MOUNTAIN SICKNESS 13 



I have always been sensitive to the action of diminished 

 pressure, which produces what is called " mountain 

 sickness " in many people. Many years ago I climbed 

 by the glacier-pass known as the Weissthor from 

 Macugnaga to the Riffel Alp, with a stylographic pen in 

 my pocket. The reservoir of the pen contained a little air, 

 which expanded as the atmospheric pressure diminished, 

 and at 10,000 ft. I found most of the ink emptied into 

 my pocket. Probably one cause of the discomfort called 

 " mountain sickness " arises from a similar expansion of 

 gas contained in the digestive canal, and in the cavities 

 connected with the ear and nose. The more suddenly 

 the change of pressure is effected, the more noticeable is 

 the discomfort. But I was rather pleased than otherwise 

 to note, as I sat in the comfortable railway carriage, that 

 when we passed 8000 ft. in elevation the old familiar 

 giddiness, and tendency to sigh and gasp, came upon me 

 as of yore, as I gathered was the experience of some of 

 my fellow-passengers : and when we were returning, and 

 had descended half-way to Lauterbriinnen, I enjoyed the 

 sense of restored ease in breathing which I well remember 

 when the whole experience was complicated by the fatigue 

 of a long climb. A white-haired American lady was in 

 the train with me ascending to the Eismeer. " I have 

 longed all my life," she said, " to see a glaysher to touch 

 it and walk on it and now I am going to do it at last. 

 I and my daughter here have come right away from 

 America to go on these cars to the glaysher." When we 

 were descending, I asked the old lady if she had been 

 pleased. " I can hardly speak of it rightly," she said. 

 " It seems to me as though I have been standing up 

 there on God's own throne." I do not sympathise with 

 the Alpine monopolist who would grudge that dear old 

 lady, and others like her, the little train and tramway by 

 which alone such people can penetrate to those soul-stirring 



