APP. HUMBOLDT'S ATTEMPT TO ASCEND CHIMBORAZO. 429 



Chimborazo had been reserved for our last enterprise among the mountains 

 of South America, so that we had gained some experience, and knew how 

 far we could rely on our own powers. It is a peculiar characteristic of all 

 excursions on the Andes, that beyond the line of perpetual snow Europeans 

 are always left without guides just at the point where, from their complete 

 ignorance of the locality, help is most needed. In everything Europeans are 

 left to take the lead. 



'' We could no longer see the summit, even by glimpses, and were there- 

 fore doubly anxious to ascertain how much of the ascent had still to be 

 accomplished. We opened the tube barometer at a spot where the ridge was 

 wide enough to allow two persons to stand side by side in safety. We were 

 only at an elevation of 17,300 feet, therefore scarcely 200 feet higher than 

 we had attained three months previously upon the Antisana. 



"After an hour's cautious climbing, the ridge of rock became less steep, 

 but the mist unfortunately remained as thick as ever. One after another 

 we all began to feel indisposed, and experienced a feeling of nausea accom- 

 panied by giddiness, which was far more distressing than the difficulty of 

 breathing. . . . Blood exuded from the lips and gums, and the eyes became 

 bloodshot. There was nothing particularly alarming to us in these symptoms, 

 with which we had grown familiar by experience. Once when upon the 

 Pichincha, though bleeding did not occur, I was seized with such violent 

 pain in the stomach and overpowering giddiness, that I sank upon the 

 ground in a state of insensibility, in which condition I was found by my 

 companions, from whom I had withdrawn for the sake of making some 

 experiments in electricity. The elevation then was not so great, being less 

 than 13,800 feet. On the Antisana, however, at a height of 17,032 feet, 

 our young travelling companion, Don Carlos Montufar, had suffered severely 

 from bleeding of the lips. All these phenomena vary greatly in different 

 individuals according to age, constitution, tenderness of the skin, and pre- 

 vious exertion of muscular power : yet in the same individual they constitute 

 a kind of gauge for the amount of rarefaction of the atmosphere and for the 

 absolute height that has been attained. 



" The stratum of mist which had hidden every distant object from our 

 view began, notwithstanding the perfect calm, suddenly to dissipate — an 

 effect probably due to the action of electricity. We recognized once more 

 the dome-shaped summit of Chimborazo, now in close proximity. It was a 

 grand and solemn spectacle, and the hope of attaining the object of all our 

 efforts animated us with renewed strength. The ridge of rock, only here 

 and there covered with a thin sprinkling of snow, became somewhat wider ; 

 and we were hurrying forward with assured footsteps, when our further pro- 

 gress was suddenly stopped by a ravine, some 400 feet deep and GO feet 

 wide, which presented an insurmountable barrier to our undertaking. We 

 could see clearly that the ridge on which we stood continued in the same 

 direction on the other side of the ravine ; but I was doubtful whether, after 

 all, it really led to the summit. There was no means of getting round the 

 cleft. On Antisana, after a night of severe frost, Bonpland had been able to 

 travel a considerable distance upon the frozen surface of snow ; but here the 



