29 OCTOBER 1904, Page 2

probably have been compelled to levy supplies by requisition. As

it was, the headquarters column was caught by the snow in a pass 16,000 ft. high, and was compelled to struggle forward for its life, forty-seven of the men being led with strings because they were snow-blind. Another party detached for a survey was stricken in the same way, nearly half their number—sixty-nine out of a hundred and forty—becoming " stone-blind," owing to a blizzard on the Romba Pass. They will probably be found curable, and this danger will be avoided when the road is cut through Bhutan ; but we should like to know how the native Tibetans escape it, and why among the foreigners who are liable so many escape. There must be some special quality in the eyes or in the general health of those who enjoy immunity from the terrible calamity, and we should like to know what it is. Are they the men of most penetrating sight on whom the white radiance, which they, of course, perceive best, tells most P