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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alps, by Martin Conway
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Alps
+
+Author: Martin Conway
+
+Illustrator: A. D. McCormick
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2012 [EBook #39542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ALPS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephanie Kovalchik and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+DESCRIBED BY W. MARTIN CONWAY
+
+PAINTED BY A. D. McCORMICK
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+
+
+
+AGENTS IN AMERICA
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+[Illustration: 1. HAYMAKERS IN THE VAL MAGGIA. The loads carried by
+the women are enormous in size, what they are in weight I don't know;
+but many of them are larger than those shown in the picture. One load I
+measured was twice the height of the woman.]
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+DESCRIBED BY W. MARTIN CONWAY
+
+PAINTED BY A. D. McCORMICK
+
+LONDON
+
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                        PAGE
+    CHAPTER I
+
+      THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW 1
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+      HOW TO SEE MOUNTAINS 22
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+      HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE 46
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+      ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF ALPS 72
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+      THE MOODS OF THE MOUNTAINS 101
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+      MOUNTAINS ALL THE YEAR ROUND 128
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+      TYPES OF ALPINE PEAKS 151
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+
+      PASSES 177
+
+    CHAPTER IX
+
+      GLACIERS 202
+
+    CHAPTER X
+
+      ALPINE PASTURES 226
+
+    CHAPTER XI
+
+      THE HUMAN INTEREST 251
+
+    CHAPTER XII
+
+      VOLCANOES 274
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+1. Haymakers in the Val Maggia _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+2. Bern from the Sch�nzli 2
+
+3. View of the Bernese Alps from the Gurten, near Bern 4
+
+4. The Pier at Scherzligen, Lake of Thun--Evening 6
+
+5. Melchior Anderegg 8
+
+6. Storm coming up over Lake of Lucerne 10
+
+7. Looking up Valley towards Zermatt from near Randa 14
+
+8. Eiger, M�nch, and Jungfrau from Scherzligen, near Thun 16
+
+9. Lucerne and Lake from the Drei Linden 20
+
+10. The Jungfrau from Interlaken 24
+
+11. Fiescherhorn and Lower Grindelwald Glacier 30
+
+12. The Castle of Chillon 34
+
+13. The Corpus Christi Procession to the Hofkirche of St. Leodegar 38
+
+14. Cloud-burst over Lucerne 44
+
+15. At Meiringen 48
+
+16. Storm Clouds over the Lake of Thun 52
+
+17. Vitznau and Lake of Lucerne 54
+
+18. The Falls of Tosa, Val Formazza 60
+
+19. Looking over Lucerne from the Drei Linden 70
+
+20. Fran�ois Devouassoud 72
+
+21. At Bignasco 76
+
+22. Looking down the Aletsch Glacier from Concordia Hut 82
+
+23. Asconia--on Lago Maggiore 84
+
+24. Locarno from the Banks of the Lake 88
+
+25. Pallanza--Evening 90
+
+26. The Madonna del Sasso, Locarno 92
+
+27. Locarno at Sunset, and North End of Lago Maggiore 100
+
+28. Moonlight in the Val Formazza from the Tosa Falls 104
+
+29. A Mountain Path, Grindelwald 108
+
+30. The Aletschhorn 112
+
+31. The Grosser Aletsch-Firn from Concordia Hut 116
+
+32. Thunderstorm breaking over Pallanza 124
+
+33. The Wetterhorn 130
+
+34. M�rjelen Alp 134
+
+35. Lower Glacier and Grindelwald Church 142
+
+36. Grindelwald looking towards the Wengen Alp 146
+
+37. Rimpfischorn and Strahlhorn from the Riffelberg 150
+
+38. The Matterhorn, Twilight 156
+
+39. Weisshorn and Matterhorn from Fiescheralp 160
+
+40. Aiguille Verte and Aiguille du Dru from the Chamonix Valley 164
+
+41. Boden and Gorner 166
+
+42. The Breithorn from Schwarz See 172
+
+43. The Lyskamm 174
+
+44. The Road from Vitznau to Gersau 180
+
+45. Amsteg in the Reussthal 188
+
+46. The Dent Blanche from the Riffelberg 192
+
+47. The Village of Soldimo, at the Entrance of the Val Maggia 198
+
+48. Fl�elen at end of Lake of Uri, South Arm of Lake of Lucerne 200
+
+49. Furggen Glacier Icefall 206
+
+50. The Gletscherhorn from the Pavilion, H�tel Cathrein, close to Concordia
+  Hut 208
+
+51. The Trugberg 210
+
+52. Pallanza--Sunset 212
+
+53. Kranzberg--Rotthalhorn--and Jungfrau: Sunset 214
+
+54. M�rjelen See and Great Aletsch Glacier 220
+
+55. The Castle of Z�hringen-Kyburg, Thun 226
+
+56. Chalets and Church. Riederalp 234
+
+57. Evening in Zermatt 236
+
+58. Bern from the North-West 238
+
+59. Looking down the Val Formazza from Tosa 240
+
+60. In the Val Bavona 242
+
+61. In the Val d'Aosta 246
+
+62. Ch�tillon, Val d'Aosta 260
+
+63. A Corner of the Town of Altdorf 262
+
+64. Ponte Brolla 266
+
+65. In the Val d'Aosta 268
+
+66. In the Woods of Chamonix 270
+
+67. In a Garden at Locarno 272
+
+68. Pilatus and Lake of Lucerne from the Slopes of the Rigi 276
+
+69. Montreux, Lake of Geneva 280
+
+70. After the Sunset 290
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW
+
+
+John Ruskin, in a fine and famous passage, describes the effect of a
+first view of the Alps upon a young and sensitive mind. He was at
+Schaffhausen with his parents. "We must have spent some time in
+town-seeing," he writes, "for it was drawing towards sunset when we got
+up to some sort of garden promenade--west of the town, I believe; and
+high above the Rhine, so as to command the open country across it to the
+south and west. At which open country of low undulation, far into
+blue--gazing as at one of our own distances from Malvern of
+Worcestershire, or Dorking of Kent,--suddenly--behold--beyond! There was
+no thought in any of us for a moment of their being clouds. They were
+clear as crystal, sharp on the pure horizon sky, and already tinged with
+rose by the sinking sun. Infinitely beyond all that we had ever thought
+or dreamed,--the seen walls of lost Eden could not have been more
+beautiful to us; not more awful, round heaven, the walls of sacred
+Death. It is not possible to imagine, in any time of the world, a more
+blessed entrance into life, for a child of such a temperament as mine."
+
+Many a lad or man has felt a similar awakening when the snowy Alps
+first smote upon his vision, though none has ever so nobly expressed the
+emotion. It is a feeling not to be forgotten in after life. All who love
+mountains have begun to love them from some remembered moment. We may
+have known the hills from infancy, but to know is not necessarily to
+love. It is the day of awakening that counts. To me the hills were early
+friends. Malvern of Worcestershire was my childish delight. I climbed
+Snowdon at the age of seven, and felt the delight that arises from
+standing high and gazing far. But the mountains as beautiful things to
+look at came later. Well do I remember the year when I was at last going
+to the Alps. A vague feeling of expectation and suspense pervaded the
+summer term--the unknown was in the future and hovered there as
+something large and bright. What would the great snow mountains look
+like? That was the abiding question. One June day I was idly lying prone
+upon a grassy bank, watching piled masses of cumulous cloud tower in the
+east with the afternoon sun shining splendidly upon them. Could it be
+that any snow mountains were really as fine as clouds like these? I
+could not believe it.
+
+[Illustration 2: BERN FROM THE SCH�NZLI. The seat of the Swiss
+Government. The Rathhaus, a modern "old Catholic church," in centre of
+picture. The Bernese Oberland Mountains in heat-haze at top.]
+
+At last the day came when the sea was crossed and the long railway
+journey (how long it seemed!) was accomplished. We approached Olten. The
+Oberland ought to have appeared, but only rain fell. We reached Bern,
+and drove up to the little country village of Zimmerwald, where my
+friends were staying; still there was no distant view--nothing but
+wooded and green hills around, that reminded me of other views, and
+revealed no such startling novelty as I was awaiting. One day passed and
+then another. On the third morning the sun rose in a sky perfectly
+clear. When I looked from my window across the green country, and over
+the deep-lying lake of Thun, I saw them--"suddenly--behold--beyond!"
+Jungfrau, M�nch, Eiger, and the rest, not yet individuals for me, not
+for a long time yet, but all together, a great white wall, utterly
+unlike any dream of them that had visited me before, a new revelation,
+unimaginable, indescribable, there they stood, and from that moment I
+also entered into life.
+
+Returned to my school friends in due season, I thought to tell them of
+this new and splendid joy that had come to me, but a few attempts cured
+me of any such endeavour. It was impossible. My words fell upon deaf
+ears, or rather I had no words. What I said failed to raise a picture in
+their minds, as what had before been said to me had failed. I have never
+repeated the attempt; I shall not do so now. The prophet who saw the
+vision of the Almighty could speak only by aid of types and shadows. The
+great revelations of nature's majesty are not describable. Who that had
+never seen a thunderstorm could learn its majestic quality from
+description? Who can enter into the treasures of the snow by way of
+words? The glory of a great desert must be seen to be realised. The
+delicate magnificence of the Arctics none can translate into language.
+We may speak of that we do know, and testify that we have seen, but no
+one receives our testimony, because words cannot utter the essential
+facts.
+
+[Illustration: 3. VIEW OF THE BERNESE ALPS FROM THE GURTEN, NEAR BERN.]
+
+In writing about the Alps, therefore, we write and paint primarily to
+remind those who know; to suggest further visions of a like character to
+those they possess within themselves. Even the greatest master of
+descriptive writing can only manifest his mastership by knowing what to
+omit and where to stop. "Suddenly--behold--beyond!" That is enough for
+those who know. For those who do not know, no words can embody and
+transmit the unfelt emotion.
+
+Since the first day when I saw the snowy mountains, I have seen them
+again and again in all parts of the world, and have come to know them
+from above as well as from below. I have penetrated them in all
+directions and grown to understand the meaning of their smallest details
+of couloir, crevasse, ice-fall, cornice, ar�te, and bergschrund. It has
+not been all gain. Gladly would some of us be able to shed our knowledge
+of detail, if it were but for a moment, and once again behold the great
+wall of white as ignorantly as we first beheld it--a thing, vast,
+majestic, and above all mysterious--unapproachable as the clouds--a
+region not for men but fairies--the rose-clad tops of the mountains
+where dance the spirits of the dawn. Fairest of all is ever the first
+vision, not completest. Later we know more, we understand more, we may
+even come to love more, but the first vision of a young man's love is
+surpassed by no future splendour, and the first glory of a mountain view
+never comes again.
+
+Doubtless there may exist some people who, even if they had been smitten
+by the glory of the mountains in the age of their own most abounding
+youthful powers of body, would not have been attracted to climb them;
+yet such folks must be rare. Those who first see mountains in the years
+of their solid maturity naturally escape the attraction. But most young
+and healthy individuals as naturally desire to climb as they do to swim
+or to wander. The instinct of man is to believe that joy is somewhere
+else than where he stands. "Dort wo du nicht bist, dort ist das Gl�ck."
+It is not true, but life is not long enough to teach us that it is
+not--and fortunately, else were half our efforts quenched in the
+impulse.
+
+To see round, over, and beyond--that is the natural desire of all. We
+want to go everywhere, to behold everything. Who would not rush to visit
+the other side of the moon, were such journey possible? If Messrs. Cook
+were to advertise a trip to Mars, who would not be of the party? "To see
+round, over, and beyond"--that is a common human instinct, which
+accounts for the passion of historical and scientific investigation, for
+the eagerness of politicians, for the enthusiasm of explorers and
+excavators, for the inquisitiveness of psychical societies, for the
+prosperity of fortune-tellers, and for the energy of mountaineers. What!
+There is a height looking down on me and I cannot attain it? There is a
+mountain wall around me and I cannot look over it? Perish the thought!
+There is an historical limit behind which I know nothing about the human
+race? Give me a spade, that I may dig out some yet earlier ancestor and
+discover something about him. There is an unmapped region at the south
+pole? What is my Government made of that it does not send forth an
+expedition to describe it?
+
+[Illustration: 4. THE PIER AT SCHERZLIGEN, LAKE OF THUN--EVENING. The
+Niesen on the right.]
+
+In face of the unknown all men are of one mind. They cannot but
+endeavour to replace ignorance by knowledge. What is true of the mass is
+true to some extent of each individual. There exists in the unit the
+same tendency at all events as in the multitude. Each man wants to see
+what he has not seen, to stand where he has not stood, to learn more
+than he knows. In the presence of mountains this desire urges him
+upward. He does not start as a mountaineer intending to climb, and
+climb. He starts for a single expedition, just to see what high peaks
+and glaciers are like. The snowy regions beheld from a distance puzzle
+him. Evidently they are not like the places he is familiar with. He will
+for once go and take a nearer look. He will climb somewhither and get a
+sight all round. Little does he suspect what the outcome of his venture
+may be. A week ago he was perhaps laughing at the tattered-faced
+climbers he met, as mad fools, going up to mountain-tops just to come
+down again and say they had been there. Of such folly he at any rate
+will never be guilty. Climbing has no fascinations for him; he is merely
+going to have a look at the white world, so that he may know what it is
+that he hears people talking about--their corridors and their couloirs,
+crevasses, snow-bridges, s�racs, and bergschrunds.
+
+So he hires a guide and sets forth for the Breithorn, perhaps, or some
+such high and safe-reputed peak. He hits upon a day when the weather
+turns bad. Winds buffet him; rain and snow drench him; he labours
+through soft snow; he is bewildered by fog. If the sun shines for a few
+moments, it is only long enough to scorch the skin off his face and
+ensure him a few days of great discomfort to follow. He has no view from
+the summit. He returns wearied out to his inn.
+
+[Illustration: 5. MELCHIOR ANDEREGG. Born 1828. A celebrated Alpine
+guide; with the late Sir Leslie Stephen made many first ascents,
+including the Rympfischhorn, Alphubel, Oberaarhorn. Also well known for
+his wood-carving.]
+
+Yes!--and thenceforward the alpine fever masters him. He is caught and
+makes no effort to escape. His keenest desire is to be off once more
+into those same high regions--once more to feel the ice beneath his
+feet--once more to scramble up clean crags fresh from nature's
+sculpturing and undefiled by soil or vegetation. With each new ascent he
+becomes eager for more. The summers are all too short for his
+satisfaction. He goes home to read about other people's climbs, to study
+maps and guide-books, to lay out schemes for future seasons. Dauphiny,
+the Graians, the Engadine and Tirol--he must give a season or seasons to
+each. Thus is the climber fashioned out of an ordinary man.
+
+Each new votary of the peaks in turn experiences the same sudden
+conversion, expects to be able to explain his new delight to his lowland
+friends, and in turn discovers the same impossibility. He learns, as we
+all have learned, that the delight is not translatable into words; that
+each must experience it for himself and each must win his own entrance
+into the secret alone. The most we can do is to awaken the inquisitive
+sense in another, who beholds the visible evidence of our enjoyment and
+wonders what its source may be. In that fashion the infection can be
+spread, and is spread with the extraordinary rapidity that the last
+half-century has witnessed.
+
+What climber does not recall the enthusiasm of his first seasons? the
+passionate expectation of the coming summer, the painful awaiting for
+the moment when his foot should once again crunch the ice-corn of the
+glacier beneath its hob-nailed sole? Gradually that enthusiasm passes
+and is replaced by a settled mood of calmer, but no less intense,
+satisfaction. But does the �sthetic delight in the beauty of the
+mountains remain through all these experiences undimmed? Not always. In
+the first view of them it is the beauty of the snowy peaks, of the great
+white walls, that appeals to the eye. Ignorant of the meaning of every
+detail, the details are almost unseen. It is the whole that is beheld in
+the glory of its whiteness. The wonder of the silver snow beyond the
+green and beneath the sky invades the mind of every new spectator. Small
+need be our surprise that unsophisticated, semi-civilised peoples have
+always believed the snowy regions to be part of the other world--the
+home of ghosts and fairies, or of demons and dragons. "Not more awful,
+round heaven, the walls of sacred Death," says Ruskin in the passage
+above quoted, thereby manifesting how close in its instincts is the
+sympathy between genius and the purely natural man. Almost universal is
+the feeling aroused by a first sight of a great snowy range that it is
+unearthly. Mystery gathers over it. Its shining majesty in full
+sunlight, its rosy splendours at dawn and eve, its pallid glimmer under
+the clear moon, its wreathed and ever-changing drapery of cloud, its
+terrific experiences in storm, all these elements and aspects strike the
+imagination and appeal broadly to the �sthetic sense. Nor are they ever
+quite forgotten even by the most callous of professional mountaineers.
+
+[Illustration: 6. STORM COMING UP OVER LAKE OF LUCERNE. Sketch made from
+Fl�elen.]
+
+But with increase of experience on the mountains themselves come
+knowledge and a whole group of new associations. A man does not climb a
+mountain without bringing some of it away with him and leaving something
+of himself upon it. Returned to the level and looking back, he does not
+see his peak as before. Every feature of the road he traversed is
+remembered, and he instinctively tries to fit the features to the view.
