322 Historical 



The opposite seems to be true in the narratives of travellers 

 in central Asia. Fraser complains bitterly of his coolies. Accord- 

 ing to Dr. Gerard (page 137), the inhabitants of Koonawur, born 

 on the lofty plateaux, are as sick as the travellers. Johnston relates 

 that whereas the natives who accompanied him on the peak of 

 Tazigand breathed with the greatest difficulty, he and his English 

 companions felt no ill effects (page 139) . Oliver Cheetam, Godwin 

 Austen, and Henderson tell similar experiences. To the Schlagin- 

 tweit brothers, the difference in races seems of little importance. 

 Drew saw a native of Punjab sick at 11,000 feet (3300 meters). 

 So Indians, even those born in mountainous regions, seem at least 

 as sensitive as Europeans to the effects of ascents. 



The same is true in Africa in the ascents of the Kamarun 

 Mountains and Kilimandjaro; likewise in Hawaii on Mauna Loa, 

 the natives were attacked by mountain sickness before the 

 European travellers, and more severely than they. 



But it should be stated at once that the natives and the Euro- 

 peans were not, during these journeys, in identical conditions, 

 either of clothing, or food, or exertion. 



If natives belonging to races which seem, according to the 

 expression of Dr. Gerard, "born to live and die in inaccessible 

 regions", are attacked by mountain sickness, the same thing should 

 be true, for an even stronger reason, of the people of European 

 races living in lofty places. All the accounts of Chapter I show, in 

 fact, that the porters and the guides become ill as quickly and as 

 seriously as the travellers, when the latter have already become 

 used to exercise in the mountains. Sometimes even, the former 

 become ill first; the account of Dolomieu (page 71) is quite charac- 

 teristic. The slight advantage which they show, on the average, 

 is rather quickly acquired by people of the plains whom wander- 

 lust urges into the mountains. 



Another proof, and that not the least striking, of the slight 

 importance of acclimatization in lofty places is drawn from the 

 intensity with which the disease attacks domestic animals. All 

 the accounts of travellers in the Andes and the Himalayas are 

 rich in melancholy details of the pitiful condition of the mules or 

 the horses which are carrying burdens; the latter often die; camels 

 are no better off; the mules of de Saussure uttered plaintive cries 

 on the glacier of Saint-Theodule; the wild cattle themselves, when 

 they are hunted, often vomit blood, von Humboldt says, and we 

 have seen what a sorry picture they made sometimes, according 

 to de Castelnau, in bull fights. Dogs are also severely attacked, 

 and have difficulty in running. Cats particularly seem to possess 



