Reviews

Climbing On The Himalaya And Other Mountain Ranges. By J. Norman Collie, F.R.S.

(Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1902.)

Seldom in the history of mountaineering literature has the publication of a book been awaited with more impatience and interest than of the one which should record the exploits and adventures of the extremely strong party which in 1895 left these shores to essay the ascent of some Himalayan peaks, and which had for its chief objective the high summit of Nanga Parbat.

At long length time has fulfilled the desire and expectation of the many, and the volume now given to the world has only one fault – it is much too short! Especially does this seem to apply to the portion dealing with those great peaks of the Himalaya whose grandeur and immensity are so vividly impressed upon us by the glowing fervid descriptions of Mr. Collie. Few things could drive home with greater force – even to the least imaginative – understanding of the vastness of the details of this region than the description of ‘days’ of 40 and 42 hours’ toil and exertion and semi-starvation. To the average man who, well fed and in fair condition, can get comfortably tired with twelve hours’ walking and climbing over the infinitely easier ground of, say, our own Lake District fells, such feats of endurance savour of the ancient days when there were giants in the land.

Nanga Parbat is yet unconquered, and that fact is probably due to two causes – its own intrinsic difficulty and the ever, lasting trouble of the commissariat and its purveyors in the “shiny East.” That the three men who essayed the task were good enough to accomplish anything within the power of present-day man we have no doubt. Rarely, if ever, has climbing of such difficulty been done at such altitudes as is described in some of these pages, while the route taken by Mr. Mummery to his highest point (over 20,000 feet) on Nanga Parbat is probably the most sporting one by which such a height has ever been reached.

Once more we find the wholly delightful Gurkha soldiers, trained by Major Bruce to mountaineering according to approved methods, doing excellent work in their own buoyant merry way. Are the whole of this race cast in the self same mould? They seem to pass’ the greater part of their lives wreathed in smiles, few things seeming to present greater humorous qualities to them than a fall on a mountain side. Even such a fall as comes perilously near to ending their mountaineering career appears to be invested with all the qualities of the deepest and f subtlest humour.

The slip of the Chilas tribesman, Lor Khan, reminds one forcibly of the similar accident to Sir Martin Conway’s party on Pioneer Peak, and especially so .in the admirably cool behaviour of the fallen one after his slip.

The 106 pages which record the journey of the party to and the reconnaisances and assaults on Nanga Parbat are all too few. Few writers have touched so surely the spirit of the great mountains as Dr. Collie, and his readers cannot but feel in a measure defrauded at receiving such brief accounts of the momentous happenings on such a stage. An explorer of the most modern type would never have thrown away the golden opportunity of making a big book out of that journey alone; but the tragedy which so summarily cut short the expedition and which invests all its interests with regrets and sadness must be held responsible for this reticence.

The section dealing with the Canadian Rocky Mountains exemplifies at large the truth of the author’s statement that “for those who wish to spend all their time, during a short holiday, climbing peaks, this region cannot be recommended.” A sojourn in those ranges consists largely of travel over and through virgin forest, swamps and rivers, but the joys and excitements of such travel look strangely attractive as seen through Mr. Collie’s glasses. Even a pack-team journey of ten miles in as many days of travel “through immense timber, dense thickets of willow, through swamps, along insecure river banks, climbing up the hill sides, jumping logs, cutting through fallen trees and undergrowth so thick one could hardly see a yard ahead, splashing, fighting, and worrying ahead,” with “an experience of almost everything that could delay,” and “whether the woods, the streams, or the muskegs were worst, “it was impossible to say,” – is compensated for in full by the fact embraced in the five words: “But we were the pioneers.” Of the joys of leading too, our author is, in all senses, competent to speak. In fact, so full of charm to him are the incidents of trail and camp in the Rockies, that he has not given a single detailed account of any of his ascents there; but his pages are the richer for a brilliant living picture of primeval forests and the joy of man escaped for a time from the trammels of civilised life to struggle hand to hand with untamed nature on which “the taint of staleness” has not yet fallen. The strength of this desire to escape completely from the herd is shown with some force in the remark that “during all the years I spent climbing with Mummery ” (in the Alps and elsewhere), only twice have I slept in a hut.”

