Page:Whymper - Travels amongst the great Andes of the equator.djvu/16

viii extracts in support of the foregoing statements. Those who desire to pursue the matter in detail may usefully turn to the very comprehensive summary in La Pression Barométrique, by M. Paul Bert, where 156 pages are devoted to experiences in high places, 25 more to aeronauts, and 120 more to theories. Evidence of a nature similar to that which is quoted by M. Bert continues to accumulate, and is often, apparently, of a contradictory character. For example, since returning from the journey which is described in the following pages, three writers upon Mexico have mentioned that breathing is affected in that city by the ‘rarefied atmosphere,’ although the altitude in question is less than 8000 feet above the sea; while on the other hand, quite recently (in speaking of the Southern Andes up to heights 13,800 feet above the sea), Dr. A. Plagemann says, “with regard to the effects of rarefied air on the body at high elevations, neither he nor his companions suffered at all.” Still more divergent is the statement by Mr. W. W. Graham that he reached nearly the height of 24,000 feet in the Himalayas, and that “neither in this nor in any other ascent did he feel any inconvenience in breathing other than the ordinary panting inseparable from any great muscular exertion.”

This unique experience has met with little credence in India.