Mountain Journeys 55 



In the special chapter I shall give the very eclectic mixture of 

 theoretical explanations which Guilbert accepts. 



The Italian professor Pellegrino Strobel, ,4 who crossed the dif- 

 ferent passes between Santiago and Mendoza, was lucky enough 

 not to be affected by the soroche; it is true that he seems not to 

 have mounted very high: 



After what M. de Moussy wrote and what my friends had told me, 

 I expected to experience on Planchon one of the sensations described 

 under the name of puna. But — I do not know whether I should say 

 happily or unhappily — neither here at 3000 meters above the Pacific, 

 nor on Cumbre of Uspallata at about 4000 meters nor in any other part 

 of the secondary chains of the Andes, was it granted me to feel the 

 slightest difference in respiration or appetite, still less any headaches 

 and other pathological symptoms or physiological phenomena; and yet 

 on account of the weakness of my constitution and the narrowness of 

 my chest, it seems as if I should have suffered from it more than any- 

 one else. I must therefore admit that the puna does not depend solely 

 upon the rarefaction of the air, but also upon other concomitant 

 causes, which appear to be wholly unknown. (P. 25.) 



However two German travellers, Focke and Mossbach, ■"'•"• who 

 speak from their own experience, declare that often men and 

 beasts become ill at still lower altitudes: 



Starting at an altitude of 10,000 feet, one feels the beginning of 

 mountain sickness, that is, a stunning headache; it is the Sorocho, which 

 attacks also beasts of burden. They refuse to go on, and to cure them, 

 they are bled under the tongue. (P. 391.) 



Finally, I have the statement of a high official of the Peruvian 

 government, an intelligent man, that having gone to Perina-Cota 

 (4800 meters) near Guayaquiri, he saw his mules become ill at an 

 altitude of 3000 meters; out of 40 mules, 16 had to be unloaded. 

 Some of his companions had nosebleed. During a stay of two weeks 

 at this great height, he experienced regularly, about three o'clock 

 in the morning, a feeling of suffocation which awakened him; the 

 least movement then increased it considerably; these symptoms 

 lessened during the day. The Indians who accompanied him suf- 

 fered from the same illness. Even today, the generally accepted 

 explanation is poisoning by metallic emanations; they try to check 

 its effects by garlic sachets. 



I also learned from this gentleman that while the railroad 

 tunnel from Lima was being bored, at an altitude of about 4800 

 meters, all the workmen had been affected, even the most robust. 

 I am sorry not to have been able to get written details of the 

 phenomena observed during the execution of this extraordinary 



