TERRIBLE WORK. 115 



never appeared at all. Barat, who always did 

 rear-guard, said he came down once or twice, 

 then fell for good and all. Poor beast ! he tried 

 to get on his legs, then gave it up, and lay still. 

 Barat cut his nostril, but no blood came, and after 

 a few minutes he stretched out his legs and died. 

 This test of bleeding in one of the nostrils is 

 always practised when ponies are overcome by 

 exertion at high altitudes. It is considered in- 

 fallible, both as a restorative if the blood flows, 

 relieving the head, and as a sure sign that the 

 case is hopeless if the blood does not flow. 



We had not got over the worst, however, 

 for the road next day was no better than the 

 bed of a river, precipitous cliffs on each side, 

 huge ' boulders and fallen rocks. The stream 

 here and there was frozen and the rocks covered 

 with a coating of ice! It was terrible work: 

 every one had to go into the ice - cold water, 

 and bodily lift not only the loads, but even 

 the ponies, over bad places. Our loads were 

 soaking wet ; and when at last we got out of 

 this fearful gorge, we thought ourselves for- 

 tunate to get all our animals in alive. It took 

 us ten hours to journey five miles. 



The next pass was the Torak, about 13,000 



