ODDITIES OF LIFE AT EXTREME ALTITUDES.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3138, 9 October 1922, Page 7

ODDITIES OF LIFE AT EXTREME ALTITUDES.

In a recent expedition to Peru. Mr Joseph Bareroft, of the University of Cambridge, did some exploring in the higher Andes and made some interesting discoveries, which are told in the British Medical Journal. At 10,000 feet cows gave milk; at 12.000 feet they gave little oir none At 15,000 feet there were no cows. At 11,000 feet lleas disappeared, though lice remained so long as there were lpiman .beings. At these heights men have lived for many generations, having become acclimatised to thei rarefied air. Many of them lived in chimneyless and windowlcss houses; they had a purely communal system erf government, and some of their customs would hardly appeal to more civilised races. When a native was very ill. for instance, the date of his funeral was fixed without reference to his convenience-, and an official saw to it that he was ready to keep the appointment! It was remarkable what loads the people were able to carry at these altitudes. A boy of about thirteen would carry from the interior of a mine a burden of 40 pounds, ascending a staircase with it from a point 250 feet below, while a full-grown man would carry a hundred pounds of metal, yet the European was out of breath if he carried his coat up a slight incline.