igher than
the top of Pike's Peak. We could move rapidly about without getting
out of breath; the aggravating "whooping cough" left us; and our
appetites returned. To be sure, we still suffered from the effects
of snow and sun. On the ascent I had been very thirsty and foolishly
had allowed myself to eat a considerable amount of snow. As a result
my tongue was now so extremely sensitive that pieces of soda biscuit
tasted like broken glass. Corporal Gamarra, who had been unwilling
to keep his snow-glasses always in place and thought to relieve his
eyes by frequently dispensing with them, now suffered from partial
snow-blindness. The rest of us were spared any inflammation of the
eyes. There followed two days of resting and waiting. Then the smiling
arrieros, surprised and delighted at seeing us alive again after our
adventure with Coropuna, arrived with our mules. The Tejadas gave us
hearty embraces and promptly went off up to the snow line to get the
loads. The next day we returned to Chuquibamba.

In November Chief Topographer Hendriksen completed his survey and
found the latitude of Coropuna to be 15 deg. 31' South, and the longitude
to be 72 deg. 42' 40'' West of Greenwich. He computed its altitude to be
21,703 feet above sea level. The result of comparing the readings of
our mercurial barometer, taken at the summit, with the simultaneous
readings taken at Arequipa gave practically the same figures. There
was less than sixty feet difference between the two. Although Coropuna
proves to be thirteen hundred feet lower than Bandelier's estimate,
and a thousand feet lower than the highest mountain in South America,
still it is a thousand feet higher than the highest mountain in
North America. While we were glad we were the first to reach the top,
we all agreed we would never do it again!

CHAPTER III

To Parinacochas

After a few days in the delightful climate of Chuquibamba we set
out for Parinacochas, the "Flamingo Lake" of the Incas. The late Sir
Clements Markham, literary and historical successor of the author of
"The Conquest of Peru," had called attention to this unexplored lake
in one of the publications of the Royal Geographical Society, and had
named a bathymetric survey of Parinacochas as one of the principal
desiderata for future exploration in Peru. So far as one could judge
from the published maps Parinacochas, although much smaller than
Titicaca, was the largest body of water entirely in Peru. A tho