MO UNTAIN-SICKNESS. 



fastidious travellers as might require further sleeping 

 accommodation than a cloak in which to roll them- 

 selves, and a floor on which to stretch their limbs, a 

 long adjoining shed was provided. This was divided 

 by thin partitions into four or five small chambers, 

 each capable of holding two beds. Supper was before 

 long provided ; and when we afterwards learned the 

 difficulties of our host's position, our surprise was 

 excited more by the merits than by the defects of the 

 entertainment. 



We had been assured at Lima that, on going up to 

 Chicla, we should be sure to suffer from the soroche, 

 by which name the people of South America denote 

 mountain-sickness, familiar to those who ascend from 

 the coast to the plateau of the Andes. Knowing 

 the height of Chicla to be no more than 12,220 feet 

 above the sea, and never having experienced any of 

 the usual symptoms at greater heights in Europe, I 

 had treated the warning with derision so far as I was 

 personally concerned, though not sure what effect the 

 diminished pressure might have on my companion. 

 I have described elsewhere* my experience at Chicla, 

 which undoubtedly resulted from a mitigated form of 

 mountain-sickness, the symptoms being felt only at 

 night, and passing away by day and in exercise. 

 They were confined to the first two nights, and after 

 the third day, during which we ascended to a height 

 of more than two thousand feet above Chicla, they 

 completely disappeared. 



With regard to mountain-sickness, the only matter 

 for surprise, as it seems to me, is that it is not more 



* In N'ature for September 14, 1882. 



G 



