298 TRAVELS A3I0NGST THE GREAT ANDES, chap. xvt. 



Monsieur advance a little/^ said Jean-Antoine, and I crept np to 

 him and looked over his shoulder. "We shall go there/'' he said, 

 pointing to the declivity under the top of tops (surmounted by a 

 cap of glacier and fringe of pendent icicles) where thickly-falling 

 snow, unable to lodge, was frisking and gyrating, and sliding down 

 in streams. "Carrel," I replied, "we will 7iot go there"; and I 

 went back to Machachi feeling very sore from this second repulse 

 on Illiniza.^ 



As the nature of the work upon the two attempts to ascend 

 this mountain was very similar (being a mixture of steep walking, 

 actual climbing, and step-cutting in ice and snow), I was curious 

 to compare our ascending rates upon these two occasions. I found 

 that on the 9th of February one hundred and eighty-seven minutes 

 were occupied in going from the camp (15,207 feet) to our highest 

 point (17,023 feet). The rate of ascent therefore was 9-7 feet per 

 minute. On the 9th of June, one hundred and fifty minutes Avere 

 taken in ascending 1476 feet, and the rate, consequently, was 

 9 '8 feet per minute. From this it appeared that there was no 

 notable change in our condition, either in the way of amelioration 

 or depreciation, in the four months that had elapsed between 

 Feb. 9 — June 9, during which time we had always been higher 

 than 7000 feet above the level of the sea, and on several occasions 



1 Left camp 6.20 a.m. (temp. 32° Faht., blowing hard from N.E.), and took a 

 general S.W. by S. course towards the highest point. Rocks glazed with ice, and 

 unpleasant to touch. Followed the route taken by the Carrels at the beginning 

 of May, but had they not well marked the route we should have been unable to 

 advance. Seldom saw more than 200 yards in any direction. At 9.30 a.m. after 

 reading barometer and collecting rocks, went back to camp, snow falling most of the 

 way. Returned to Machachi by 7 p.m. 



The Carrels said that their ascent was made in fine weather, and that they took 

 an hour and a half over the last 200 feet. In the interval, the cornice at the 

 summit, they said, had developed prodigiously. On the 9th of June it was composed 

 of an enormous mass of icicles, fifty feet and upwards in length, which broke away 

 from time to time, and fell over their line of ascent. There Avas more risk than I 

 cared to encounter from the high wind, cold, and insecure footing on glazed rocks, 

 raked by these falls from the overhanging cornice. 



