The Washington times., 1912-03-30

Better a sight than steering among
these five-mile peaks" growlcd Captain
Arms. How high does Darjeellng lie?
don't want to run aground again"
oh! that's perfectly safe" responded
CnsmO. 'Darjeeling Is only about 1850
feet above the old sea level. ! think we
can go almost to the foot of kunchin-
gunga without anv danger
We'll. the name sounds dangerous
enough in itself" said the captain, but
! suppose you'l have your way. Give
me the bearings and We'll be Off
They took two days to get to the loca-
tion of Darjeelng. for at times the sky
darkened and the rain came down again
in tremendous torrents. But these spells
did not last more than two or three
hours, and the weather cleared between
them.
As soon as they advanced beyond Dar-
jeeliEg, keeping a sharp outlook for
kunChingunga, COSmO began to per-
CeiVe the error of his calculation of the
height of the food.
The mountain should still have pro-
iccted more than 1900 fet above the
waves, allowing that the average rise
during the thirty-siX days since the
reCOmmenCement of the flood had been
600 feet day.
But. in fact, they did not see it at ALL
ana thought at first that it had been
totally submerged. At last they found IT,.
a little rocky island, less than 200 feet
above the water, according to Cosmo' 8
careful measure, made from distance
of a quarter of mile.
This is great news for u.s. he eX-
claimed, as soon as he had compelled
the work. This will save us a long
journey round The water must now
stand at about 27,90O feet, and, although
there are IL considerable number Of
peaks in the Himalayas approaching
such an elevation, there are only three
or four known to reach or exceed II, OF
which Kunchingunga is one.
1--WE can, then, run right over the roof
of the world and there we'll be. In H.
bet Then we can determine from what
est, for / am very desirous to get near
that celebrated peak, and, II possible
see 1t go under.
But the weather isn't safe yet" OBJ
ieCted Captain Arms Suppose we
should be caught in another downpour,
and everything black about us! I'm not
going to navigate this ship by searcn-
light among mountains 2S,OO teet tall,
when the best beam that ever shot from
mirror won't show an object a hun
dred fathOmS away
Very we'll" Cosmo replied: Well
circle around south for few days and
see what will happen. J. think myself
that it's not quite over yet. The fact is,
! hope 1t isn't, for now that IT has gone
so far I'd like to see the top-knot OF
the earth covered"
more harm If it got up as high as the
moon," responded the captain.
They spent four days sailing to and
fro over India. and during the first three
of those days there were intermittent
dOwnpours. But the whole of the last
period of twenty-four hours was entire
ly without rain, and the color of the
sky changed so much that Cosmo de-
Clared he would wait no longer.
Everest" he said, 'is only $40 feet
higher than KunChingunga, and it may
be sunk out of sight before we can get
there
DO you think the water is still rIs-
ing?" asked De BeauXChamps, while
eagerly for the reply, for now that the
weather had cleared, the old company
was all assembled on the bridge.
Yes, slowly" said COsmo, There Is
perCeptible current from the north
which indicates that condensation is still
going on there. NOu'Il see that it'll
come extremely close to the six miles
predicted before it's all over"
By the time they had returned to the
| neighborhood of the mountains the sky
| had become blue, with only occasional,
| ly a passing -sunshower, and COsmo or.
| dered the promenade to be thrown open
and the passengers. with great rejoic,
! ings, resumed their daily lounging and
walking on deck.
| 1t required a little effort OF thought tc
make them realize their situation, but
| when they did 1t grew upon them unit
| they could not sufficiently express theiI
wonder.
! 4 Continuation Of This story VIII
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