+That velvet slope above the trees is the stony tract up which he toiled
+before dawn and where he stumbled in the fitful lantern-light. That grey
+band beside the glacier is the moraine, whose big rocks were unstable
+beneath his tread. That glacier--how slippery it was before the sun
+smote it! There are the crevasses that made his track so devious; and
+there began the snowfield so hard and pleasant under foot in the early
+hours, so toilsome to wade through as the day advanced. In the upper
+part of the mountain all the little features, that seemed unimportant
+from below, take on a new meaning. He finds it hard to identify
+different points. Can that tiny thread of snow be the broad gully up
+which so many steps had to be cut? He looks at it through a telescope,
+and the actual traces of his staircase become visible. The mountain
+judged by the scale of remembered toil grows wonderfully in height. The
+eye thus trained begins to realise and even to exaggerate the vast scale
+on which peaks are built. But along with this gain in the truthful sense
+of scale comes the loss of mystery. The peak which was in heaven is
+brought down to earth. It was a mere thing of beauty to be adored and
+wondered at; it has become something to be climbed. Its details have
+grown intelligible and interesting. The mind regards it from a new
+aspect, begins to analyse its forms and features, and to consider them
+mainly in their relation to man as a climber. As knowledge grows this
+attitude of mind develops. Each fresh peak ascended teaches something.
+The nature of the climbing on peaks not yet ascended can to some extent
+be estimated from below. The inquiry naturally arises, How shall that
+peak be climbed? Which is the way to attack it? The eye traces possible
+routes and foresees probable difficulties. It rejects or modifies
+proposed ways. It observes all kinds of structural details. It notes the
+path of avalanches and the signs of falling stones. It concentrates its
+attention upon ice-falls and endeavours to thread the maze of their
+s�racs. Thus the intelligence replaces the �sthetic sense and the
+enjoyment of beauty becomes or is liable to become dimmed.
+
+The longer a climber gratifies his instincts and pursues his sport, the
+larger becomes his store of reminiscences and the greater his
+experience. If he confines his attention to a single range of mountains
+such as the Alps, he is almost always in sight of mountains he has
+climbed and glaciers he has traversed. Each view shows him some route he
+has once pursued, some glacier basin he has explored, some pass he has
+crossed. The labyrinth of valleys and the crests of successive ridges do
+not puzzle him. He knows how they are grouped and whither they lead.
+Beyond those mountains is the Zermatt valley; that peak looks down on
+Zinal; that col leads to Saas. Thus there grows in him the sense of the
+general shape and arrangement of the country. It is no longer a tangled
+chaos of heights and depths, but an ordered anatomy, formed by the
+action of definite and continuous forces. So far as his knowledge
+extends this orderliness is realised. He has developed a geographical
+sense. That in its turn poses problems for solution. He notes some
+corner of his map where a deep-lying valley is intricately fitted in
+amongst ridges which he has seen from without. He becomes desirous to
+visit it, so that he may complete the map in his own understanding.
+
+When he goes to a new district he cannot but be eager to obtain a
+geographical grasp of its form and arrangement. The instinct that
+desires to see round corners and over walls has now new food to grow on.
+In a fresh district the geographical problem is always fascinating, but
+in one that has been explored by no mountaineer before, its fascination
+is overwhelming, especially if the explorer be a surveyor and
+cartographer, as I can attest. To see the sketch-map of a previously
+unsurveyed country grow upon the paper is an intense satisfaction. The
+aspect of every peak gives rise to a twofold problem. Can it be climbed,
+and if so by what route? How should it be depicted on the map? These
+questions are ever present. The solution of them is the thought of every
+hour, the first point of interest in every view. As it is with the
+explorer, so to a less extent is it liable to be with every climber; for
+all climbers are to some extent explorers, even though they are but
+exploring previously described and mapped territory. It is new to them,
+at any rate, and that is the important fact. Climbers, when they begin
+to exhaust a district, move to another in hunger after the unknown.
+
+[Illustration: 7. LOOKING UP VALLEY TOWARDS ZERMATT FROM NEAR RANDA.
+Theodulhorn and Furggengrat in distance.]
+
+Hence, as the seasons go by, it happens that the �sthetic interest,
+which was at first the climber's main delight, begins to fade. If he be
+a man of scientific interests it is liable to an even quicker
+evanescence than if he be not, for problems of geological structure, or
+of botanical distribution, or of glaciology and the like, are a keen
+source of intellectual enjoyment. At length, perhaps, the day comes when
+the loss is felt. There is a gorgeous range of snow mountains with every
+effect of cloud and sunshine that the eye can desire, displayed about
+and upon them, yet the climber finds with dismay that his heart is cold.
+The old glory has vanished from the scene and the old thrill is an
+unfelt emotion. What is the matter? Have his eyes grown dim? Has he lost
+the faculty of delight? Is he growing old? Whatever the cause, the
+effect is painful in the extreme. It is one that many of us have felt,
+especially towards the close of a long and successful climbing season,
+or extensive journey of exploration. There is but one remedy--to quit
+the mountains for a while and attend to the common business of life.
+When winter months have gone by and summer is again at hand, the old
+enthusiasm is liable to return. Sooner or later the true mountain-lover
+will begin to starve for sight of the snows.
+
+When age comes upon him and his limbs grow stiff and his heart
+enfeebles, the desire to climb may slacken, but the love of mountains
+will not diminish. Rather will it take on again something of its first
+freshness. Then it was purely objective; now it becomes objective once
+more. The desire to obtain and to possess passes away. We know what it
+is like to be aloft. We foresee the toil with no less, perhaps with even
+greater clearness of prevision than we foresee the triumph and the
+delight. We have learnt the secret of the hills and entered into the
+treasures of the snow. Now we can afford to rest below and gaze aloft.
+If the mystery of our first views can never return, the glow of
+multitudinous memories replaces it not unworthily. The peaks have become
+inaccessible once more. They again belong to another world, the world of
+the past. The ghosts of our dead friends people them, and the ghosts of
+our dead selves. When the evening glow floods them at close of day it
+mingles with the mellow glories of the years that are gone. The old
+passionate hopes and strivings, the old disappointments and regrets, the
+old rivalries, and the old triumphs, vaguely mingling in a faint regret,
+beget in the retired mountaineer an attitude of peace and aloofness. He
+feels again the incommunicable and indescribable delight that thrilled
+him at the first; but now, though it is less passionate, less
+stimulating, less overwhelming than of yore, it is mellower and not a
+whit less beautiful and true.
+
+[Illustration: 8. EIGER, M�NCH, AND JUNGFRAU, FROM SCHERZLIGEN, NEAR
+THUN.]
+
+One precious thing beside memory the retired mountaineer possesses,
+which he who has never climbed must lack: it is knowledge. The keenest
+mountain-lover who never climbed does not really know the nature of what
+he is looking at. Even Ruskin, the most gifted mountain-lover that never
+climbed, constantly reveals in his writings failures to understand. The
+true scale of things was never apparent to his eye. Like all beginners,
+at first underestimating, he presently came to overestimate the size of
+cliffs and ridges. Ability to see things truly is a great possession.
+None but an experienced mountaineer can ever so see mountains. He
+instinctively recognises the important features and distinguishes them
+from the unimportant. He is conscious of what is in front and what
+behind. He does not mistake foreshortened ridges for needle-pointed
+peaks. A range of mountains is not a wall to him but a deep extending
+mass. He feels the recesses and the projections. He has a sense of what
+is round the corner. The deep circuits of the hills are present in his
+imagination even when unbeheld. He knows their white loneliness. The
+seen end of a glacier-snout implies to him all the unseen upper course
+and expanse of its gathering ground. Thus every view to him is instinct
+with implications of the unseen and the beyond. Such knowledge well
+replaces the mystery of his youthful ignorance. If time has taken
+something away, it has amply repaid the theft. It is not his debtor. He
+may mingle now with the crowd who never quit the roads, and no external
+sign shall distinguish him from them, but the actual difference between
+them is fundamental. For the snows are beyond their ken and belong to
+the same region as the sky; but they are within his area; they form part
+of his intellectual estate; they hold his past life upon their crests.
+Where the lowlander looks and wonders, the mountaineer possesses and
+remembers, nor wonders less for being able to realise the immensity of
+the mass of beauteous detail that unites to form a mountain landscape.
+
+To attain such ripe fruition, however, does not come to every man,
+nor to any without taking thought. The most callous person will feel
+some thrill from a first view of a snowy range, but it may soon become a
+commonplace sight, its beauty soon be unperceived. Only by taking
+thought can this be avoided. Unless we can learn from year to year to
+see more, and more recondite, beauties in nature, we are yearly losing
+sensitiveness to nature's beauty. There is no standing still in this
+matter. We must advance or we must go back. A faculty must be used or it
+will atrophy. It is not enough to go to the mountains in order to grow
+in their grace. Sensitiveness to beauty increases in the man who looks
+for beauty and greatly desires to find it. Pure nature is always and
+everywhere beautiful to the eye that knows how to see. The perception of
+the beauty of a thing is, however, not the same as the mere sight of a
+thing. Many may behold a view, and of them all only one may see beauty
+in it. He does so because he brings with him the innate or trained
+capacity for seeing that kind of beauty. But how is that capacity to be
+acquired or emphasised by training? This question might be answered in a
+volume and even then the answer would be incomplete and would not compel
+assent from all. We can only afford a single phrase here for the
+reply--"by taking thought." If, when a sight produces on the spectator
+the thrill that comes from the recognition of beauty, he will
+concentrate his attention upon it and remember it (as a youth remembers
+the beautiful face of a girl he has merely passed in the street), and if
+he will be on the alert to find it again and yet again, he will
+assuredly obtain by degrees a completer understanding and a more
+sensitive recognition of that particular kind of beauty. He will find
+more sides and aspects of it than he at first suspected. It will lead
+him on to a larger knowledge and a wider sympathy. His �sthetic capacity
+will be increased and his powers of delight continuously developed. All
+this in the case of mountain-beauty will come to him, not merely because
+he wanders among or upon mountains, but because being there he retains
+towards them a definite attitude of mind,--an attitude, however, which
+is not that of the climber, and which mere climbing and exploration do
+not by themselves encourage. He that looks for structure will find
+structure; he that studies routes will find routes. To find beauty it is
+beauty that must be searched for as a prospector searches for gold. More
+priceless than gold, beauty abundantly rewards those who find her. With
+that guerdon in mind let the mountaineering reader ask himself, "Hast
+thou entered into the treasures of the snow?"
+
+[Illustration: 9. LUCERNE AND LAKE FROM THE DREI LINDEN. Pilatus with
+storm breaking over mountain and town.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HOW TO SEE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+I have borrowed the title of this chapter from that of an excellent
+book, recently published, called _How to Look at Pictures_. The natural
+man might suppose that such were questions on which there is nothing to
+say. The picture is before you, and all you have to do is to open your
+eyes and let the image of it fall on your retina. What can be more
+simple? Yet that is not all, because the eye only sees that which it
+brings with it the power of seeing. How much more one sees in the face
+of a friend than in that of a stranger! It is similar with all objects.
+In order to see aright and to see fully, the power of seeing must be
+acquired. Some learn more easily than others, but all must learn. It is
+admittedly so with music. The most self-satisfied person cannot refuse
+to admit that even a short tune is better grasped, better _heard_, on a
+second hearing than the first time. What is true of a simple tune is
+more obviously true of a complicated work. The most accomplished
+musician does not grasp a Wagner opera at a first hearing. Man is a
+creature with faculties that need training. He is not born with
+faculties fully trained by instinct.
+
+To perceive beauty in a scene implies a power of selection. There is
+beauty in every view if you know how to find it, but the eye has to sift
+it out. Open your eyes at random. They are saluted by an infinite
+multitude of details. You can pass from one to another, but you cannot
+see them all at once. Looking at a tree, you can see a few leaves and
+twigs surrounded by a green spludge, which experience has taught you is
+made up of leaves or twigs, but you do not see all the leaves at once;
+so with blades of grass, flowers in a field, strata edges on a cliff, or
+crevasses in a glacier. In a broad effect of sunset you cannot be
+simultaneously conscious of more than a few forms and colours, and, of
+those you are simultaneously conscious of, one will be more important
+than the rest--one will give the key-note. Nor can you be equally
+conscious at one moment of forms and colours, or of colours and light
+and shade. If a view strikes you at all, it strikes you by some effect
+in it which you perceive, even though you may not be able to state in
+words what that effect is. It is clear, however, that any effect is the
+result of selection by the eye. The effect upon the eye would be
+unchanged if a quantity of details were blotted out, so long as none of
+those details formed part of the effect. Thus if you were attracted by
+the bright effulgence of a snow slope seen against a clear sky (to take
+a simple instance), and if your mind were concentrated upon that
+contrast, you would not notice the sudden obliteration of a crevasse in
+the slope. That detail would form no part of the effect.
+
+As you gaze at any scene you may be continually and rapidly changing
+the effects you are observing, and that without altering the direction
+of the eye. Such, in fact, is what every view-gazer is always doing. He
+is searching for a satisfying effect of beauty out of the multitude of
+possible effects that could be found, such possible effects being always
+practically infinite in number. Ultimately it is probable that some one
+effect will obtain the mastery within him, an effect that his eye is
+specially capable of seeing and his mind of comprehending. He passes on
+his way, and a day afterwards recalls yesterday's view. What rises in
+his memory is not the whole scene with all its details, but the special
+effect that ultimately impressed him, the result of a kind of survival
+of the fittest within him of a multitude of competing effects that he
+saw or almost saw.
+
+[Illustration: 10. THE JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN. First ascended 1811.]
+
+Take, for example, a very simple instance, the view of the Jungfrau
+from Interlaken on a clear day. What most people see is a roughly
+triangular white mass below a blue sky, and limited on either hand and
+below by green slopes and foreground. Suppose the looker to be a
+meteorologist whose special study is the atmosphere and its clouds.
+Probably the first thing he will notice will be the quality of the
+blueness of the sky and the tone of the lower atmosphere between him and
+the white mountain and green hills. He will, in fact, observe the
+air-tones, and consciously or unconsciously they will be the key-note of
+his impression. Next comes an East Londoner with a Toynbee Hall party,
+let us say. What strikes him is the novelty of the white mountain. Its
+whiteness is his main impression, the blue and the green being perceived
+as mere contrasts to that, and the forms of mountain and hills being
+unimportant shapes of the colour limits. The size of the mountain may be
+a subsidiary impression, but it will depend still upon the white colour,
+the wonder being that so large a natural object should be of snow. Anon
+comes a lover of woods and trees and of the green world. The white
+mountain for him will merely emphasise and dignify the pine woods and
+the grassy swards. He will note the draping of the hills by the
+pine-trees, and the character of the woods. The white peak will have
+value in the view to him, but only a value subordinate to that of the
+forest. After him comes a climber, trained, let us say, in the Canadian
+Rockies, and now for the first time visiting the classic land of
+climbers. When, on a clear day, the Jungfrau bursts upon his vision, he
+will give all his eyes to her and her only. He will not observe the
+greater or lesser blueness of the sky, nor the forms and features of the
+foreground hills--that is to say, they will not be the first object of
+his attention, the key-note of the effect he perceives. No! he will
+notice the form of the snow peak, the modelling of the glacier surface,
+the striping of the avalanche tracks, the character of the outlining
+ridges and minor buttresses. He will be subtly conscious of what is snow
+and what ice, of how and why rocks emerge from the snowy envelope. Where
+the ignorant will conceive the peak to be a great mound of snow, the
+newly-arrived climber will feel it to be a mass of rock draped in snow
+and ice, and his attention will be caught and held by that drapery, its
+forms and foldings.
+
+Finally there comes an artist, who knows nothing about mountains or
+forests and cares nothing, but who loves above all else (let us say)
+colour. What he will see will be some colour effect, some special
+harmony of tints in sky and snow and forest, some unifying effect that
+will make white, blue, and green all qualities of a single glory. If he
+paint the view, that is the effect he will strive to render, and in so
+doing he will care little about forms and details, little about
+modellings of glacier drapery and rocky skeleton. The colour-chord will
+be his aim, and all the power of his vision and the skill of his hand
+will be concentrated upon that. Or perhaps the artist will not come
+alone but in company with another of different character. This one cares
+less about colour than form. What will strike him will be the graceful
+architecture of the view, the delicate outlines, the intricate rareness
+of surface modelling in the snow, the strongly relieved emphasis of the
+limiting lines of the framing hills. Whether the sky be blue of a
+special tone and the foreground embellished with every shade and
+combination of greens will be immaterial to him for the time. He will
+feast his eyes upon form, and form will be the real subject of whatever
+representation of the scene he may endeavour to set down.
+
+Any one can multiply instances for himself and carry further to any
+extent the analysis of possible simultaneous varieties of effect in a
+single view. If to that he add the changes of effect that nature makes
+by variations of the weather, time of day, and season of the year, it
+will be evident enough how a single scene may be beheld with infinite
+variety by the eye of man; and the suspicion will arise that all
+conceptions, all appreciations, may not be equally fine or equally easy
+to grasp, and that, where one man may see little, another may be able to
+see an effect of singular beauty.
+
+It is the true and proper function of a landscape painter to find
+effects in views, but it does not follow that the effects he sees are
+those seen by any man in the street. "I never saw a sunset look like
+that," said a man to Turner when looking at one of his pictures. "No!"
+was the reply, "but don't you wish you could?" It should be the business
+of a painter to inspire such envy in those who see his works. If he
+merely shows us things as we see them for ourselves, he is of little
+service. At best he does but revive our memories. He should do more. He
+should stimulate our imaginations to a higher activity, or provide us
+with something to look for in the future even more than to revive in the
+past.
+
+To return to our two painters of a previous paragraph: if their
+drawings of the Jungfrau were shown to the meteorologist, he might be
+prompt to observe that the atmospheric effect was not rendered, and that
+the colour of the sky was incorrect. The Toynbee Hall excursionist would
+find the snow lacking in the radiance that had dazzled him. The
+forest-lover would declare that he could not identify the character of
+the trees and that the various greens of the foreground were untrue to
+nature. Whilst the climber would regard the colourist's Jungfrau as a
+daub in which all the character of the peak was missed. He would fail to
+recognise any possible route up its painted image or the signs of the
+difficulties and dangers of the way. Finally, each artist might regard
+the other's picture as a more or less mistaken effort.
