Mountain Journeys 59 



they had reached the summit of Chimborazo, which they estimated 

 to be an altitude of 6543 meters. 



But not everyone is so lucky. In a recent journey, Stuebel, 59 

 while warning the reader against certain exaggerations, confesses 

 that he suffered considerably in the ascent of Cotopaxi. 



On February 8, 1873, at seven o'clock in the morning, the trav- 

 ellers started from an altitude of 3615 meters; at two o'clock, they 

 were at a height of 4498 meters. Without great difficulties, they 

 reached the summit of the volcano of Tunguragua (4927 meters), 

 without being tired and "without suffering headache." (P. 273.) 



March 8, ascent of Cotopaxi (5943 meters, temperature 3.5°) 

 starting from the Saint-Elie farm: 



Some of my people had gone on in advance, others had stayed 

 behind. They were tired, had become a little timid, and complained 

 of headache. . . . The arena! has a slope of 35°; it wears down the 

 strength, so that one must summon all his moral energy not to fall 

 just as one is reaching his goal. ... It took us twenty-eight minutes for 

 each hundred meters. (P. 282.) . . . 



We began to descend. ... I found little by little all my men; one 

 had remained 50 meters from the edge of the crater, unable to reach 

 the goal so near at hand; the others 400 meters away, and most of the 

 muleteers much lower. Like me, all were suffering from a very violent 

 headache. Only one felt no effects and was not fatigued; he was carry- 

 ing my barometer, which, however, is pretty heavy. One muleteer did 

 not get above a height of 5,600 meters. I could testify that the vomiting 

 is the effect of the air of these great heights, but not of a passing 

 weakness of the stomach. 



But neither in this ascent nor in the preceding ones, did I see 

 blood issuing from the noses, mouths, and ears of my people. These 

 are circumstances upon which other travellers like to dwell. Certainly 

 it must seem strange that M. Reiss and I mentioned no case of the 

 sort. Now we reached a height of 6,000 meters three times, and 5,000 

 meters several other times, an altitude to which few travellers have 

 ascended. We have always taken with us a certain number of men of 

 different races. . . . The scientific result of these ascents, in which man 

 reaches the summits only by using all his strength, will always be of 

 slight importance. (P. 285.) 



2. Central and North America. 

 Central America. The republics of Central America contain no 

 peaks the elevation of which is comparable to those of the grand 

 Cordillera. So it was with great surprise that I found in the tales 

 of an English navigator of the seventeenth century, Wafer, 60 a very 

 definite mention of mountain sickness. 



Wafer took part in the expedition of Dampier, and was one of 

 the troop who tried to cross the Isthmus of Darien, in 1681. He was 



