familiar objects to assist the eye in the appreciation of
distance, throws back the whole landscape; which,
seen through the rarified atmosphere of 18,500 feet,
looks as if diminished by being surveyed through the
wrong end of a telescope.
A few rude cairns were erected on the crest of the
pass, covered with wands, red banners, and votive
offerings of rags, I found a fine slab of slate,
inscribed with the Tibetan characters, “ Om Mani
Padmi om,” which Meepo allowed me to take away as
the reward of my exertions. The ridge is wholly
formed of angular blocks of white gneissy granite, split
by frost. There was no snow on the pass itself, but
deep drifts and glaciers descended in hollows on the
north side to 17,000 feet. The rounded northern red
shoulder of Kinchinjhow by Cholamoo lake, apparently
19,000 feet high, was quite bare, and, as I have said,
I ascended Donkia to upwards of 19,000 feet before I
found the rocks crusted with ice, and the ground
frozen. I assume, therefore, th at 19,000 feet at this
spot is not below the mean level at which all the snow
melts that falls on a fair exposure to the south ;
this probably coincides with a mean temperature of
20°. Forty miles further north (in Tibet) the same
line is probably at SO,000 fe e t; for there much less
snow falls, and much more melts in proportion. From
the elevation of about 19,300 feet, which I attained on
Donkia, I saw a fine illustration of that atmospheric
phenomenon called the “ spectre of the Brocken,” my
own shadow being projected on a bank of thin mist
that rose above the tremendous precipices on whose
crest I stood. My head was surrounded with a
brilliant circular glory or rainbow*
The temperature of the Donkia pass is much higher
than might be anticipated from its great elevation,
and from the fact of its being always bitterly cold to
the feelings. This is no doubt due to the warmth of
the ascending currents, and to the heat evolved during
the condensation of their vapours.
I left a minimum thermometer on the summit on the
9th of September, and removed it on the 27th, but it
had been lifted and turned over by the action of the
frost and snow on the loose rocks amongst which I
had placed i t ; the latter appearing to have been
completely shifted. Fortunately, the instrument
escaped u n h u rt; the index standing at 28°.
A violent southerly wind, with a scud of mist, and
sometimes snow, blew over the p a ss; but we found
shelter on the north face, where I twice kindled a fire,
and boiled my thermometers. On one occasion I felt
the pulses of my party several times during two hours’
repose (without eating); the mean of eight persons was
105°, the extremes being 92° and 120°, and my own
108°.
I found one flowering plant on the summit; the
tufted alsinaceous one before mentioned. The Fescue
grass, a little fern, and a Saussurea ascended nearly
to the summit, and several Lichens grew on the top ;
also some barren mosses. At 18,300 feet, I found on
one stone only a fine lichen, the “ tripe de roche” of
Arctic voyagers, and the food of the Canadian hunters ;
it is also abundant on the Scotch alps.