The pioneers of '49 A history of the excursion of the Society of California pioneers of New England . five miles. Near Gunnison we againheard the rumble of our train on a bridge, and as we looked down upon the seething torrentbelow, some one started and all sang with a will— One wide river to Jordan,One more river to cross. East of Gunnison the road approaches the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and climbsto the summit of the Marshall Pass, which has an elevation of 10,852 feet — over two miles —above the level of the sea. This is the highest point crossed by any railroad inside the limitso
The pioneers of '49 A history of the excursion of the Society of California pioneers of New England . five miles. Near Gunnison we againheard the rumble of our train on a bridge, and as we looked down upon the seething torrentbelow, some one started and all sang with a will— One wide river to Jordan,One more river to cross. East of Gunnison the road approaches the main range of the Rocky Mountains, and climbsto the summit of the Marshall Pass, which has an elevation of 10,852 feet — over two miles —above the level of the sea. This is the highest point crossed by any railroad inside the limitsof the United States. Mr. Webber, the traveler, states that in Thibet he has lived for monthstogether at a height of more than fifteen thousand feet above sea level, and that the result wasas follows : His pulse, at the normal heights only sixty-three beats per minute, seldom fell LIFE AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 233 below loo beats per minute during the whole time he resided at that level. His respirationswere often twice as numerous in the minute as they were in the ordinary levels. A run of loO yards would quicken both pulse and respiration more than a run of i,ooo yards at sea level,and he found that the higher the level the greater the difficulty of running or walking fast. He 234 PIOJ^EEBS OF 49. crossed the .Gurla Mandhata Mountain at a heiglit of 20,000 feet, and found that he had theutmost ditificulty in getting his breath fast enough. Webber also says that the native guidesof the mountains suffered as much as, if not more than he. The distance from Gunnison to the summit is forty-eight miles, and the difference in eleva-tion 3,278 feet. The climb does not begin in real earnest, however, until Sargent, thirty-onemiles from Gunnison and only 798 feet above it, is passed. Here our train was divided intotwo sections, with two engines on the first part and one on the second, and as the two sectionscrossed and recrossed each others paths on the serpentine route, towels and
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