+
+Yet if all these gentry were animated by a proper spirit they would
+recognise that their own view was not the only way of seeing the peak,
+but that any of the others was equally truthful, perhaps equally worthy,
+nay, that some other effect than those they respectively felt might be
+superior. Each might learn from the drawings another kind of effect to
+look for, and raising his eyes from the paper to the peak might then and
+there see the pictured effect for himself, and thenceforward be able to
+discover the like again in other places. It is difficult to estimate how
+far the effective sight of any man has been thus educated, either by
+pictured scenes, or by a word in season from some companion who shared
+with him this or the other splendid view. Each of us starts but poorly
+equipped; each may discover something for himself and to some extent
+develop his faculties by his own unaided efforts; but ultimately each,
+even the most naturally gifted, learns far more from others than he
+originates. The most efficient teachers of how to look are painters--of
+how to look at scenery, landscape painters. It is unfortunate that the
+snowy ranges have not been studied by a larger number of the great
+landscape artists. Turner handled them in their broader aspects and from
+relatively low and distant points of view; by so doing he greatly helped
+to spread and deepen a knowledge of mountain beauty. No inconsiderable
+number of later artists, mostly, however, admittedly of the second rank,
+have devoted at least a part of their time to mountain-landscape art,
+some pursuing it to the higher and inner recesses of the snowy region.
+Yet it must be admitted that the great mountain pictures are yet to be
+painted. Stott seemed on the verge of a higher success. Segantini almost
+touched the goal, and would doubtless have come nearer if he had lived
+longer. Such men amongst the dead, and many living artists, whose names
+I do not venture to set down lest by inadvertent omission I were to be
+unjust, have earned our thankfulness by the lessons they have taught;
+yet plenty more remains to be accomplished. The hills have not inspired
+landscape painters with all the fulness of their charm.
+
+[Illustration: 11. FIESCHERHORN AND LOWER GRINDELWALD GLACIER]
+
+It is often forgotten that mountains and even snowy mountains found
+their way into pictures at a very early date. Even the father of modern
+landscape painting, Hubert Van Eyck, introduced admirable renderings of
+lines of snowy peaks into the backgrounds of some of his pictures, as,
+for instance, in the "Three Maries at the Sepulchre," belonging to Sir
+Frederick Cook, where the effect of a distant range is beautifully
+suggested. Albrecht D�rer again, about a century later, made a series of
+the carefullest studies of mountain scenes in the neighbourhood of the
+Brenner road, and thenceforward he was fond of introducing
+excellently-drawn peaks into the backgrounds of his engravings and
+woodcuts. He possessed a remarkable knowledge of the essential facts of
+mountain form, so that even a modern mountaineer can learn from his
+works some of the elements of "how to see." Well-drawn mountains are of
+frequent occurrence in sixteenth century woodcuts and drawings by the
+prolific masters of sixteenth century south German and Venetian schools.
+The fact is one of many proofs of the vitality of that first modern
+outburst of mountain enthusiasm which gradually faded as the sixteenth
+century advanced.
+
+It is the commonplace of seventeenth and eighteenth century writers,
+who chance to refer to mountain scenery, to describe it as of monstrous,
+horrible, or even hideous character. Contemporary artists gave it
+corresponding expression. We are wrong to assume that their pictures and
+prints manifest any incapacity to draw, because we do not recognise in
+them the peaks and landscapes we know. The fact was that those artists
+gave quite truthful expression to the impression produced upon them by
+mountain scenery. Most Alpine lovers have seen prints professing to
+depict such objects as the Grindelwald glaciers and the surrounding
+heights, and have wondered how any one with the view before him can have
+so libelled it. But the artist intended no libel. All snowy peaks to him
+were inaccessible altitudes; in imagination he doubled their steepness.
+I myself, when a boy, approached the Matterhorn with a belief that it
+was built of precipices. I had always heard it so spoken of. With the
+thing itself before me I sat down to draw it, and quite unintentionally
+and unconsciously exaggerated its steepness and sharpness in a way that
+now seems difficult to account for. If such was the effect of
+preconception upon a modern lad who had already climbed several
+relatively high Alpine mountains, how easy it must have been for a
+seventeenth-century artist to be misled, who never thought of climbing
+at all, and to whose mind the notion of any individual interest
+attaching to a particular peak was altogether foreign. He merely felt a
+general awe, or horror, of his surroundings, and in depicting mountain
+scenery very properly made the rendering of either emotion his chief
+aim. Pictures painted at that time under those influences are not to be
+regarded as valueless and ridiculous. They are of great value as
+enabling us to see with our own eyes what mountain scenery actually
+looked like to the people of those days, and thus to account for the
+extraordinary language employed by travellers going _the grand tour_ who
+attempted to describe the scenery through which they passed when
+crossing the Alps.
+
+[Illustration: 12. THE CASTLE OF CHILLON
+
+      Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls:
+    A thousand feet in depth below
+    Its massy waters meet and flow.
+
+    BYRON.
+]
+
+I have thus far only spoken of the educative effect of mountain
+paintings in teaching us how to see mountain scenery, but there are
+other forms of art equally efficient. As a matter of history, it was the
+writers, and especially the poets, who induced the intelligent public to
+change their attitude towards mountains. I do not know who was the
+initiator of the movement or in what country it was first apparent.
+Rousseau deserves to be remembered in this connection. Sir Walter Scott
+and Byron carried on the work, and were supported by the poets of the
+Lake School. Goethe and Schiller were widely influential in the same
+direction. At first it was the vague romanticism of the hills and of the
+supposed simple life of mountain peasants that attracted sympathetic
+notice and description. Gradually mountains came to be looked at in
+greater detail and for their own sake. Finally, in our own day, Ruskin
+for the first time attempted to analyse mountain beauty, and not only
+produced in the fourth volume of _Modern Painters_ a most suggestive and
+illuminating work, but by the magic of his language and the charm and
+aptness of his illustrative drawings attracted to it the attention of
+all that was best in English society. Whether what followed was directly
+due to his initiative, I do not know. The next important step was the
+publication of Mr. Edward Whymper's _Scrambles amongst the Alps_, which
+rapidly attained popularity of the best kind. It is difficult nowadays
+to put one's self in the place of mountain lovers who met with that book
+when it first appeared. To us it is still full of freshness and charm,
+but to them it was far more significant. They compared its illustrations
+with those in _Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers_, published twelve years
+before, and they were smitten with admiration. "Look at the poor old
+chromo-lithographs," wrote Leslie Stephen, "which then professed to
+represent the mountains, and compare them with Mr. Whymper's admirable
+woodcuts. The difference is really remarkable. Though some of these old
+illustrations, copied from photographs, suggest the general outlines
+with tolerable fidelity, most of them utterly fail to represent a
+mountain at all to an educated eye.... The old daubs are mere random
+indications of certain obtrusive features which could not well be
+overlooked. Mr. Whymper's woodcuts seem to bring the genuine Alps before
+us in all their marvellous beauty and variety of architecture." Ruskin
+and Whymper, in fact, took up mountain-drawing where D�rer had left it
+three hundred and fifty years before. They looked at the mountains
+themselves with the humility that belongs to men who love the truth, and
+they taught others so to look. Alpine climbing taught men for the first
+time what mountains actually are. The power so to see them was
+simultaneously developed, and photography has helped.
+
+The question of mountain-photography is a thorny one, but it must be
+faced. The reader can scarcely deny that if mountains really looked like
+the ordinary run of commercial photographs of them, they would be ugly
+or at least unattractive objects. A volume of such photographs would
+scarcely lead a man, who had never left his home, eagerly to desire a
+close acquaintance with snowy peaks. That, however, was actually what
+Mr. Whymper's woodcuts did. Hundreds of readers of his book were thereby
+led to become mountaineers. Wherein does this different efficiency
+consist? A photograph, in theory, repeats every detail of the view it
+contains. Such details as drop out are either too small or too faint to
+be visible in the print. A camera does not select. It takes all. In this
+respect it differs altogether from the human eye. If you look fixedly in
+a definite direction and regard carefully what it is that you actually
+see, you will discover it to be a few central details only, and that
+they are surrounded not merely by vaguely defined objects but by objects
+duplicated. Thus the sight of the eye and the sight of a camera are not
+alike, either in what is beheld or what is selected. The sense of beauty
+depends upon what the eye selects. It would seem then that the beauty of
+a view could not possibly be reproduced by photography, and such was the
+crude conclusion once held by artists of the capacities of this modern
+process. Photographers, however, have proved that such is not
+necessarily the case.
+
+In the infinite effects, all of them beautiful, that a single
+landscape is capable of yielding, and yielding simultaneously, most are
+beyond the reach of photography; but the same is likewise true of any
+one art-process. Pen-and-ink drawing, for example, is as incapable of
+reproducing colour effects as photography. Each art has its own limited
+area of possible effect. Photography, in so far as it is an art, is
+subject to its own definite and rather narrow limitations. A
+photographer can choose his subject and determine its exact limitations.
+As he can deal only with forms and tones, he must choose a subject so
+arranged by nature that its forms are in themselves beautiful, and its
+tones a harmonious distribution of light and shade. But light and shade
+varies with the hour of the day and season of the year, and forms vary
+with the drift of clouds over the hills, so that the selection of moment
+becomes for the photographer as important as the choice of point of
+view, direction, and area of subject. Again, by choice of length of
+exposure and by methods of development, the photographer can alter the
+quality of light and shade in his negative and the amount of detail he
+renders. These three factors are entirely under the photographer's
+control, and in so far as he avails himself of them, not merely to
+reproduce a view but to reproduce the picturesque effect in a view, he
+becomes and deserves to be regarded as an artist.
+
+[Illustration: 13. THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION TO THE HOFKIRCHE OF ST.
+LEODEGAR. The Principal Catholic Church of Lucerne.]
+
+In our own days, as the photograph exhibitions of the Alpine Club have
+demonstrated, there are no inconsiderable number of mountain
+artist-photographers. It has been proved that snow mountains are a
+specially suitable subject for such art. Views in the high regions of
+ice and rock seldom depend for their chief beauty upon colour. He whose
+eye is sensitive to colour-effects can, indeed, find such in profusion
+in the regions of snow, but they are not the effects to which experience
+shows mountain lovers are as a rule most sensitive. What most of us love
+in mountains is primarily their form. Grand forms are profusely supplied
+by frost-riven rocks and cloven glaciers. In great snow-fields and
+slopes, the surface modelling is often of transcendent beauty, and that
+modelling can be rendered to perfection by photography, if the right
+moment be chosen. Photographers who have known what to look for and what
+to reject, have perhaps done more even than any other kind of artists in
+revealing the mountains. But the right moment comes comparatively seldom
+and has to be seized. A climber may pass for hours through gorgeous
+scenery, full of subjects for a painter, yet there may not be offered to
+him one photographable effect. He may expose plate after plate, and
+carry away with him the most interesting topographical and geographical
+records, but among them all there will not be a single picture that will
+render a picturesque effect and be worthy to rank as a work of art. The
+artist-photographer is a man who can snatch the right moment for the
+right effect. He must be able to recognise immediately and
+instinctively, when it comes before his vision, an effect of beauty that
+can be reproduced. He must see in the complexity of every view what the
+camera will make of it, knowing for a certainty what it can be made to
+reflect and what to exclude. In fact he must possess the same qualities
+as any other kind of landscape artist, the eye that recognises an effect
+suited to his art and the skill to render that effect in his resulting
+work of art.
+
+Such photographers, as I have said, there are and have been. Their works
+have opened the eyes of many a climber to effects of beauty in mountains
+of which they had before been unconscious. Returning to the regions of
+snow, they have been thus enabled to look for them and to find them.
+Their own sensibility to beauty has thus been enriched and their power
+of enjoyment correspondingly increased.
+
+In consequence of the work of poets, writers, painters, photographers,
+indeed all kinds of artists, and of the stimulus exerted by them upon
+mountain travellers of all sorts, men have learned in the last
+half-century to see mountains far better, more truly, and more
+beautifully than was possible before. We find in them complexities and
+refinements of beauty the very existence of which was previously
+unsuspected. We do not merely wonder at their size or shudder at their
+savagery. We can do that when the mood is on us, but the mood seldom
+comes. Our forefathers generally looked at them from a distance and
+thought of them as a whole, seldom doing more than to identify here and
+there a single individual from the mass. We, on the contrary, have
+learnt to know them from nearer at hand. We have made friends with them;
+we can call them all by their names. We know the aspect of each from
+many points of view, and their features are as familiar to us as were
+the features of woodside and stream to the medi�val villager. This
+intimacy with the mountains has taught us that all the snowy ranges of
+the world are, as it were, of a single race, and that he who knows one
+knows something about all.
+
+The Alpine climber, who knows the Alps, can be interested in mere
+description of mountain ascents elsewhere. Knowing what Alpine peaks
+look like and how they appear in picture and photograph, he can, by aid
+of pictures and photographs, attain a tolerably complete idea of the
+aspect of other mountain ranges. Hence the explorers of such ranges, of
+the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the peaks of Central Africa, South America,
+and New Zealand, have been called upon to describe the peaks they have
+climbed, the valleys and glaciers they have traversed, and the scenery
+of the regions and ranges they have explored, in a way that would have
+been unintelligible two generations ago. What we now demand of a
+mountain explorer is not merely to tell us the adventures of his route,
+but to explain to us wherein the quality of the mountain scenery differs
+from that which is familiar nearer home. He must be prepared to answer
+many questions which would not have been asked till recently. Has he
+been to the Himalayas or the Andes? We want to know whether those great
+mountains look their size, and, if so, wherein the effect is manifested
+of a scale greater than the Alps. Is he returning from Sikhim? We shall
+ask him to tell us what the great peaks there look like when seen from
+the beautiful forest below. What are the atmospheric effects peculiar to
+the region? And, with yet more persistence, what is the quality of
+mountain form which distinguishes the great peaks there, so that, beheld
+merely through the medium of photographs, they so impress their
+individuality upon us?
+
+Knowing, as we do, the great variety of mountain scenery that can be
+found in the Alps, between the Dolomites of Tirol at one end and the
+crags of Dauphiny at the other, we expect to be told whether, in the
+case of the long Andes range, corresponding varieties are discoverable,
+and what and where they are. Such questions and multitudes more arise
+within us. It is much if a traveller can answer a few of them. At best
+he leaves us hungry. It is this hunger that impels us to travel afar
+ourselves, if fortune permit. Some indeed travel and explore for merely
+scientific reasons. They desire to add to knowledge and to diminish the
+area of the unknown. Some perhaps believe that they go merely in search
+of sport. The normal man is more complex. He has these ends in view to a
+greater or less extent perhaps; but, if he be a normal mountaineer, deep
+down within him there assuredly resides a true and hearty attachment to
+mountains and mountain scenery for the sake of their beauty. He may be
+too dumb to express it or too shy to admit, but we soon discover that
+the feeling is there, and that it is a dominant fact in his nature. He
+may not have analysed it. He may never speak of it, never perhaps even
+state it to himself, yet when we stand beside him on a mountain height,
+gazing abroad on the undefiled world of snow spread abroad at our feet,
+we find that we share with him a common feeling and embrace a common
+joy. After all, it is the beauty of the snows that takes us all back to
+them, and again back. Were that beauty blotted out, how many of us would
+be climbers? We are like anglers in this respect. We set an aim before
+us and pursue it with vigour and seem to be wholly intent upon it, but
+it is the beautiful, natural surroundings of our sport to which it owes
+its charm. Only the artist can make the realisation of that beauty his
+active aim, and activity is a necessity to most of us, so we employ
+ourselves actively in the world of beauty, and take her for the
+exceeding great reward of our seemingly needless and unprofitable toil.
+
+[Illustration: 14. CLOUD-BURST OVER LUCERNE.]
+
+     NOTE.--As to the historical question referred to at the foot of
+     page 34, see Coolidge's _Swiss Travel_, pp. 24 and 128, and the
+     references there given to A. von Haller's _Die Alpen_ of 1732.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE
+
+
+"Old as the hills" is not a comparison that would be considered apt if
+invented to-day, for we now know that, geologically speaking, the
+greatest mountain ranges are of recent elevation, and that even low
+hills are seldom of great antiquity. It was not till men became
+climbers, and so grew to have an intimate acquaintance with mountains in
+detail, that a recognition of the rapid degradation which all mountains
+are suffering was clearly obtained. To look at the Matterhorn from below
+is to behold an apparently everlasting tower, yet its base is strewn
+with ruins, and its flanks are continuously swept by falling masses of
+rock.
+
+The realisation of this different point of view, which we must
+presently discuss in more detail, forms a clear mark of division between
+the attitude towards mountains, of men in the pre-scientific age and
+to-day. Our forefathers naturally regarded the hills as eternal and
+everlasting. They defined the beginning of things in such phrases as
+"Before the mountains were brought forth." The tops of peaks, actually
+their newest feature, were hoary-headed to them. This was indeed partly
+due to their limited idea of the stretch of time into the past. Six
+thousand years, which to us seems but a day, was an eternity to them. Of
+course six thousand years is a brief period in the life of a mountain.
+Judged by such a standard it may be called eternal, and that was the
+kind of meaning they attached to the word. Mountains have grown young as
+our notions of time past have extended. If we could lengthen our
+time-span, the interval of time (about one-tenth of a second) of which
+we are simultaneously conscious, if we could extend it to years instead
+of a fraction of a second, we should actually see the mountains
+changing. In a sense that is what we have imaginatively accomplished.
