THE SEARCH JOURNEY 479 



as we came along — a deep black to the west, shading into 

 long lines of grey and lemon yellow round the sun, with a 

 vertical shaft through them, and a bright orange horizon. 

 Now there is a brilliant parhelion. Given sun, two days 

 here are never alike. Whatever the monotony of the 

 Barrier may be, there is endless variety in the sky, and I 

 do not believe that anywhere in the world such beautiful 

 colours are to be seen. 



I had a fair panic as we came up to the depot. I did not 

 see that one body of the ponies had gone ahead of the 

 others and camped, but ahead of the travelling ponies was 

 the depot, looking very black, and I thought that there was 

 a tent. It would be too terrible to find that, though one 

 knew that we had done all that we could, if we had done 

 something different we could have saved them. 



And then we find that the provisions we left here for 

 them in the tank are soaked with paraffin. How this has 

 happened is a mystery, but I think that the oil in the XS 

 tin, which was very full, must have forced its way out in a 

 sudden rise of temperature in a winter blizzard, and though 

 the tin was not touching the tank, it has found its way in. 



Altogether things seemed rather dismal, but a visit to 

 the mules is cheering, for they seem very fit as a whole and 

 their leaders are cheerful. There are three sacks of oats 

 here — had we known it would have saved a lot of weight 

 — but we didn't, and we have plenty with what we have 

 brought, so they will be of little use to us. There is no 

 compressed fodder, which would have been very useful, 

 for the animals which are refusing the oats would probably 

 eat it. 



Gulab has a very bad chafe, but he is otherwise fit — 

 and it does not seem possible in this life to kill a mule be- 

 cause of chafing. It is a great deal to know that he does 

 not seem to be hurt by it, and pulls away gallantly. Crean 

 says he had to run a mile this morning with Rani. Marie 

 says he is inventing some new ways of walking, one step 

 forward and one hop back, in order to keep warm when 

 leading Khan Sahib. Up to date we cannot say that the 

 Fates have been unkind to us. 



