Sensations exjjerienced lohile climbing the A'iules. 291 



necessary for us to climb it circuitously, so that at no part of our 

 ascent was the accHvity so steep as in the vicinity of the Mint. 



In those elevated regions the sense of hearing is very different from 

 what is experienced nearer the sea-level, where the atmosphere is so 

 much more dense. In Potosi the human voice, the ringing of bellsi 

 the sound of a trumpet, or musical instruments of any sort, or the 

 discharge of fire-arms, act on the tympanum with much less force than 

 in the lower regions. It has been noted that in Potosi church bells 

 are more apt to crack than on the coast, unless their sides are made 

 thicker than usual. 



No acoustic phenomenon on the higher places of the Cordillera 

 struck me more forcibly than the native music of the Peruvian moun- 

 taineers, as it sounded there, compared with similar notes when rever- 

 berated 13,000 or 14,000 feet lower down. The instruments of those 

 people are chiefly a sort of clarionets, and are played on a flat key, 

 and when a number of them are blown together, and well played, 

 the sounds emitted excite, on a deUcate ear, a sensation peculiarly sad. 

 Perspiration is very rarely seen on people on the Andes of Southern 

 Peru, when at the altitude of 13,000 or 14,000 feet above the level of 

 the ocean. I saw it in two cases only while in Potosi. One case was 

 that of Indians working in the mines there, who, when they appeared 

 at the mouth of a mine, with burdens which they had carried from 

 below, were perspiring in the face; and the other case was that of a 

 party of people who were carrying through the streets of Potosi a 

 colossal image of the Virgin Mary, which was on a heavy platform, in 

 a grand procession on the day of All Saints. 



Evaporation of water proceeds with much rapidity there, the air 

 being generally exceedingly dry, and acting with extreme severity on 

 the cuticle of white people when it is exposed without any precaution. 

 The face may in some degree be protected by its being covered when 

 travelling with a white cloth, leaving only one eye exposed to the solar 

 rays ; but, in spite of all precautions, blood burst repeatedly from my 

 lijis. 



The hands become rough and scalj'^, and the fingers, more especially 

 at the articulations, are both swollen and scaly, exhibiting what the 

 Indians there call " chuno,^'' which is a word in the Quichua language 

 signifying anything wrinkled or shrivelled and tanned with cold. 



Temporary blindness is in some cases a result of exposure to the 

 sun's rays, when they arc reflected from a mass of ice or snow, in that 

 tenuous atmosphere. The Indians call such loss of vision " umpe ;" 

 and occasionally it causes permanent blindness, the retina or optic 

 nerve seeming to be paralyzed. 



2 I' 



