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320 ADVENTURES IN TIBET.
worst, I believe, that I have ever experienced in Tibet.
The hail and snow fell literally in sheets. The cold was
intense, and it was no use trying to shelter ourselves
against the stinging blast. The ascent was not difficult,
though the altitude and the weather were both murderous.
Two more camels stopped and refused to proceed. Woe
to the man that beat them ! they did perfectly right to
mutiny. They were uncoupled and left behind with a
man to look after them. Before we reached the top of the
pass two others were left behind with their loads, and
were brought in afterwards.
Although the sun was then at its highest, we were
marching in darkness. The snow was swirling thickly all
round us, filling the entire glen with blinding, smothering,
spinning, clinging snow-flakes. The landscape was one
uniform white, except for the winding ribbon of the
brook, which tinkled and rang with a metallic sharpness
in the attenuated air. I rode leaning forward in my
saddle, scarce knowing where I was going to ; in fact I
was simply following the sound of the nearest caravan
bell. Suddenly there was a scream of pain. A camel
had stopped, and one of the men took pity upon him,
released him from the string, and began to lead him after
us at a slower pace. In less than a minute he was lost
to sight amid the welter of the falling snow.
It cut me to the heart to hear and see all this suffering ;
so I rode on ahead with the Lama to the top of the pass,
and soon reached its giddy height, where the great, im-
passive silence shares dominion with the everlasting snow
and the never-ceasing storms. The pass itself was not
difficult ; but just think of the altitude, 17,000 feet above
the level of the sea ! and the deep snow ! Securing what
shelter we could behind the horses, we pulled our cloaks
about our ears and waited—waited, shivering with cold,
for on the summit of the pass we were exposed to all the
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