ward slowly and
steadily, until we found at sunrise we were near the mountain top. It was
still snowing hard. One final effort brought us to the plateau on the
summit.

Here we felt comparatively safe. Thoroughly exhausted, we deposited our
burdens on the snow, and laid ourselves down in a row close to one
another to keep ourselves warm, piling on the top of us all the blankets
available.

CHAPTER XXXIII

S.E. wind--Hungry and half frozen--Lakes at 18,960 feet above
sea-level--Cold food at high altitudes--Buried in snow--Mansing's
sufferings--Fuel at last.

AT 1 P.M. we woke up, drenched to the skin, the sun having thawed the
thick coating of snow over us. This camp was at 18,000 feet. The wind
from the S.E. cut like a knife, and we suffered from it, not only on this
occasion, but every day during the whole time we were in Tibet. It begins
to blow with great fierceness and regularity at one o'clock in the
afternoon, and it is only at about eight in the evening that it sometimes
abates and gradually ceases. Frequently, however, the wind, instead of
dropping at this time, increases in violence, blowing with terrible
vehemence during the whole night. As we were making ready to start again,
with limbs cramped and stiff, the sky once more became suddenly covered
with heavy grey clouds, and fresh snow fell. There was no possibility of
making a fire, so we started hungry and half-frozen, following a course
of 70 deg. (b.m.). We waded up to our waists through a freezingly cold
stream, and climbing steadily higher and higher for six miles, we at last
reached another and loftier plateau to the N.E. of the one where we had
camped in the morning. The altitude was 18,960 feet, and we were
surprised to find four lakes of considerable size close to one another on
this high tableland. The sun, breaking for a moment through the clouds,
shone on the snow-covered tops of the surrounding mountains, silvering
the water of the lakes, and making a beautiful and spectacular picture,
wild and fascinating in effect.

Hunger and exhaustion prevented full appreciation of the scene; nothing
could stand in the way of quickly finding a suitable place to rest our
weak and jaded bodies, under the shelter of the higher hills round the
plateau, or in some depression in the ground. I was anxious to push
across the plateau, and descend on the N.E. side to some lower altitude
where we should more probably find fuel, but my men,