THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH. 77 



extreme violence of the Himaliyan wind, which blows 

 usually throughout the day, but most fortunately dies 

 away at night, led me to camp in a sheltered and 

 beautiful spot, on a terraced field, under walnut and 

 apricot trees, and with the Kailas rising before my 

 tent on the other side of the Sutlej. Every now and 

 then in the afternoon, and when the morning sun 

 began to warm its snows, avalanches shot down the 

 scarred sides of the Kailas ; and when their roar 

 ceased, and the wind died away a little, I could hear 

 the soft sound of the waving cascades of white foam 

 some of which must have rivalled the Staubbach in 

 height that diversified its lower surface, but which 

 became silent and unseen as the cold of evening lock- 

 ed up their sources in the glaciers and snow above. 

 Where we were, at the height of about 9000 feet, the 

 thermometer was as high as 70 Fahrenheit at sunset ; 

 but at sunrise it was at 57, and everything was frozen 

 up on the grand mountains opposite. Though deodars 

 and edible pines were still found on the way to Jangi, 

 that road was even worse than its predecessor, and 

 Silas and Chota Khan several times looked at me 

 with hopeless despair. In particular, I made my first 

 experience here of what a granite avalanche means, 

 but should require the pen of Bunyan in order to do 

 justice to its discouraging effects upon the pilgrim. 

 When Alexander Gerard passed along this road fifty- 

 six years before, he found it covered by the remains 

 of a granite avalanche. Whether the same avalanche 



