was so soft as to make further progress impossible. We found that,
loaded as we were, we could not climb a gentle rise faster than twenty
steps at a time. On the more level snow fields we took twenty-five
or thirty steps before stopping to rest. At the end of each stint
it seemed as though they would be the last steps we should ever
take. Panting violently, fatigued beyond belief, and overcome with
mountain-sickness, we would stop and lean on our ice axes until able
to take twenty-five steps more.

It did not take very long to recover one's wind. Finally we reached a
glacier marked by a network of crevasses, none very wide, and nearly
all covered with snow-bridges. We were roped together, and although
there was an occasional fall no great strain was put on the rope. Then
came great snow fields with not a single crevasse. For the most part
our day was simply an unending succession of stints--twenty-five steps
and a rest, repeated four or five times and followed by thirty-five
steps and a longer rest, taken lying down in the snow. We pegged along
until about half-past two, when the rapidly melting snow stopped all
progress. At an altitude of about 18,450 feet, the Tucker tent was
pitched on a fairly level snow field. We now noticed with dismay that
the two big aneroids had begun to differ. As the sun declined the
temperature fell rapidly. At half-past five the thermometer stood
at 22 deg. F. During the night the minimum thermometer registered 9 deg.
F. We noticed a considerable number of lightning flashes in the
northeast. They were not accompanied by any thunder, but alarmed us
considerably. We feared the expected November storms might be ahead of
time. We closed the tent door on account of a biting wind. Owing to
the ventilating device at the top of the tent, we managed to breathe
fairly well. Mountain climbers at high altitudes have occasionally
observed that one of the symptoms of acute soroche is a very annoying,
racking cough, as violent as whooping cough and frequently accompanied
by nausoa. We had not experienced this at 17,000 feet, but now it
began to be painfully noticeable, and continued during the ensuing
days and nights, particularly nights, until we got back to the Indians'
huts again. We slept very poorly and continually awakened one another
by coughing.

The next morning we had very little appetite, no ambition, and a
miserable sense of malaise and great fatigue. There was nothing for
it but to shoulder