By the time we reached the lower skirts of a long snow slope that stretched upwards towards the summit of the mountain, the sun, which had now ascended nearly to the zenith, beat down upon us with intense rays, that drove two of the party to seek some temporary shelter. The Shelluh guide probably considered that he had done his day’s work; and, finding a narrow rim of shadow under an overhanging rock, lay down, with his head screened from the blazing heat. Ball, who was suffering from a violent head-ache, also found a spot that gave partial shade. Hooker took advantage of the halt to push on at a steady pace that soon carried him beyond the reach of interference from the guide. When Ball felt able to resume the ascent, the guide sprung to his feet, and for the first time became aware that one of the party was already too far ahead to be easily overtaken. He proceeded by a series of unearthly yells and frantic gesticulations, to attempt to attract Hooker’s attention, and urge his return. When these demonstrations were found to be useless, and he perceived that Ball was also about to follow in the ascent, he commenced a fresh series of exclamations and pantomimic gestures, of which the burden seemed to be that if we went to the top, we were certain to be shot; but the same argument that was used with effect on the Tagherot Pass—the gift of a silver coin—was so far successful that no attempt was made to arrest Ball’s progress, and, after ascending a few hundred feet higher, the unwilling guide gave up the attempt, and rested comfortably until he had an opportunity of rejoining Hooker in his descent. It was perhaps fortunate for our object of reaching the summit of the mountain as early as possible, that the slope by which we ascended is extremely dry and barren. A few species, already seen on the Tagherot Pass, were gathered near the snow, but the upper ridges showed only a few perennial species in flower, of which the most conspicuous was a variety of _Alyssum montanum_. Most of the others were stunted bushes, one of them being a dwarf form of the common gooseberry, with stems about a foot long, lying flat on the surface of the rocky soil. Throughout the ascent the rock was of schistose structure, seemingly argillaceous, but in some places containing a notable proportion of lime, and here and there showing traces of mica. Intrusive dykes and bosses of reddish porphyry appear in places, but do not play a conspicuous part in the aspect of the mountain.