564 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



he turned to the Republic of Ecuador, the most lofty country which 

 remained accessible. 



Since his achievements in the Alps he had turned more and more 

 toward the scientific side of mountaineering. The main objects of his 

 South American journey were to observe the effects on the human body 

 of low pressure and to attain the greatest possible height in order to 

 experience it; to determine the relative altitudes and positions of the 

 chief mountains of Ecuador; to make comparison of boiling-point 

 observations and of the aneroid barometer against the mercurial barom- 

 eter; and to make collections in botany, zoology and geology at great 

 heights. He concerned himself neither with commerce nor politics, 

 nor with the natives and their curious ways, except incidentally. 



He had not the means to project a great scientific expedition; his 

 staff was modest, consisting of his old Alpine guide, Jean-Antoine 

 Carrel ; a cousin, Louis Carrel, with a third man picked up in Ecuador. 

 Landing at Guayaquil on December 9, 1879, he proceeded at once up 

 the Guayas River to Bodegas, and thence to the plateaus of the great 

 extinct volcano ChimboTazo. After a careful examination of the 

 mountain — referring to the accounts of Humboldt in 1802 and Bous- 

 singault in 1831, from which he did not, after all, receive much aid — 

 he attacked the mountain on December 27. On December 28 he and 

 his two European guides were stricken with mountain-sickness for the 

 first time, with intense headache, feverishness and disturbance of 

 respiration. Fighting this off and triumphing over constant delays due 

 to inefficient help, he finally reached the top of Chimborazo on January 

 4, 1880. On this ascent he took constant readings of the barometer 

 and thermometer, and of the variations of the weather. He fixed the 

 height of the summit at 20,545 feet. This is all set forth in the most 

 interesting fashion in his " Travels Amongst the Great Andes of the 

 Equator," New York, 1892. 



Whymper met few of the greater perils of mountain-climbing in 

 Ecuador that he had suffered in the Alps. He suffered more from 

 annoyances, such as snow-blindness, frost-bites, inefficiency and thievery 

 on the part of the natives, almost incredible sanitary conditions in the 

 inns and tambos. All his party developed complaints of one kind and 

 another. 



From Chimborazo he went on to the conquest of Corazon, Cotopaxi 

 — where he spent the night on the cinder cone in the very edge of the 

 crater — Illiniza, Sincholagua, Antisana, Cayambe, Sara-Urea and 

 others. His description of the sojourn on Cotopaxi makes thrilling 

 reading. His own beautiful engravings add great interest to this 

 account. 



Whymper enjoyed adventures when they came, but above all he 



