The Cliff Climbers

Who has not heard of the Himalayas-those Titanic masses of mountainsthat interpose themselves between the hot plains of India and the cold tablelands of Thibet-a worthy barrier between the two greatest empires in theworld, the Mogul and the Celestial? The veriest tyro in geography can tellyou that they are the tallest mountains on the surface of the earth; thattheir summits-a half-dozen of them at least-surmount the sea-level bymore than five miles of perpendicular height; that more than th...