Sensations experienced while climbing the Andes. 289 



9,000 feet above the sea, and thirty-six miles from Tacna. This gorge 

 or pass across the Cordillera begins at a spot called San Francisco, which 

 is 2,000 feet above the ocean. Within an hoiir after our arrival at 

 Palca, and without having had food or drink since moi-ning, I climbed 

 the mountain path a short distance, when I was attacked by a fit of the 

 soroche, of which I had been warned before leaving the coast. The at- 

 tack was dangerously severe, there being acute headache and violent 

 throbbing of the temporal arteries, also vomiting excessively severe, — in 

 fine, all the symptoms of aggravated sea-sickness. 



Men, horses, and mules occasionally perish under soroche while on the 

 Andes ; and yet some persons who never were 3,000 feet above the level 

 of the ocean, or if so, have only been sitting in a balloon in a state of 

 muscular quiescence, have i-idiculed statements of facts, such as those 

 here noted. 



Travellers in such lofty regions are not all affected with equal sever- 

 ity, and some scarcely in any degree — also, there is more predisposition 

 to be affected by soroche in some horses and mules than in others ; but 

 many mules perish in those mountainous regions from the ignorance or 

 cruelty of the drivers, when mules are not allowed suiScient time to draw 

 breath, while cUmbing certain steep localities. Horses are rarely used on 

 the higher pinnacles of the Andes in Bolivia or Peru. Judging from our 

 own observation, the best preventive against fatal effects, when suffering 

 under difficult respiration, is to let the animal rest, and remain motion- 

 less a few minutes; though it is an opinion among Peruvian muleteers 

 that holding a bit of garlic to the nostril of a horse or mule, while the 

 animal is halting, removes the malady ; but as I have seen in numerous 

 cases, it is the state of quiescence in the man, and in the mule, which pre- 

 vents or removes an attack, by restoring in some degree the balance of 

 circulation in the organs of respiration. 



Next day, when we were on the crest of the Cordillera, at the height 

 of more than 15,000 feet above the ocean, I became so drowsy as to fall 

 asleep on the mule while riding ; but there was not vomiting : the circu- 

 lation of the blood was more rapid than natural, and the temporal 

 arteries throbbed strongly. Native muleteers and others hold the 

 opinion, that at those localities where the soroche is most frequently 

 seen in operation, there are unseen metallic veins, or influences, which 

 affect both mules and men ; but it may be noted that such places 

 are very steep, and the ascent exceedingly difficult. I will here notice 

 only two localities out of many which might be mentioned, where I ex- 

 perienced the phenomenon of diflicult and very painful respiration while 

 climbing them on foot. The one is the mountain in the eastern or in- 

 ternal Andes, called " Tolopalka " by the Indian mountaineers; but bet- 



