Reviews

AN ALPINE JOURNEY : by F. S. Smythe. (Victor Gollanez Ltd., 1934, 350 pp., 53 illustrations, 16s.). To have the freedom of the British hills is a great thing, but to have the freedom of the Alps is a greater. Smythe’s book makes clear that it can only come to the mountaineer in its fullness if, firstly, he can ski, and secondly, if he can talk freely to the people of the land. One Good Friday, 30th March, he set forth alone from just over the Austrian border, and five weeks later reached Montreux.

The Easter crowd was soon lost, and for half the time he wandered on alone across Eastern Switzerland over the snows with only two days halt, to Klosters first, from Arosa to Chur, from Wallenstadt to Amsteg and over to Andermatt, sleeping in huts and gasthofs, and later on in barely opened hotels. A spell of bad weather, broken only by the expedition via the Rotondo hut to Oberwald on the Rhone, and he runs down to Bern 10 days later as a tourist, longing for a real armchair in a drawing-room, and even fancying the food in hotels for the Swiss not so good as in tourist hotels, a bad sign. In the last five days he went without ski over the foot-hills from Kandersteg to Gstaad.

Only great experience of winter climbing could have carried this through, and only free command of the language could have done it happily.

The main part of the book reads like full and vivid letters to a friend ; we live the days on the snow, the hours of rest on the high places and among the flowers, we curse the wireless, we jest at the Downhill Only, we abominate the sandwich zone, we learn how to tackle a duvet, we grumble at extras, and with heart in mouth we tackle the critical stretches of snow-slopes to the Hüfi hut and below.

THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS : by F. S. Smythe. (Hodder and Stoughton, pp. xiv and 308, 20s. net). Too seldom do we find in Alpine books any unveiling of those deep feelings which are engendered by intimacy and close contact with mountains. More generally, readers of modern books are accorded particulars of the latest mountaineering venture or success, interspersed with thrilling accounts of accidents and escapes, on crag or glacier, and with few comments on what it may all mean. Indeed, excepting in some of the Alpine Classics and occasional passages in Club Journals, comparatively few writers on the subject have taken us below the surface of things.

How hills and mountains influence man spiritually is what many would like to know more about. Wordsworth, Shelley and some of our later poets have given us of their thoughts and feelings regarding mountains, and the Brontes interpreted to us the spirit of the Yorkshire moors. There is, however, much lack of it in our Alpine literature. Yearly the hills call greater numbers of young people to them. The urge is felt and acted on in degree according to the receptive power of the mind and physical fitness of the body, but the spiritual feeling that has acted between the mountain and the man needs more consideration and fuller interpretation than it has received.

Largely because of this Mr. Smythe’s book is to be welcomed. It might well be entitled the ” Life and Philosophy of a Mountaineer,” although the author disclaims any right to be called a philosopher.

It tells of the growth of a boy’s love for hills and mountains, and of their influence on him through life. For analysis of the subject the book is divided into such chapter headings as Low Hills, High Hills, The Highest Hills, Dawn, Dusk, Night, Storm, Calm, Rest, Friendship, The Physical, The Mental, Death, and others. There are 23 of them, but these will convey the line of thought and treatment of the author.

The book is more than pleasantly readable and, where reasoning, is logical without being deep. Its descriptions of mountain scenery are charming and the tales of adventure included in some of the chapters, though not all new, give point to the author’s argument at the moment.

We are here accorded the mature meditation of the experienced mountaineer and keen observer of nature. We learn how the “Spirit of the Hills” — or that mysterious power that hills exercise over many men — has entered into his being, and how it has influenced his understanding and appreciation of nature.

Mr. Smythe is no mere materialist. He regards the world as God-made, and for the good of man. Mountains whether in storm or sunshine, are for his admiration and good, and seeing this he accepts other conditions, such as discomforts and dangers, as circumstances to be met and borne with in a proper spirit.

The book can be highly commended. Young mountaineers can learn much from it, and the older ones will enjoy the renewal of many thoughts that must have passed through their minds at times and under circumstances similar to those recorded by the author.

