Mountain Journeys 53 



As to the puna properly so-called, the difficulty in breathing, it is 

 not peculiar to the great heights of the Cordillera; there are certain 

 places of no great altitude where it is felt much more than in others. 

 We ourselves experienced it at the town of Molinos, which is at an 

 altitude of only 1970 meters, and in a valley surrounded by granitic 

 mountains about which there is nothing peculiar. We cannot discover 

 a cause for this peculiarity, which also exists at different points of 

 the Andes in Bolivia. 



Animals also experience this difficulty in breathing in their first 

 crossings of the Cordilleras; but they become acclimated rather quickly 

 and their vigor is so great that mules in good condition and reasonably 

 loaded never weaken on ordinary journeys. (Vol. I, p. 217.) 



Mateo Paz Soldan also gives a description of the soroche in his 

 Geography of Peru: 51 



Cerro de Pasco is situated on a slope 4352 meters above sea level. 

 . . . The climate of this city is very cold, the temperature averages 44° 

 F. by day and 34° by night, during the months from July to October, a 

 season during which a great quantity of hail and snow falls. Some- 

 times the thermometer falls to 30° and 28° in August and September; 

 water boils at 180°. Storms, hail, and snow make this country un- 

 inhabitable from the month of October on. Strangers there are sub- 

 ject to the Soroche, an oppression in the chest, which in this country 

 is called veta, and which is the result of the rarefaction of the atmos- 

 phere, in so lofty a region .... Former miners are subject to a great 

 many diseases and infirmities. ... If this country did not possess mines 

 of inexhaustible richness, it would be absolutely impossible to live 

 here. (P. 172.) 



About this period there appeared in the form of a thesis main- 

 tained before the Faculty of Medicine of Paris a remarkable work 

 by a young doctor, Ch. Guilbert, 52 who, attacked by consumption, 

 went to La Paz and there found the cure or at least a considerable 

 amelioration of his dangerous disease. I shall quote the whole of 

 his very concise description of the soroche: 



The soroche or the disease of the puna begins in two different 

 ways: some immediately have difficulty in breathing, and that has 

 attracted greatest attention of the observers; in others, and in my opin- 

 ion this is the largest number, nervous symptoms appear first. There 

 are even some travellers who have no difficulty at all in breathing. 



The same difference is found in the duration of these two classes of 

 symptoms. Whereas the nervous phenomena last only 12 to 48 hours, 

 difficulty in breathing and circulation sometimes persists for several 

 months. 



The nervous system is therefore often the first affected, and re- 

 acts upon the digestive and the locomotive systems. One first feels 

 nausea, accompanied by very significant spitting. ... At the same time 

 there comes a very violent headache, compared to a ring of iron which 

 binds the temples tightly. . . . After the nausea, vomiting appears, often 