The golden age when many new climbs were still possible on the crags of Cumberland and before the gullies and ridges were numbered and classified is the subject of a chapter entitled “Wasdale Head.”

That entirely delightful article describing the first ascent of the Tower Ridge on Ben Nevis, which appeared in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal under the title of “The Oromaniacal Craft” is here reprinted by its author.

As an expression of appreciation and for analysis of mountain form and beauty and the glories of atmospheric colouring, few better things could be written than the chapter “A Chuilionn”; and the first feeling of astonishment that photography can produce such artistic triumphs as the illustrations to this volume is softened by the knowledge that the photographer is in this case also an artist.

First and foremost among the illustrations – difficult as choice is rendered where the standard is so uniformly high – is the beautiful picture of Lofoten. The breadth, atmosphere and suggestion of colour in it is wonderful, and much of the same qualities is to be seen in the frontispiece – “A Stormy Sunset.”

Far apart and varied in scale and character as are the mountains amongst which Mr. Collie has wandered and, climbed – from Scafell to Nanga Parbat, from the Alps to the Rockies, and home again to Ireland and Skye – they are not more diverse than his humour and his love of every phase of the many-sided sport and its associations. He certainly proves, if proof be wanted, that athleticism and aestheticism are not incomparable. The very small proportion of climbing ‘shop’ and the large recognition of the quieter, more lasting and more intellectual appeals that the mountains make to their lovers give the book a peculiarly high literary value.

J.A.G.

Climbs And Exploration In The Canadian Rockies. By H. E. M. Stutfield And J. Norman Collie, F.R.S.

(London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1903.)

In the preceding review of Professor Collie’s Work on the Himalayas, etc., it is remarked that no detailed account of any of his climbing experiences in the Rocky Mountains is given, but the publication of this book, of which he is part author, following so closely on its heels, is a sufficient explanation of what appeared to be a somewhat strange and regrettable omission.

From the point of view of the climber whose scenes of activity have been limited to the more civilised and convenient regions of Europe, it might almost be said that this breezy narrative described travels that had for their secondary object climbing in the Rockies, rather than that climbing was the subject of the book. The great difficulties encountered in moving from place to place through the dense forests and scrub; fallen timber and creepers – often poisonous; where trails were non-existent or overgrown and had to be re-cut ere the train of pack-ponies could be got along, accounts largely for this feature. The labour and time expended in getting to the scene of desired action was enormous. One journey of 150 miles took 18 days of what the authors modestly call “pretty constant work.”

It is strange to learn that in a growing British Colony tracks and trails are now far worse than they were 40 years ago, but that is so, and the explanation is ” that then game was more abundant and the passing to and fro of Indians and trappers kept the trails open. In these times things are altogether different; the woods are veritable wildernesses, and, strange as it may seem, we never met a human being – red, black, or white – during either of our journeys up country in 1898 or 1900.”

Under these conditions it is readily understandable that the chop of the lumberer’s axe clearing the way resounds oftener through the pages than the chip of the mountaineer’s ice-axe. The dangers and difficulties of fording flooded rivers are more in evidence than those of crag and icefall. Further, those ever present troubles of transport and commissariat which in other countries place the traveller at the mercy of porters or coolies are here reproduced by the diabolical perverseness of Indian pack ponies, whose greatest joys seem centred in either going swimming with their packs on at any available opportunity – to the detriment of the contents of those packs, and, doubtless, to the ultimate sorrow of the pony, – or in making use of their undeniable agility to jump into some inextricable criss-cross of fallen timber, whence their rescue can only be effected by laboriously cutting them out of their self-chosen pound. It is hinted that at these times the profanity of the trailers was delightfully diverse and enlightening, and one cannot help experiencing an unregenerate regret that a specimen harangue is not given.