The book is well printed, and with few exceptions the photographic illustrations are of that high quality we look for from Mr. Smythe. It is to be hoped the publishers will soon see their way to bring out another edition at a much lower price than the first.—T.G.

ALPINISME ANECDOTIQUE : by Charles Gos. (Editions Victor Attinger, Neuchdtel, pp. 312, 4/r.).—A collection of short articles—a score on the annals of mountaineering, five on great guides with very full memoirs of Franz Lochmatter, a score on the first Matterhorn accident. They are delightful reading. M. Gos recalls that an early rock climb, led by a Ligurian is described in Sallust’s Jugurtha, then we pass to Mont Aiguille, to a climb with a political aim, to Everest, to the Pic Wilson, etc,

The evidence of the witnesses at the enquiry into the 1865 tragedy is reprinted, with other contemporary matter of great interest, some of which gives an indication of the dreadful task of this and other search parties. The hat Croz wore, now in the Zermatt museum, has been looked at, and proves to be a London hat given him by Whymper or Hudson. Some very necessary attention is directed to the great abilities of Peter Taugwalder. It is curious that in all the discussions about the ropes it was never replied to Whymper that Taugwalder could not use the second stout rope, because Whymper stopped behind with it. Reading through the enquiry, one realises why trade unions are so keen that men under suspicion should have an expert ” friend.”

LA NUIT DES DRUS by Charles Gos. (Attinger, pp. 186, 4fr.). — The story of a bivouac of 15 hours between the Grand and Petit Drus. It appears to be a study of I’alpinisme homicide. Emotions, thoughts, dreams are worked out in great detail. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. the adventurers freeze and are only saved by burning their ice axes, chip by chip. With this bountiful fire they not only boil up two gourds of tea from snow but are fairly warm, and keep going by recalling all sorts of incidents.

The story plays on the modern idea of pushing at a stiff peak, regardless of time, bad weather, and condition, in fact bad mountaineering, I’alpinisme homicide. A Swiss and an Englishman, fairly competent, reach the Grand Dru at 2 p.m., rather late. The Englishman is seedy, the clouds gather. Nevertheless instead of retreating in time to get off the rocks in daylight, in any case to bivouac low down, they push on, get down the Grand Dru summit rocks after four, and the clouds settle round. The Englishman knocks the stove over the precipice and thereafter weeps continuously instead of swearing (evidently the book is fiction). At 8 a.m. the clouds clear, and in the closing lines they are saved as the first person necessitates. In reality they would have been killed or bunkered descending the Petit Dru, which has been the scene of some dreadful consequences of this sort of thing.

ALPINE JOURNAL (Nos. 248-251, 1934 and I935. I0s. 6d. each).— The first article, on Paccard’s diary, provides facsimiles of the writing and of a long letter from Paccard at the. age of 22, which was discovered in Italy in 1932. The author considers the resemblance sufficient to show that the diary is in the Doctor’s writing and therefore not a copy of his memoranda by another hand. Unfortunately the letter is in print-script (thus not entirely a modern fad !) and not in the running hand of the diary.

Odell describes climbs in Labrador and N.E. Greenland. It is amazing how experience enables the expert ice navigators to reach the dreaded east coast and to get their parties away the same summer. Climbs in West Greenland and Baffinland fill a later paper.

Other distant regions dealt with are Formosa, and the Coast Range of British Columbia. A Swiss party has made the fifth ascent of Ushba, 2½ days up, 3 nights out. Rickmers writes in his usual gay and illuminating fashion of Caucasus and Bulgaria. Moral, you must be ready for many forms of uncleanliness.

Graham Brown besides being concerned in five traverses in Dauphin^, one of them of all the peaks of the Ailefroide, has a long and thrilling account of the ascent of Mount Foraker, Alaska (17,300 ft.) which meant an incredible amount of relay work with the loads, and an absence of seventeen days from the support party.

