August 3 broke clear; and I started up a likely looking peak behind (South of) camp, which appeared to be on the ridge between the East and main glaciers. I afterwards found that this was not the case; at the time I had to stop on a lower point as the clouds settled down. From here I had a glimpse of a big peak--Mak[=a]lu, I thought--over the pass at the head of the southerly branch of the glacier: and this gave me the idea that there must be a comparatively low pass from here to the K[=a]ma Valley. But clouds prevented me seeing more and studying the topography more carefully. There were heavy snowstorms on August 4 and 5, but the 6th looked better, and after four hours' most strenuous step-cutting up and slithering down pinnacles, I crossed the glacier and ascended a 21,000-foot station on the other side, from which I obtained good, if cloudy, views of the East Rongbuk Glacier. Snow in the night and a dull morning made me decide to abandon this area--I could get my camp no farther up owing to having insufficient warm clothes to camp all my coolies at this height--and I returned to the base camp, preparatory to tackling the West side of the Rongbuk Valley. Six hours' easy going took me to my base camp. After two days' rest and office work, I crossed the glacier and put a light camp at about 19,000 feet in a small hanging valley below the "Finger," a black rock gendarme which is a very prominent landmark on the left bank of the Rongbuk Valley. On August 11 it snowed heavily, and I found my bed, in which I spent the day, very hard indeed--the camp being pitched on large boulders on top of the moraine. On the 12th, 13th, and 14th, I started for the "Finger," the first time by the ridge immediately above camp, which gave some nice climbing with the rocks partly snow covered as they were, and the other two days, by a much quicker but less interesting route up soft snow and scree. Each day the clouds came down, and although I waited till nearly dark at about 20,500 feet on the ridge, it was not till the third day that I got a round of indifferent photographs. Time was getting on, so on the 15th I called my "Finger" station "good enough" and moved camp up the left bank of the main glacier to a point on the old lateral moraine, opposite the entrance of the stream from the East Rongbuk; and the next day round the corner to the West, some distance up the West Rongbuk Glacier, and about 1,000 feet above it. _En route_, I tried to get some photographs from the high moraine at the junction of the West with the main glacier; but again the weather defeated me, and I got into camp--another uncomfortable one--soaked to the skin.