+
+Pre-scientific man possessed no such power. Dwellers in mountain
+countries beheld the peaks apparently ever the same. Each summer, as it
+stripped away part of the winter accumulation of snow, revealed the same
+apparently unaltering features. They knew nothing of the movement of
+glaciers. They regarded snow-mountains as accumulations piled up
+continuously from the beginning of the world and destined to go on
+increasing till the end. I remember reading in the comparatively recent
+book of travel written by an Anglo-Indian, how he went up some Himalayan
+valley and came to the glacier at the head of it. He attempted to go no
+further. He conceived himself to have reached the limit of possible
+advance. He mounted some way up the hillside and looked along towards
+the head of the valley; all was ice--an accumulation fallen from the
+cliffs on either hand for thousands of years and some day destined to
+fill the trough to the brim--such was his notion of the thing he was
+looking at.
+
+Changeless, eternal, forbidding, still, silent, and horrible--thus
+the snowy ranges appeared to the pre-scientific gaze. To us they seem
+the very reverse. We know them to be ceaselessly changing, of relatively
+short persistence, the theatre of movements of all kinds both violent
+and slow--not places of death by any means, but the home of an active, a
+beneficent, and a formative life--not regions cut off and unrelated to
+the lowlands and habitable world, but the very parent of such, the
+laboratory where soil is made, and the head of water collected that
+distributes it below; the counterbalance of the denuding forces that
+would level the earth with the ocean; regions beneficent as they are
+beautiful, and as necessary to the well-being of the habitable world as
+is the richest and most fertile plain.
+
+[Illustration: 15. AT MEIRINGEN. Ridge above the Br�nig Pass in
+distance.]
+
+He that would know mountains and mountain regions aright must know them
+as the theatre of change, the domain of action. He must not merely look
+upon peaks as they are, but must conceive of them as they have been and
+will be. As this kind of knowledge grows and becomes instinctive within
+him, it will alter his attitude towards Alpine panoramas and broaden his
+grasp of the significance of mountain physiognomy.
+
+Let us briefly consider the stages of formation and decay of a single
+group of mountains, not volcanic. If we go back to the very start, we
+may imagine their future site occupied by a plain. The slow cooling and
+consequent shrinking of the world involves the wrinkling of its surface,
+and the position of the wrinkles is determined by a variety of forces,
+as yet little understood, with which we need not concern ourselves.
+Suffice it to assume that our plain occupies the position of the next
+coming group of wrinkles. A single range or line of mountains hardly
+exists in the world outside of the commonplace cartographer's mind.
+Old-fashioned maps used to represent mountains by a kind of caterpillar
+meandering about on them, and thus gave currency to the notion that
+mountains are generally arranged along a single line--a notion, by the
+by, that (in the minds of politicians negotiating boundary treaties) has
+been prolific in costly disputes and misunderstandings.[1] Mountains
+generally exist in rows of more or less parallel ranges intricately
+jointed together, and they do so because, when the wrinkling that caused
+them began, it did not begin with a single wrinkle, but with a row of
+wrinkles, such as a soft tablecloth makes on a smooth table when parts
+of it are moved toward one another.
+
+[Footnote 1: Witness the Argentine and Alaska boundary disputes.]
+
+Thus the first sign of a mountain range will be a series of
+undulations upon the surface of the supposed plain. These undulations
+will be roughly parallel to one another. We call the direction of their
+parallelism the strike of the ranges. From the moment the wrinkling
+movement begins, a set of forces is put in operation tending to level
+the wrinkles and fill up the hollows or valleys between them. These are
+the forces of denudation. People often vaguely speak as though mountains
+were first elevated to their full height and then only began to be
+pulled down; but of course the process of mountain sculpture is due to
+the simultaneous operation of the elevating and destructive forces.
+Every mountain is being pulled down in the very process of its
+elevation. It grows only because it is elevated faster than the
+destructive forces avail to level it. For all we yet know, some of the
+mountain ranges which seem most rapidly disintegrating may, in fact,
+still be growing. No one has yet divided the mountain ranges of the
+world into those which have not yet reached and those which have passed
+their maturity. When that has been done we shall doubtless find some
+clearly marked difference in aspect between them which now we do not
+know enough to recognise. The visible difference once discovered, the
+two groups will raise different kinds of emotion in the man who sees
+them. He will note the aspect of growth in one set and of decay in the
+other, and will be correspondingly affected, as we all now are by the
+young leaves and buds of spring and the fruits and faded foliage of
+autumn. Sad folk will love the fading and sanguine folk the growing
+hills. There will arise a new subject for poets and a new group of
+similes for preachers and moralists. In this way also science enlarges
+the material of art.
+
+But we must return to our nascent mountain group, as yet a mere series
+of parallel wrinklings, higher here, lower there, with lines of
+depression between them. Rain falling will need to drain away, and in
+doing so will form pools in hollows, and will run along the furrows till
+it reaches the open country and can turn away. Thus the first streams of
+a nascent group of mountains follow and do not flow across the strike.
+Only the rivulets that actually flow down the slopes will flow in a
+direction perpendicular to the strike, and will be tributaries to the
+main lines of drainage that flow along the strike.
+
+[Illustration: 16. STORM CLOUDS OVER THE LAKE OF THUN. Looking up the
+Kander Thal. The Niesen on the right.]
+
+The mountains are rising steadily as the millenniums of years pass
+on. The rain keeps falling on them, and as they grow higher the snows of
+winter first, and later of all the year, whiten their summits and
+gradually descend upon their slopes as the summits reach higher and
+higher aloft. If the rain always fell uniformly over the whole area, and
+if the ranges were of rock, homogeneous like a great lump of plaster,
+equally strong in every direction--if such were the case, each range
+would remain approximately symmetrical on both sides, and the crest of
+it would lie evenly between its two flanking troughs. But that is never
+the case. The rain-bringing winds are sure to come more frequently from
+one side of the mountain area than from the other. The wet quarter will
+be the east or the west or the south-west, as the case may be, and more
+moisture will be precipitated and consequently more denudation effected
+by it on one side of the ridges than on the other, with important
+sculpturing results as we shall presently observe.
+
+We may best regard the rising mountain area as a plateau with a
+wrinkled top, such a plateau as Tibet, for example. As time advances the
+plateau will present ever loftier walls to the outside world, but the
+undulations within will not greatly develop by any directly wrinkling
+process. It is not the wrinkling that splits the plateau up into ranges,
+but quite other forces. All that the wrinkling does is to give to those
+forces their first direction. The interior of Tibet shows us what, but
+for these other forces, a great mountain region would be like. It would
+be traversed from end to end by low and roughly parallel ridges,
+separated from one another by shallow valleys raised high aloft on the
+great plateau-pedestal. In the shallow valleys there would lie many
+lakes, some having no outlets, others drained by slow streams flowing
+along the strike of the ranges, and fed by driblets from the slopes of
+the flanking hills.
+
+But at the ends and around the periphery of the plateau generally a
+different condition of things will be found. Let us regard the ends
+first. The slow flowing rivers of the plateau as they reach its
+extremity will become swift, where they plunge down to the plain. In
+proportion to their swiftness is the speed with which they cut down
+their beds into the mass of the plateau-pedestal. If the end of the
+plateau were a cliff, the rivers would tumble over it in waterfalls, and
+these would cut their way back and thus dig out ca�ons in place of the
+shallow valleys of the original wrinkling. In any case a similar result
+will be arrived at, and the plateau will be more and more cut down into
+deep valleys with high ridges between. What were originally small
+wrinkles above the mean level of the plateau and slight depressions
+beneath it will be changed by denudation into high mountains and deep
+valleys, their scale being determined by the amount of general elevation
+of the plateau above the low-lying country. As the general elevating
+process goes on, so does the excavation. The deep valleys will be formed
+first at the edge of the plateau. They will work back into its heart in
+process of time. The original Tibetan plateau is now greatly reduced,
+and only the remaining middle part of it preserves any resemblance to
+its primary surface-form. As you go eastward or westward from that
+central portion you come into ever deepening valleys and ever relatively
+higher peaks, measured from the neighbouring valley floor.
+
+[Illustration: 17. VITZNAU AND LAKE OF LUCERNE. Vitznau is the terminus
+of the Rigi Railway. The two promontories on the right and left of the
+picture are the Nasen, Ober Nase and Untere Nase.]
+
+Thus far we have only spoken of the natural development of the strike
+rivers, those original lines of flow that follow the direction of the
+ranges. We must now observe how their course is affected by the
+development of the tributary streams that flow down the slopes of the
+ridges approximately at right angles to the strike. In the case of the
+Himalayas the rains come from southerly quarters. The damp air-current
+drifts against and over the plateau from that direction. Contact with
+the elevations against which it drifts causes the rains to fall. As the
+damp current flows further north it becomes continually dryer, so that
+less and less rain falls. Thus denudation is most energetic on the
+southern slopes. As the plateau rises its southern edge (to consider
+that alone for a moment) is most vigorously cut into by the water
+pouring down that face and forming gullies, which continuously tend to
+deepen and to cut back into the mass of the plateau. The process has
+only to go forward long enough, for the most energetic of these
+side-streams to eat its way back, right through the outermost wrinkle of
+the plateau, till it taps the first or southernmost of the strike
+rivers. From that moment the course of the strike river is changed, and
+instead of flowing away along its original valley, it turns at right
+angles and flows out through the gully cut by the side-stream, which
+thus becomes the main river. The next wrinkle is in turn attacked by the
+side-streams flowing down its south slope and in turn cut through, so
+that the second strike river becomes thus tributary to the first. And so
+the process continues.
+
+Such is the history of the formation of a great river like the Indus.
+It is filled by the robbed waters of countless smaller rivers, one by
+one drawn within its drainage area by the action of side-streams cutting
+through intervening ridges. All these rivers and their tributaries go on
+cutting their way back with ever-increasing vigour as the trunk outlet
+is lowered by their united volume. This is the process whereby an
+original plateau is sculptured into a maze of ridges and valleys. The
+towering heights we behold were never elevated in isolated magnificence.
+A different thrust did not send up the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn, and
+Monte Rosa, but all the neighbourhood was elevated by one great heaving.
+To begin with, some lines of elevation were a little higher than others,
+and they determined the position of principal peaks and ridges; but as
+the mass was elevated the hollows were engraved by the _burin_ of
+flowing water. The higher the mass was raised the deeper the hollows
+were impressed and the wider became their opening, for the self-same
+forces operate on every slope and continually eat it away and open
+side-valleys and subsidiary side-valleys into them. These forces
+operating on both sides of every ridge rapidly pull down its crest and
+ultimately round it off and reduce it lower and lower continually, so
+that it is only a question of time for the biggest mountain mass to be
+lowered to the level of the plains around it.
+
+Running water is not the only agent that has to be considered. Even
+more energetic agents act in the higher regions of frost. There the snow
+that is melted by the sun (whose dissolving power is as operative in the
+regions so-called of perpetual snow as it is below) percolates into the
+crevices of the rocks and finds out all their weak places. At night this
+water freezes, and in freezing expands, thus acting like a wedge and
+splitting the rock it has penetrated. Next time the sun shines the
+pieces thus split off may fall. Sooner or later, after repeated
+operations of the wedge, they must fall, and a new surface of rock will
+be uncovered to be split and shivered in its turn. The rocks that fall
+tumble ultimately on to the snow-fields that spread over the high open
+spaces, where they are taken charge of by the great carrying agents of
+the heights--the glaciers. The higher a peak is, relatively to its
+neighbours, the more rapidly will frost attack it, and the more
+energetic will be the destruction wrought upon it. I have heard it
+estimated, or perhaps only guessed, that 1000 tons of rock fall daily
+from the upper portion of the Matterhorn's rock-pyramid. The great peaks
+of the Himalaya are falling yet more rapidly to pieces.
+
+But what in this relation is the action of the glaciers? At one time
+they were regarded as a great abrading agency. It was thought that the
+high valleys were fashioned out by them. Later it was concluded that
+their hollowing action was a negligible quantity. The general belief now
+is that it is not considerable. Whatever may be the action of glaciers
+upon their beds, it is at all events a small matter compared with their
+action as transporting agents. Glaciers are not hoary accumulations of
+snow, collected in hollow places since the beginning of the world, as
+our forefathers supposed, but flowing streams of ice, whose rate of
+movement varies with the slope, the latitude, the mean temperature, and
+other factors of their situation. The snow that falls at high elevations
+lies in great masses where it finds lodgment, or falls to such places
+from the steep rocks which are unable to give it steady support. By
+these means it falls and drifts together into those great upper
+reservoirs we call the snow-fields--resplendent areas of purest white,
+so toilsome to cross when the sun shines hotly upon them, and so
+incomparably beautiful to look upon. Here by melting of the surface,
+percolation into the body of the snow-field, and freezing there, and by
+the pressure of the ever-increasing accumulation of snow, the substance
+is gradually changed into granulated ice, and the ice thus formed slowly
+moves down-hill. The various neighbouring streams of ice flow and unite
+together, and thus, reaching lower and lower levels and continually
+melting, they come to a line where the annual increment of snow is equal
+in amount to the depth of snow annually melted. This is called the
+snow-line. Still downward flows the mass, and now the amount melted
+becomes greater than the amount annually received. The thickness of the
+ice steadily diminishes till at last the total arrival melts and the
+glacier ends in a so-called snout.
+
+[Illustration: 18. THE FALLS OF TOSA, VAL FORMAZZA. Said to be the
+grandest in the Alps, 470 feet high. The Tosa falls in three cascades.
+The first only is shown in the picture.]
+
+The great importance of glaciers in mountain formation is the part
+they play as carrying agents. There is practically no limit to the
+weight of rock they will bear down with them in their steady
+uninterrupted flow. Whatever falls upon the glacier at any part of its
+course is carried down by it and ultimately dumped off its sides or end.
+A stone that falls on the highest rim of the snowfield will presently be
+covered up by newly-fallen snow and will be carried down at, or close
+to, the floor of the glacier, where it will either be ground to powder
+or will not emerge till it is melted out at the end of the glacier's
+snout. A stone that plunges in a crevasse to the bottom of the glacier
+will have similar experiences. Stones that tumble on to the glacier
+surface further down will not be so deeply covered by annual
+accumulations of snow, and will therefore sooner emerge again on to the
+surface by the melting away of the accumulation above them. Stones that
+fall on to the glacier below the snow-line will not be covered up at
+all, but will simply be carried down on the surface.
+
+The visible collections of stone rubbish carried by a glacier are
+called its moraines. As the surface of a glacier tends to become convex
+the moraine-stuff tends to be rolled off towards the sides, where it
+forms the right and left lateral moraines. Where two glaciers flow
+together and unite, the right lateral moraine of the one and the left of
+the other will join and be carried down as a medial moraine on the
+surface of the united glacier. Such medial moraines may be observed in
+considerable numbers flowing down, side by side, on glaciers formed by
+the union of a number of higher tributaries. First comers to the Alps,
+beholding them from a distance, or seeing them in photographs, sometimes
+have thought they were cart-ruts, thus showing how false a scale of size
+their unaccustomed vision applies to mountain views.
+
+A given kind of rock subjected to the action of frost and the other
+disintegrating forces operative at high levels, usually breaks up into
+debris of a roughly uniform average size. There will, of course, be some
+large masses and a lot of dust and gravel, but the average lump will be
+fairly uniform. A climber in a given district comes to know what to
+expect on a moraine, and he will immediately notice if the average size
+of the debris is much larger or smaller than usual. Thus, when he sees a
+debris-slope or a moraine from a distance, he is instinctively conscious
+that its granulated aspect represents great blocks of rock. That gives
+him a roughly correct scale for the view. The lowlander, who has never
+been in contact with a moraine, has no such sense, and can imagine that
+the brown streak he sees a few miles away is, as it looks to be, a mere
+line of dust. It was through the aspect of the moraines and
+debris-slopes that I first obtained an approach to a direct visual
+understanding of the vaster scale of the Himalayas than that of the
+Alps.
+
+A cliff below the snowy regions, if it does not rise out of the sea, is
+protected at its base by the debris fallen from it. What tumbles from
+above piles up below, and keeps the foot of the cliff from being eaten
+away. But a cliff or slope of rock rising out of a glacier or snow-field
+is deprived of such protection. All the stones that fall from it are
+carried away by the ice, so that the surface of the whole cliff keeps on
+peeling off, and that face of the mountain is gradually planed away.
+Where a great glacier bay reaches into the mountains this action may be
+very energetic. The whole surrounding cirque is constantly eaten at and
+continually extends its inner circumference. In some regions this action
+is more rapid than in others. Where, as in the tropics, the heat is
+great by day and the frost at high altitudes bitter by night,
+destruction goes quickly forward, and the mountains are vigorously
+reduced. Weak points in the rocky structure are soon found out. The
+range itself will be penetrated. A pass thus formed tends to be
+continuously lowered. In the neighbourhood of the greatest altitudes the
+destruction is of course most vigorous. This is the reason why, in so
+many places, alike in the Himalayas and the Andes, cross-cutting rivers
+find their way through a range by a gorge that passes quite near a
+culminating peak. The great Indus gorge below Nanga Parbat is the most
+notable instance I can recall.
+
+We have thus, in the briefest possible manner, sketched out how some of
+the chief sculpturing forces operate to form mountains. I have not
+attempted to go into detail or to explain the various corrections and
+modifications that have to be applied to make the simple outline
+correspond with facts. Some valleys are actual depressions formed by the
+caving in of the earth along a line of weakness. Every mountain region
+contains examples of such hollows. Now and again by some complication or
+intersection of the wrinkling process a small area may be forced up
+considerably higher than the surrounding elevation and thus the mass
+provided for an exceptionally high peak. Volcanic peaks also remain to
+be considered, and have been excluded from the foregoing brief survey.