The lessons of Everest, 1933, are discussed, and Crawford’s diary printed. Oliver has made a second ascent of Trisul. The Pallis expedition had three months in the Gangotri Glacier region in 1933. but Shipton and Tilman spent no less than four in the intricate and difficult Nanda Devi group. The gorges are terrible, the last effort requiring nine days to make seven miles of airline. Total cost of the Nanda Devi expedition, £287.

The terrible story of Nanga Parbat and the utter recklessness of the Germans, as compared with the behaviour of the Bavarians on Kangchenjunga, is told almost without comment. Such would be useless, so utterly different to-day is the German outlook on mountaineering to ours. Of sixteen men at the uppermost camp, only seven got back.

What guides can do has been shown by Steuri’s lead of the Matterhorn N. Face in 13 hours from the Hornli hut, and by Rubi and Schlunegger traversing from the Mitteleggi hut over Eiger, Monch, and Jungfrau down to the valley in under 16 hours.

The amazing development of climbing by means of driving in spikes has caused the President to suggest that ascents by these means should be ignored. W’orse still is the accompanying phenomenon of I’alpinisme homicide. A great tribute is paid to Smythe and Rey for risking their lives on the Col du Fresnay in such a search in 1934. when of course the actual recovery of the bodies involved yet more men in danger. The latest number contains three stories, once incredible. Four Italians having left a fifth behind, pushed on in bad weather over the Matterhorn though the party in front had fallen over their heads from the top of the ladder, and being overtaken on the third day out by a most gallant pair of guides and met by another pair, two survivors were got down to the Hornli. If guiding as a profession falls into disuse, one can foresee that the number of deaths from this sort of thing will force on police control of climbing on certain peaks.

A steeplejack couple on the Eiger N. Face after five days were overwhelmed by a sixth day of storm. The Editor’s comments are severe, but it is perhaps not surprising that he fails to scarify the less

crazy proceedings detailed in a short article on the Hoher Gell. This party pushed on madly to a bivouac at 8.30 p.m. in bad weather and rain, the summit at n a.m. in a blizzard, and the hut at 5 p.m. on the second day. It is mentioned casually that a similar crowd on the next peak had to be rescued, and that owing to the efficient rescue organization it is quite safe in Bavaria to go out with inadequate clothing and to push on to a bivouac.

THE HIMALAYAN JOURNAL (Vols. IV, V, VI and VII, 1932-35)-—In these volumes we find such a wealth of interesting matter that it seems invidious to attempt to mention only a few of the articles.

We find descriptions of the ascent of Kamet, by Capt. Birnie, of the attempt on Kangchenjunga by Paul Bauer in Vol. IV, of the opening attack on Nanga Parbat by Willi Merkl in Vol. V, Everest by Ruttledge, together with articles on the same subject by Wager, and an account of the Everest Flight by Blacker in Vol. VI, while in Vol. VII Fritz Bechtold describes the 1934 Nanga Parbat expedition and Smythe discusses problems of Kangchenjunga. All these articles are worthy of note as affording authentic accounts of the expeditions in a form that is particularly handy to those who have not the time, or in some cases the knowledge of the language, necessary for reading the longer books on the subjects.

There is a further article in Vol. IV on the notorious Shyok ice-barrier. As forecast by Major Mason, the rift by which the waters escaped in 1929 had healed by 1930. A breach, but fortunately not a catastrophic one, again occurred in 1931, but at that time the lake had only reached a height of 200 ft. as compared with the 500 of 1929. Altogether it appears that the danger of floods is rapidly diminishing, due to the retreat and degeneration of the glacier.

Vol. V has an interesting account of the attempts to reach the inner sanctuary of Nanda Devi by Longstaff and Ruttledge, and this is followed up in Vol. VI by a description of Tilman and Shipton’s successful expedition. The expense of ^287 covered fares both ways.

A. P. F. Hamilton contributes a paper on the erosion of the Siwaliks (a foot-hill range of the Himalayas) and shows what incalculable damage can be done by allowing the cutting-down of forests. This makes one realise how little one knows of the effects of erosion in our country.

