inches, now
stood at 13.838 inches. The temperature of the thermometer on the
barometer was exactly +32 deg. F. At the same time, inside the tent we
got the water to boiling and took a reading with the hypsometer. Water
boils at sea level at a temperature of 212 deg. F. Here it boiled at 174 deg.
F. After taking the reading we greedily drank the water which had been
heated for the hypsometer. We were thirsty enough to have drunk five
times as much. We were not hungry, and made no use of our provisions
except a few raisins, some sugar, and chocolate.

After completing our observations, we fastened the little tent
as securely as possible, banking the snow around it, and left it
on top, first having placed in it one of the Appalachian Mountain
Club's brass record cylinders, in which we had sealed the Yale flag,
a contemporary map of Peru, and two brief statements regarding the
ascent. The American flag was left flying from a nine-foot pole,
which we planted at the northwest rim of the dome, where it could
be seen from the road to Cotahuasi. Here Mr. Casimir Watkins saw
it a week later and Dr. Isaiah Bowman two weeks later. When Chief
Topographer Hendriksen arrived three weeks later to make his survey,
it had disappeared. Probably a severe storm had blown it over and
buried it in the snow.

We left the summit at three o'clock and arrived at the 20,000 foot camp
two hours and fifteen minutes later. The first part of the way down
to the saddle we attempted a glissade. Then the slope grew steeper and
we got up too much speed for comfort, so we finally had to be content
with a slower method of locomotion. That night there was very little
wind. Mountain climbers have more to fear from excessively high winds
than almost any other cause. We were very lucky. Nothing occurred
to interfere with the best progress we were physically capable of
making. It turned out that we did not need to have brought so many
supplies with us. In fact, it is an open question whether our acute
mountain-sickness would have permitted us to outlast a long storm,
or left us enough appetite to use the provisions. Although one does
get accustomed to high altitudes, we felt very doubtful. No one in
the Western Hemisphere had ever made night camps at 20,000 feet or
pitched a tent as high as the summit of Coropuna. The severity of
mountain-sickness differs greatly in different localities, apparently
not depending entirely on the altitude. I do not know how lo