Evening star., 1923-07-08

climbing and his desire to add Coro-
puma to his sheaf of victories. Great
ly as l appreciated his kindness in
making way for me. / could only ac-
qufesce in SO far as to continue the
climb by his side. We reached the
top together, and sank down upon the
snow
The truncated summit is an oval
shaped snow field, almost fiat, having
an area of nearly half an acre, about
100 feet north and south and 175 feet
east and west. If it once were, as we
supposed, volcanic crater, the pit
had long since been filled up with
, snow and ice. There were no rocks
to be seen on the rim-only the hard
crust of the glistening white surface
The view from the top was desolate
in the extreme. We were in the midst
of great volcanic desert dotted with
isolated peaks covered with snow and
occasional glaciers. Not an atom of
green was to be seen anywhere. Ap-
parently We stood on top of a dead
world.
climbers in the Andes
AF1 have frequently spoken of seeing
condors at great attitudes. We saw
none. Northwest. twenty miles away
across the Pampa Colorada-a reddish
desert-rose snow-capped Solimana.
In the other direction we looked along
the range of Coropuna itself; several
of the lesser peaks being only a few
hundred feet below our elevation.
Far to the southwest we imagined we
could see the faint blue Of the Pa
cific ocean, but it was very dim.
My father was an ardent mountain
climber, glorying not only in the diff
ficulties Of the scent. but particularly
in the satisfaction coming from the
magnificent view to be obtained a the
top. His zeal had led him once in
winter. to ascend the highest peak in
the Pacific. Mauna Kea .on Hawaii.
He taught me as boy to be fond of
climbing the mountains of Oahu and
Maui and to be appreciative of the
views which could be obtained by
such expenditure of effort. Yet now /
could not take the least interest or
pleasure in the view from the top of
Coropuna, nor could my companions
No sense of satisfaction in having at
tained a difficult objective cheered us
up. We all felt greatly depressed
We said little, although Gamarra
asked for his bonus and regarded the
five gold sovereigns-which had been
promised to him for remaining with
us to the top-with grim complacency
After We had recovered somewhat
we began to take observations Tn
singing the aneroid which had been
carrying. I found to my dismay that
the needle showed a height of only
21,525 feet above sea level. fuckers
aneroid read more than a thousand
feet higher, 22.550 feet. but even this
fell short Of Raimondi's estimate of
PITTS feet. and considerably below
Bandelier's $4,000 feet"
This was a bitter disappointment.
We had hoped that the aneroids
would at least show n margin over
the altitude of Mount Aconcagua
22,763 feet. Such a discovery served
to dampen our spirits still further
At all events. the north peak did
look lower than we were. To satisfy
any doubts on this subject. Tucker
took the wooden box in which we
had brought the hypsometer. laid 1t
on the snow, leveled 1T up carefully
with the Stanley pocket level, and
took a squint over 1t to the north
peak. He smiled and said nothing.
So each of us in turn lay down in the
snow and took a squint. 1t was
all right. We were at least $50 feet
higher than that aggravating peak.
After arriving at this relatively
satisfactory conclusion we pitched
the little mummery tent, set up the
tripod for the mercuriaI barometer,
arranged the boiling point therome
ter with its apparatus, and, in the
next four hours, with the aid of
kodaks and notebooks. proceeded to
take as many observations as pos
sible.
When we had finished the readings