Mountain Journeys 89 



the German pamphlet of Hamel, from which I shall quote presently, 

 since I was unable to secure the account of Lusy, 119 I borrow the 

 references to the serious symptoms which attacked them: 



Near the summit, some of the travellers felt nausea and a strong 

 desire to sleep; three bled from the nose and one from the mouth; 

 that did not stop Count Lusy. (P. 36.) 



August 4, 1818, Count Malazesky, a Pole, 120 then van Rensselaer 

 of New York on July 11, 1819, also undertook this difficult enter- 

 prise. The report of the latter, although quite detailed, 121 contains 

 no suggestion of any interesting physiological fact; his companions 

 and he experienced only a great acceleration of respiration and 

 pulse accompanied by loss of appetite. 



Then, in 1820, Dr. Hamel, 122 court counselor of His Majesty the 

 Emperor of all the Russias, made the ascent in the company of 

 Colonel Anderson. His trip was interrupted near the summit by a 

 terrible catastrophe, which took the lives of three guides, dragged 

 down in an avalanche. 



He first made on August 3 an unsuccessful attempt: 



We started from Saint-Gervais and passed the night at Pierre- 

 Ronde, sheltered by a few rocks. 



The next day at 11:30 we reached the summit of the Dome du 

 Goute .... 



It was on this two hour march that for the first time I expe- 

 rienced the effect of the rarified air upon my strength. It was abso- 

 lutely impossible for me to take more than forty steps without stopping 

 about two minutes to get my breath; and when I reached the summit 

 of the Dome (2,200 fathoms), I felt so exhausted that I should have 

 needed at least a half-hour's rest if I were to be able to go on to the 

 crest of Mont Blanc. After I had made my calculations, I found that 

 it would be absolutely impossible to go to the summit and come back 

 down the needles of the Goute before night; I therefore decided to 

 retrace my steps. (P. 306.) 



August 16, he once more began the ascent, this time starting 

 from Chamounix. The travellers, accompanied by twelve guides, 

 passed the night at the Grands-Mulets. In spite of his guides, who 

 were alarmed by the poor condition of the newly' fallen snow, 

 Hamel wished to go on the next day; at half -past eight in the 

 morning, they were on the last large plateau: 



No one was ill. And yet for some time we had been feeling the 

 effect of the rarity of the air; my pulse rate was 128 per minute, 

 and I was thirsty all the time. Our guides suggested that we should 

 lunch .here, for higher up, they said, no one has any appetite .... 

 Each of us ate his half-chicken with pleasure. 123 .... 



We had reached the elevation of 2,300 fathoms .... No one was 



