Mountain Journeys 51 



themselves. Weddell is not the only one to note this; the Grandi- 

 dier brothers were also struck by it. 47 



August 1, 1858, these travellers left Arequipa for Cuzco: 



Here one experiences (says E. Grandidier in his account) a dis- 

 tress unknown to tourists in the old world, that is, the soroche; the 

 traveller who crosses the Cordillera feels pains all through his body; 

 he has pain in his kidneys, in his head, his limbs feel as if they were 

 broken, blood even gushes sometimes from his nose, eyes or ears. This 

 general distress is due, not to the presence of antimony, as has been 

 said without reason, but to the rarefaction of the air and the failure of ' 

 breath. The soroche has even caused the death of some more suscep- 

 tible persons. Mules are also subject to the effects of the soroche, and 

 I have heard many examples of these animals dying in consequence 

 of the rarefaction of the air. (P. 56.) 



And further on, while going from Paucartambo to Puno, their 

 attention was directed to the natives on foot: 



The Indian follows the horseman on foot, always running without 

 ever losing breath, however speedy the horse, and however high the 

 mountains. The swiftness with which the Indian runs long distances 

 surprises the European all the more because he cannot, like the native, 

 overcome the oppression caused by the rarefaction of the air and run 

 at this altitude without falling immediately. (P. 194.) 



In December, the two brothers arrived at La Paz: 



The road down to La Paz is wide and well kept; but the slope is 

 so steep that one can only walk his horse down. This descent is about 

 a league long, and it takes at least an hour to get to the city. A very 

 much longer time is needed to climb it, because of the difficulty in 

 breathing which the mules experience while ascending; nevertheless 

 I was assured that the Indians mount it running and playing the flute: 

 they are not subject to the soroche, and in this way they are like the 

 llama, whose breathing apparatus is adapted to the Cordillera on which 

 it lives. (P. 225.) 



The European who has recently arrived in La Paz feels the effects 

 of a violent soroche; while he is walking through the town, he is 

 forced to stop often to get his breath, so great is the difficulty of 

 breathing and the oppression in the chest. The rarefaction of the air 

 comes from the great elevation of La Paz above sea level; this eleva- 

 tion is 3730 meters. (P. 227.) 



We have similar accounts from the German traveller Bur- 

 meister, 48 who in the first part of March, 1860, was in the Cordillera, 

 about latitude 28° S., and longitude 72° W. However, he speaks of 

 these symptoms only by hearsay; moreover, the maximum altitude 

 to which he ascended was 14,000 feet: 



During my journey (he says) I never suffered from what is called 



