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2o6 ADVENTURES IN TIBET
staggering down the mountain-side, bleeding at the nose
and with a violent headache—unmistakable symptoms of
mountain-sickness, a thing we were quite accustomed to,
and, as a rule, it soon passed away. Cherdon and I gathered
our belongings together, and loaded up our two pack-
horses, and having helped xA.ldat up into his saddle, we began
our march towards the pass which we saw like a low saddle
in the west. On our right we had the massive mountain
with its glacier arms ; the ground was soft and the horses
sank into the mire. After struggling on for several hours,
we at length reached the pass, but beyond it there appeared
a second, yet higher pass, and after that a third. Higher
and higher we climbed in the thin murderous atmosphere,
with a storm driving straight in our faces, chilling us to
the very marrow. Sometimes we actually had to stop
behind the nearest big block of granite for shelter. At
last we did reach the very highest pass, 17,800 feet above
the sea. Imagine two Eiffel Towers standing one on the
top of the other, and both planted on the top of Mont
Blanc ! It is a giddy height, half-way through the atmos-
pheric envelope of the earth !
Our next camp was made in an absolutely sterile region.
The next day we saw in the distance some black dots
down on the lowlands. They turned out to be Turdu Bai
and Kutchuk ; they were busy building up a pile of stones
to serve as a guide to us. We now began to feel the cold
keenly, and every morning I had a pot-lid filled with hot
embers brought into my tent, otherwise the ink kept
freezing in my pen. On the 14th September, the ground
being favourable, we covered over eighteen miles. At night
we were visited by an exceptionally bad snow-storm. When
I stepped out as usual at nine o’clock to read my ther-
mometers, it was pitch dark, and I could not see the men’s
tent, although it was only a few yards distant, but I heard
the tent-canvas flapping in the wind, and the heavy
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