Experience at High Altitudes. 95 



ber. Hence the unnatural proportion of the trunk, which 

 is plainly out of harmony with the extremities. The ex- 

 panded chest of the mountaineers is evidently the result of 

 larger inspirations to secure the requisite amount of oxy- 

 gen, which is much less in a given space at Quito than on 

 the coast. This is an instance, observes Prichard, of long- 

 continued habit, and the result of external agencies modi- 

 fying the structure of the body, and with it the state of the 

 most important functions of life. We tried the experiment 

 of burning a candle one hour at Guayaquil, and another 

 part of the same candle for the same period at Quito. Tem- 

 perature at Guayaquil, 80° ; at Quito, 62°. The loss at 

 Guayaquil was 140 grains ; at Quito, 114, or 26 grains less 

 at the elevation of 9500 feet. Acoustics will also illustrate 

 the thinness of the air. M. Godin found (1745) that a nine- 

 pounder could not be heard at the distance of 121,537 feet; 

 and that an eight - pounder at Paris, at the distance of 

 102,664 feet, was louder than a nine-pounder at Quito at 

 the distance of 67,240 feet. 



According to Dr. Archibald Smith, the power of mus- 

 cular exertion in a native of the coast is greatly increased 

 by living at the height of 10,000 feet. But it is also as- 

 serted by observing travelers that dogs and bulls lose their 

 ■ combativeness at 12,000 feet, and that hence there can 

 never be a good bull-fight or dog-fight on the Sierras. 

 This is literally true: the dogs seem to partake of the 

 tameness of their masters. Cats do not flourish at all in 

 liigh altitudes; and probably the lion, transplanted from 

 the low jnngle to the table-lands, would lose much of his 

 ferocity. Still, cock-fights seem to prosper ; and the bat- 

 tle of Pichincha was fought on an elevation of nearly 

 11,000 feet. Bolivar and tlie Spaniards, also, fouglit like 

 tigers on the high plain of Junin."^ 



* Gibbon states that the temperature of tlie blood of a young bull in Cuzco 

 was 100°; air, 57°. At the base of tbe Andes a similar experiment resulted 



