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—:
ON THE KOAD AGAIN 311
exchanged cigarettes, and then good-humour prevailed
once more in our quarters.
A morning came when I stepped out of the Jchan
into a scene of dazzling white snow under bright sunlight
and clear blue sky. There was frost so hard
that it seemed to make all things brittle, for dead
bracken crushed underfoot like pipe stems, and even
pine-needles broke crisply. At mid-winter, four thousand
feet above sea-level, they expect low temperatures
in the Taurus, but this morning, I think, was
out of the common. It was well below zero by every
sign, though making noble weather for travelling.
The road ascended to the pass in a narrow valley
which climbed steeply, and on either hand went up
to mountain summits. The whole scene w^as a study
in black and white under a dome of blue. There were
islands and continents of black pine-forest standing
amidst dazzling snowfields as smooth and unbroken
as the roof of a tent. At a higher level forest and
snowfields ran out and gave place to crags and
cliffs, grey in themselves, but now dark by contrast,
and splashed with snow-wTeaths and here and there
a feathering of pine. These were the main ridges,
with nearly ten thousand feet of elevation — bold
massive heights, though simple in outline.
Beaten in the snow by traffic before frost arrived
was an excellent path, and this, tow^ards the summit,
became a ditch four or five feet wide, and deep as
our shoulders. Here our troubles began, for caravans
which had been storm-bound on the southern
side were seizing this fine morning to come over the
pass. Such continuous strings of laden camels I had
met nowhere before. There were miles of caravans
perhaps a whole week's traffic crowding into a few
hours. The path was too narrow for a horse to pass a
loaded camel, so for the greater part of the day we
floundered in deep snow, whose frozen crust would
carry a man, but broke under a loaded beast. The
pack-horse fell repeatedly and had to be dug out