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Lofty as are these equatorial colossi, 

 still greater peaks of undetermined height 

 were known to exist further south, and 

 it was to these the alpinists from different 

 lands now began to turn their steps. 

 Here the names of E. A. Fitzgerald and 

 Sir Martin Conway acquired new dis- 

 tinction. In 1897 the former assaulted 

 Aconcagua (23,080), the generally con- 

 ceded culmination of the system. Though 

 personally compelled by sickness to desist 

 from each of his efforts to reach the sum- 

 mit, nevertheless members of his party, 

 Mr S. Vines and the guide Zurbriggen, 

 accomplished the ascent. Later Fitzger- 

 ald, with companions, climbed Tupungato 

 (21,550). In 1898 Conway captured 

 Illimani (21,192) and made a speedy sec- 

 ond ascent of Aconcagua, but was turned 

 back on Illampu (Sorata) when within, 

 as he estimated, some 250 feet of the 

 summit. Doubtful of the correctness of 

 the accepted measurement of this peak 

 (24,812 feet, according to the Bolivian 

 survey), even though his own barometric 

 determination plus his estimate came out 

 but a few hundred feet less, he made a 

 careful trigonometric survey, which re- 

 sulted in lowering the peak to 21,700 feet ! 



Meanwhile a woman of our own nation 

 was making her practice climbs in the 

 Swiss and Tyrolese Alps and in Mexico, 

 in preparation for bold attempts upon 

 these much-talked-of giants of the Andes. 

 First in 1903, accompanied by two Swiss 

 guides and a scientific assistant, she at- 

 tacked Mount Sorata, but was compelled 

 to retire discomfited. Returning the fol- 

 lowing year, this time without guides, 

 and hence compelled to take as her com- 

 panion a gentleman of quite limited alpine 

 experience found on the spot, she pluck- 

 ily went forward and from a camp at 

 18,100 feet attained an elevation esti- 

 mated at "approximately 20,500 feet, 

 probably within 600 or 800 feet of the 

 summit." Becoming persuaded that 

 Mount Huascaran (Huascan), in Peru, 

 was actually the highest peak of the 

 Andes, to attempt this she returned to 

 South America in 1906, again without 

 guides and agfain to meet with failure. 

 Undaunted still, and able this time to as- 



sociate in her enterprise the aid that 

 even the most expert alpinists regard as 

 indispensable, she made another attempt 

 in 1908, in which her long and persever- 

 ing efforts were crowned with success. 

 It is to be regretted that she secured no 

 hypsometric reading at the summit of 

 Huascaran, which is not generally recog- 

 nized as holding so prominent a place as 

 Miss Peck accords to it — "estimated 

 23,800-24,000 feet and perhaps higher." 

 Instructed by Sir Martin Conway's test 

 of Illampu, all mountain lovers will await 

 with interest a scientific determination of 

 the altitude of this grand peak, mean- 

 while according Miss Peck a very high 

 place among those who have attained the 

 loftiest altitudes and the first prize for 

 persistence and energy. 



ALASKA 



Allusion has already been made to the 

 conquest of Mount Saint Elias by the 

 Duke of the Abruzzi, which occurred in 

 1897 — tne same year with the first ascent 

 of Aconcagua. Between 1886 and 189 1 

 four serious attempts had already been 

 made to scale this peak, with varying de- 

 grees of insuccess. Its remoteness from 

 civilization in a sub-arctic waste, its 

 whole altitude practically above snow- 

 line, made it an inviting substitute for an 

 Himalayan goal when the breaking out 

 of the plague in India turned the mind of 

 the young explorer from a proposed at- 

 tempt in that section. Less as an ascent 

 difficult per se than as a most skillfully 

 arranged campaign, and as a training 

 school for its leader in preparation for 

 the arctic expedition which shortly was 

 to win for Italy the temporary record for 

 "Farthest North," does this ascent take 

 a place among the most important. The 

 story is told so fully by Doctor De Fil- 

 ippi in his interesting narrative* that it is 

 unnecessary even to outline it here. We 

 cannot, however, forbear to remark upon 

 the graceful recognition accorded to the 

 remarkable work of Professor I. C. Rus- 

 sell, of the Lmiversity of Michigan, who 

 in 1890, and again in 1891, though prac- 



*The Ascent of Mount Saint Elias. West- 

 minster, A. Constable & Co., 1900. 



