MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, RECENT. 



541 



of the peaks of Pichincha ; explored Cayambe, 

 Sara-urcu, and Cotocachi ; ascended Carihuai- 

 razo, and made a second ascent of Chimborazo, 

 July 3. Till his own attempt was made, Mr. 

 Whymper had never known of any traveler 

 who was attacked with what is called " mount- 

 ain-sickness," or the sense of exhaustion and 

 feverish ness that affects persons who ascend 

 to great heights, who had deliberately contend- 

 ed with it and endeavored to overcome it. On 

 the first day of his ascent of Chimborazo he 

 reached a height of 14,400 feet. On the next 

 day he reached 16,500 feet, and established 

 himself at that height with great difficulty. 

 The mules were driven till they were com- 

 pletely exhausted; and Mr. Whymper and his 

 men, the Italian mountaineers, the Carrells, 

 were prostrated, and became incapable of mak- 

 ing the least exertion, feverish, suffering from 

 intense headaches, and unable to satisfy their 

 desire for air, except by breathing with open 

 mouths. This produced great thirst, which 

 they could not satisfy, partly because they 

 could not get enough water, and partly from 

 the difficulty of swallowing it. They could 

 only sip, and when they undertook to drink 

 and swallow, were forced to stop for breath 

 and gasp. They were obliged to relieve them- 

 selves by frequent spasmodic gulps, such as 

 fishes emit when taken out of the water. Mr. 

 Whymper obtained relief by taking chlorate of 

 potash; and in two or three days the party 

 had become accustomed to the situation, and 

 were able to continue their work. The next 

 camp was pitched at a height of 17,400 feet. 

 The more disagreeable symptoms had gone, 

 but the explorers still found themselves " com- 

 paratively lifeless and feeble, with a strong 

 disposition to sit down when we ought to have 

 been moving." At length, having spent three 

 days in moving their camp, and having passed 

 a night at the highest station, they undertook 

 the ascent to the summit. It was extremely 

 difficult, and had to be made in the face of a 

 high wind and through soft snow, in which 

 the men sank to their necks, but it was accom- 

 plished, the measurement of the height was 

 taken, and the return was safely made to the 

 cam|, all in one day. The most notable phys- 

 ical experience remarked during the ascent 

 was the observation, at a height of between 

 18,400 and 19,500 feet, that the steps of the 

 men got shorter and shorter, until at last the 

 toe of one foot touched the heel of the one be- 

 fore it. Mr. Whymper's residence on Chimbo- 

 razo extended over seventeen days. One night 

 was passed at a height of 13,400 feet, ten 

 nights at a height of 16,500 feet, and six nights 

 at 17,^00 feet. Besides the ascent to the sum- 

 mit, Mr. Whymper also went three times as 

 high as 18,300 feet. When they quitted the 

 mountain, all signs of mountain-sickness had 

 disappeared, and none of it was experienced 

 again till the party arrived at the summit of 

 Cotopaxi. The camp on the latter mountain 

 was placed at about 130 feet below the loftiest 



point, or at a height of 19,470 feet the most 

 elevated position at which any of the party 

 had ever lived. They remained at that eleva- 

 tion for twenty-six consecutive hours, and felt 

 slightly at first the effects of the low pressure, 

 with the same symptoms that had been noticed 

 on Chimborazo ; and the good remedial effects 

 of chlorate of potash were again remarked. 

 The height of Chimborazo was measured on 

 the first ascent, and again six months after- 

 ward. The mean of the two measurements 

 was 20,517 feet. While Mr. Whymper believes 

 that his experiments in enduring an eleva- 

 tion of from 16,000 to 18,000 feet for several 

 hours determines the possibility, if necessary, 

 of mounting several thousand feet higher (Mr. 

 Graham reached nearly 24,000 feet in the Him- 

 alayas), they do not prove that any one could 

 remain for a length of time at such an ele- 

 vation as 24,000 feet ; and that until this is 

 done it is not probable that any one will reach, 

 on foot, the summits of the highest known 

 mountains. 



All the mountains that Mr. Whymper vis- 

 ited in the great chain of the Andes were or 

 had been volcanoes. Some of them, as was 

 judged from the immense accumulations of gla- 

 ciers that now covered them, must have been 

 extinct for several centuries at least, and their 

 rocks bore a close family resemblance to one 

 another. While Tungaragua and Pichincha 

 are frequently classed as active volcanoes, and 

 are indeed not quite extinct, only two volca- 

 noes in Ecuador Sangai and Cotopaxi pos- 

 sess such a degree of life as entitles them to 

 be considered really active. They are seldom 

 at rest; Sangai has been seen by few persons, 

 and Mr. Whymper only saw it, early in the 

 morning, when they were encamped upon 

 Chimborazo at a height of 17,300 feet, though 

 he frequently heard its detonations, also early 

 in the morning. As seen from Chimborazo, 

 Sangai presents the appearance of a regular 

 cone ; and it is a very fine mountain, though 

 less stately and symmetrical than Cotopaxi. It 

 has large snow-beds on the upper part of the 

 peak, which die out before its apex is reached. 

 That is black, and is probably formed of slopes 

 of fine volcanic ash. But little smoke was seen 

 to issue from the cone, but at intervals of from 

 twenty to thirty minutes were observed out- 

 rushes of steam, which shot up jet-like with 

 immense rapidity to a height of 4,000 or 5,000 

 feet above the edge of the crater, and then 

 spread out into a mushroom-like head, which 

 was gradually wafted away by the wind. The 

 eruptions of Cotopaxi were not ordinarily as 

 violent as those of Sangai; but Mr. Whymper 

 witnessed at one time u at a distance of sixty- 

 five miles an eruption of ash which was pro- 

 jected 20,000 feet into the air, and poured out 

 in such volume that at the distance of sixty- 

 five miles it produced the effect of twilight 

 soon after midday. Some of the eruptions of 

 this volcano are attended by great floods, 

 which Mr. Whymper believes are the result of 



