Summary and Discussion 319 



later M. Laverriere, complained of real distress; MM. Turqui and 

 Craveri, M. Virlet d'Aoust declare that they were completely- 

 spared, while the Scientific Commission of Mexico was a little less 

 favored. 



These differences are still more striking on less lofty moun- 

 tains. Riche and Blavier, when attacked by hemoptysis, gave up 

 climbing the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, which von Hum- 

 boldt, Leopold de Buch, Elie de Beaumont, 1 and so many others 

 reached without trouble. On Etna, Count de Forbin and A. de 

 Sayve suffered greatly, whereas Spallanzani was unaffected, and 

 Ferraro claimed to feel better than on the plain. 



The same thing is true of the Alps. In the hundreds of ascents 

 of which its summit was the goal, Mont Blanc has given us the 

 most contradictory results. De Saussure, Beaufoy, Clark and 

 Sherwill, Hawes and Fellowes, Bravais, Martins and Lepileur, 

 attest to violent distress, which they conquered only by prodigies 

 of energy ;on the contrary, Clissold, Piachaud, and Albert Tissan- 

 dier were hardly ill at all. I have heard "Alpinists" of repute state 

 that they had experienced absolutely nothing unusual in this 

 ascent which was formerly so much dreaded. By a striking 

 contrast, Laborde, the brother of M. Lepileur, etc. were ill when 

 they ascended merely to the Grand Saint Bernard (2490 meters) ; 

 Spitaler and his companions relate the most painful details about 

 their ascent to Venediger (3675 meters), when Desor and Gottlieb 

 Studer affirm that they felt absolutely nothing when they ascended 

 the Jungfrau (4170 meters) . In Armenia, Radde lay down exhaus- 

 ted at 3700 meters, whereas daring travellers almost with impunity 

 trod the summits of neighboring mountains of far greater height, 

 Elbrouz (5620 meters), Kasbek (5030 meters), and Ararat (5155 

 meters). More than that, in 1868, Freshfield, Moore, and Tucker 

 made the ascent of Kasbek without any suffering; in 1874, moun- 

 taineers who were no less experienced, Gardiner, Grove, Walker, 

 and Knubel suffered considerably on the same ascent. I shall not 

 mention other examples. We need only refer to what we have said 

 in the preceding chapters to find, among so many observations, 

 examples of inequalities no less great noted in the Pyrenees, the 

 Himalayas, and other mountainous regions. 



These differences are especially striking when they appear in 

 travellers who, in apparently similar conditions of health, hygiene, 

 and previous training, make the same ascent simultaneously. On 

 Pichincha, Ulloa fell fainting; La Condamine felt no difficulty in 

 breathing. While ascending Cotopaxi (5943 meters), one of 

 Steubel's muleteers was so sick that he could not go beyond 5600 



