140 Narrative of a Journey to Cho Lagan, fyc. [Aug. 



pencil. We are all of us something the worse for yesterday's work : 

 the Bhotias not much, nor Bhauna, who seems as strong as a Yak. I 

 still feel great oppression in the head, or rather in the neck, as though 

 a heavy weight were slung over it, and every part of my face not pro- 

 tected with beard is as perfectly blistered as though it had been treated 

 with cantharides, which signifies little however, as my eyes (always 

 strong) have escaped without damage ; the glare from the fresh snow 

 has been intense, but I found a pair of gauze wire shades sufficient 

 protection. It is this glare, I suppose, alternating with the keen dry 

 cold of the air, that plays such havoc with a white skin, for the blacks 

 are hardly affected by it. I have heard some people talk of darkening 

 the face in order to complete a disguise, for entering Hundes, but there 

 would be an even chance of the color coming off along with the skin, I 

 apprehend. I found my Hindustani clothes troublesome enough ; two 

 Paijdma and three Chapkan, one over the other, with a slouching cap, 

 Pagri and Kamarband, all abominably uncomfortable. Xnand, the 

 young Kumaoni, is very unwell indeed, both sick and heavy in the head. 



The place of our encampment here is called by the Bhotias Lank- 

 pya-Dakhna or Welshia ; by the Hunias, Larcha ; it is near the head of 

 a valley which rises from the Byans Himalaya to the South -Eastward, 

 and running for a few miles north-westward, turns east of north into 

 the valley of the Sutlej. Upwards nothing but pure snow is visible, 

 downwards, a few symptoms of bare rock, as the valley expands and the 

 mountains on either side subside into hill, and through the opening 

 northward is a glimpse of distant blue mountains, part of the Gangri 

 range perhaps, on the north side of the Sutlej. The descent from 

 Lankpya Dhura opens into this valley from the southward ; the top of 

 the pass is not visible from the Dakhna, being hidden by the lower 

 declivities, which are rather steep ; the way by which we descended 

 yesterday looks very formidable ; heaps of driven snow rising one 

 above the other, in which our track appears as a thin faint streak. 

 We tumbled down this somehow or other in two hours, but all of us 

 agree that to ascend by the same way with cattle and baggage would 

 be an absolute impossibility ; Rechu says that he has never before 

 crossed the Ghat in such a state. 



Thermometer at 9 a. m. 29° ; boiled at 184°, but fuel was wet, fire 

 slow and ebullition imperfect, so that the proper boiling point is 184 \ 