Finally, a word of praise must be given to the magnificent photographs that accompany the articles and the excellent get-up of the journal as a whole, although such praise is really superfluous when it is mentioned that the publishers are the Clarendon Press.—G.S.G.

SPELUNCA(Bulletin du Speleo-Club de France, 1933). — The fourth number of Spelunca is once more replete with accounts of numberless caves and pot-holes, all most scientifically described with altitudes above sea level, orientations, geological age and observations upon temperatures and humidities. It is all too rarely that the writers speak of the more human side of the sport and one might also wish for descriptions of the equipment used. What exactly, for example, was M. Casteret’s ” perche metallique faite de 5 tubes de 2 metres se vissant bout a bout ” ; and what sort of a bateau pneumatique was used down the Aven de Banicous ? Nevertheless the journal makes intensely interesting reading, for the pot-holer with any imagination can readily fill in the gaps.

Jean Maurin discusses reasons why the source of the river Foux is not the resurgence of the Vis, near Alzon, some 30 miles N.W. of Montpellier. He bases his arguments on three factors ; the difference in flow at the two points ; the difference in analysis of the two waters, maintaining that the extreme hardness of the Foux, compared with the Vis, cannot be gained by flow through fissures only, but must be due to filtration ; and finally on geological grounds, from a consideration of the strata. It forms an interesting piece of theoretical caving but, as the author points out that it can only be proved by dyeing the water, one is rather left wondering why he did not try experiment with fluorescin.

L. Balzan describes his 1933 campaign in the neighbourhood of Millau (some 50 miles N.W. of Montpellier) among a couple of dozen caves and pot-holes. The Aven de Banicous, in the Causse Jean, was found to be 500 ft. deep, excavation being necessary at 320 ft. The last pitch of 120 ft. was laddered down an icy waterfall without life line and led to a small lake which was explored by boat. It is interesting to note that the air temperature at the bottom was only 43i°F., although the surface shade temperature was 72^. In another cavern, reached by a 100 ft. ladder, remains of a hearth and oven were found. The author speculates as to whether there was not formerly a level entrance to the place, as seems likely from his discovery. In the course of his article, M. Balzan gives a piece of very sound advice about the naming of caves. He gives examples of caves having been given different names by guides from different localities, or even from the same locality and stresses the importance of always giving an exact map reference.

Norbert Casteret, that indefatigable swimmer of syphons, also describes his 1933 campagne souterraine. He gives an interesting account of the recent complete engulfment of a stream by a pre-existing pot-hole in its bed, causing it to follow an underground course for some 1,300 yards. The stream in question, the Aguarech, in the central Pyrenees, has an estimated flow of 75 million gallons a day, and higher up its course issues from a cave that has been explored for nearly three quarters of a mile. His most important discovery, however, was a new pot-hole, named by him Gouffre Martel, and its accompanying cave, the Grotte Cigalere. The cave was explored to the end, a distance of ij miles, at which point it was proved by accurate survey to be nearly vertically below the pot-hole, which was itself explored to. a

depth of 564 ft. The total depth of the pot, including the unexplored portion, down to the upper end of the cave, would reach the very remarkable figure of 1,200 ft., or, measuring to the lower end of the cave, 1,500 ft. Thus this may prove to be the fourth deepest known cave, pride of place going to the Bus della Preta, with its colossal depth of 2,080 ft.

Bernard Geze describes more expeditions in the Montpellier region. In exploring one of the Avens de Masclou he and his companions arrived, after several pitches totalling 214 ft. at a fair sized chamber with a fissure leading from it. The floor of this fissure was covered with what he describes as such an intimate mixture of clay and water that progress was impossible without serious risk of engulfment. A genuine quicksand cave at last, and a most tantalising one, since echo suggested further possibilities.

G. Lavaur describes numerous small caves and pot-holes in the Lot district. He comments on some fine gours, no less than 16 ft. high in a nameless igue near the station of Rocamadour. His most interesting work was further exploration of an already well-known bone cave— the Grotte de Ste. Eulalie. This has been known for some time from finds of human bones and pottery, but recently some fine reindeer drawings were discovered and some artifacts of the Magdalenian culture. Later still, further discoveries were made, including a sarcophagus of the Merovingian age, paying tribute to the long usage the cave had endured.

