ces in which it came to me.

These circumstances, though not the experience itself, were
somewhat exceptional. I was at that particular moment at the highest
pitch of existence--that is to say, of my own existence. I had had an
unusually wide experience of the wild countries of that most
interesting and varied of the continents--Asia, and for that reason
had been specially selected for the charge of a Mission to Tibet.
However ill-qualified I might be for other tasks, for this particular
business of establishing neighbourly relations with a very secluded
and seclusive Asiatic people, difficult of approach both on account
of their natural disposition and of the mighty mountain barrier which
stood between them and the rest of the world, I was esteemed to
have peculiar qualifications. My comrades were also men selected
for their special qualifications--one for his knowledge of the
Tibetans, another for his knowledge of the Chinese, another for his
knowledge of geology, and so on. The troops engaged were selected
for their experience in frontier warfare, and each man had had to
pass a medical test. We were at the top of our physical fitness and
ripe in experience.

Besides British officers and a few British troops, there were among
the soldiers Sikhs, Pathans, Gurkhas, a few Bengalis, a few Rajputs
and Dogras; and among the followers were Bhutias and Lepchas
from Sikkim, Baltis from Kashmir, Bhutanese from Bhutan. There
were thus Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus, and Buddhists: men
from an island in the Atlantic, and men from the remotest valleys of
the Himalaya. And our destination had been a sacred city hidden
two hundred miles behind the loftiest range of mountains in the
world.

On our way we had had to battle with the elements of Nature in very
nearly their extremest forms and in every variety. We started in the
sweltering heat of the plains of India in the hottest season. We
passed the lower outer ranges of the Himalaya in the midst of
torrential rain, like the heaviest thunder-shower in England,
continuing all day long and day after day with scarcely a break, and
penetrating through a waterproof coat as if it were paper. Following
this we had to cross the main axis of the Himalaya in January, to
pass the winter at an altitude of 15,000 feet above sea-level, and face
blizzards which cut through heavy fur coats and left us as if we were
standing before it in our bare bones.

We had also had to battle with the Tibe