I saw 

 being shrunken to the bone and of a dark 

 slaty colour, and covered all over with knots 

 and excrescences, giving them the appearance 

 of the claws of some big bird. As regards 

 their health, there were some old men among 

 the miners who had been at the works since 

 boyhood, but most of them looked thin and hag- 