+
+In the main, however, the statement is correct that the mountains of a
+region are produced by the sculpturing into ridges and subsidiary ridges
+of a great and slowly elevated mass. What begins as a growing plateau,
+passes through the stage of rocky and snowy ranges, becomes later on an
+area of undulating country, and if time sufficed would ultimately
+flatten out once more into a plain. Between the first stage and the last
+the sculpturing operations of nature pass through many phases. In the
+beginning, when the area has only just begun to rise from the level,
+those forces operate gently. Slopes are slight and streams flow easily
+down them. When the mountains have been roughly blocked out and the
+valleys precipitously deepened, the region enters into the dramatic
+stage of its history. The peaks are at their highest, the valleys at
+their deepest relatively to the heights. Cliffs are boldest, needles
+sharpest, torrents most voluminous and rapid. Now is the time when great
+mountain-falls most frequently occur. The rocks do not merely crumble
+away stone by stone, but huge masses are undermined and fall with
+gigantic crash and violence into the valleys, temporarily damming them
+across and forming lakes, which presently burst, and pour an incredible
+volume of water in destructive flood down the narrow and winding valley
+below. The flood transports and grinds up great quantities of rock and
+carries the material afar, for hundreds of miles perhaps, before the
+plain is reached and the mud deposited upon it.
+
+In the theatrical stage mud avalanches are likewise common. To produce
+them there must be a great supply of loose debris on steep rocks at a
+high level and much rapidly melting snow about them, whose water drains
+into gullies and unites in larger gullies, all with banks of rotten and
+crumbling rock. On a suitable day in early summer, when the sky is clear
+and the sun hot, the stones will fall in such numbers that they will
+plug some gully and dam back the water. It will collect and burst the
+dam, and a flow of stones, dust, and water will begin. At other
+neighbouring spots the same thing will happen, and the elements of the
+avalanche will flow together, block a larger gully, and presently burst
+that block also. So it will go on till a great mass of mud, water, and
+rocks collects somewhere and finally bursts loose in an avalanche which
+sweeps all before it.
+
+Such an avalanche I saw from close at hand on 8th July 1892, in the
+mountains of Nagar. We were walking up the right bank of a great glacier
+river, and were forced at intervals to cross its tributaries which came
+rushing down the hillside on our left. Approaching the mouth of one of
+these side gullies we heard a noise like thunder and beheld a vast black
+wave bulging down it. It passed before we arrived and there was silence
+for a few minutes. Presently the sounds of another were heard aloft, and
+it soon heaved into view--a terrific sight. The weight of the mud rolled
+masses of rock down the gully, turning them over and over like so many
+pebbles. They restrained the muddy torrent and kept it moving slowly
+with accumulating volume. Each big rock in the vanguard of the avalanche
+weighed many tons; some were about 10-foot cubes. The stuff behind them
+filled the gully some 15 feet deep by 40 wide. The thing travelled
+perhaps at the rate of seven miles an hour. Sometimes a bigger rock than
+usual barred the way till the mud, piling up behind it, swept it on. The
+avalanche ate into the sides of the gully and carried away huge
+undermined masses that fell into it. We saw three enormous avalanches of
+this sort pass down the same gully in rapid succession, and, after we
+had gone by, others followed. All the neighbouring similar gullies
+discharged such groups of mud avalanches during that period of the year.
+They are one of the chief agents used by nature to pull down mountains
+during this, the dramatic stage of their existence. The roaring
+torrential river below carries off the mud and receives the boulders in
+its bed, where they are rolled along and in time ground to powder.
+
+Mud avalanches are rare now in the Alps, and are only caused by some
+exceptional event, such as the bursting of a glacier lake. Once they
+were common. Mountain-falls of any great size are also much rarer in the
+Alps now than they were formerly or than they are in some Himalayan
+regions. Alps and Andes have passed beyond the culmination of their
+dramatic stage. The mountains of Hunza, Nagar, and North Kashmir
+generally, are in the midst of theirs.
+
+A mountaineer who has acquired a knowledge of how mountains are made,
+who has seen in action the forces I have briefly described, who has
+climbed among mountains in sunshine and storm, in heat and frost, who
+has spent nights on their cold crests, who knows how and where
+avalanches of snow, ice, and rock are likely to fall and has a realising
+sense of their force, their frequency, and their mass: a mountaineer who
+has attained by long experience a knowledge of the ways and action of
+glaciers, who can as it were feel their weight and momentum, in whose
+mind, when he looks at them, they are felt to be moving and vigorous
+agents, who sees the lines of motion upon them, their swing round
+corners, their energy in mid course, their feebleness at the
+snout:--such a man can look abroad over a mountain panorama with an
+understanding, a sense of the significance of what he beholds, which,
+far from detracting from its aspect of beauty, adds greatly to it.
+
+To him a mountain area is no confused labyrinth of valleys and tangle
+of ridges, but the orderly and logical expression of a number of forces,
+and of forces that are still operative. To him what he beholds is not a
+painting on the wall, finished and done once and for ever, but, as it
+were, a scene in a play--a scene to which others have led up, and after
+which others will follow, all linked together and arising one out of
+another in unavoidable and necessary sequence. He perceives the
+arrangement of the peaks to be as logical as that of the men in a
+regiment on parade. Each stands in its own proper place, buttressed, and
+founded upon a broad and sufficient base. Its drapery of snow is not a
+kind of fortuitous whitewashing, splashed on anyhow by the whim of a
+storm. It is a vital part of the peak to which it adheres, owing all its
+forms to the modelling of that peak--here lying in deep and almost level
+snow-fields where broad hollows exist beneath it; there breaking into a
+mass of towering s�racs where it is forced to fall over a step in its
+bed; there again reuniting in a smoothly surfaced area where the bed is
+once more relatively smooth; yet again opening a system of crevasses
+where its substance is torn asunder by unequal rates of flow.
+
+[Illustration: 19. LOOKING OVER LUCERNE FROM THE DREI LINDEN. The Towers
+of the Musegg in the middle distance.]
+
+To the instructed eye it is not mysterious why one peak should be a
+tower of rock and the next a dome of snow. All the forms assumed are the
+result of a few simple causes. They express the past history of the
+action of natural forces, not difficult of comprehension. Be assured
+that the understanding eye is well rewarded for the power of
+comprehension it has slowly and perhaps laboriously acquired. Such
+understanding comes not merely by familiarity with mountain regions, and
+is not to be attained by climbing alone, no matter for how many seasons
+or with what refinement of gymnastic ability. It comes indeed only to
+the climber, to the man who makes himself familiar with the fastnesses
+of the hills by actually going amongst them; but it only comes to him if
+he avails himself of his opportunities to watch the action of Nature's
+forces when he comes in contact with them. It is not enough merely to
+see, it is necessary also to look, to examine, to remember, and to love.
+He that thus acquaints himself with the high places, will learn to know
+them as they can be known by no other. They will become to him a home,
+full of reminiscences, full of shared pleasures, full also of problems
+yet to be solved, and of hopes yet to be fulfilled. To such a
+mountain-lover weariness of mountains can never come. His climbing days
+may be ended, for whatever reason; he may cease to expect or even to
+desire to mount far aloft; but the mountains themselves, whencesoever
+seen, will remain to him a joy, permanent, indescribable, and of
+priceless worth, which he at least will hold to be superior to all other
+emotions aroused within him by the beauties of Nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF ALPS
+
+
+Relatively few Alpine climbers of the present generation know the
+Alps. They know a district or two, perhaps, though even that amount of
+knowledge is not so common as might be expected. It were truer to say
+that the normal present-day climber knows a special kind of climbing and
+only cares to go where that is to be found. The popular kind of climbing
+to-day is rock-climbing. The new mountaineer is a specialist
+rock-climber. Having once fallen in love with rock-climbing, he devotes
+himself to it, becomes more and more skilful, hunts out harder and
+harder climbs, and only cares to go where those are to be had. He has
+discovered that England is not ill-provided with such scrambles, if you
+know where to look for them; and he knows. He may be found at Easter and
+Whitsuntide in recondite gullies in Wales, the Lakes, Derbyshire, or
+Scotland. In the summer he is to be looked for among the Chamonix
+Aiguilles or in the Dolomites, or, if at other centres, then on the more
+difficult rock routes. Naturally a small area suffices him. It is not
+mountains he seeks but climbs. A single peak will afford him several, a
+small group might even occupy him for a lifetime of scrambling holidays.
+
+[Illustration: 20. FRAN�OIS DEVOUASSOUD.]
+
+He does not care for easy ways. He hates snow-pounding. A glacier route
+does not attract him unless it be difficult. Hence his knowledge even of
+his own particular district or districts is likely to be incomplete. He
+is not drawn to travel far afield. A wanderer by nature he cannot be;
+nor is the wandering instinct likely to be developed in him. He does not
+care for all sorts and conditions of Alps, but for one sort. Only where
+that kind is to be found is he attracted to go. All present-day
+mountaineers, of course, are not of this type; but this is the type that
+present-day mountaineering tends to develop; and of this type the output
+is considerable.
+
+The old generation of climbers--the founders of the Alpine Club--men
+who were active in the sixties and seventies, were essentially
+wanderers. The craft of climbing was less an object of pursuit to them
+than the exploration of the Alps. Probably the reason was that they had
+the Alps to explore, and theirs was the pleasure of exploration which we
+have not. The Alps have all been explored before our coming. The old men
+had not even decent maps of the snowy regions to go by. No one knew what
+was round most upper corners, or whither passes led, or how you could
+get by high-level routes from place to place. It was a great delight to
+solve such problems, and it led climbers to become geographers and to
+interest themselves in the general structure and topography of the Alps.
+No such problems now remain to be solved. Admirable maps exist, solving
+them all. The game of exploration is played out in Central Europe. He
+that would take a hand in it now must wander further afield.
+
+Yet even now to know the Alps would be a life-work for any one. To know
+them, like the writer of a Climbers' Guide, is more than a life-work.
+For the Alps cover a much larger area than most people realise. Ordinary
+persons think of the Alps and Switzerland as almost identical, yet less
+than a third of the Alpine area is in Switzerland. By the Alps I mean
+the whole mountain area between the Mediterranean and the plains of
+North Italy, France, and Northern Europe, from where they begin at an
+arbitrary point of offshoot from the Apennines, called the Colle di
+Tenda, to where they fade out along a curved line, which may be vaguely
+described as joining Vienna to Fiume. They lie therefore in the five
+countries, Italy, France, Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria.
+
+Very few people indeed have any considerable general knowledge of the
+whole of this great area, or indeed even any sense of the size of it and
+the main features of its chief divisions. I spent one summer in the
+attempt to traverse round along the curved middle line of it from the
+Col di Tenda at one end to the neighbourhood of Vienna at the other, and
+after walking approximately a thousand miles, including zigzags, I only
+reached the termination of the snowy ridges, but by no means that of the
+forest-covered eastern outliers. That journey, however, taught me how
+much there is to know, and enables me to realise how little I have
+actually learnt of the contents and character of the Alps as a whole.
+This one fact, however, it demonstrated to me: that the several
+divisions and subdivisions of the Alps contain varieties of scenery of
+the utmost diversity. Thus a man who knows only the great ranges of the
+Central Alps must still regard himself as ignorant of the Alps at large.
+Not only are there all sorts and conditions of peaks, but there are all
+sorts and conditions of types of scenery, and between these types there
+is as much divergence as there is between a Kentish landscape and a view
+from the Gorner Grat.
+
+In this chapter I by no means propose to describe all the regions and
+types of scenery that the Alps contain, but only to mention a few of
+them as specimens of far more numerous other types, which there is no
+space here to include or of which I am ignorant. A scientific writer
+would divide these types of scenery according to the geological nature
+of their upbuilding and substance. For instance, he would broadly
+contrast the limestone with the slaty-crystalline areas, and show how
+scenery and structure match. I propose to adopt no such rational method,
+but to roam at random through the region of old memories, and refer as
+chance directs to such types of scenery and such local varieties as
+happen to suggest themselves in turn for description or brief analysis.
+
+[Illustration: 21. AT BIGNASCO. Old Bridge over the Maggia. Shrine at
+end, looking up Val Bavona. Basodino in background.]
+
+Literally speaking, "alps" are high pastures where cattle go to graze in
+summer-time. We here use the name with no such meaning, but to designate
+the mountains in general. The Alps, _par excellence_, to the normal man
+are the great groups of snowy peaks in the heart of the Alpine area. Let
+us in the first place confine our attention to them. In popular
+estimation these groups are the following, the Dauphiny, Mont Blanc,
+Monte Rosa, Oberland, and Engadine masses. In the second rank come
+others we will refer to later.
+
+_Place au g�ant!_ First among all is Mont Blanc and its satellites,
+pre-eminent in size, pre-eminent also in dignity. For this group is
+really one buttressed mountain, and all its minor masses are supports to
+the central dome, like the semi-domes, vaulted porticoes and abutments
+of Hagia Sophia to the uplifted cupola. He who stands on the summit of
+the great mountain beholds that this is so. His position there is
+pre-eminent. No other neighbouring height rivals that which he occupies.
+The highest are many hundred feet below, and they are all obvious
+supporters and tributaries of Mont Blanc itself. It is only the yet
+smaller and remoter elevations that assert a claim to independence.
+
+This pre-eminence of the central mass is the key-note of Mont Blanc
+scenery. Moreover the mountain is not merely pre-eminent in altitude,
+but in volume and simplicity of form. Its upper part is a great white
+dome, whereas the buttress-peaks are for the most part rocky pinnacles.
+The contrast between these slender, jagged supports and the reposeful
+majesty of the Calotte is a most picturesque feature and a very rare
+one, not repeated, so far as I remember, in any other part of the Alps.
+It dominates the scenery of the whole district. No doubt within the
+district there are views of great beauty and considerable comprehension,
+where Mont Blanc forms no part--such, for example, as the Montenvers
+view up the Mer de Glace--but the characteristic prospects contain Mont
+Blanc as their central and most important object. This is specially true
+of all the views from summits, a quality that distinguishes them from
+summit-views in other districts. Whatever Aiguille you stand upon, and
+whatever may have been the character of the scenery passed through on
+the way up, the moment you arrive upon the top, Mont Blanc assumes the
+predominance and all else takes second rank. The ordinary summit-view,
+the wide world over, is a panorama, in which the uninterrupted roving of
+the vision round the whole circuit is the chief charm. From a minor
+summit in the Mont Blanc region, the great mountain shuts out a large
+fraction of the distant panorama and attracts chief attention to itself.
+Of the other conspicuous beauties of this district, its glorious ice
+scenery, its astonishingly precipitous crags and slender needle-peaks,
+we shall take occasion to speak hereafter. In this place it is only the
+dominant note of each locality that calls for brief description.
+
+From Mont Blanc we naturally pass to Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn.
+The fact that the two peaks call for co-ordinate attention, at once
+marks the dispersion of interest characteristic of the Pennine Alps.
+Indeed not two but nearly a dozen mountains in that group are of almost
+equal importance, each having votaries who prefer it to the rest. The
+Matterhorn, of course, is in its own way pre-eminent, if seen from
+certain points of view; but, when beheld from other summits around, it
+does not maintain an appearance of leadership. Monte Rosa from
+Macugnaga, the Dom and T�schhorn from Saas, the Weisshorn from north or
+east, the Dent Blanche from the Triftjoch, are objects as imposing each
+in its own way as is the Matterhorn from Zermatt or the Riffelalp. That
+peak, as we shall hereafter take occasion to observe in more detail,
+surpasses them, and perhaps all the rock mountains in the world, in
+grace of outline from certain points of view. It likewise rejoices in a
+rare prestige, due to its tragic history and its geographical position.
+But to those who know it from all sides, and know its neighbours also,
+it is not the unique and dominating mountain of its district that it is
+popularly supposed to be. The Zermatt mountain area is probably best to
+be differentiated from the other great Alpine groups by the almost
+uniform magnificence and relative equality of its chief peaks. It
+resembles some splendid Venetian oligarchy as contrasted with
+monarchical Mont Blanc. The nobles of the Pennine Court with their
+satellites present greater variety, a more elaborate organisation, and a
+more varied historical record. Each seems worthy to be chief when beheld
+from a selected vantage point. Seen from elsewhere, each subordinates
+itself to some other. This is the region of large independent glaciers,
+of deep recesses, of noble passes from place to place. It is also
+specially rich in minor points of view about 10,000 feet high, and of
+good sites for hotels some 3,000 feet lower, where each possesses a
+specially fine outlook of its own, which it shares with no other. The
+dominant note of the district is grandeur; if it lacks anything, it is
+charm. This, in fact, is a stalwart group, which must be wandered over
+and inspected from many sides and along many routes. No "centre" reveals
+it. It is a place for walkers and climbers in the heyday of their
+vigour.
