April 14, 1892] 



NATURE 



561 



TRAVELS AMONG THE GREAT ANDES OF 

 THE EQUATOR} 



MR. WHYMPER'S expedition to the Great Andes of 

 Ecuador, occupied him from December 1879 to 

 July 1880. The results were briefly indicated in com- 

 munications to the Royal Geographical Society and the 

 Alpine Club, but the full description has been long in 

 coming. Horace recommended giving literary work 

 nine years to ripen : Mr. Whymper has more than 

 followed his advice. Possibly the delay may be a mis- 

 take from a commercial point of view, but it is a gain to 

 the readers when a book of travel in an interesting region 

 is not written in a hurry and rushed through the press, 

 but is rendered complete in every detail with an almost 

 loving care. 



The principal object of Mr. Whymper's journey was to 

 observe the effect of greatly diminished atmospheric pres- 

 sure on the vital powers. There was already very strong 

 cumulative evidence that, at elevations of rather more than 

 14,000 feet above the sea, serious inconveniences were 

 often felt, such as difficulty of breathing, acute headache, a 

 sense of extreme prostration, and sometimes haemorrhage. 

 Some of the symptoms, some of the suffering on record, 



forbade travel in the very highest region of the Andes, 

 so that ultimately the mountains of Ecuador were selected 

 as the most lofty accessible district. 



Chimborazo being the culminating peak of this group, 

 the ascent of this was the main object of Mr. Whymper's 

 expedition. He determined to encamp on its slopes at 

 gradually increasing heights, with the aim of ultimately 

 reaching the summit. " But as there was no certaintv that 

 this could be done, and a possibility, at least, that the 

 results of the investigation might be of a negative cha- 

 racter, various other objects were kept in view ; chief 

 among them being the determination of the altitudes and 

 relative positions of the principal mountains of Ecuador, 

 the comparison of boiling-point observations and of 

 aneroids with the mercurial barometer, and the collection 

 of specimens, botanical, zoological, and geological, at 

 great heights." Mr. Whymper was accompanied by two 

 Alpine guides — one being the well-known Jean-Antoine 

 Carrel, of Val Tournanche, whose sudden death on the 

 Matterhorn in 1890 was so generally regretted among 

 mountaineers ; the other, his cousin Louis. Of their 

 services and willing help at all times, he speaks in the 

 highest terms. Chimborazo had been attempted without 

 success by Humboldt and by Boussingault ; Cotopaxi 



Flo. i. — Crossing the Great, Arenal. 



might doubtless be attributed to other causes ; still the 

 connection between " mountain-sickness " and diminished 

 air-pressure appeared to be indubitable. The problem 

 had already been investigated, so far as could be done in 

 the laboratory, by M. Paul Bert, and an account of his 

 experiments forms an appendix to Mr. Whymper's book. 

 Balloon ascents also had been made, one with disastrous 

 results ; for of three aeronauts who had remained for 

 some time at a height of from 26,000 to 28,000 feet, two 

 had died, and the other had narrowly escaped with his 

 life. 



But a balloon ascent is an unfairly severe test, since 

 the atmospheric pressure is so rapidly diminished ; so 

 Mr. Whymper determined to encamp for some time at 

 an elevation at which others had begun to suffer, and 

 from that level to " carry exploration and research up to 

 the highest possible limits." The Himalayas were at 

 first selected as the place for these investigations, but, 

 before he could start, the attempt to construct a " scien- 

 tific frontier" aroused so many jealousies that, in all 

 probability, the experiments and the life of the operator 

 would have been simultaneously cut short. War also 



' "Travels among the Great Andes of the Equator." By Edward 

 Whymper. With Maps and Illustrations. (London : John Murray, Albe- 

 marle Street, 1892.) 



NO. I 172, VOL. 45] 



had been ascended, but very few of the other high peaks 

 in Ecuador, though many measurements of altitudes had 

 been made by Drs. Reiss and Stiibel in 1871-73, who 

 kindly placed their results at Mr. Whymper's disposal. 



Mr. Whymper spent 212 days in the upland or moun- 

 tain district of Ecuador. During 204 nights of this 

 period the barometer never gave a reading higher than 

 225 1 inches, or the observers were over 8000 feet above 

 sea-level; during 90 of these it ranged from 2172 to 

 2i'ii inches (9000 to 10,000 feet); during 36 it was 18 

 inches or less (above 14,000 feet) ; during 19 it stood 

 between 16 and 17 inches (15,801 to 17,285 feet) ; and on 

 one night the reading was 1475 inches, corresponding 

 with a height of 19,500 feet. He landed at Guayaquil on 

 December 9, and reached Guaranda (nearly 9000 feet 

 above the sea) after crossing the Pacific range of the 

 Andes, of which Chimborazo is the culminating point, 

 by a pass about 10,400 feet above the sea. In preliminary 

 explorations on that mountain Mr. Whymper ascended 

 to a height of about 12,900 feet, and his guides, on 

 another occasion, to about 16,500; and his party left 

 Guaranda to attempt the ascent on December 26. They 

 passed the first night at a height of 14.375 feet, on 

 the great sandy plain known as the Arenal, with- 

 out feeling the slightest inconvenience 



