The
Cold Was So Severe That I Walked Over The Loftiest Part Of The Pass,
And For The First Time Felt Slight Effects Of The Ladug.
At a height
of 15,000 feet, in the midst of general desolation, grew, in the
shelter of rocks, poppies (Mecanopsis aculeata), blue as the Tibetan
skies, their centres filled with a cluster of golden-yellow stamens,-
-a most charming sight.
Ten or twelve of these exquisite blossoms
grow on one stalk, and stalk, leaf, and seed-vessels are guarded by
very stiff thorns. Lower down flowers abounded, and at the camping-
ground of Patseo (12,000 feet), where the Tibetan sheep caravans
exchange their wool, salt, and borax for grain, the ground was
covered with soft greensward, and real rain fell. Seen from the
Baralacha Pass are vast snowfields, glaciers, and avalanche slopes.
This barrier, and the Rotang, farther south, close this trade route
practically for seven months of the year, for they catch the monsoon
rains, which at that altitude are snows from fifteen to thirty feet
deep; while on the other side of the Baralacha and throughout Rupchu
and Ladak the snowfall is insignificant. So late as August, when I
crossed, there were four perfect snow bridges over the Bhaga, and
snowfields thirty-six feet deep along its margin. At Patseo the
tahsildar, with a retinue and animals laden with fodder, came to pay
his respects to me, and invited me to his house, three days' journey.
These were the first human beings we had seen for three days.
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