+
+Turn we next to the Bernese Oberland, the queen district, if Mont
+Blanc is the king. The Oberland has always seemed to me to be the most
+graceful and romantic of the great Alpine masses. The very names of its
+peaks enshrine the poetry that the peasant-dwellers on their flanks
+learned from them in days long gone by. The Maiden, the Monk, the Ogre,
+the peak of Terror, and what not. And then how richly they roll off the
+tongue--Finsteraarhorn, Lauteraarhorn, Bl�mlisalp, Strahleck! No other
+part of Switzerland can rival the Oberland for names--certainly not
+Zermatt with its Meadow-peak, Red-peak, Broad-peak, Black-peak,
+White-tooth, and the like feeble designations. Easily first for beauty
+and prestige among Oberland mountains is the peerless Jungfrau--but you
+must only see her from the north. Thence she is beheld, a most effulgent
+beauty, fair among the fairest mountain visions upon earth. The elegance
+of her form, displayed and emphasised by the white samite of her
+drapery, and beheld from the lake at her foot, abides in the memory of
+all who are privileged to behold her. Only one rival does she possess in
+the district, and that is not a mountain but a glacier, the Great
+Aletsch, greatest of all in the Alps, beautiful exceedingly to look down
+upon, beautiful in its middle course, and fairest of all in the wide
+expanses of its ample gathering ground. It subordinates to itself all
+the high surrounding peaks and renders them the mere rim of its cup. To
+a less degree magnificent, yet far finer than the general run of Alpine
+glaciers, are the other chief ice-rivers of the Oberland district, which
+thus becomes _par excellence_ the home of long glacier-passes, leading
+through great varieties of mountain scenery, and connecting centres
+relatively remote. The longest and finest glacier-traverse in the Alps
+is that which leads from the Grimsel to the L�tschen valley right
+through the heart of the range.
+
+[Illustration: 22. LOOKING DOWN THE ALETSCH GLACIER FROM CONCORDIA
+HUT. Eggishorn peak dark.]
+
+Dauphiny, compared with the Pennines and the Oberland, presents to one
+sensitive to mountain character more contrasts than similarities. For
+this is an austere region, which gathers itself up together and stands
+apart, away from natural through routes and the ordinary courses of the
+human tide. Its valleys are deep, sombre, and stony; its alpine pastures
+meagre; its forests few and thin. Its peaks hide themselves behind their
+own knees. He that would know them must search them out. But they reward
+the search. It is because of the steepness of their bases that they are
+so recondite, and that very steepness gives them a dignified character
+all their own. The Meije is their typical representative, a mountain of
+strangely complex sky-line and irregular shape, that supports its own
+private glaciers cut-off upon cliffs, and presents the climber with
+surprises round every corner. Few are the regular pyramids, fewer still
+the domed snow caps in the tangled complexity of this region, where
+Nature has impressed her chisel deeply, and has hewn out the great rock
+masses with unusual ruggedness.
+
+Very different is the remote Engadine group, remarkable for the high
+level and broad expanse of the floor of its chief valley, where lake
+beyond lake reflects the summer sunshine and carries the white curtain
+of winter on its level frozen surface. A region, this, of fine forests
+and large expanses of rich grazing grounds, of picturesque torrents and
+smiling flower-strewn slopes. Its snowy group is little more than an
+appendage of minor importance to the general scenic attractions of the
+district. Two fine mountain cirques, defining the basins of two
+picturesque glaciers, are its dominant features, and in each cirque one
+peak shines forth pre-eminent. The scenery of these cirques, however, is
+not of any special character that calls for mention as distinguishing it
+from the scenery of the other great Alpine groups. The _note_ of the
+Engadine is not sounded there, but rather in the wide, lake-strewn
+valley itself, where the snow-crests count mainly as the silvery
+embellishment of its frame.
+
+[Illustration: 23. ASCONIA--ON LAGO MAGGIORE.]
+
+Climbers who have spent a season or two in each of these five groups
+may think that they know the Alps, but they will be greatly mistaken.
+Most of them, indeed, will admit that they cannot afford to neglect the
+Dolomites, and will at least intend to spend a season amongst them. From
+a scrambling point of view, if they are rock-climbers, they will be well
+rewarded, for Dolomite rock-climbing is a thing apart. Dolomite scenery
+is even more truly unique. Less grand than that of the great mountain
+groups, it has a distinction all its own. There is nothing forbidding
+about the precipitance of its cliffs and summits. Their relative
+lightness of tint and the warm suffusion of the sun-pervaded atmosphere
+that so frequently envelops them, makes their elevated parts seem almost
+to float in the sky. The visible traces of the horizontal bedding of the
+rocks that compose them render the effect of even their slenderest
+pinnacles less aspiring than that of the flaked and tilted
+slaty-crystalline spires of older and more rugged formations. Some of
+the sentiment of Italy hangs about the Dolomites. The airs that are
+drifted over them seem steeped in Italian colour, even as their names
+re-echo the music of the Italian tongue. The valleys between them soon
+dip into the level of chestnut and vine ere yet they forsake the
+mountains. The chalets are pregnant with suggestions of Italy, and the
+inhabitants possess more of Italian grace than of Swiss ruggedness. It
+is, however, colour, and especially atmospheric colour, that the mention
+of the Dolomites first calls to the mind of the votaries of those hills
+and valleys. Who that has beheld dawn or sunset on Cristallo or
+Rosengarten can forget the glorious display of rosy lights and purple
+shadows? The mountain forms are sometimes fine, oftener picturesque (as
+Titian knew). They have the rare merit of seeming to group into the
+happiest of combinations and contrasts as though by exceptional good
+luck; but the luck is of such frequent recurrence that instead of being
+an exception it must be counted the rule. In the presence of Mont Blanc
+or the Matterhorn it is natural to adore. The Dolomites men love.
+
+Such, then, are the six main groups of Alps that the ordinary run of
+tourists know. They include the most majestic scenery, but are far from
+including all the finest. There yet remain a bewildering multitude of
+minor groups and areas, each rich in its own charm. Such are the
+Maritime Alps, the Cottians around Monte Viso, the Graians led by Grand
+Paradis and Grivola, the limestone Alps of Savoy, the green hills of
+north Switzerland and Bavaria, the Lepontine Alps, the hills of the
+Italian Lakes, the T�di, the Rh�tikon, the Adamello, Ortler, Oetzthal,
+Stubaithal, and Zillerthal snowy masses, the Hohe Tauern, the Carnic and
+Julian Alps, and various other mountain groups of Styria, Carinthia, and
+Carniola. How many of us know a tithe of all these? It is impossible
+here to do more than refer briefly to a few of them.
+
+Amongst the fairest of them all, the Maritimes should assuredly be
+reckoned, little visited though they be except by Italians. Their
+eastern and northern valleys, which alone are known to me, must be
+counted lovely, even judged by the high standard of loveliness that the
+Italian Alpine valleys set. Any one of them, transported to the midst of
+a Swiss group of mountains, would be the pearl of the district. What
+more enchanting resort can be imagined than the Baths of Valdieri,
+planted amidst umbrageous copses and beside laughing waters? Here all
+the elements of picturesque landscape group themselves together in the
+most perfect natural harmony. Nowhere in the opening season are the
+flowers more rich, the hillsides more verdant, the foliage of the trees
+more varied. Nowhere do woods climb slopes in more graceful procession.
+Nowhere are the rocks and lofty snow-peaks set in more fascinating
+frames of unexpected foreground. It is a valley of endless surprises and
+delights. Moreover, its waters are clear and glancing. They burst from
+the hillsides, tumble in crystalline brilliance over clifflets, dance
+through the meadows, and race-along beneath the shadow of beeches and
+chestnuts. No ogres, we may be sure, lurk in the fastnesses of these
+hills, but only the most delicate fairies, glittering with dew. And then
+the views from the peaks--how memorable they are, how unlike those of
+the Central Alps! For from these summits you behold always the sea, far
+stretching, and ever apparently calm. It looks indeed like any other
+sea, but you know that it is the Mediterranean with all Africa beyond
+it, away there in the sunny south. On the other side, far, far off to
+the north, is the great Alpine wall, and at your feet the sea-like
+Lombard plain. Those sweeps of flatness on either hand, how they tell in
+the midst of a mountain view! They bring into it a sense of repose.
+There Nature has finished her work of pulling down, and man can rest
+upon the fertile soil in peace. Sweet indeed is Valdieri, but it is no
+sweeter than its neighbouring glens. He that loves mountains in less
+savage mood than the great giants are wont to bear, let him fly to the
+Maritimes and he will not be disappointed.
+
+[Illustration: 24. LOCARNO FROM THE BANKS OF THE LAKE. Madonna del Sasso
+on the slope above.]
+
+Proceeding northward, the Cottians and the Tarentaise and Graians
+present loftier peaks and valleys beautiful, though lacking the richness
+and luxuriance of the Maritimes. In fact these groups stand between the
+Pennines and the Maritimes alike in position and in character. From the
+Pennines the fertile valleys are so far removed as scarcely to enter
+into the normal scenery of the region. In the Maritimes the chestnut
+woods are at the very foot of the peaks. They are further away in the
+Cottians, but not absolutely removed from the Alpine area. You may sleep
+near a vineyard one night and yet be on the snows next day. The great
+glory of the Cottians is the fine pyramid of Monte Viso, which so many
+climbers in the Swiss Alps know from afar off. It stands splendidly
+alone and commands one of the most superb panoramas in the Alps, wide
+ranging as Mont Blanc's, but seen as from the top of a tower instead of
+a slowly curving dome with a large white foreground that hides the depth
+beneath. From the Viso the sight plunges down and then flies away and
+yet away over the Lombard plain to peaks so remote as practically to
+defy identification by unaided skill of recognition.
+
+We cannot linger in the west, for our space is limited and more than
+half of it is spent. Flying eastward, then, we come next to the Italian
+valleys of the Monte Rosa group, to which indeed they belong, though I
+purposely omitted reference to them when writing of that, for in style
+of scenery they are widely different and frequented by travellers of
+another sort. Here are mountain centres indeed--Breuil, Gressoney,
+Alagna, and so forth--whence great climbs may be made. It is not in
+these centres, however, that the beauty of the valleys culminates, but
+further down. There are in fact three zones in each valley: the upper,
+which is purely Alpine though lacking the grandeur of the northern
+slope; the middle, where on either hand are found peaks that just reach
+the snow level and rise from luxuriantly afforested bases: and the
+lower, which in summer time is too hot and fly-infested to be an
+agreeable resort. The middle zone is the region of fine scenery, of
+beautiful low passes, and of superb points of view, whence the whole
+Pennine range to the north is gloriously beheld.
+
+At the lower limit of this zone stands Varallo, in the Sesia valley,
+a most beautiful resort for one jaded with the austere scenery of the
+snow and ice world. Here art and nature together claim the traveller's
+attention. The remarkable lifelike sculptures of the Sacro Monte and the
+frescoes of Gaudenzio Ferrari well deserve their wide repute, whilst the
+walk over the Col della Colma to the lake of Orta is one of the most
+charming known to me the wide world over. Once I beheld from the crest
+of the pass a cloudless sunrise on Monte Rosa, when the rosy glow of the
+snows was not more beautiful than the rich and rare violets and purples
+of the lower foreground hills.
+
+[Illustration: 25. PALLANZA--EVENING. South end of Lago Maggiore.
+Campanile of the Church of St. Leonardo, mountains of Saas in the
+background.]
+
+By this pass we may well enter the Italian Lake districts, whose fame
+is known to all. He would be a niggard indeed who should refuse to
+reckon as Alpine this gem of scenery. Many of us regard, and rightly, a
+drop down into the land of the lakes as a necessary part of a full
+Alpine holiday, the contrast between their luxuriance and high Alpine
+asceticism serving best to display the charms of each. It is indeed the
+distant prospects of the snowy range that give a finishing touch of
+utter perfection to the scenery of the lakes, the finest view-point of
+all for comprehension and perfect composition being, perhaps, the
+terrace of Santa Catarina del Sasso. The climber, however, will not
+really learn to know the lakes if he remains, as most do, idly on their
+shores. Here, if anywhere, he should ascend. Down below, save for the
+water, the scenery may be matched all round the Italian plain and in
+many a valley, but up aloft on Monte Mottarone, Monte Nudo, Monte
+Generoso, and hills of that size, you are in the presence of panoramas
+nowhere else to be matched. The Rigi, the Niesen, and their fellows
+offer corresponding but not equal prospects north of the main range; for
+though lakes and snows and wide stretches of landscape are visible from
+them, they lack vision of the Lombard plain and the magic opalescence of
+the Italian atmosphere. The mountaineer who has no experience, or if
+experienced, no joy in the grass-crowned foot-hills that flank the great
+ranges is no true mountain-lover. For such persons this book is not
+written. They have their own kinds of pleasure and reward, pleasures
+which are not low and rewards well worth the winning, but they are not
+those that I have sought after or can rightly estimate.
+
+[Illustration: 26. THE MADONNA DEL SASSO, LOCARNO. A Pilgrimage Church,
+picturesquely situated on a wooded rocky cliff high above the town and
+Lago Maggiore.]
+
+Some of the fair qualities of Italian lake scenery mingle with the
+bolder forms of the mountains of Ticino, and something of the softness
+of Maggiore's air tempers the fresh breezes falling from Ticino snows.
+Here lies the peerless Val Maggia, whose orchard-bearing floor sweeps up
+between mile after mile of noble cliffs. Here every village church and
+almost every cottage seems to have been designed and planted for
+picturesque effect. It is a valley of many gardens, trimly kept, of much
+emigrant-won prosperity, a home of the vine and the fig-tree, also of
+trout-streams and other bright-glancing waters. Comfortably habitable
+and home-suggesting is it; a place to fall in love with, which every
+visitor hopes to see again, and every native promises himself that he
+will return to for the evening of his days. Such as it is, such also are
+its neighbours. Its upper reaches are more splendid than I can suggest.
+There is a grace in their many waterfalls, a majesty in their great
+steps and verdant levels, a relative wealth in their vegetation, and a
+charm about their villages, that must be seen to be understood. Even the
+Maritimes can boast no more beautiful valley scenery.
+
+The Bergamasque Alps are, I believe, not dissimilar in character, but I
+know only the mere outskirts of them. What I have seen does not equal
+Ticino. These carry us by a natural transition to the Adamello group,
+which yields a remarkable long traverse over high-planted snows
+commanding a stupendous depth and comprehensiveness of outlook, which
+culminates in the extraordinary panorama visible from the highest point.
+
+We are thus brought back again to the dominantly snowy groups, whereof a
+number remain yet uncharacterised. First among these secondary masses
+the Ortler and its fellows call for mention--a group far better known by
+our German and Italian colleagues than by ourselves. The chief peaks,
+though built on a smaller scale, have much of the apparent bulk and
+grandeur of the greater masses of the Central Alps. Their ice-walls and
+their glacier scenery in general are of the grand type. Like the great
+peaks, too, they are withdrawn from southern luxury. When all is said,
+however, they remain second-rate, nor can I recall any special note of
+beauty by which this district is distinguished.
+
+The Oetzthal, Stubaithal, and Zillerthal groups, which follow one
+another to the eastward, are, I think, in better case; though they have
+lost in charm by the rapid shrinkage of their glaciers since I first
+knew them almost thirty years ago. The average height of the peaks is
+small when the large area of glacier they support is considered.
+Formerly the glaciers were much larger. Several that I knew have utterly
+vanished, and the largest are greatly reduced. The snow-fields, however,
+still retain their wide expanse. In consequence of the smallness of the
+peaks, a greater number of them exist in a given area than elsewhere in
+the snowy Alpine regions. This makes the foregrounds in the summit views
+more complex. As the scale does not obtrude itself, the eye magnifies
+it, and the result is an imposing effect. A similar effect of complexity
+struck me in Spitsbergen, where the peaks are very much smaller still,
+and group themselves so closely together that they seem to form a spiny
+tangle at once puzzling to the topographer and pleasing to the lover of
+mountain varieties. Owing to the smallness of scale of the Stubai peaks,
+for instance, you can climb two or three of them in a single day from a
+high-planted hut, and thus behold in the afternoon a peak you climbed in
+the morning. Such wandering about at high levels is a new and agreeable
+experience to mountaineers accustomed to the long scrambles that the
+greater ranges afford.
+
+The Hohe Tauern, which splits into the two groups, dominated
+respectively by the Gross Glockner and Gross Venediger, scarcely calls
+for other remark, from a scenic point of view, than what was said about
+the Ortler. The panoramas from the two chief peaks are unusually fine, a
+quality which they share with three or four of the main elevations of
+the three groups just referred to. The glacier scenery of the northern
+slope of the Venediger and the southern of the Glockner group is the
+finest in Tirol, whilst the Glockner itself is built on great lines, has
+the qualities of a true giant, and affords some climbing of a high
+order. If the reader, however, will consent to descend from these
+superior considerations to others of a more practical character, his
+attention may be called to the fact that, in this many-hutted district,
+facilities are afforded to a climber which he will not often find
+equalled elsewhere except in one or two minor Tirolese groups. So
+numerous and large are the huts, and so well provided with all the
+necessaries for life and reasonable comfort, that it is almost
+superfluous to carry food, or for a party of moderately experienced
+climbers to require the services of a guide. There are huts where you
+can breakfast, lunch, dine, and sleep at convenient intervals. If this
+tends to destroy the charm of solitude, which is one of the greatest
+that the regions of snow usually afford, it enables even the average
+climber to wander more freely than he can elsewhere, and less burdened
+with baggage or the often unsympathetic companionship of a guide. The
+gain more than compensates most men for the loss, and makes this
+district specially deserving of the guideless amateur's attention.
+
+Of regions further east and south I cannot write, knowing only from
+personal acquaintance the mountains near the Semmering pass, and the
+hills between them and Vienna. Here the forest scenery is the great
+charm. The forest-clad hills and deep hidden lakes of the Salzkammergut,
+North Tirol, and the Bavarian uplands must at least be mentioned. They
+belong to what we English may describe as the Scotland of the Alps. No
+lover of mountains will deny the potent charm of forests, especially in
+hilly country richly watered. Their sombre gloom matches many a human
+mood.
+
+Not all scenery is alike grateful to every one, or to any one at all
+times. It behoves a traveller to know his own mood and to choose a
+resort that matches it. If he wants solitude, he should not select
+Zermatt or Chamonix. If he abounds in energy, he should not look to
+lakes and mild climates for its satisfaction. If he loves variety, he
+should not plant himself in the midst of a mainly snow-clad region. One
+district will suit him best in one year, another in another. That will
+not delight him equally in maturity which enlists the strongest
+enthusiasm of his youth. But the variety that is in the Alps at large is
+infinite. There will always be discoverable the right thing for each who
+cares to search it out.
