The hardships endured on these climbs are almost indescribable. The intense cold and the rarefied air almost overcome the reserve vitality. The weakening effect of diminished atmospheric pressure is so enervating that exertion can only be made a few steps at a time. Headache, nausea and blood running from the nose and ears are the more violent effects. It is almost impossible to keep the feet from being frost-bitten, and they have to be rubbed occasionally to restore circulation. Says Mr. Conway: “I asked myself more than once whether the game was worth the candle, for there was something so cold and unsympathetic about the gloom and the ice and the bare rocks, that for a time it weighed like a nightmare upon my spirits.” The exhaustion is so great that it is almost impossible to enjoy the triumph of success. Speaking of this the same explorer says: “The moment was one of satisfaction, in that our toil ceased; but we had no sense of triumph, nor was there breath enough left in any of us for an exclamation of joy in the hour of victory. Nothing was said or done for several minutes; we just sat down and rested.” As compensations, however, there are frequently magnificent cloud effects. Out of the white sea of snow there mount, under the uplift of hot air currents, great towers of cloud, which rise high into the air like the smoke-discharge from a volcano. Huge caves and cloud avenues are formed, wherein dark-blue shadows gather, with occasionally a high mountain top peeping forth like the foundation stone of a gigantic cloud castle. Then one’s vision is so broadened that he seems to stand on the very top of the world itself. In “Argentina and Her People of To-day,” the writer has given an account of an ascent of Aconcagua by Mr. E. A. Fitzgerald’s party, and in this work some mention will be made of the conquest of Tupungato by the same party. This mountain can be seen clearly outlined against the sky from the Pass of the Cumbre, although it is distant fully thirty miles. The route lies down through great masses of fallen rock, the stones being on an average twice the size of a man’s head. The stones are hard and unworn by the forces of nature, presenting a surface of sharp, jagged edges. It is an extremely difficult pass to traverse because of these rocks and danger of slipping, which in many cases would hurl the traveller many hundreds of feet below. Sudden and violent storms also rage around this mountain, which renders the work of climbing still more difficult and dangerous.