R. de Joly, the president of the S.C.F., gives a detailed month by month account of the explorations carried out by groups of the club. The long list of descents bears witness, not only to the immense activity of the club, but also to the wealth of their hunting grounds. These explorations involved no less than 16,000 ft. of ladder work and nearly 6,000 miles of travel by train and car. It is impossible to try even to do justice to such a list. Picking at random, one notes that M. de Joly succeeded in leading a party down the Aven de Jean-Nouveau, to a point beyond that previously reached by Martel. The first pitch is a sheer ladder descent of 490 ft., beyond which is a second, making a total of 555 ft. In August, while exploring the Avens de Plos, he was lucky enough to be able to observe the ” breathing ” of a cave, noticing the ascent of air from the cave while the sun was shining above and its flow downwards into the cave while the sun was obscured by clouds.

The remainder of the journal is made up by a review, by M. de Joly, of recent caving work in various countries. Three pages are devoted to England, mostly culled from a letter of E. E. Roberts, describing the 1932 and 1933 activities of the Y.R.C. and other clubs. It is rather a pity that the accuracy is marred by a series of misprints in the place names, one or two of which were not written well enough to recognise. The President ends up with a plea that his English colleagues should state precisely the geological stratum in which a cave is situated and the orientation of its principal galleries. Engineers and other scientists please note !—G.S.G.

A POT-HOLE IN THE CANARY ISLANDS(Aux lies Fortunees, by R. de Joly, La Geographie, LXII, Nos. 3-4). — Having heard rumours of pot-holes in the Grand Canary, M. de Joly, the president of the Speleo Club de France, found his caving instinct aroused and promptly set off to explore it. The article gives a general description of the Canary Islands and their barren volcanic summits, but the point of greatest interest in his description of the Sima (Abyss) de Ginamar. The mouth of this, situated some goo ft. above sea level, presents the normal appearance of a limestone pot-hole, but it is, in fact, volcanic in origin, the surrounding rock being basalt. It was originally a small subsidiary orifice in the side of a large volcano.

The author and his companions succeeded in reaching the bottom of the abyss, at a depth of nearly 200 ft., but found no exit from the basal chamber. Unlike most pot holes, care had to be taken against possible asphyxiation from carbon dioxide, although none was actually detected, the only strange gases arising from numberless putrifying animal remains. They succeeded in finding some stalactites, not of calcium carbonate, but of a mixture of phosphates, aluminium sulphate and silica, presumably of organic origin. An attempt to use wireless to communicate with the surface proved a complete failure.

M. de Joly mentions that he was asked to explore some pot holes on the Island of Teneriffe, but could not do so owing to lack of time.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPELEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (Bristol University), Vol. IV, No. 2, 98 pp., and Vol. IV, No. 3, 112 pp., each 7s. 6d. — An archaeological journal with abundant technical details for the excavator — almost entirely on the surface. Two-thirds of the first number describes the very careful work on the Tynings Farm Barrows on Mendip, but the article on Field Work is more interesting to the non-specialist with its two maps of Celtic downland settlement and field systems.

In the later number, a seventeen page article treats of teeth from a Maltese burial cave, but space is twice given to cave-exploring. There are eleven superb plates of Swildon’s Hole, followed by a note giving a formula for the amount of flash powder, and another note reports that Mr. Tratman has obtained 800 ft. of 16 mm. motion pictures.

In an important article on the formation of Yorkshire caverns, Mr. E. Simpson lays down the pot-holer’s view. His experience leads him to put faith in Hill’s and Brodrick’s theory of fracturing as a primary cause, put forward to the Yorkshire Geological Society in 1907. We believe that the theory was not well received then.

For the first time the modern view of the importance of shale beds is dealt with at length. It is interesting to look through Cuttriss’s and Dwerryhouse’s articles in the Y.R.C.J,, Vols. I and II, and to note that the connection between bedding planes and shale beds is a new idea born of accumulated facts.