+
+The habit of constantly returning to the same spot may almost be
+regarded as a vice to be avoided.
+
+
+    "To give space for wandering is it
+    That the world was made so wide."
+
+
+Assuredly the wanderer has most rewards. The more he knows of other
+regions, the more is the significance increased of the view which he at
+any moment beholds, and so much the more capable does his eye become of
+recognising all sorts and varieties of beauty. But this is only true of
+one who travels with observant eyes and receptive understanding. It is
+possible to travel far and wide without ever really seeing anything.
+Such travel is the merest waste of energy. To travel should be to learn;
+but travelling is only learning when the traveller makes learning his
+purpose.
+
+Discrimination is the quality that distinguishes intelligence from
+brutal greed. It differentiates the _gourmet_ from the _gourmand_. It
+divides the mountain-lover from the common peak peak-hunter. It is the
+quality that continues growing longest, whose exercise is never
+wearisome, whose reward is always increasing. To be able to discriminate
+between the qualities of different Alpine regions and to appreciate all
+their varied merits is to know the Alps. All that it has been possible
+to do in the present chapter is to indicate in briefest terms some of
+the characteristic charms of the principal regions, known incompletely
+to the present writer, and by him but feebly grasped. He ventures to
+hope that even this sketch, slight and falteringly drawn as it is, may
+yet serve to suggest to some readers a whole world of delights, which,
+if they choose, they may immediately enter into and possess.
+
+By all means visit the famous centres. A true instinct has marked them
+out and made them widely known as specially calculated to awaken the
+imagination of the town-dwelling modern world. But do not regard them as
+the whole Alps; do not start with the assurance that there alone is
+Alpine beauty to be found in highest perfection. For you, perhaps, the
+highest Alpine beauty resides in less well advertised localities. Let
+each seek out for himself that which he can most keenly enjoy. It will
+be his possession and not another's. Let him take it to his soul. But
+let him also remember that there are other capacities, which he does not
+possess or has not yet developed, and that for them also the mountains
+great and small possess powers of satisfaction as rich and manifold as
+any he has himself experienced.
+
+[Illustration: 27. LOCARNO AT SUNSET, AND NORTH END OF LAGO MAGGIORE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MOODS OF THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Mountains do not merely vary from district to district, but from time
+to time. Were it not so, how soon should we tire of any single outlook
+or the neighbourhood of any one centre! They change from hour to hour
+with the incidence of sunlight, and from day to day with the passing
+season of the year. They change also, often from moment to moment, with
+the inconstancy of the weather. In fact they are never twice absolutely
+the same. In the heyday of our scrambling enthusiasm, we perhaps
+regarded this variability of the mountains with less satisfaction than
+it obtains from us later. We should have chosen an unbroken series of
+long and cloudless days, with the snow all melted from the rocks, and
+the summit views all complete in cloudless, transparent visibility. Yet
+even then we found a singular joy in snatching an ascent in some brief
+fine interval between two spells of bad weather. Whereas the details of
+many a featurelessly fine ascent have passed from our minds, which of us
+does not remember, and recall with a keen delight, climbs accomplished
+in the teeth of storms, when Nature seemed to stand forth as an
+antagonist whom we wrestled fiercely with, and joyously overcame?
+
+We may regard mountain moods from two points of view; as experienced by
+the climber, and as affecting the aspect of mountain scenery when beheld
+from a greater or less distance. The circumstances of his sport, though
+in most cases they restrict the climber to one season of the year,
+fortunately compel him to be on mountains at almost all hours of the
+twenty-four. Most sports are functions of daylight; the climber must
+travel by night as frequently as by day. None better than he, unless it
+be the astronomer, knows the full secrets of midnight beauty. What
+climber's memory is not stored with priceless recollections of the night
+and its myriad voices, its noble diapason. By day the eye is supreme; by
+night the ear. Then it is, when marching along upland valleys, that one
+hears the full chorus of the rushing torrent, now booming close at hand,
+accompanied by infinite ripplings and splashings of little waves, now
+fainter and more sibilant but no less musical in the distance. Then,
+too, it is that the breezes sing most sweetly among the trees; then that
+the glaciers are most melodious, the moulins most tuneful; then, too, on
+the highest levels, that the ultimate silences are most impressive. The
+hum of a falling stone, the rattle of a discharge of rocks, the boom of
+an avalanche, the crack of an opening crevasse, all these sounds should
+be heard framed in the silence of night, when the sense of hearing is
+most alert and the imagination most easily stirred.
+
+Who does not recall the velvety darkness of the sleeping valleys
+through which he passed near the midnight hour when just setting forth
+for some long ascent? How that contrasted with and set off the
+brilliancy of the star-spangled sky, where Orion, the Alpine climber's
+heavenly guide, shone over some col or darkly perceptible ridge, and
+bade him expect the coming of the day. Then, as the trees are left
+behind and the open alp is reached, while night still reigns in her
+darkest hour, how sweet are the airs, how uplifting the sense of
+widening space and enlarging sky, how stimulating the wonder of the
+vaguely felt glaciers and mountain-presences around!
+
+Oftenest perhaps it is moonlight when the climber starts earliest
+upon his way; then indeed he beholds glorious scenes and revels in the
+sight, nor envies his sleeping friends in the valley below. Ah! dearly
+remembered splendours of full moonshine upon the snow! how gladly we
+retain the images of you in the very treasury of our hearts! Yet who
+shall attempt to draw them forth for another, or write down even a faint
+suggestion of their beauty for those by whom they have never been
+beheld? Surely at no time are the great snows endowed with more dignity,
+more of the impressiveness of visible size, more aspect of aloofness, of
+belonging to another and a nobler world, than when the full moon shines
+perfectly upon them. And then, too, how the snow-fields glisten over all
+their wide expanse, yet with a pale effulgence that does not paralyse
+the eye! What velvet blackness embellishes the shadows! How the rocks
+are fretted against the snow! How clear are the foregrounds of glacier;
+how spiritual are the distant peaks; how softly lies the faint light in
+the deep hollows! Surely Night, the ancient Mother, speaks with a voice
+which all her children understand.
+
+[Illustration: 28. MOONLIGHT IN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM THE TOSA FALLS.]
+
+At such hours and amidst such scenes the mere onlooker oftenest shivers
+and suffers, so that half the beauty escapes him; but the active
+mountaineer, keenly awake, with the blood alive within him and a day of
+hopes ahead, misses no sight that he is capable of seeing, yet dreams,
+who shall say what visions of beauty that flit before his mind and
+vanish in swift succession. And then--suddenly--he turns his head and
+there in the east--always unexpected--is the bed of white that heralds
+the day. The night is dying. Her rich darks and whites grow pallid. Each
+moment a layer of darkness peels off. The sky turns blue before one
+knows it; the rocks grow brown; there is blue in the crevasses, and
+green upon the swards--all low-toned yet distinct. Faint puffs of warm
+air come, we know not whence, touch our faces, and are gone. The lantern
+has been extinguished; we stride out more freely; the day awakens within
+us also.
+
+Now is displayed in all its magnificence the daily drama of the dawn.
+While the mists yet lie cold and grey in the deep valleys, they glow
+against the eastern horizon, where all the spectrum is slowly uprolled,
+more and more fiery beneath, as it tends to red, and cut off below by
+the jagged outline of countless peaks, looking tiny, away off there on
+the margin of the world. Low floating cloudlets turn to molten gold. The
+horizon flames along all its fretted eastern edge, a narrow band of
+lambent light, a smokeless crimson fire. The belt of colour grows
+broader; it swamps and dyes the cloudlets crimson. Long pink streamers
+of soft light strike up from where the sun is presently to appear. The
+great moment is at hand. All eyes rove around the view. At last some
+near high peak salutes the day; its summit glowing like a live coal
+drawn from a furnace. Another catches the light and yet another. The
+glory spreads downwards, turning from pink to gold, and from gold to
+pure daylight, and then--lo! the sun himself upon the horizon! a point
+of blinding light, soon changing to the full round orb. The day has
+come, and the long shadows gather in their skirts and prepare to flee
+away.
+
+Now comes the climber's most perfect hour. He shares the strength and
+promise of the young day. The fresh crisp air seems to lift him from the
+earth. The sense of the very possibility of fatigue vanishes. He
+rejoices in his might. He looks forward with confidence to no matter
+what difficulties may lie ahead. The snow is hard and crisp beneath his
+feet. The ice-crystals merrily crepitate as they break up, when the
+bonds of frost are withdrawn. And now the patch of rocks, or other
+convenient resting place, where breakfast is to be taken, is soon
+attained. Packs are cast off. It is an hour of perfect delight. The
+heart of the upper regions has been reached. The fair world of snow
+opens on every side. The valleys and habitable places are all forgotten.
+The scenery is superb. At such a time and place who would exchange with
+folks below, be they never so prosperous?
+
+It is soon time to be on the way once more. The fulness of the day
+gradually comes on with all its pains and glories. The sun climbs
+triumphantly aloft and sheds its burning radiance all around. Foreground
+details vanish in excess of light, but the distances grow more distinct.
+What is nearer stands out before what is more remote. The eye ranges
+afar and feasts upon the widening panorama, which about noon, let us
+hope, suddenly becomes complete, for we are on the top. No daylight is
+now too brilliant to reveal all the multitudinous effect of what is
+spread abroad to be beheld. The burning snowfields are below. The mere
+foreground of our vision is miles away. We look down into sunlit valleys
+sprinkled with tiny dots of houses and narrow lines of roads. We gaze
+afar over ridge beyond ridge, it may be to some wide-stretching plain or
+ultimate crest of remotest ranges. All swims in light, and we triumph in
+its very exuberance.
+
+Then follows the afternoon of our descent. We plunge into
+ever-thickening air as we go down. It is penetrated with the dust and
+flurry of the day. As the hours advance it sheds an ever mellower tone
+upon the views. Fatigue seems to invade the earth itself as it does our
+own limbs. We gain the grassy places once more, as the sun begins to
+lose its towering eminence of place. The rope and all its strenuous
+suggestions has been discarded, and at length the most toilsome parts of
+the expedition are over. We can fling ourselves upon the grass by some
+babbling brook, with the clanging of cattle-bells not far away, and the
+haunts of men pleasantly adjacent. The peaks we have sought out are not
+yet very far away. We can still follow the traces of our own footsteps
+upon their flanks. Their spirit is in us. All that we have so recently
+seen and felt is still present in our minds, as we gaze with newly
+instructed eyes upon the places we have visited.
+
+[Illustration: 29. A MOUNTAIN PATH, GRINDELWALD]
+
+The last walk remains, down through the gathering trees, through
+new-mown hay-fields, past little farms clustering on the hillside--down
+and ever down into the embrace of the narrowing earth, which holds out
+arms of recognition to us, her children and the special votaries of her
+shrines. When at length the mellow evening light is warm upon the
+hillsides, and the rich shadows are creeping down upon it, we reach the
+village where we are to rest. There, as we sit before some hospitable
+inn, and gaze yet once again back to the heights whence we have come,
+the sunset fires are lit upon them when the shades of night already fill
+the valleys. For a moment the topmost summits facing west glow with the
+gold and fade to the rose that ushered in the day and now glorify its
+close. The colour is withdrawn. The warmth fades out of all the view.
+Pallor supervenes, and "layer on layer the night comes on."
+
+Such are the normal effects and sequences of a fine Alpine summer day;
+but days of that sort are rare. Usually what we call "weather"
+intervenes to break the normal sequence with surprises that should not
+be unwelcome. I have thus far referred mainly to the drama of the
+sunshine; but more varied, more fascinating, more adventurous is the
+drama of the clouds, those mist mountains that come and go, forming
+ranges loftier than the hills, whiter than the snows, but endowed with
+the two-fold gifts of inaccessibility and evanescence. Them we can
+neither climb nor map. Clouds we have with us everywhere, but it is
+among mountains that we learn to know them, how they form and fade,
+mount aloft or drift asunder. The mountain clouds have a plainlier
+realised individuality than those that pass over cities and plains.
+Their positions and relative altitudes are more easy to fix, their
+changes more readily perceived.
+
+It is not my intention here to analyse at length the characters and
+forms of clouds from the picturesque point of view. That has been most
+suggestively and eloquently attempted by Ruskin in various chapters of
+_Modern Painters_, which every mountain-lover should have read. One
+correction only of that fine description of mountain-clouds will I
+venture to make, the point being of some importance. "I believe," wrote
+Ruskin, "the true cumulus is never seen in a great mountain region, at
+least never associated with hills. It is always broken up and modified
+by them.... The quiet, thoroughly defined, infinitely divided and
+modelled pyramid never develops itself. It would be very grand if one
+ever saw a great mountain peak breaking through the domed shoulders of a
+true cumulus; but this I have never seen."
+
+Whether it be true that cumulus cloud is never formed in the Alps I
+cannot say, my own notes not being accessible to me at this moment and
+my memory at fault; but this I can assert, that, in the heart of the
+great ranges, Himalayas and Andes, they frequently and magnificently
+occur. Never shall I forget the piled splendours, the divided and
+involved intricacies of rounded forms, the stupendous mass of the great
+towers of white cloud which I have often seen, with their level bases
+just upon or just above the summits of mountains more than 20,000 feet
+high, and their sharply outlined crests 15,000 or even 20,000 feet
+higher. Such clouds are only formed in warm uniformly ascending air
+currents, undisturbed by variable winds. They never form about peaks,
+but they form beside or above them. Often in Bolivia have I seen these
+great towers of mist rise with majestic deliberation behind the long
+white crest of the Cordillera Real, till they reduced the snowy peaks to
+mere pigmies at their feet. Then the afternoon wind would take them and
+bend them over the range like waves about to break. White island masses
+would sever themselves one by one and, passing the crest of the
+watershed, would drift away over the high plateau. If cumulus is formed
+in the Alpine region, its base would doubtless there also lie above the
+level of the snows, and the form of the clouds would not be realised by
+an observer in the mountain region. From Turin or Milan, gazing
+northward, immense masses of cumulus are often seen, but I have never
+yet been able to discover whether their bases rest on the snows or
+whether they merely lie above the foothills and lake-district.
+
+The clouds that belong to mountains, that arise upon their slopes and
+crests, and are the vestments they wear in the great ceremonies of
+Nature, these are of another sort. The climber knows them from within
+and has a very different sense of their meaning from his who merely
+watches them from afar off. Mr. Whymper in a well-known passage
+describes how he spent the best part of two days on the Matterhorn,
+wrestling with a violent storm. On his arrival at Zermatt, he learned
+from the inn-keeper that the weather had been fine but for "that small
+cloud" on the Matterhorn's flank. Such is the difference between being
+in some clouds and seeing them from below.
+
+[Illustration: 30. THE ALETSCHHORN. Clouds gathering at sunset.]
+
+Climbers, as a rule, begin their ascents by night, in weather which
+they at least hope will prove fine. In doubtful weather nights are
+relatively cloudless, unless it be in valleys. Not infrequently, indeed,
+a bed of cloud will lie in a valley when all the upper regions are
+clear. I well remember once starting from Zermatt for an ascent of one
+of Monte Rosa's peaks at as black a midnight as can be conceived. Not a
+star shone in the heavy sky. An hour's walking brought us into a thick
+fog, but we pushed on and up. It lay quite still. Just before dawn we
+rose above it and could almost feel our passing out through its clearly
+defined upper surface. We looked abroad over its level surface as a
+leaping fish may be imagined to see around it the surface of a lake. All
+above was absolutely clear. The day that followed was radiantly fine and
+the mist lake presently faded away. Such views of mountains rising out
+of a level sea of cloud are always felt to be wonderful. Sella's
+photograph of the Caucasus range thus islanded is the best-known example
+of that kind of view. It is not uncommon in mountain regions. I have
+described examples of it in Spitsbergen and the Andes which need not be
+quoted here.
+
+Oftener the climber starts beneath the stars. His first attention is
+paid to their aspect. If they seem unusually bright and twinkling, he
+augurs ill of his prospects, but holds on, hoping for the best. Dark
+sky-islands indicate the presence of clouds here and there. He trusts
+that the rising sun may clear them away. In due season the dawn breaks,
+perhaps in unusual and threatening grandeur, the light pouring along
+"wreathed avenues" of advancing clouds and illuminating with its rich
+tints the cloud-banners flying from precipitous peaks. Worst of all is
+it if umbrella clouds seem to float stationary above the tops of rounded
+snowy summits. Then indeed there is little ground left for hope. These
+cloud-caps, just lifted off the heads of the mountains to which they
+belong, consist of vapour in rapid movement and always imply a strong
+wind. The mist condenses to windward of the summit, blows over it, and
+dissolves to leeward, thus making the cloud-cap appear stationary,
+though every particle composing it is in rapid motion. Similar is the
+internal composition of a cloud-banner, though the movement of its parts
+is more easily perceived.
+
+Oftenest, however, at the hour of dawn there is little wind, and the
+mists condense lazily, forming, fading, forming again in the most
+whimsical fashion. Or they eddy in hollow places, and reach forth over
+depressions uncanny arms, which grasp and wither away and return again
+as though in doubt what to attack. An hour may pass in this weird
+performance, and then after all the sun may conquer and the misty
+battalions be swallowed up. But that is unusual. Generally, after some
+preliminary skirmishing, the moment comes when they gather themselves
+together, as by word of command, and, coming on in united force, swallow
+up the mountain world.
