The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-23

gan is distinctly on British territory,
but the valuation of its altitude is de-
termlned from measurements of Pro-
lessor Israel c. Russell. calculated in
the bureaus of the United States coast
survey. The attack on Mt. st. Elias.
II is expected will be made from the
side of the Malaspina glacier, to which
a seemingly most accessible face is
turned. This itself has much the form
of the famous Jungfrau of Switzerland.
on which the upper SHOWS have a
thickness of 200 to 300 feet except where
sharp rock ridges Drotrude themselves
to daylight; what the thickness of the
snow mantle on st. Elias may be, only
the present researches can determine
Mr. Bryant will be accompanie by Mr..
Samuel ]. Entriken (who was associ-
ated with the Heilprin- Peary relief ex-
petition of 1892, and subsequently,
1S93-94, with Mr.. Peary), and a special
topographer from the United States
service at Washington; three or four
additional aids Will be taken up on the
California side, one of whom served as
special guide to the Russell party in
1898
The elevation of Mt. st. Elias, as re-
Gently determined by Professor Israel
G. Russell. is about Is. 100 feet, or nearly
1,500 feet lower than was assumed from
the earlier measurements made by the
officers of the United States coast sur
vey. The mountain, consequently,
lacks between three-quarters of a mile
and mile of the altitude of Aeon
cagua and the Pioneer peak But it
has a factor in its construction which
has . greater vertical extension than
is known on any other mountain. ex-
tending continuously from about the
level of 1000 feet to the summit or
through an interval of 5000 feet. 1t is
this condition which Will tax the best
nf hn
out a resource which perhaps no
previous mountain exploration has
done.
ENDURANCE IN A RARIFIED AT
MOSPHERE.
The successful accomplishment of
high mountains of the class of Aeon
caguae the Pioneer peak or St. Elias is
not a. matter that is associated with
special danger from rarified atmos-
phere. Experience has plainly demon
Strated that much more rarified
atmosphere than is TO be found on any
of the mountain SUBMITS of the globe
can be safely endured by almost any
healthy heart and pair of lungs, but it
is the difficulty or exhaustion that is
bound in with muscular exercise under /
these special conditions of reduced at /
mosphere Cor OXYGEN which makes /
result doubtful, or even forces perma- !
nent injury to those attempting the /
effort. Mountain sickness in one form 1
or another, and the peculiar blood !
transpirations from nose, ears and eyes /
are certainly existent conditions with /
some. but seemingly they are of much |
less frequent experience than they were
in the early days of mountain work
Whymper Clinton Dent and other AL
pinists are probably justified in their
contention that no mountain hight is
too high for mans ultimate powers Of
endurance, and that with proper effort
the Hottest of them viii be conquered
like the less lofty.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF A NOUN
TAIN.
Nothing SO convincingly demon
strates for successful mountain worb
the need of that particular knowledge
of a mountain which is held by and is
seemingly Unborn with the class of men
known as the Swiss guides than just
these very successes attained by them
in his remarkably rapid as
cents of the equatorial Andes-Chim-
borazo, Copopaxi, etc.-had the services
Of the famous Al3ine guide, jean j
Antoine Carrel; Hans Meyer. in his
ascent Of Kilima' niaro relied upon the
resources of Purtscheller; Conway took
with him TO the Hima- ;
ayas, and now Fitzgerald is essaying
the services of the same mountaineer ]
IN the Argentinian andChilean Andes. (
What, ii may be asked, is the special {
knowledge of a mountain that these J
Alpinists possess-a knowledge that j
permits itself to be applied from the
Mountains OF one part of the world TO I
hose removed thousands of miles I
lway? To the inexperienced, mountain /
aces look largely alike, and they seem {
ngiy present few features Of contour [
,r structure that are not within the
yrasp of the lay student. In reality. t
however, they are very complex. and q
My long study can fully satisfy the 7
wants of the mountaineer if success in Q
IN effort and avoidance of danger are d
rhine considerations with him. To be g
bile to follow with the eye an available C
idge or crest, 10 know where and how Y
crags and cornices can be n
to have certain know c
adge of position of stable and unstable
lloWs, Of the positions where ava