The Bush River expedition of 1900 was an epitome of the trials, dangers, and hardships peculiar to the country. Dense bush, wet sleeping places, two narrow escapes from drowning while fording rivers, and a hairbreadth one of losing a pony, who, thinking a load of 250lbs of bacon a suitable bathing costume, “took a header into a stream running like a mill-race and 10 feet deep,” and was only rescued with her precious load after the expenditure of time and much strength, and to such troubles was added the trying one of a bad climate. Indeed, one gathers that the atmosphere, not only in the valleys but to considerable heights, consisted of wood smoke from distant forest fires, mosquitoes, and other and harder biting flies called bulldogs, in about equal proportions, mixed together in steamy mist or rain – conditions as far removed from the austere purity of the air in more familiar mountain regions as can well be imagined.

But it must not be supposed that things were always as bad as this, nor that the writers dwell upon this aspect of their journeys ; so far from that, such incidents are merely recorded as part of the day’s work involved by sporting travel in almost virgin country. The joys of the wilderness far exceed its hardships. “The wilderness lay between us and dull respectability: . . . . with its conventions and boredom; its feather beds and table d’hotes; its tall hats, frock coats and stick-up collars . . . we could wear what we liked and enjoy the ineffable delights of being as disreputable as we pleased.”

Neither must the reader suppose that climbing was not done. Numerous ascents were made but principally for the primary purpose of attaining surveying points; and throughout the volume exploration is given priority of place to mere holiday climbing. The description of the ascent of Mount Forbes – all too brief though it be – reads strangely like the classic pages of “Peaks, Passes and Glaciers” in its graphic delineation and broad treatment of the incidents of climb and bivouac. The climbing of Neptuak, consisting mainly of very difficult rockwork, is, so far from being cumbered by detail, dismissed in very few words as one of the best climbs in the country; and so with many other ascents.

This breadth of treatment is characteristic of the book and is very noticeable when comparison is made with much recent climbing – as differentiated from mountaineering – literature. Especially does this apply to many modern descriptions of crag work, where detail and methods are so elaborated and so much scientific ingenuity is displayed that one quite expects to come across a formula for determining the number of square inches of Harris Tweed which if applied to the surface of a specified kind of rock at a certain angle would be sufficient to hold up the wearer.

While the reader is spared much arid detail he gets in its place many passages of fine appreciation and insight which must often give utterance to his own inarticulate fancy. A single and partial quotation from p. 120 is one of such – “Our view was largely spoiled [by haze], but, as a compensation, the sense of vastness and mystery was enhanced – and in travelling through a new mountain country the sense of mystery is everything. The spell that once was upon the Alps has been broken: the illusion and the mystery that formerly enshrouded them have departed, never to return; and with the illusion has gone much of the awe and reverence they used to inspire.”

The fall into a crevasse described on p. 30 which narrowly escaped casting the gloom of disaster over the expedition was apparently due to a strange neglect of mountaineering rule. To cross unroped over a high and crevassed snowfield implies a carelessness and disregard of danger which cannot be approved of, and which, if persevered in, can have only one end.

In these pages one meets many delightful and picturesque beings. An axeman with a keen sense of the beautiful in Nature, guides and “outfitters” who have seen service in South Africa – all serve to enliven the narrative and add human interest.

The geographical results of these journeys are considerable, but are not insisted upon in the volume under notice; probably they have found a permanent home elsewhere. Some 3,000 square miles of mountain, valley, stream and lake have been mapped; the heads of those mythical giants Mounts Brown and Hooker have been shorn off and their heights reduced from about 17,000 feet to about 9,000; and icefalls and icefields greater than any in the Alps are recorded.

The volume is well printed in strong type, and the illustrations – all from photographs – are good, many indeed possess qualities of uncommon distinction.

The picture of Mount Sir Donald facing p. 226 shows the mountain which has perhaps the greatest resemblance to the forms of mountain architecture familiar to travellers in Switzerland ; the curiously bard lines of horizontal stratification causing many of the Canadian peaks to lose much of dignity and beauty.

