CHAP. XIII. ON THE SUM3IIT OF SARA-URCU. 249 



another as soon as the last one he had fixed became dim. 

 AVhile this scarcely hindered progress, it allowed us to proceed 

 with greater confidence. We rose steadily, crossing many cre- 

 vasses ; and when about 15,000 feet high suddenly emerged 

 from the clouds, and found ourselves face to face with the 

 pointed snow peak. Behind this, a wall of snow ^ led to the 

 true top. 



With out-turned toes we went cautiously along the crisp arete, 

 sharp as a roof-top, and at 1.30 p.m. stood on the true summit 

 of Sara-urcu ; a shattered ridge of gneiss — wonder of wonders, 

 blue sky above ^ — strewn with fragments of quartz, and mica- 

 schist similar to that at Corredor Machai,^ without a trace of 

 vegetation. The usual atmospheric conditions prevailed. Oay- 

 ambe and all the rest was shut out by unfathomable, impenetrable 

 mists, limiting the view to a few hundred yards around the 

 summit, which was surrounded by glaciers on all sides.'' Tem- 

 perature rose and fell as puffs of steamy air came from the 

 great cauldron on the east. The barometer stood at 17 '230 

 inches,^ and thus it was clear that Sara-urcu was not the fifth 



1 This is nearly concealed in the view upon p. 247. 



2 But no sunshine. The sun, I believe, was not seen by us from the 5th to 

 the 20th of April. 



3 In the moraine at the margin of the ice where we first took to the glacier 

 there was much ferruginous quartz, and iron pyrites, the origin perhaps of the 

 rumoured treasures of Sara-urcu. 



The rock in situ at the summit was "a rather fine-grained gneiss, containing 

 quartz, felspar, dark mica, with probably a little chlorite and epidote. . . All the 

 specimens brought from Sara-urcu are metamorphic rocks. They do not, indeed, 

 belong to the earliest types, such as the coarse gneisses of the Hebrides, but still 

 they are greatly altered." — Prof. T. G. Bonney, in Proc. Royal Soc, Nov. 27, 1884. 



^ We could not at any time see the full length of the large glacier on the west 

 of Sara-urcu, or even across it. It appeared to bend round towards the north. The 

 glaciers on the south side of the mountain are small. There was another one, 

 descending towards the north-east, which, so far as could be seen, was more 

 considerable. 



^ On April 17, at 1.45 p.m., the Mercurial Barometer (reduced to 32° Faht.) 

 read 17"230 inches, air temperature 46° Faht. The 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. observations 



2K 



