first two or three hours made but little headway, as
the snow was soft and deep and the ponies floundered
badly. The only way to make any progress was by
short, quick rushes which proved most exhausting.
The sheep showed themselves to be even worse travellers
over the soft snow than the ponies, for when once
down or only partly stuck, they made no effort to
free themselves. On the other hand, the mad efforts of
the ponies to extricate themselves frequently resulted
in their becoming even more deeply embedded in the
treacherous snow.
As we ascended, clouds came rolling up from the
west, becoming more and more threatening as we
neared the top of the pass. Immediately after the
summit was gained, snow began to fall drearily and
monotonously, until by noon the. direction of our
advance could hardly be distinguished. The snow was
accompanied by a biting south-west wind which froze
us to the bone, and the last few miles of that day’s
march was a miserable and painful crawl over loose,
sharp, and half-hidden boulders.
Hargreaves’ riding - pony, a big grey Yarkandi
animal, which he had been leading throughout the day,
collapsed several times during the latter part of the
march, and only retained just sufficient strength to
enable it to reach the camping-ground. On careful
examination, it appeared to be suffering great pain,
whilst the tongue was discoloured and the blood very
dark. Khalik soon appeared on the scene, full of
importance, and pronounced the case to be one of
grass-poisoning. Seeing, however, that the pony had
not even seen a blade of grass for many hours, this did
not seem a very probable theory. Khalik was quite
confident that the animal would recover if operated
on, and as it seemed to be in great pain, which we T h e M o r n in g ok D e p a r t u r e f r o m T a n k s e .