And so for want of space must end the bare notice of a book which gives to the reader the result of years of work and observation in one of the most beautiful regions of the world: the tale of which is told modestly and with touches of humour.

J.A.G.

Crag And Hound In Lakeland. By C. E. Benson.

(London: Hurst & Blackett, Ltd., 1902.)

Beginners, novices, and those who have hitherto found “the spirit willing but the flesh too weak” to climb the steep crags of our Lakeland Mountains will welcome the advent of this book, as it is written expressly for their benefit. It is divided into three distinct parts, Part I. being devoted to Preparation, Part II. to Rock-Climbing, and Part III. to Fox-hunting.

The first part deals with the equipment and training of the would-be climber, and gives good advice on what to use and what to avoid, the author inculcating his various teachings with appropriate anecdote. In fact the book throughout teems with good stories told with genial humour, and its pages abound in amusing description of personal experiences; moreover, Mr. Benson does not hesitate to tell his story when the point is against himself.

To the more experienced climber, much of the author’s advice to beginners may seem superfluous, but Mr. Benson is evidently a cautious man, as he had need to be if one may judge by the more than fair share of nasty little adventures he has had during his own climbing career. Besides, as has been said, the book was not written for experts; it is addressed to beginners and is very modestly prefaced with a remark made by the late Owen Glynne Jones: “A novice can often explain to a novice far more effectively than an expert.”

We have all heard of Bedroom Gymnastics, Mr. Benson takes us a step further and shows us how we may practice our climbing by sundry antics on the staircase, banisters, and in the bedroom doorway. He does not, however, instruct us as to our mode of procedure should the landlady put in a sudden appearance.

The part on Rock-Climbing deals mostly with practice climbs on Castle Head – some rocks about ten minutes walk from Keswick. About ten pages are devoted to an amusing but instructive glossary of technical terms, and the part concludes with a list of the “Easy Courses” given in Jones’s “Rock Climbing,” with instructions how they may be reached and suggestions as to the way of overcoming them.

Lest the uninitiated should conceive the idea that climbing begets profanity he may as well be informed at once that it does not do so. Even under the most trying circumstances, climbers as a rule do not swear, the sport on the contrary generally tending to bring out the more philosophic parts of man’s nature. One therefore likes to think that Mr. Benson’s “swears” are only imaginary and that his “really solemn carefully thought out comprehensive swear” is only a mild, humorous ejaculation of satisfaction. If it were not so, then we might reasonably expect the tourists to tell us “they have never heard the fells re-echo with the glad sound of the horn and hound,” but that the echoes were of a more profane kind.

The third part – on Fox Hunting – is excellent. Mr. Benson here shows his knowledge of the district and also handles the subject in a masterly way.

The book is well illustrated and should be of considerable value to the beginner, while the author’s humour and breezy style render it interesting even to those who have no ambition to climb Crag or follow Hound in lakeland.

F. B.

Norway, The Northern Playground. By Wm. Cecil Slingsby.

(Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1904.)

Mr. Slingsby’s book is a spirited and affectionate invitation to climbing men and lovers of wild natural scenery. The country pictured in its pages with delightful enthusiasm is one to be visited and loved by the sportsman whether he climbs, fishes or shoots. The book disabuses one’s mind of the idea that Norway is quite overrun by steamboat tourists and entirely exploited by the advertising excursion agent, and makes good its claim to be one of the most delightful of our Alpine playgrounds.

The name of Slingsby is inseparably connected with mountain exploration in Norway, but it is probably not generally recognised how deservedly. From the author’s accounts of the many first ascents, new passes, glacier and snowfield explorations he has made, we are able to gather how strenuous his labours have been. Difficulties and dangers must of necessity be encountered by the explorer of unknown mountain countries, but they have not always been so cheerfully accepted and so pleasantly recounted. The hardships of earlier days-the poor and scanty food, the indifferent and unclean lodging, the burdensome and weary way-are dwelt upon but lightly. Mr. Slingsby’s attitude towards them is very simply explained in these his own words: “without which, though we should have had less fun and fewer adventures, we should have probably doubled the number of the maiden ascents which fell to our lot.”

