Mountain Journeys 117 



complete exhaustion .... In fact, as he told me, he has no notion 

 of the way in which he overcame the difficulties and reached the 

 summit; he was in an inert stupor the whole time. (P. 349.) 



M. Kennedy, 157 one of the most daring and one of the first men 

 to make ascents in the Alps, was himself attacked in one of his 

 expeditions, not the first, far from it, nor the most difficult, nor 

 the highest; he was climbing the Dent-Blanche (4365 meters) and 

 was still far. from the summit: 



An extraordinary weight seemed to be loaded on me, hampering 

 my movements. My legs, although I did not feel fatigued, refused to 

 act with their usual vigor, and I was left far behind; but the pure and 

 rarified air which blew over us and the sight of the peak of the Dent- 

 Blanche began to revive me. (P. 36.) 



In certain accounts, it is only incidentally, as if buried in a 

 sentence, that we see the symptoms of mountain sickness 

 appearing: 



Guides and travellers were exhausted, stopping often for breath 15S 

 .... (P. 107.) 



In other cases they are more clearly indicated, even described. 



The snow was hard, it was necessary to cut steps, and more 159 

 than once the travellers had to stop to get their breath. (P. 166.) 



In 1864, Craufurd Grove 160 ascended to Studer-joch (3260 

 meters) ; too great speed in walking made travellers and guides ill: 



Perru, who was afraid of avalanches, made us walk at a pace 

 unusual in the Alps, which quickly produced signs of distress in the 

 whole group; .... but the robust son of Zermatt gave no heed, and 

 slackened his pace only when the outraged laws of respiration claimed 

 their rights and compelled him to stop completely to get his breath . . . 

 We reached the summit; but our joy was greatly lessened by the fact 

 that we were almost all ill. Some of us who had relaxed beside 

 Italian lakes from the hard work of the mountaineer had eaten figs 

 and grapes in excess. The result of this diet, while we were walking 

 on the ice, was too painful to be described. The guides were in a 

 hardly less pitiful condition; they had drunk Grimsel brandy the night 

 before. (P. 368.) 



The account of the ascent of Monte Rosa by Visconti,"' 1 in 

 August, 1864, is still clearer and more interesting: 



The rarefaction of the air inconvenienced us greatly, either 

 because of the difficulty in breathing or because of the decrease of 

 atmosphere pressure on the blood-vessels. For these reasons and 

 because of the steepness of the grades, our legs and lungs tired 

 quickly; but a few moments of rest restored their strength rapidly . . . 



