TOMSK 117 



to say that it was an altogether iiflpossible feat, 

 and advised me to take snow shoes, which would 

 enable ine to get as far as the last village, Katunda, 

 where he advised me to climb the Saptam Mountain 

 and obtain a view of the Belukha, 40 miles away. 

 He was rather taken aback when I told him I had 

 come determined to climb the highest mountain in 

 Siberia, which at that time was thought to be 

 Belukha (14,800 feet), and that I was resolved to 

 accomplish my object. 



He insisted that it could not be done in winter, 

 and informed me further that on his Belukha expedi- 

 tion he had started on the i8th of June from a 

 carnp at the south side of Belukha and, at two o'clock 

 in the afternoon, had reached the saddle of the moun- 

 tain, from" which he could see the glacier to the 

 north. The temperature being two degrees below 

 zero he was forced to beat a retreat. Nobody had 

 ever attained that height before him, and the only 

 previous estimation of the altitude of the mountain 

 was by Gebler, who, in 1835, looking at the 

 mountain from a distance, had concluded it to be 

 1 1,000 feet above sea-level. From several angular 

 measurements which the professor had made he 

 found, however, that the eastern peak is 14,800 feet, 

 and the western peak 14,500 feet high. The height 

 of the saddle, txieasured with the aid of two aneroids, 

 proved to be 13,300 feet. 



By saying that the journey was impossible the 

 professor sadly damped the ardour of my interpreter, 

 who was quite unwilling to proceed until I talked 

 him over. Knowing that nobody had been there in 

 the winter I concluded that the conditions were 

 merely guessed at. The professor gave me ex- 

 haustive directions as to the best rneans of getting 

 fromi the last village, Katunda, round to the south 

 side of Belukha, a distance of 106 miles. He was of 