SCOTTISH MOUNTAINEERING CLUB JOURNAL (Nos. 113-120). The stringing of the Ben Nevis and Glencoe diagrams with dotted lines goes on now in real earnest. Bell and his friends have done much in Glencoe, and have climbed Ben Nevis N.E. Buttress, West Face, in stocking feet, while Macphee has been of late very active on the Ben with stiff climbs on the Trident and Buttress, but most desperate of all, an ascent under icy conditions of the Tower Gap Chimney. From Skye come two new climbs, one, the Engineer’s Slant, described by D. L. Reed. We note also the ascent of the Mitre Ridge, Beinn a’ Bhuird, of the Rannoch Wall, and the forcing by Slavs of a route on Ben Nevis by the use of pitons.

Among much of more general interest are a raid, other than Botterill’s, on the forbidden peaks of Rum, Parker’s article and diagram on visibility and refraction, a description of Frankland’s Great Wall Gully, and tables of hills over 2,000 ft. in the Lowlands, 86 with 133 tops. Dow is the fourth to do all the Munros.

There are two particularly striking photographs—of Liathach and Loch Maree—by Parry, who is to be succeeded as Editor by J. H. B. Bell.

RUCKSACK CLUB JOURNAL (Nos. 26-29, 1932-5).—We must all take careful note that Mr. Doughty has looked into the spelling of rucksack and finds that the word is of recent appearance in German literature, coming from the hill country without any justification for two dots over the u. In the same way the dots are absent in Innsbruck, though they appear in the northern name Saarbriicke. So, thank Heaven, the word is rucksack.

Among the many articles on mountaineering abroad, Messrs. Eversden and Gourlay recount their very fine holiday effort and ascent of Lhonak Peak in the Kangchenjunga district, Mr. Thomas his great expedition on the Aiguilles of Mont Blanc du Tacul and fast times in the Sella Dolomites, and Mr. Eastwood two quite exciting journeys in Iceland. Mr. Goodfellow has a most valuable article on Mountain Photography, and a vivid account of his expeditions on the west side of the New Zealand Alps. Parnassos, Sierra Nevada, the Cameroon, the High Tatra are the subjects of other writers.

Details are given of the Pillar Girdle, Esk Pike No. 2, Scawfell East Buttress, Clogwyn du’r Arddu, and other notable climbs. The new Editor, Mr. Robin Gray has done a stiff climb alone on the very.end of Suilven, and a new long walk has been invented by Mr. G. A. Deane from Chorley east to Ripponden. But oh, Club of Tigers, how is it that one of you uses a rope ladder for the ” mousehole ” in Eyam Cavern ? Is it a good suggestion to label the place Childswalk instead of the misnomer Carlswark ?

The Rucksack Club has many facile pens, there are many pleasant and discursive articles, two are fiction even, and the full inner meanings of one, ” The Last of the Munros,” will one day be explained to us, we hope. ” A Plea for the Press ” makes the perfectly reasonable suggestion that, when any climbing incident is likely to get into the newspapers, a succinct and straightforward statement should be made to the district representative of the Press Association.

JOURNAL OF THE FELL AND ROCK CLIMBING CLUB (No. 28, published 1935). — Somervell has a delightful article on a journey to see Nanga Parbat, and Mrs. Richards another on climbing in Canada. Some very useful advice is given on the Dolomites. The moral of Beetham on ” Ski-ing ” seems to be ” it is very tiresome learning to do it skilfully but worth while going out for the purpose once.”

There is an increasing tendency these days to fill up climbing journals with fiction, and it is a great pity people should be allowed to try to fix ghost stories on to particular peaks.

At home, Graham Brown describes many climbs on the newly found Boat Howe, Kirkfell. The long list of variations at last runs short ; the Diver of Wookey Hole is responsible for six of the eight new climbs.