One of the book’s most pleasant features is a generous desire to give credit where it is due, and to unselfishly recognise and commend the work of other men engaged in the same held. Perhaps the book’s greatest claim upon the regard of the Yorkshire Ramblers will be that is so strangely and unmistakably imbued with its author’s personality. It is to be feared they will not greatly trouble themselves about its history or its politics, but they will rejoice to recognise in its tales of adventure a fellow, Rambler “warranted not to jib.” They will accept its irreproachable mountaineering ethics and regret without condemning its author’s lapses from them. All Ramblers will appreciate his pluck and enterprise, his eye for a mountain and his capacity for finding a sporting way up it, and keenly sympathise with his joyful appreciation of the grand and beautiful and his deep affection for all nature’s creatures. The book has been called, “breathless,” with some justice. Its arrangement without regard for the unities of time and place is perplexing, and makes it difficult in places to follow. Unfortunately, Mr. Slingsby has not kept his resolution to adhere to his mother tongue. Scraps of Norse, and French and German quotations have been allowed l to creep into it. Quotations are at their best dangerous things, and they haunt the pages like the ghosts of the great dead. It would probably have been well for the book if he had remained content with the sentence of Ruskin’s which so happily precedes it.

The book is liberally illustrated by photographs and sketches. Some of the former are beautiful, notably Mr. G. P Baker’s frontispiece Loen Vand, Mr. Howard Priestman’s Fjærland and Mr. W. N. Tribe’s Romsdalshorn. Perhaps the best of the mountain photographs are Mr. Priestman’s Western Horungtinder and his line glacier picture of an ice cataract on the Kronebræ. Mr. Colin Philip’s sketch of crags on Slogen is excellent, and the ledge on Skagastolstind by Mr. G. P. Baker is full of admirable detail. The numerous illustrations in the text are, however, poor and misleading. Drawn principally from sketches by the author they lack value, but the amateurs to whom they have been entrusted have probably made the most of the rough materials given them. It is to be regretted that photographs have not been made greater use of. The text itself is modest and free from exaggeration, but one can hardly say the same of the extraordinary mountain forms that illustrate it. Good photographs, if obtainable, would have been more satisfactory and convincing. Mr. Howard Priestman’s maps are excellent aids by which to follow the author.

The book is of fascinating interest to lovers of Norway and an entertaining record of splendid work. It contains no appeal to the curiosity of the morbid. It is singularly free from pose and its author never plays to the gallery in a mountaineering sense. He is always a kindly courteous Englishman, winning the hearts of his hosts in the lonely sæter, and the confidence of his fellow climbers on the untrodden peaks of Norway, as he has gained and keeps the affection of the Yorkshire Ramblers.

L.M.

Bernese Oberland. – From The Gemmi To The Mönchjoch. By G. Hasler.

(London : T. Fisher Unwin, 1903.)

As compared with Mont Blanc, the Pennines, and other Alpine Ranges long fashionable with mountaineers the Oberland may have been called a “poor, neglected district,” but that either its valleys are poor in loveliness or its peaks lacking in grandeur, or even that the Oberland is neglected either by the tourist or the mountaineer will be indignantly denied.

In one sense only can itl be said to have been neglected. While other districts, much less frequented by mountaineers, have for a number of years had their “Climbers’ Guides,” the deserving Oberland has been without one. Mr. Hasler’s little volume is the first instalment towards remedying this long standing grievance. It deals with the central and most important mass of the Oberland, covering from the Gemmi on the W. to the Eiger on the E., and includes, though necessarily briefly, the groups of the Balmhorn, Breithorn, Blümlisalp, Bietschhorn, Aletschhorn. and JIungfrau. The various routes made on these are here arranged in chronological order and the particulars, which have been gathered from reliable sources, are concisely stated.

