The Washington times., 1901-07-07
souts American Mountains.

conway. Is. dS Ailt AAAit Etl-t N-Nt'''A'''N.'
. "a record OF climbing and exploration in
The Cordillera Real in the years 1888 ana
1890. The author is one of the most IA
nous mountain climbers of the world, and
while his experiences are interesting in
themselves. they are told in a straight
forward. simple style which makes them
still more interesting.
Some people, doubtless, viii fail to see
the amusement of daring great dangers
ard enduring hardships for the satlsfac-
tion of going where no one else has gone,
and these people will find no attraction
in the book But to those who, Ike the
author. njoy a mountain view the more
for having scrambled over all but mac
cessible places. and ieaped chtsms, ana
tramped miles through uninhabited coun-
try il will be fun of fascination. "A con-
siderable part Of the book is occupied
with the adventures of the writer in his
journey TO Bolivia, and it Will be interest
ing to these who are fond OF travel
sketches to compare his impressions of
the West Ind $ and Central America
with those of other travellers. At La Paz
he encountered that ailment known as
mountain sickness, and gives some of the
peculiar effects OF the air Of high alu-
tudes. He says:
THE first work there was for me IN
La Paz was TO settle relations with the
climate or rather, with the altitude,
for the hotel in the plaza stands II .y40
feet above sea level. and It takes time
TO habituate ones self 10 living day
in and day out far above one
usual altitude. Having already spent
week at Arequipa and on the way up,
always more than ZOO feet above sea
level and for the best part Of three
days from u, 600 to 1859 feet. without
experiencing the smallest discomfort,
the last thing that occurred to me was
that / should hnd the altitude of La
Paz at all disconcerting. But the day
after my arrival / aWuke with head
ache and a general feeling OF sickness,
which increased as the hours went on,
so that there was nothing to DO but to
go TO bed again and stay there. 1
attributed my woes to the hospitality
attending my arrival, but When the
doctor came he assured me that |
was only suffering from the normal
Inconvenience which bcsets new
comers, the rcdoUbtable sorocche. or
mountain sickness, and that / should
get over il sooner or later As mat
ter Of fact II passed away IN twenty
four hours. Englishmen familiar
only with European attitudes. gener-
ally labor under the delusion that they
have never experienced any effect
from diminished atmospheric pres
sure. because they have never been
mountain sick. They ascribe such
fs-JiEue as they may have felt near a
climbing But If they could be moved
TO La Paz, for however short time.
they would soon perceive that they
were not at sea level The streets Of
the town being steep. all the inhabit-
ants, when they come 10 walk MP nil,
demonstrate by the rapicity OF their
breathing and the slowness OF their
gait that they, too. are atected by
tie diminished atmospheric pressure
Many persons can never become habit
uaJed TO the altitude, and are more or
less ii during the whole course Of
their stay. This is particularly the
case with children ana persons Of ad-
vanced age In my opinion the diminu-
ton in atmospheric pressure affects
men TO an a1preciabls extent at far
lower levels than Is generally believed.
Because q man is not conscious Of an
effect il does not at all follow that
no effect is produced upon him.
t'SCuth America, as IS generally
known, is a great country for horse
racing Even at La Paz races were
Of fresuent occurrence l was in
formed by snortszEen- thoroughly ac-
uuainted with racing al many differ
ent levels. IL Chile, Bolivia. and
Venezuela, that every thousand feet
above sea level tells markedly upon a
horse Thus, taking Valparaiso and
Santiago. in Chile, as Instances. the
racecourse OF the latter being some
2,009 feet above that Of the former. a
horse trained at Valparaiso IS found
10 be unable 10 win race at Santiago
against an equally good morse trained
there On the other hand, a horse
trained az Santiago and brought down
70 Valparaiso is in perfect condition
for racing there Again the length
Of races which a horse can run has TO
be reduced as the altitude increases
At La Faz the greatest length that
horse can gailop is about 90 metres.
and that is a severe strain upon any
animal that has not lived at La Paz
for months before the race. While /
was there a very fine horse was
brought Up from Chile and was al
lowed 10 race within a week or two
after his arrival. The horse was per
fectly sound, but the strain was TOO
much for him. and he died the day
after the race. II may be said that
horses are more sensitive than men
10 differences Of atmospheric pressure
auC- doubtless a man can climb many
thousand feet higher than he can take
a horse
There are numerous queer things about
mountain climbing, one Of which is that
people engaged in that business get FROST
bitten and sunburnt at the same time
This happened to Sir Martin Conway's g
party on the occasion Of their ascent of
Illimani. The author was the only mem
ber Of the party who did not have his feet
partly frozen. this being due TO the fact
that he wore a pair of Norwegian goat
hair stockings as thick as ones little
finger, inside these a pair Of Shetland
wool stockings and thin pair Of socks.
and over them a pair Of boots with three
thicknesses Of leather over the toes, two
over the body Of the foot, and one over
the ankle.
Some Of their most severe experiences
came in the climbing Of Ancohuma, and
the nature Of the ascent is indicated in
part in the following description:
Before 2 O'Clock in the moonless
night We quilted the tent on our up
ward way The glitterinS canopy OF
stars was disflgured by patches of
drifting cloud Of evil augury sin
sle candle was all the illumination 70
our dubious way over the hard-fTozen
snOw-slope between two ghosty rows
Of white mountains. There were many
creyasses- and large ones, too; by can
delight they looked gigantic, for we
could not see 10 the other side All,
OF course were profoundly deep, and
some were wide open Others, ike
those we had dragged the sledge over.
were bridged across from ten totwenty
feet below The top. OF course, there
were plenty Of holes and gaps in these
bridges To lean over the edge OF
great crevasse and peer down TO see
whether there were a bridge below or
not. was a weird experience. Some
times we Were not sure, and had TO let
q man down to ascertain. The sides
were roughly vertical and difficult TO
scramble down in day time, when one
could see 20 cut steps ard hand-holes;
by night the difficulties were much in
creased We had to peer about to ind
the solid parts Of the snow bridges and
20 avoid the holes going through into
the bowels Of the glacier To Chamber
up the far side Of the crevasse afforded
another troublesome problem. Not
withstanding these petty miseries. the