PILLAR ROCK AND NEIGHBOURHOOD : by H. M. Kelly. (Fell and Rock Climbing Club Guide, revised 1935, 120 pp.). In its new and much reduced form, 6 ins. by 4^ins., we have now a convenient pocket guide. The print is smaller but clear ; the photographs are entirely omitted and replaced by five delightful sketches by W. Heaton Cooper, provided with route lines.

CAIRNGORM CLUB JOURNAL. (Vol. XIII, Nos. 72-75).—A strong group of rock climbers has clearly grown up in Aberdeen, seven articles assisting to festoon the Lochnagar Crags diagram with white lines in the modern way. The club admits both men and women and is flourishing mightily.

Symmers and Ewen have made the second ascent of the Tough-Brown Ridge, Lochnagar, and express unbounded admiration for the prowess of those heroes of 35 years ago, adding that the ridge is not meant to be climbed. Raeburn’s gully waited also for 30 years till 1928 for two ascents to be made, the next three parties arriving on the same day.

Time has proved only too often the truth of Haskett Smith’s pronouncement of forty years ago, ” on the high fells in time of snow an axe is a safeguard of vital importance.” A fatal accident to an experienced young member and the narrow escape from fatal injury of four members descending from Cruach Ardran, two without axes on a place quite difficult enough to ascend for such a party, have emphasized a rule one is astonished to find neglected. It is well that

a warning page declares that ” this climbing business must be taken more seriously.”

An Alpine subject is almost an innovation in the Cairngorm Club Journal, J. H. B. Bell writing of his traverse with Parry from the Seilon to the Ruinette. With other narratives of excursions away from the Cairngorms are to be found wonderful photographs of Ben Eighe and Liathach and Mam Sodhail.

No. 76 is edited by Mr. William A. Ewen. Two articles refer to the Brocken spectres, that is shadows on cloud and halos or rainbows round them. ” A West Coast Itinerary ” gives most valuable information as to how the Youth Hostels, particularly at Glen Shiel and Torridon, have rendered it possible to-day to travel in the Western Highlands more freely.

JOURNAL OF THE MOUNTAIN CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA. — (Nos. 36 and 37 for 1933 and 1934, price 2s. 6d.). No. 36 opens on the note of alarm at the drying up of South Africa which is now being sounded by thoughtful observers, through man’s evil influence on its vegetation through burning and pasturage. South Africa belongs to that group of countries whose humidity is not sufficient to restore an ample vegetation once it is destroyed.

No. 37 deplores that in the past the State has granted away not only profitable, but useless land, and lost control of the finest scenery and the watersheds of the country. The private owner is the grave danger of the day, for the most unscrupulous campers cause less damage than the deliberate veldt burner. The Conservator of Forests has conducted experiments on starting fires. Broken glass will not cause fire, and mere negligence is not a serious factor.

There are the usual lively records of camping, swagging, and new climbs in the interior, and of more stiff routes near Capetown, with two philosophical articles to be in the fashion. Jan du Toit’s Kloof has been descended. The Worcester section has opportunities of winter sports, and now finds the summer the season in which to leave the mountains alone.

BRITISH SKI YEAR BOOK, 1935 (No. 16, 232 pp., 10s. net). The Ski Club of Great Britain has now over 5,000 members. The Year Book is not quite so gigantic as recent issues. It opens with a number of short articles, then follows ” A Downhill Runner in Norway,” by Frank Ziegler, which openly puts down Finse as a poor place compared with the hills, and describes what excellent running they found in the unfrequented and ” too steep ” Jotunheim. Next the Editor, Arnold Lunn, gives Smythe and Irving fearful slatings over the philosophical parts of their books. I hope no one will take parts of his interesting 50 pages on the racing of the winter as seriously as he has taken portions of these two books. After all Downhill Only as the title of a Ski Club is provocative of jesting criticism and was no doubt intended to be.

GRITSTONE CLUB JOURNAL. Vol. IV, No. 2. Our friends at Bradford have advanced to printing a 35 page journal of pleasing format, without reaching up yet to blocks for the illustrations. It is made up of three articles from their G.H.M.’s successful season of 1932, of the ” over-zealous ” descent of the Washfold Pot (more needless zeal will be found elsewhere), and of Hainsworth’s extraordinary winter descent of Diccan Pot.

