Science: No Climbing

Mountain climbers were downcast last week. From Calcutta came a wireless saying that Brigadier General C. G. Bruce, commander of the 1924 attempt and failure to reach the highest spot on earth, Mt. Everest's peak,† had learned that the Tibetan authorities** had "definitely decided to prohibit any further expeditions."

It was not reported whether the "No climbing" placard was due to the Tibetans' fear of "the hairy men," malignant creatures who they believe once lurked high up on Everest, descending at times on the villages to wreak havoc, steal women and yaks, slaughter men; or whether the lamas, who are so humane that they will not molest lice and other creatures that take refuge on their bodies, could not bear to have any more human lives endangered and sacrificed on that gaunt tooth of Asia that white men are so perplexingly anxious to ascend. On the third and last expedition, which came within 800 feet of the peak, two men were lost (TIME, June 30, 1924), George Leigh Mallory and A. C. Irvine.