A second volume, shortly to be issued, will comprise the district from the Eiger to the Grimsel, and the third and fourth volumes, completing the Oberland, will be devoted to the groups E. of the Haslithal and the long wing W. of the Gemmi as far as the Muveran.

That new and good work may still be found in the Oberland is proved by Mr. Meade’s descent of the N.E. aréte of the Jungfrau made since the first volume was published, and, as is the case in previous Climbers’ Guides, a few blank leaves are inserted for the addition of further records, so that its possessors may conveniently keep it up to date.

A great acquisition to these little volumes would be the insertion of a small map of the district dealt with-similar to those in the Dauphiny Map volume, and with the positions of the huts marked on; also outline sketches roughly indicating the routes up the peaks. This latter the Swiss Alpine Club has furnished in its “Clubführer durch die Glarner Alpen,” which being otherwise broadly on the lines of the English “Climbers’ Guides ” is a flattering testimony to the usefulness of the series.

Moors, Crags And Caves Of The High Peak. By E. A. Baker, M.A.

(London: John Heywood, 1903.)

Mr. Baker’s book comprises a collection of well written, articles of great interest to lovers of the moorland in general, and to rock scramblers and cave explorers in particulars. To all such the High Peak offers no few possibilities of enjoyment, l and the author’s chapters tell of these in such terms as should l induce other than Derbyshire men to visit that part of the Pennines.

Yorkshiremen who are familiar with their own moors, crags and caves will read the book with especial pleasure for in it they will see ably depicted by word and picture many scenes strikingly similar to those in their own county. One section records the more important cave explorations made by members of the Kyndwr Club. Though there are no Gaping Ghylls or Alum Pots in Derbyshire, excellent underground sport may be had there. Elden Hole, explored by Mr. Rooke Pennington in 1873, is the nearest in point of size to the larger Yorkshire Pot-holes.

The methods employed by Mr. Baker and his friends in making descents are not always above reproach – as they ought to be, considering the unpleasant possibilities which may attend the sport. Indeed, he confesses that after the adventure which his party had during their first descent of Elden Hole he almost resolved never to venture down a pot-hole again. Fortunately for his readers a second descent, and one more successful, in its freedom from ‘incident,’ caused him to alter his opinion and he became an ardent speleologist. He, however, cannot be very familiar with work of this kind in other parts of the Pennine chain or he would not have stated that “to get a party of thirteen men to the bottom of a 200 feet pot-hole without accident” is “a feat unique,” unless he meant that the unlucky number called for a disaster, and that in this instance there was no response.

The “craggy” section of the book should prove of service to local scramblers. The author, following O. G. Jones’s example, has classified many of the Derbyshire Rock climbs in order of difficulty.

The book is nicely got up and well illustrated, and it can be heartily recommended to all Moor Ramblers, Crag Scramblers and Cave Explorers.

Recent Books.

Aconcagua And Tierra Del Fuego. A book of Climbing, Travel and Exploration. By Sir Martin Conway. With 27 illustrations and a map. Size 8½ x 5½. pp. xii. and 252 (London: Cassell & Co., Ltd. 1902. Price 12s. 6d. net.)

Round Kangchenjunga. A narrative of Mountain Travel and Exploration. By Dougl.AS W. Freshfield. With 43 illustrations, panorama and 3 maps. Size 10 x 6½, pp. xvi. and 367. (London: Edward Arnold. 1903. Price 18s. net.)

