INTRODUCTION. xi 



any higher ; two of our people who had got sick had remained 

 behind, and we all the rest felt exceedingly tired and exhausted, as 

 'we certainly never were in our life. . . . We had got much used 

 to the influence of height, especially during our Thibetan journey, 

 but up there not one escaped unhurt; we all felt headache/^ 



To attain results which might be of a more or less conclusive 

 character, it appeared to me that it would be necessary to eliminate 

 the complications arising from fatigue, privations, cold, and insuffi- 

 ciency or unsuitability of food ; that the persons concerned should 

 have been previously accustomed to mountain work ; that the 

 heights to be dealt with ought to be in excess of those at which it 

 had been generally admitted serious inconveniences had occurred ; 

 and that preparations should be made for a prolonged sojourn at 

 such elevations. 



The Himalayas and their allied ranges offered the best field for 

 research, and in 1874 I projected a scheme which would have 

 taken me in the first instances on to the very ground where others 

 had been placed hors de combat, and from these positions I proposed 

 to carry exploration and research up to the highest attainable 

 limits. But, just at the time when it was possible to start, our 

 rulers entered upon the construction of a ' scientific frontier ' for 

 India, and rendered that region unsuitable for scientific investiga- 

 tions. I was recommended by experienced Anglo-Indians to defer 

 my visit, and I followed their advice. Equally debarred, by the 

 unhappy dissensions between Chili, Peru, and Bolivia, from travel 

 amongst the highest of the Andes, I turned to the Eepublic of 

 Ecuador, the most lofty remaining country which was accessible. 



As the main object of the journey was to observe the effects of 

 low pressure, and to attain the greatest possible height in order to 

 experience it, Chimborazo naturally claimed the first attention, on 

 account of its absolute elevation above the sea ; ^ and I proposed to 



^ Its height, according to Humboldt, is 21,425 feet. See Recueil cfobservatioris 

 astronomiques, (^operations trigonometriq^tes, et de mesures tarometriques, par Alex- 

 andre de Humboldt, Paris, 1810, vol. i, p. Ixxiii (in trod.). 



