ACROSS UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA 
high point of vantage, was really too stupendous for 
words, and not unlike an aurora borealis — red, gold, and 
violet lines radiating from the sun like a gorgeous fan and 
expanding as they approached the summit of the sky 
vault. The descent was more difficult than the ascent, 
owing to the slippery nature of the rock. 
At night, while back in camp, we saw to the west- 
northwest, quite low on the horizon, a brilliant planet — 
possibly Venus. The stars and planets appeared always 
wonderfully bright and extraordinarily large on fine 
nights. Whether it was an optical illusion or not I do 
not know, but a phenomenon, which lasted some hours, 
was seen by all my men, and appeared also when the planet 
was seen through a powerful hand telescope. It seemed 
to discharge powerful intermittent flashes, red and green¬ 
ish, only toward the earth. Those flashes were similar to 
and more luminous than the tail of a small comet, and of 
course much shorter—perhaps four to five times the 
diameter of the planet in their entire length. 
Whether this phenomenon was due to an actual astral 
disturbance, or to light-signalling to the earth or other 
planet, it would be difficult, in fact, impossible to ascer¬ 
tain, with the means I had at my command. Perhaps it 
was only an optical illusion caused by refraction and 
deflected rays of vision, owing to the effect upon the 
atmosphere of the heated rocky mass by our side and under 
us, such as is the case in effects of mirage. I am not 
prepared to express an opinion, and only state what my 
men and I saw, merely suggesting what seem to me the 
most plausible explanations. 
At moments the planet seemed perfectly spherical, 
with a marvellously definite outline, and then the flashes 
were shot out especially to the right, as one looked at the 
planet, and downward slightly at an angle, not quite 
perpendicularly. 
That night, May 25-26, was cold: minimum 58° 
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