ALTITUDE AT WHICH MAN CAN LIVE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 177, 18 August 1876, Page 13

ALTITUDE AT WHICH MAN CAN LIVE.

There has been a great deal of discussion as to the altitude at which human beings can exist, and Mr. Glaisher himself can tell us as much about it as anybody. In July, 1862, he and Mr. Coxwell ascended in a balloon to the enormous elevation of 37,000 feet. " Previous to the start, Mr. Glaisher's pulse stood at seventy-six beats a minute; Mr. CoxwelTs seventy-four. At 17,000 feet the pulse of the former was at eighty-four, that of the latter at one hundred. At 19,000 feet Glaisher's hands and lips were quite blue, but not his face. At 21,000 feet he heard his heart beating, and his breathing became oppressed ; at 29,000 feet he became senseless;" notwithstanding which the aeronaut, in the interest of science, went up another 8000 feet, till he could no longer use his hands, and had to pull the strings of the valve with his teeth, .aerostats, who have to make no exertions, have, of course, a great advantage over members of the Alpine Club and those who trust their legs ; even at 13,000 feet these climbers feel very uncomfortable ; more so in the Alps, it seems, than elsewhere. At the monastery of St. Bernard, 8,117 feet high, the monks become asthmatic, and are compelled frequently to descend into the valley of the Rhine for — anything but " a breath of fresh air," and at the end of ten years' service are obliged to give up their high living and come down to the usual level. At the same time, in South America, there are towns (such as Potosi) placed as high as the top of Mount Blanc, the inhabitants of which feel no inconvenience. Th highest inhabited spot in the world is, however, the Buddhist cloister of Hanle, in Tibet, where twenty-one priests live at an altitude of 16,500 feet. The brothers Seglagintweit, when they explored the glaciers in the same country, encamped at the highest altitude a European ever passed the night. Even at the top of Mount Blanc, Professor TyndalTs guides found it very unpleasant to do this, though the Professor himself did not confess to feeling so bad as they. The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest (Himalaya), 28,000 feet, and the condor has been seen "winging the blue air" 500 feet higher. The air, by the by, is not " blue," or else, as De Saussure pointed out, " the distant mountains, which are covered with snow, would appear blue also," its apparent color being due to the reflection of light. What light can do, and does, is marvellous j and not the least is its power of attraction to humanity. — ' Chambers's Journal,'