376 Narrative of a Journey from Soobathoo [No. 125. 



stones, we sent it together with the large theodolite a-head at 8, and 

 moved ourselves at 10. The road at first was tolerably good, lying up- 

 on turf and passing some lakes which were frozen over, latterly it was 

 rocky and the ascent fatiguing, but not near so difficult as yesterday's. 

 We stopped several times to look out for our people, but not seeing any 

 sign of them, we dispatched a man to Nako with orders to bring our 

 bed clothes, a few bundles of fire-wood, and some food to meet us, 

 whilst we proceeded on to a kind of break between two peaks. The last 

 half mile was generally over snow, and both my brother and I felt com- 

 pletely debilitated, and were affected with severe headaches and pains in 

 the ears ; the highest vegetation we saw was a plant with leaves like 

 sage, but without smell, it grows at the height of 17,000 feet, beyond 

 which elevation we found no soil. At the top of our station between 

 the peaks, the barometer shewed 15.075 inches, which gives the height 

 18,683 feet. The thermometer when first taken out of the case was 

 30°, but in less than a quarter of an hour, it fell to twenty-two degrees 

 below the freezing point. After taking a few bearings, with all possible 

 haste, we set out on our return, and at dark met our servants with 

 our bed clothes 1^ mile from Nako, and halted for the night at the 

 height of 13,724 feet without a tent. Our people had brought wood, 

 but not flint to strike a light, we therefore sent them back to the village 

 for some fire. It was past 11 before they returned, and during an in- 

 terval of near 5 hours, we sat shivering with cold, for the thermometer 

 was 6° below the freezing point, and we had only a couple of blankets 

 each to wrap round us. After we had lighted a fire, we made a large 

 quantity of punch, which we continued drinking till near two in the 

 morning, and I do not recollect any thing that ever refreshed me so much. 



The length of our march to-day was about ten miles, and we as- 

 cended 6,800, and descended 5,000 feet perpendicular height. The 

 people with the perambulator and theodolite missed the way, and did 

 not arrive till midnight, and their hands and feet were almost frozen. 



18th October. — The thermometer at sunrise was 16°, and the cold 

 intense, we could not sleep much owing to it, for excepting a few sticks 

 which we kept for the purpose of preparing breakfast, our firewood 

 was exhausted. 



We wished much to see the barometer below fifteen inches, and de- 

 termined to make another attempt to reach the summit of a peak north 



