136 Narrative of a Journey to Clio Lagan, fyc. [Aug. 



an end, and no further progress could be made but by scaling the hills 

 in one direction or other ; the head of the river appears quite im- 

 practicable from depth and steepness of snow. Our road lies over 

 a moderate acclivity, but completely covered with snow, which goes on 

 increasing to an unpleasant depth ; the pure unsullied surface without 

 the vestige of a track upon it, indicates a recent and heavy fall, since 

 which the pass has not been crossed. The glare is intense : the surface 

 of the snow is frozen and hard enough to afford tolerable footing to a 

 man on his own feet, but the cattle sink deep at every step ; when only 

 knee-deep they get on, though slowly, but where the snow meets their 

 chests it is with the utmost difficulty that they can gain a step ; being 

 also exhausted by the rarity of the air which here affects both man and 

 beast. I found it useless to attempt riding through this snow, for the 

 sudden sinking, plunging, and floundering of the horses was such as 

 to knock the breath out of me at every step. The Zhobus would have 

 been better for riding here, but it was necessary to have our two spare 

 cattle unladen in the front, so as to tread down a passage through the 

 snow by which the rest followed with the baggage. At 1 p. m. the cattle 

 came to a stand-still, yet a long way below the top of the pass, and the 

 Bhotias seemed inclined to follow the example of the beasts, and began 

 to talk of the impossibility of getting further, but as the difficulty did 

 not appear to me to be insurmountable, with the two Kumaonis I went 

 on ahead to a small heap of stones or projecting rock free from snow, 

 where we sat down, determined, or pretending a determination, to pass 

 the night there rather than go back, and in hopes of so shaming or 

 alarming the Bhotias into better exertion to join, I began to read a 

 newspaper (which I had got at Kunti), but soon found it intolerably 

 cool work in such a situation.* In the course of an hour and a half 



* On the ascent of this pass I observed that where holes were sunk in the snow by the 

 foot of man or beast, or by a walking-staff or otherwise, the snow inside assumed a very 

 fine deep colour between azure and sea-green (like Turquoise colour), and I remember 

 to have seen the same appearance in the deep fissures at the top of the Gori Glacier 

 (above Milam in Jwar), near its origin at the head of the valley, many miles up where 

 the substance of the Glacier seemed to be half ice half snow ; this must be the inherent 

 colour of the pure rain or snow water, I imagine, (as azure blue is supposed to be of the 

 air) for I saw it when the sky was dull and dark with clouds and incapable of reflecting 

 any such colour, nor did I ever notice it in the old and dirty snow on the Jwar passes in 

 the end of June. 



