234 ARPORT-TSO AND SHEMEN-TSO.
when the latter direction has been reached the wind grows to a gale. Usually we try to camp in the lee of a hill, but, as a rule, we are always exposed to this indefatigable wind. Such was also the case at Cana, CCCXVI, where some little grass was found. During the last part of the highland plain, the snow lay some 20 cm.
deep and was whirled up in clouds by the gale. Ice was not seen ; all the water we needed we got from the snow. In the afternoon and evening, the clouds were very dark and menacing. The gale came to an end, it began to snow, and it snowed the whole night. Occasionally, a very violent wind swept across the mountains. In the morning the snow lay one or two feet deep in the high, latitudinal valley we had to follow to the S. E.
On 7anuary 30M, we continued in the said direction. 5,480 m. was a tremendous height for a camp, but leaving Camp CCCX VI we had to ascend another 88 m. to the very flat threshold situated 8.2 km. S. E. from this camp. The ascent was, therefore, at a rate of i : 93 which was, however, stiff enough at this altitude, in deep snow and with a dying caravan. From this pass we had 9 km. E. S. E. to Camp CCCX VII, where the height was 5,325 m. or 243 m. lower, which gave a descent of i : 37. The snowflakes continued falling thick and fast and nothing was to be seen of the surrounding country. Only occasionally, we could guess the existence of hills of moderate relative size on both sides, everything being perfectly white, the hills as well as the floor of this latitudinal valley. This pass, 5,568 m. high, was, according to my instruments, only 4 m. lower than that east of Arporf-tso, though it was so flat that it was practically impossible to tell where we really crossed the point of culmination. Nor could I estimate the approximate breadth of the valley. Only S. E. of the pass, we marched along the base of the hills at its northern side. Here the snow lay deeper still, and our march was extremely heavy and slow. The temperature of the night had, on account of the snowfall, been only —24.2°, and, on the pass, it was — 14.0°. Under such conditions as these, it is not easy to draw a map. It can, at the most, be only approximate. The poor and miserable grass that might exist here and there, was, of course, completely hidden by the snow. Erosion furrows and beds could not be seen, nor if we passed springs and ice-sheets. We had, however, no occasion to suffer from thirst even though it might be difficult to find fuel for melting it. If the snow had continued for some days and if the country in front of us had been covered with snow, it would very soon have become a question of
life and death to our caravan.
According to Rawling's map, the ground hereabout falls to the south or S. S. W. In the driving snow and snow-fog, it was impossible to see in how far this was the case and where one had to march to reach falling ground. We, therefore, continued E. S. E., and thereby had to cross another threshold, this time quite secondary and situated in the left side-hills. It was, however, flat as a plain. The
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