MOONLIGHT ON MUS-TAGH-ATA 379 
audacity to defy one of the mountain giants of the world. 
A curious feeling of being at a vast distance from the 
earth took possession of me. It was difficult to realize, 
that the four continents lay actually below my feet ; and 
that a girdle drawn round the earth at the level where I 
then stood would cut off only the tops of a very few 
mountains in Asia and South America. I realized more 
forcibly than ever man’s littleness as compared with the in- 
conceivable magnitude of creation. I seemed to be stand- 
ing on the confines of space — cold, silent, boundle.ss. 
The inside of the tent .showed the reverse of the medal. 
Islam Bai and Yehim Bai were sitting in their fur coats, 
as near to the dying embers as they could get, uttering 
never a word. We all froze, so that our teeth chattered ; 
and to add to our discomfort, when we made up the fire, 
the tent became filled with stiffing smoke. After the 
evening’s observations had been taken, each man crept 
into his fur coat and blankets, the fire was allowed to die 
out, and the moon peeped inquisitively in through every 
slit and crevice of the tent. 
The aneroid showed 14?^ inches pressure, at a temper- 
ature of 25°5 Fahr. (-3°6 C.). Water boiled at I76°9 
(8 o °5 C.) ; and the minimum temperature sank to io°4 
Fahr. (-12° C.). 
It was a long, wearisome night, which seemed as if it 
would never end. No matter how closely we drew our 
knees up to our chins or crept together in our endeavour 
to keep warm, it was impossible for mere physical heat to 
do battle against the penetrating cold from outside ; and 
we felt it the more in that the south-easterly wind increased 
hour by hour during the night. None of us could get 
a moment’s sleep ; at last, towards morning, I fell into 
a sort of doze, but was awakened by want of air. The 
men moaned and groaned as though they were being 
stretched on the rack ; not so much on account of the 
cold, however, as from the constantly increasing headache. 
At last the sun rose upon our misery; but the day that 
dawned was anything but favourable. A south-west wind, 
almost violent enough to be called a hurricane, swept along 
