Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc 1834 (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SECOND LECTURE. No sensations had been hitherto experienced, differing in kind, from those which had occurred to me in the ascent of less lofty mountains. Dryness of the skin and thirst, already mentioned, were to be expected, as the immediate consequences of increased evaporation from the surface of the body, and, in part, of dryness of the fauces (III). There was, however, want of appetite,?first perceived upon the Grand Plateau, two thousand feet lower down (IV). Breathing not at all disturbed. We now stood above the " Rochers Rouges," on a small platform of snow, at the foot of the last slope. I suffered at this time only from thirst, and from the effect of warmth returning into my half-frozen feet. The condition of the 52 SUDDEN EXHAUSTION AND DYSPN03A. guides was not observed to differ from my own. There now remained less than a thousand feet, up what appeared an easy slope, (a plane of about 30) to take us to the apex of the mountain. My enthusiasm was perhaps scarcely equal to what it had been three hours before. Such were the circumstances under which we addressed ourselves to the last acclivity,? such our sensations;?and I was ready to believe, that I should experience no others. Suddenly, however, as we approached the " Derniers Rochers," that project through the snow, near the middle of this the last slope, there occurred to me considerable exhaustion, ?accompanied, but scarcely preceded, by dyspnoea (difficult breathing); both of which sensations, standing still for a few moments, and taking two or three deep inspirations, sufficed entirely to remove; but which, on my again setting forward, returned as before (V). At first this happened after perhaps every twenty, or five-and-twenty paces; but this number became less and less, until it did not amount...