It is surprising that Mr. Simpson has not included his survey of Diccan Pot in his plan of Alum Pot. The sketch presented of the upper passage makes the distance between the pools 15 ft., instead of the chain’s seventy—still far too little, say men who have worked ladders along. A. A. Scott put down 125 ft. in his sketch of Diccan.

WAYFARERS’ JOURNAL (1933 and 1935). The wealth of illustration is remarkable, 25 plates in each number. ” Tofana di Roces ” is delightful, and now I know what the Drei Zinnen look like at a distance.

“Iceland for the Mountaineer ” is of outstanding value, and Mr. Hodge’s labour in research deserves gratitude. Mr. Pallis in ” Bivouacs ” by describing his experiments in cutting down weight has rendered great service to those who wish to camp at high altitudes. The results are seen in the wonderful climb of the Central Santopant Peak (22,060), with four camps by Messrs. Kirkus and Warren without porters and carrying 25 lb. each.

There are useful articles on Norway and what to do in Sunnmore, on the unfamiliar West Pyrenees, and on mountaineering rations.

By the way, when the reviewer of Y.R.C.J., No. 20 managed to find two inverted commas apparently missing, he should have read up Mr. Doughty in the A.J. on the usage. As to R.L. Hut, we hope the heating furnace suspended to the clothes rack has not killed anyone.

PINNACLE CLUB JOURNAL (No. 4). This is the number so offensively attacked by the British Mountaineering Journal. Why, we cannot imagine ! The latter would be fortunate if Mrs. Richards and Mrs. Winthrop Young served it as reviewers.

Two articles well worth reading are, one on the Pyrenees, the other on a ten days’ tour from Turtagro from hut to hut, besides Mr. Haskett Smith’s very interesting memories of great women mountaineers. But, alas, we must pillory Mrs. Eden Smith as an accomplice in the crime blatantly pictured on p. 41, and Miss Wood as a confessed criminal—pulling up ferns from the clints on Ingleborough !

No. 5 we have not received.

OXFORD MOUNTAINEERING, 1935 (edited by Elliott Viney, 3s. 6d.). This is the first independent Oxford journal. Two articles, on Dartmoor and on the Lofoten Islands, contain very useful information. The eight papers on Alpine regions are most interesting reading and make one think hard about modern developments—which touch guides as well as amateurs.

Thirty years ago no guide would have taken out 3 clients, nor would he have persisted in leading a party, on foot since 8.30 a.m., for five hours after he should have turned, up iced rocks in a howling gale to reach the Italian Matterhorn hut at 10.40 p.m. The years between have worked out a training for the youth of to-day in hiking and camping which gives them early the freedom of the hills. But to those to whom brilliance on the rocks comes naturally, the extent of their success is a temptation to go too far, to bite off more than they can chew. There are two remarkable instances recorded, and a disturbing note is sounded when one finds a first-class party carrying pitons and a hammer.

THE MOUNTAINEERING JOURNAL (published quarterly).— This bold commercial venture by a young climber to crush out all Club Journals has now been running over three years. He has obtained many articles from foreigners, and it is interesting to read the German point of view, set out several times, and the detail of ice and rock piton work. Generally speaking, it might be described as a popular Alpine magazine.

Many articles are descriptive or guide-book, but there is occasionally a real story of an expedition, as the ascent of Mount Evans, N.Z., and of the Pallis venture. The rotten experience of an Englishman, who assisted the Bavarian Mountain Watch in a rescue, bears on a previous mention of their work, and is of some importance to us, note the one pole stretcher with canvas sheets.

The tone of the editorial work is amusingly patronizing towards people who know their job ; the proof reading too often fails over foreign names. An inclination is manifest to bless developments which will wreck climbing everywhere, as we have known it.

But why worry till they arrive ! We can go our own way happily for some years at least.