THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 43 



PERILS OF HIGH ALTITUDE. 



OTHER travelers give similar accounts of the climate of the 

 Puna. Cold winds from the icy Cordilleras, whose summits 

 often rise 8,000 feet above the plateau, sweep over their surface, 

 and during eight months of the year they are daily visited by 

 fearful storms. In a few hours the change of the temperature 

 often amounts to forty or fifty degrees, and the sudden fall is 

 rendered still more disagreeable to the traveler by the biting 

 winds which irritate the hands and face. The lips suffer especially, 

 breaking out into deep rents which heal with difficulty. The 

 eyes also suffer intensely. The rapid changes from a cloudy sky 

 to the brilliancy of a snow-field, glistening in the sun, produces 

 an affection which the natives call the sarumpe. So intolerable 

 is the burning and stinging that even the stoical Indian, when 

 attacked, will fling himself on the ground uttering cries of an- 

 guish and despair. Chronic ophthalmia, suppuration of the eye- 

 lids, and total blindness, are frequent consequences of the 

 sarumpe, against which the traveler over the highlands endeavors 

 to guard himself by wearing green spectacles or a dark veil. 



Tne first symptoms of the veto, or soroche usually appear at an 

 elevation of some 12,000 feet above the level of the sea. They 

 frequently manifest themselves in those who ride, but are greatly 

 aggravated when the traveler ascends on foot. The giddiness 

 and nausea are accompanied with an insupportable sense of lassi- 

 tude, difficulty of breathing, and violent palpitation of the heart, 

 followed by spitting of blood and a bloody diarrhoea. This last 

 affliction is, however, to a considerable extent occasioned by the 

 noxious character of the water. * ' All the water of the Despobla- 

 do," says Squier, "even that which does not display any evidence 

 of foreign or mineral substances in solution, is more or less pur- 

 gative, and often productive of very bad effects. In many parts 

 the thirsty traveler discovers springs as bright and limpid as 

 those of our New England hills ; yet when he dismounts to drink, 

 his muleteer will rush forward in affright, with the warning cry, 

 ' Beware, es agua de Verugal ' The Veruga water is said to pro- 

 duce a terrible disease called by the same name, which manifests 



