122 Historical 



almost always attacks the small number of persons whom a natural or 

 accidental tendency makes subject to it, at the height of 2600 to 3000 

 meters, immediately above the timber line. (P. 266.) 



Cordier and his guide continued on the way and reached the 

 summit without seeming to have experienced any unpleasant 

 symptoms; at least the account gives no signs of any. 



A traveller of whom we have already spoken, who made 

 numerous ascents, particularly in the Pyrenees, Parrot, 173 gave 

 special attention to the variations in his pulse at different heights. 

 I reproduce his important observations: 



My pulse rate on the summit of Mont Perdu was 110, and a few 

 days before, in my first attempt to climb this mountain, it was 100. 

 Upon the Maladetta, it was 103, and some days before, at Bagneres de 

 Luchon (628 meters), it was only 70. These variations are in a regular 

 ratio with those of the height; they agree with the observations which 

 I have already made on my pulse on different mountains. So my 

 pulse rate, which is 70 at sea level, rises to 75 at a height of 1000 

 meters, 82 at 1500 meters, 90 at 2000 meters, 95 at 2500 meters, 100 

 at 3000 meters, 105 at 3500 meters, 110 at 4000 meters. (P. 216.) 



After him, I have hardly anything else to quote but the account 

 of M. de Franqueville, 174 who was the first to ascend the highest 

 peak of the Pyrenees, the peak of Nethou (3400 meters) . 



The ascent took place July 18 and 19, 1842. The travellers 

 reached the glacier of Nethou, very near the goal of their ascent: 



We were all expecting to feel some of the symptoms due to the 

 rarefaction of the air, which generally add still more to the difficulties 

 of great ascents. However this did not occur. But after making a few 

 steps on the glacier, M. de Tchihatcheff was attacked by nausea so 

 violent that he was forced to stop from time to time and lie down on 

 the snow. A few moments of rest revived him completely, and per- 

 mitted him to go on. As for the rest of us, neither the guides nor I 

 felt anything special. We did not even have to struggle against this 

 lassitude, this distress which are so painful and which so often 

 accompany, they say, the presence of man in these lofty regions which 

 were not made for him. 



Here ends all related to our subject that we have been able to 

 find in the narratives of mountaineers in the Pyrenees. A strange 

 document shows us that nothing important ever attracted their 

 attention. Count Russell-Killough, who knows the Pyrenees so 

 marvellously, has published a collection of ascents of the peak of 

 Nethou, from the one which we have just mentioned up to 1868. 

 In this interval, there were about two hundred, including nearly a 

 thousand persons, twenty-two of whom were ladies. 



