The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-10-11
THE TWO HIGHEST SUBMITS IN
THE WORLD.

HE HOhhUS
A First Glimpse of a Mighty and Mys-
FERROUS Range-Most Remarkable
Mountain Feat on Record.
Mr.. Clements Markham must forgive
us for borrowing his admirable title, but
no other words can so fifty describe that
part of the earth which was reached last
year by Mr.. w. w. Graham, the Hima-
layan traveller, who described his re-
markable journey in paper read before
the Geographical Society last week.
Mr.. Graham made several extraordi-
nary ascents, and in the greatest of these
reached u point higher by seventeen
hundred feet than had ever before been
attained on the earth's surface. He
showed that men, or at all events some
men, can breath and climb with perfect
ease at height at which it has been
generally thought that respiration must
be impeded and much oppression felt;
and, standing near the threshold of that
unexplored and previously unap-
preached region which is certainly the
mightiest mountain district on our globe,
he@tescribed two SUBMITS higher than
that which has hitherto been supposed
to be the highest peak in the world, but
must now, to use the graceful American
expression which he has so aptly quoted,
take a back seat.
To explain the significance of what he
did it is necessary to state some facts
well established, but not popularity
known, respecting Himalayan geogra-
ply. The great range running north
west and southeast, in which rise Mount
Everest, Kangchinianga and Dhaolagiri,
is not as might naturally be supposed,
the true divide of that part of the CONT
nent. In places rivers cut completely
through it, flowing from some range be-
hind which must constitute the true
watershed. Now it is scarcely possible
to doubt that this inner range is in the
main higher than what we know as the
Himalayas; and, although it may not be
absolutely certain, it is, to say the least,
extremely probable that some of its
peaks are higher than the loftiest of the
outer chain. That higher peaks than
any yet measured might be found north
of Mount Everest occurred some time
ago to General Thuiller, and there have
been other surmises as to their existence,
and even vague statements of wonderful
SUBMITS having been seen; but until Mr..
Graham's expedition nothing was
known respecting these supreme noun
tains that could. in the widest sense of
the word, be called definite. That tray
eler, as need hardly be said, made no
attempt to reach the unknown range;
and indeed, to do SO with Napal and
Thibet closed, as they are now, would
be almost impossible. His object was
to explore and ascend some of the
higher Himalayas, and it was in the
course of his exploration that he drew
near to the threshold of the unknown
region, and at a great height saw a
second and higher range with two sum-
mits, to all seeming loftier than Mount
Everest. How long it may be before
any traveller reaches even the foot of
one of them it is impossible to say; but
in getting well within sight of them Mr..
Graham has done more than any one
has ever done before, and it would be
difficult to find in modern travel an in
cident more striking than this first
glimpse of the heart of the mighty and
mysterious range.
The ascent of Kabru, from which he
saw these submits, was the last which
he made in the Himalayas, and was in
deed the eliminating feat of his expedi-
ton. The previous part of it, however,
had been full of interest, and the tray
eler certainly showed great enterprise
and courage, and very remarkable pow-
ers of endurance. His first ascent was
made in Sikkim, where, starting from
the summit of the Kangla Pass, leading
into Napal, he made this first attack on
the Himalayas, ascending a peak which
he estimated as being over twenty thou
sand feet high. After this he reached
the great glacier which flows east from
Kangchinjania, and then he returned to
lowerground. His next exploit was in Ku-
moan, whittier he went with the famous
Grindelwald mountaineer, Herr Emil
Boss, and the excellent guide, Ulrich
Kaufman, to aid him. In his first at
tempt in this direction he failed, but
failed magnificently, as on Dunagiri,
%, 1856 feet high, he reached an eleva-
ton of quite 22,700 feet before pitiless
storm made further progress impossible.
Such height had never been attained
on the earth's surface before, and, ac-
cording to commonly accepted beliefs,
the climbers should have suffered great
ly from the rarity of the air. 1t APP
pears, however, that they did not suffer
at all. Mr.. Graham says that head
aches, nausea, bleeding at the nose and
temporary loss of sight and hearing
were conspicuous or " by their absence,
and that the only organ perceptibly af-
fected was the heart, of which the beat
ing became quite audible. This state
ment, to which we have before drawn
attention, excited considerable surprise
at the Royal Geographical Society when
he read his paper there; but there can
be no doubt as to its accuracy, and pos