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Show EFFECTS OF ALTITUDE IN LEADVILLE [Colorado]. I saw but very few cases of intoxication in the streets, though the 300 saloons in the city held out their best inducements. I was surprised at this, as one of the notable effects of the great altitude of the place (10,300 feet above the level of the sea) is that all fermented liquors intoxicate more quickly than at a lower elevation. The boiling point, owing to the decrease of the atmospheric pressure, is much lower than at Chicago, and the alcohol is sooner vaporized and taken into the circulation, producing intoxication quicker. The boiling point of water here is about 190 degrees, instead of 212 degrees, the effect of which in boiling beans, potatoes, etc., is that it requires a long while to cook them in an open vessel, and it is necessary to keep the vessel well covered or the water will vaporize and escape before being raised to the requisite degree of cooking. At this elevation much air is required to fill and satisfy the lungs, and breathing must be quicker in order to properly oxygenize the blood. It is said, too, that after one has been there sometime the coloring matter of the blood becomes darker, being changed from the peroxide to the sesquioxide of iron. With a person suffering under any difficulty or disease of the heart the effect of any long-continued exertion is to cause a dangerous degree of palpitation, and even with persons entirely well, the pulse runs extremely high. There are other and notable facts concerned with this altitude. There are few birds seen here, particularly for the reason that flying is difficult in the light air. The common house fly, the summer pest of our Eastern housekeepers, is unknown here. There are some of the out-door blue-bottle variety here, but they seem languid and tired. It is said also that cats cannot live here. This is probably owing to their delicate organization being unable to resist the rigor of the night air. So the "voices of the night" are not heard in this locality and boot-jacks are reserved for their natural uses. Another result of the lightness of the air is that, having so little density, it is easily heated by artificial means. Our nights are universally cold, so cold that it is uncomfortable to sit without a fire, but a few pine chips or small sticks will warm an apartment very quickly. At the same time the sun's rays do not seem to have the heating power that they do in the lower elevations. This seems to confirm the theory that there is no substantial caloric in the rays of the sun, but that heat is the result of chemical action, generated by the direct rays with the elements of the atmosphereBthe directness of the rays and the density of the atmosphere. While standing high upon these mountains, even at a distance from any snowdrifts, and where the air is still, the summer sun has only sufficient power to make the air refreshing and pleasant, while you on the plains are sweltering under a torrid heat. In the shade of a rock or two it is always cool enough. The effect of the altitude is the same as that experienced by balloonists, who, in ascending from the surface of the earth, even on the hottest days, soon find it necessary to don their overcoats and warmest clothing. In the night here a good supply of blankets is always necessary, and nearly every morning heavy frosts are found, and sometimes thick scales of ice are formed. The crests of some of the mountains and many of the deep ravines upon their sides are still full of masses of snow so compact that one can walk over them without sinking. A day or two ago, while visiting a mine close to the summit of Mount Bross, I was compelled to cross a field of snow hanging over the edge, which must have been a mile in length and probably in places twenty feet in depth. --Leadville Letter. |