The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-06-16

and devotes such sedulous atten-
Z ton that the map which accompanies
his great work. Climbing in the
HiInalayas.' cost him no less than
four months hard and continuous
work.
But The higher mathematics failed
to occupy Mr.. COnway's interests per-
manently; and as we sat in his house
at No. y Clanricade Gardens. Bays
water, the subject about which he
first talked to me was the history Of
art. The hall and staircase and
drawing room have all the character
iStics of an art museum-a museum
quite as interesting in its way as
some of the museums mentioned in
the guide books. The mountains have
contributed comparatively little to
its embellishments.
A Mountain Climber From sixteen
AS my eye wandered round the
large luxurious d-rawing-room and re-
called the palms and h fountain on
the staircase, the wonder crossed NY
mind that a man who had built his
soul a pleasure house so IOrdly should
ever be willing to leave it For the
wilds-to risk his neck on sullen pre-
cipices and sleep out in a wildly tent
upon a horrid glacier. Yet, when one
looked at Mr.. Conway and marked
what of man he was, 1t was
impossible t. retain that wonder. Of
moderate height, with sturdy we'll
knit frame, with muscles that de-
manded vigorous exercise FOR their
we'll being, he clearly could not be
contented with the cOntemplative life
alone. So that 1 could easily imagine
Mr.. Conway in nailed boots and
knickerbockers, and Norfolk jacket,
threading the maZeS of an i~ce-fall,
though 1 only saw him in the garb
of polished civilization, surrounded by
pictures and curios and ~bric-a-brac.
Il climbed the Breit-horn," Mr.. Con-
!. way said, when 1 was 16, and I have
gone on climbing ever since"
Nor would he admit that climbing
was a dangerous amusement.
"'Of course" he said, there are
dangerous climbs, but you go 10 them
knowing what they are. If yOu de-
liberately climb up a slope down
which stones or aValanches fall, as on
the Monte Rosa side OF Macuquaga,
YOU naturally take your chance of
being swept away. But foolhardiness
avoided and h proper precautions
taken, mountaineering is not danger
Gus. I have been climbing for more
than twenty years n 1 have never
had an accident. The nearest ap-
proach to one was when I was sky
ldIkllS cJl4 lCAi OlL IOCh-
How high was the rock?' I natur-
ally asked.
"Oh, about as high as the arch at
Hyde Park corner. I was bruised a
bit. of course, and laid up for a few
days, but it was only a triie. It was
extraordinary luck"
A mar who considers that it is only
a trife to fall off a rock as high as
the Arch at Hyde Park Corner has
-1-Ens-l-- 80 81 1oocf Of fhn nr1nlfEnn
tions of a successful m-ountaineer.
Mr.. Conway has been not only a sue
c~essful, but also a useful mountain
Ger.
h is Yet Possible in Mountain
Climbing.
The rest of our talk was about the
famous Himalayan expeditions; and I
asked Mr.. Conway his opinion as to
the possibilities of mountain climb
Ing.
1--WE know of course" he answered,
that a man may go as high as the
highest mountain top in a balloon.
and come down uncomfortable but
alive. But the3 the man in the bal
loon is sitting still. whereas the man
on the mountain has TO work. That
is to say, lie has to waste tissue and
the question is whether he @an man.
age to get his tissues sufficiently re-
paired. For the repair of he tissues
the blood has to be constantly oxydis-
ed by inhalation; and, at these alti-
tudes the supply of oxygen is limited,
and the power of absorbing oxygen is
Iesseneo The consequence is that,
when he gets above a certain height,
the climber tends to be poisoned
much as the prisoners in The black
hole at Calcutta were poisoned, or as
asay of us begin TO be poisoned when
We sit in oyer-crowded, ove--neated