Climbs And Exploration In The Canadian Rockies. By Hugh E. M. Stutfield And J. Norman Collie, F.R.S. With 80 illustrations and 2 maps. Size 8½ x 5½, pp. xii. and 343. (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1903. Price 12s. 6d net.) Reviewed on p. 85

Climbing On The Himalaya and other Mountain Ranges. By J. Norman Collie, F.R.S. With illustrations and a map. Size, 8½ x 5½. pp. vii. and 315. (Edinburgh: David Douglas. 1902. Price 16s. net.) Reviewed on p. 83

The Bernese Oberland. (Conway & Coolidge’s Climbers’ Guides.) Vol. I. From the Gemmi to the Mönchjoch. By G. Hasler. Size 51/4 x 3½, pp. xxv. and 164. (London : T. Fisher Unwin. 1902. Price 10s.) Reviewed on p. 91

Alpine Flora, for Tourists and Amateur Botanists. By Dr. Julius Hoffmann. Translated from the German by E. S. Barton (Mrs. A. Gepp.) With 40 coloured plates. Size 81/8 x 51/4, pp. xii. and 112. (London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1903. Price 7s. 6d. net.)

A Pleasure Book Of Grindelwald. By Daniel P. Rhodes. With 61 illustrations and a map. Size 8 x 53/8, pp. xv. and 235. (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1903. Price 6s. net.)

Guide To Switzerland. With 31 maps and 6 plans. Size 63/4 x 43/4, pp. cvi. and 235. (London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1903. Price 5s. net.)

True Tales Of Mountain Adventure for non-climbers, young and old. By Mrs. Aubrey Le Blond (Mrs. Main.) With 36 illustrations. Size 85/8 x 53/4, pp. xvi. and 299. (London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1903. Price 10s. 6d. net.)

Volcanic Studies In Many Lands. Being reproductions of Photographs by the author of above one hundred actual objects, with explanatory notices. By Tempest Anderson, M.D. Size 97/8x 75/8. pp. xxviii. and 202. (London: John Murray. 1903. Price 21s. net.)

Norway: The Northern Playground. Sketches of Climbing and Mountain Exploration in Norway between 1872 and 1903. By Wm. Cecil Slingsby. With 102 illustrations and 9 maps. Size 83/4 x 5½, pp. xviii. and 425. (Edinburgh : David Douglas. 1904. Price 16s. net.) Reviewed on p. 90

Norwegian By-Ways. By Charles W. Wood. With 9 illustrations. Size 73/4 x 51/8, pp. 384. (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1903. Price 6s.)

The Lake Counties. By W. G. Collingwood. With 42 illustrations and 6 maps. Size 65/8 x 41/4, pp. xii. and 392. (London: J. M. Dent & Co. 1902. Price 4s. 6d. net.) [An exceptionally interesting Guide Book containing special Articles on the Flora, Geology, &c., of the Lake District, and one on Mountaineering by W. P. Haskett Smith. A useful Gazeteer is included].

The English Lakes. By F. G. Brabant, M.A. With 12 illustration and 10 maps. Size 6 x 33/4, pp. x. and 379. (London : Methuen & Co. 1902. Price 3s.)

Crag And Hound In Lakeland. By C. E. Benson. With 28 illustrations. Size 81/2 x 51/2, pp. xvii. and 313. (London: Hurst & Blackett, Ltd. 1902. Price 7s. 6d., net.) Reviewed on p. 88.

Lake Country Rambles. By Wm. T. Palmer. With a frontispieces Size 71/2 x 5, pp. viii. and 334. (London: Chatto & Windus. 1902. Price 6s.)

Moors, Crags and Caves of the High Peak and the Neighbourhood. By Earnest A. Baker, M.A. With 43 illustrations and 2 maps. Size 85/8 x 55/8, pp. xii. and 418. (London: John Haywood. Price 6s net.) Reviewed on p. 92.

Highways and Byways in South Wales. By A. G. Bradley. With 87 illustrations, by F. L. Griggs, and a route map. Size 77/8 x 55/8, pp. xii and 418. (London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd. 1903. Price 6s.)

The Old Kingdom of Elmet: York and the Ainsty District. A descriptive sketch of the History, Antiquities, Legendary Lore, Picturesque Features and Rare Architecture. Vol. I. By Edmund Bogg. With over 200 illustrations. Size 81/4 x 63/4, pp. xvi and 391. (London: John Heywood. 1902. Price 6s. 6d. net)