UP THE ALAI VALLEY 135 
morning till night. In fact every minute the tent itself 
threatened to Sfo, althouo-h we lashed it down with extra 
ropes, and supported it with additional stakes. 
On the 2nd March we travelled as far as the winter 
village of Gundi. But before starting in the morning we 
took the precaution to send men on in advance to clear 
the path and trample a passage through the snowdrifts. 
And fortunate we did so, for the old track was completely 
obliterated by the storm. We kept as close to the southern 
foot-slopes of the Alai Mountains as we possibly could, 
THE AUL OF GUNDI 
because in many places on that side the snow had been 
swept clean away. 
At Gundi we met with a misfortune. We had just got 
the tent pitched and arranged, and had carried in the 
yakhtans, and the more perishable portions of the bag- 
gage, when Rehim Bai managed to give the quicksilver 
barometer a knock, which smashed the delicate glass tube 
and set the glistening beads of quicksilver rolling along 
the ground. My costly and sensitive instrument, which 
I watched over as tenderly as a mother watches over 
her infant, alas! it was now useless, and might just as 
well be flung into a snowdrift. I could no longer recor 
its readings three times a day as I had conscientious y 
