We were also 450 feet higher than the east peak of Coropuna, and a thousand feet higher than any other mountain in sight.  At any rate, we should not have to call upon our fast-ebbing strength for any more hard climbs in the immediate future.  After arriving at this satisfactory conclusion we pitched the little Mummery tent, set up the tripod for the mercurial barometer, arranged the boiling point thermometer with its apparatus, and with the aid of kodaks and notebooks proceeded to take as many observations as possible in the next four hours.  At two o’clock we read the mercurial, knowing that at the same hour readings were being made by Watkins at the Base Camp and by the Harvard astronomers in the Observatory at Arequipa.  The barometer was suspended from a tripod set up in the shade of the tent.  The mercury, which at sea level often stands at 31 inches, now stood at 13.838 inches.  The temperature of the thermometer on the barometer was exactly +32 deg.  F. At the same time, inside the tent we got the water to boiling and took a reading with the hypsometer.  Water boils at sea level at a temperature of 212 deg.  F. Here it boiled at 174 deg.  F. After taking the reading we greedily drank the water which had been heated for the hypsometer.  We were thirsty enough to have drunk five times as much.  We were not hungry, and made no use of our provisions except a few raisins, some sugar, and chocolate.

After completing our observations, we fastened the little tent as securely as possible, banking the snow around it, and left it on top, first having placed in it one of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s brass record cylinders, in which we had sealed the Yale flag, a contemporary map of Peru, and two brief statements regarding the ascent.  The American flag was left flying from a nine-foot pole, which we planted at the northwest rim of the dome, where it could be seen from the road to Cotahuasi.  Here Mr. Casimir Watkins saw it a week later and Dr. Isaiah Bowman two weeks later.  When Chief Topographer Hendriksen arrived three weeks later to make his survey, it had disappeared.  Probably a severe storm had blown it over and buried it in the snow.

We left the summit at three o’clock and arrived at the 20,000 foot camp two hours and fifteen minutes later.  The first part of the way down to the saddle we attempted a glissade.  Then the slope grew steeper and we got up too much speed for comfort, so we finally had to be content with a slower method of locomotion.  That night there was very little wind.  Mountain climbers have more to fear from excessively high winds than almost any other cause.  We were very lucky.  Nothing occurred to interfere with the best progress we were physically capable of making.  It turned out that we did not need to have brought so many supplies with us.  In fact, it is an open question whether our acute mountain-sickness would have permitted us to outlast a long storm, or left us enough appetite to use the provisions.