+
+This final onrush is often a most magnificent and solemn sight. The
+gathering squadrons of the sky grow dark and seem to hold the just
+departed night in their bosoms. Their crests impend. They assume
+terrific shapes. They acquire an aspect of solidity. They do not so much
+seem to blot out as to destroy the mountains. Their motion suggests a
+great momentum. At first too they act in almost perfect silence. There
+is little movement in the oppressively warm air, and yet the clouds boil
+and surge as though violently agitated. They join together, neighbour to
+neighbour, and every moment they grow more dense and climb higher. To
+left and right, one sees them, behind also and before. The moments now
+are precious. We take a last view of our surroundings, note the
+direction we should follow, and try to fix details in our memories, for
+sight will soon be impossible. Then the clouds themselves are upon us--a
+puff of mist first, followed by the dense fog. A crepitating sound
+arises around us; it is the pattering of hard particles of snow on the
+ground. Presently the flakes grow bigger and fall more softly, feeling
+clammy on the face. And now probably the wind rises and the temperature
+is lowered. Each member of our party is whitened over; icicles form on
+hair and moustache, and the very aspect of men is changed to match the
+wild surroundings. Under such circumstances the high regions of snow are
+more impressive than under any other, but climbers must be
+well-nourished, in good hard condition, and not too fatigued, or they
+will not appreciate the scene. No one can really know the high Alps who
+has not been out in a storm at some great elevation. The experience may
+not be, in fact is not, physically pleasant, but it is morally
+stimulating in a high degree, and �sthetically grand. Now must a
+climber call up all his reserves of pluck and determination. He may have
+literally to fight his way down to a place of shelter. There can be no
+rest, neither can there be any undue haste. The right way must be found
+and followed. All that can be seen is close at hand and that small
+circle must serve for guidance. All must keep moving on with grim
+persistence, hour after hour. Stimulants are unavailing and food is
+probably inaccessible. All depends upon reserve stores of health and
+vigour, and upon moral courage. To give in is treason. Each determines
+that he for his part will not fail his companions. Mutual reliance must
+be preserved.
+
+[Illustration: 31. THE GROSSER ALETSCH-FIRN FROM CONCORDIA HUT. The
+L�tschenl�cke on the extreme left.]
+
+At first the disagreeable details are most keenly felt by contrast,
+but, when an hour has passed and the conflict is well entered upon, they
+are forgotten. We become accustomed to our surroundings and can, if we
+will, observe them with a deliberate interest. How the winds tear the
+mists about! There is no constant blast of air, but a series of eddying
+rushes, which come and pass like the units of an army. Each seems to
+possess an individuality of its own. Each makes its attack and is gone.
+One smites you in the face; another in the back. Some seem not devoid of
+humour; they sport with the traveller in a grim way. Others are filled
+with rage. Others come on as it were reluctantly.
+
+The aspect of the foreground rapidly changes. Rocks and stones
+disappear under a thickening blanket of snow. What was a staircase on
+the way up is found to be a powdery snow-slope in the forced descent.
+The new snow is soft like a liquid. It flows into the footprints and
+blots them out. Can it be that there are places somewhere where it is
+warm and dry--places with roofs over them and snug chimney corners and
+hot things to eat and drink? How strange the idea already seems! We
+belong to another world and feel as though we had always belonged to it.
+Civilised life is like some dream of a bygone night, and this that we
+are in is the only reality. It, in its turn, we know, will hereafter
+seem to have been a dream, but now it is the only fact. Here is the
+world of ice in the making. This is what snow-fields and glaciers come
+from. Unpleasant is it? Well perhaps! but it is good to have had such
+experiences. They develop a man's confidence, employ his powers, and
+enrich his memory.
+
+After all it is the snow regions in their days of storm that I remember
+best. One tempest that overwhelmed us on the flanks of Mount Sarmiento
+in Tierra del Fuego--how clearly even its details arise upon the
+lantern-screen of recollection! We were looking back northward over the
+Magellan channels towards the southern extremity of the South American
+continent, and a storm was pouring down thence upon us. "The darkness in
+the north was truly appalling. It seemed not merely to cover, but to
+devour the wintry world. The heavens appeared to be falling in solid
+masses, so dense were the skirts of snow and hail that the advancing
+cloud-phalanx trailed beneath it. Black islands, leaden waters, pallid
+snows, and splintered peaks disappeared in a night of tempest, which
+enveloped us also almost before we had realised that it was at hand. A
+sudden wind shrieked and whirled around us; hail was flung against our
+faces, and all the elements raged and rioted together. All landmarks
+vanished; the snow beneath was no longer distinguishable by the eye from
+the snow-filled air."
+
+Sometimes the wind blows with a fury that is almost irresistible. I have
+this note of such an experience. "The wind struck us like a solid thing,
+and we had to lean against it or be overthrown. It lulled for an
+instant, and we advanced a few yards; then it struck us again, and we
+gripped the mountain and doubted whether we could hold on. A far milder
+gale than this would suffice to sweep men from a narrow ar�te. It was
+not only strong, but freezing. It dissolved the heat out of us so
+rapidly that we could almost feel ourselves crystallising like so many
+Lot's wives. We stood up to it for a minute or two, then rushed back
+into shelter and took stock of our extremities. My finger-tips had lost
+all sensation. It was enough."
+
+Such raging tumults of the air are not a very common alpine
+experience, though most climbers have had to encounter them. Sometimes
+the air is still, or only gently in motion, while dense clouds envelop
+peak and glacier. Then a great silence reigns, which yet is not like the
+silence of night. It seems of a denser, more positive sort. Strange
+sounds punctuate it in times of heavy snow-fall. There are slidings from
+rocks, dull sunderings of snow-drifts grown too heavy to retain their
+unstable positions. There are crackings in deep beds of snow, newly
+formed. Small avalanches of snow fall with a cat-like, velvety movement,
+more of a flowing than a fall. Stones plunge with a dim thud into
+snow-drifts. All these sounds are heard, but the moving objects, though
+perhaps quite near at hand, remain invisible. We feel ourselves to be in
+the midst of unseen presences and activities, and instinctively picture
+them as hostile.
+
+In the midst of such a silence the first boom of thunder breaking on
+the ear sounds solemn indeed. It may be a distant discharge, and the
+next will be nearer. But often the very cloud that envelops us is the
+thunderer, and the first clap is quite close at hand. If so, it will not
+so much boom as rattle, re-echoing from the rocks amongst or near which
+it strikes. It has not come unforeseen. The air has been electrical for
+some time. We have felt cobwebs upon our faces. Perhaps our ice-axes are
+hissing, and we may have felt a shock or two from them. With the
+breaking of the storm comes hail that spatters the rocks and pricks over
+the snow. The discharges multiply in frequency, and if we are in the
+heart of the storm we hear them now on one side, now on the
+other--rattling like the volley-firing of scattered companies. Seldom,
+at high altitudes, are the individual discharges very violent, though
+being near at hand they sound loud enough. The mountain is exchanging
+electricity with the clouds over all its surface at a number of suitable
+points. Many climbers have been struck by lightning, but few are known
+to have been killed, though lightning-stroke may have been the cause of
+mysterious accidents never accounted for. As a rule there is noise
+enough to produce a great impression; there is a sense of the power and
+activity of nature's forces; but there is little absolute danger.
+
+Very different is the sensation of being in the midst of fine weather
+clouds, such as are often encountered before sunrise, but dissolve and
+disappear as the power of the sun increases. I well remember a beautiful
+experience of the kind upon the Rutor. The night had been overcast; when
+dawn appeared, the mists only seemed to thicken. We reached the summit
+crest and felt our way over the other side and down. We knew from the
+map that a great snow-field was sloping away before us in gentle
+undulations.
+
+"We could not see it, nor indeed could we see anything except a small
+area of flat ripple-surfaced snow, losing itself in all directions in
+the delicate sparkling mist, through which the circle of the soaring sun
+now began to be faintly discerned. With compass and map we determined
+the direction to be followed, and down we went over admirably firm snow.
+Seldom have I been in lovelier surroundings than those afforded by the
+rippled _n�v�_ and the glittering mist. The air was soft. A perfect
+silence reigned. Nothing in sight had aspect of solidity; we seemed to
+be in a world of gossamer and fairy webs. Presently there came an
+indescribable movement and flickering above us, as though our bright
+chaos were taking form. Vague and changeful shapes trembled into view
+and disappeared. Low, flowing light-bands striped the white floor. Wisps
+of mist danced and eddied around. A faint veil was all that remained,
+and through it we beheld with bewildered delight all the glory of the
+Mont Blanc range, from end to end and from base to summit, a vision of
+bridal beauty. Last of all, the veil was withdrawn and utter clearness
+reigned all around."
+
+Such sudden and unexpected withdrawals of the cloud curtains, such
+revelations and surprises are amongst the most transcendently beautiful
+effects that the mountain-climber is privileged to behold. They amply
+repay hours of fog, and compensate for days of bad weather. But even if
+the fog remain, blotting out all distant views, it often provides a
+setting for near objects, which gives them an emphasis amounting to a
+revelation. Many of my readers must have beheld great s�rac towers of
+ice looming out of mist, and magnified by it into excess of grandeur.
+Never is an ice-fall so imposing as when traversed in not too dense a
+fog. What a sense of poise between heaven and earth is received when one
+is in a steep couloir which vanishes into mist above and below.
+
+[Illustration: 32. THUNDERSTORM BREAKING OVER PALLANZA. Sketch made out
+of window. Dust of the streets swept before it in clouds.]
+
+I look back with special pleasure to several days of wandering over a
+series of snow passes, which had never been traversed before by any
+member of our party, when we had to feel our way over, through
+snow-storms and clouds by help only of map and compass. They were easy
+Tirolese passes, which might have proved monotonous in fine weather, but
+the prevailing conditions made them intensely interesting and even
+exciting, for the easiest pass may prove difficult if you miss the
+actual col. How closely we watched the undulations of the glacier, and
+how keenly we analysed the formation of the rocks. Every hint of
+structure was important. None could be neglected. No step could be taken
+without thought. An ordinary crevassed glacier required careful
+negotiation. Those occasional rifts in the clouds that made manifest now
+some isolated point of rock, now some icy wall, now some corniced crest
+of snow, were a series of framed pictures passed in review. We enjoyed
+no panoramas, but the mountain detail that was forced upon our close
+attention was no whit less beautiful.
+
+As for the low-level bad weather views, it is seldom that a traveller
+can bring himself into a mood to regard them sympathetically. We are not
+seals, and water is not our element. The oncoming of bad weather, beheld
+from below, is a grievance to the holiday-maker. He may admit that it is
+accompanied by impressive appearances, but he cannot pretend to
+appreciate them. It is not till days of rain have followed one another,
+and disgust has given place to resignation, that he is driven to face
+the elements and seek for consolation in activity. Clouds lie low and
+rain is pouring from them, but he must sally forth. Before long he loses
+sense of discomfort and finds himself entering into the spirit of the
+day. The pouring clouds are a low roof over his head; their margins rest
+on the pines, defining the tops of some and half-burying others. Every
+outline is softened, every form vague. Perhaps a glacier snout looms
+dimly forth, with all the stones upon it glistening with wet. Everything
+is wet and all local colours are enhanced. The grass glistens in every
+blade; so do the flowers, and the pebbles on the foot-path. How sweetly
+everything smells. All has been washed clean. There are no dusty bushes.
+Water drips and tinkles everywhere. Little springs arise every few
+yards; runlets fall down every bank. An infinite number of little treble
+voices unite in the chorus, and can be heard near at hand alone. Further
+off they are lost in the great "whish" that fills the air. Surely the
+clouds must be draining themselves dry! But, no! They form as fast as
+they fall. One sees them gathering at the edge by the trees. Long
+stretches of mist lie on the hills below the general level, or move
+slowly along,
+
+
+    "Reach out an arm and creep from pine to pine."
+
+
+Soon he is up amongst them. There it is not so much rain that falls, it
+is a general dissolution.
+
+From such a walk one returns a happier creature. Next day, perhaps, the
+weather will clear. The sun will shine on a glistening world and the
+clouds will melt away. Then we see the low-lying fresh snow shining on
+the green alps, and all the great rock-peaks glittering aloft in a
+new-shed glory. The sky is unwontedly clear and so definitely blue; the
+trees and grass so green; the snow so white. The early morning moments
+of such a day are precious indeed. Diamond rain-drops deck grass and
+pine-needles. There is radiance upon all the earth and freshness in the
+air. The discomforts of the past are forgotten. We are rested and eager
+for movement, and the world summons us forth. Nature, after all, knows
+best, and he is happiest who yields himself, whether in the mountains or
+elsewhere, to perfect sympathy with her many moods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MOUNTAINS ALL THE YEAR ROUND
+
+
+In the chequer-boards of most men's lives, the squares they can allot
+to the joys of mountain travel are coincident with summer seasons. Thus
+most of us cannot know the snow mountains all the year round, but only
+in their warm-weather garb. It may be claimed that then they are at
+their best, but such claims, in the case of Nature, are untenable.
+Nature is never or always at her best. One star may differ from another
+star in glory, but not in beauty; for beauty is in the eye that beholds,
+rather than in the thing that is beheld. A particular effect in nature
+may be more attractive than another to a particular man, but that is not
+really a measure of the beauty of the effect, but of the capacity of the
+man. None of us can discover all beauty; none of us can always behold
+beauty in everything; but all of us together can find beauty everywhere
+and always in what Nature makes. He that can oftenest discover beauty,
+and is most continuously conscious of it, is most richly endowed and
+most to be envied. How often do we hear people say that in their opinion
+Niagara, or the view from the Gorner Grat, or Mont Blanc, or some other
+great sight, is disappointing, that it failed to come up to their
+expectations, that its reputation is ill-deserved, and so forth. Such
+persons seem to imagine that their opinions are worth something, and
+that they, or any one, has a say in the matter; whereas the fact is,
+that the sights of nature may measure men, but that individual men
+cannot measure them. If a man thinks little of Niagara, that opinion
+measures him, but not Niagara. All sights of nature are beautiful. All
+great natural phenomena are greatly beautiful. That is a fundamental
+fact. Our business is not to question it, but to see the beauty if and
+when we can.
+
+The great mountains therefore are not beautiful at one time, or more
+beautiful at one time than another. They are beautiful always, and all
+the year round. They may be more comfortable to live or scramble amongst
+at some seasons, but he that can render his sense of beauty independent
+of his sense of comfort may be able to grow equally conscious of
+mountain beauty at all seasons. It is the opportunity that most of us
+lack, not the power. The fact that the high Alps are beautiful in winter
+also was not popularly realised till recently. A few men had faith that
+such would be the case, and they went to see. They brought back lively
+accounts of the wonders and glories they had beheld, and so incited
+others to follow in their steps.
+
+The classical first account in English of the high Alps in winter was
+A. W. Moore's paper in the fourth volume of the _Alpine Journal_,
+describing a visit to Grindelwald in December 1866, and the passage of
+the Strahleck and Finsteraarjoch by full mid-winter moonlight.
+Mid-winter moonlight is doubtless one of the great glories that the
+summer traveller misses. So bright was it "that the faintest pencil
+memoranda were legible with ease." The landscape beneath it is not the
+monochrome picture most of us associate with moonlight. It is rich with
+subdued colour, most beautiful to see. The full winter moon in the Alps
+bears to the summer moon, for brightness, the same relation that the
+equatorial sun does to the sun of our temperate regions. High planted
+near the zenith, the winter moon floods mountain and valley with a white
+light that turns snow to silver and hangs a curtain of velvet on every
+rock-face.
+
+[Illustration: 33. THE WETTERHORN. Grindelwald Chalets, flower-clad
+slopes and sunlit trees.]
+
+Who that has been to St. Moritz or Davos in winter does not come home
+with a new conception of what the clearness of the atmosphere can be?
+The summer air is like poor glass beside the crystal transparency of
+winter. Perhaps the effect is to bring distances nearer and thus
+decrease apparent scale--an effect which the whitening of the
+foundations of the hills tends to increase; but in return, by what
+delicacy of detail, what crispness of form, what glitter and brilliancy
+we are repaid. In course of time we learn to read scale truthfully anew.
+
+Another winter glory is the snow drapery of the lower slopes and
+glaciers below the snow-line. All minor asperities of surface are
+smoothed away. Flowing lines take the place of broken ones, and large
+surfaces most delicately modelled predominate. In summer you must climb
+to the high snow-fields to behold the delicate modelling of which snow
+is capable on a large scale, but in winter such sights are all around
+you. To watch the play of sunshine upon them from dawn to dusk, and the
+even more fascinating appearance they assume under brilliant moonlight,
+is joy enough for the hungriest eye.
+
+Then there are the frozen cascades by every roadside, glittering
+clustered columns of ice fit for fairies' palaces. One beholds them at
+almost every turn, for the veriest trickle of water, so it be
+persistent, suffices to build them up. Nor must we forget to catalogue
+amongst the greater glories of Alpine winter the snow-laden forests. One
+day the trees will be burdened down by loads of snow. Another, every
+sprig and pine-needle will be frosted over by the most delicate
+incrustation of tiny ice-crystals--a natural lacework of surpassing
+fascination. When the early sun first shines upon such a scene, which
+night has prepared to be a revelation to the day, so magnificent a
+vision is provided that even the dullest perceive something of its
+beauty, and for a moment forget the trifles of their life.
+
+Akin to this glorification of the trees by frost are the glittering
+"snow-flowers," those charming little groups of crystals that form on
+the ground in suitable spots under the influence of wind-eddies and
+other vagaries of the air. They are as pretty as they are short-lived,
+and possess a quality of rareness that makes them additionally precious.
+If in winter we lose the blueness of the lakes and the greenness of the
+hills, are we not more than repaid? What in its way can be more fair
+than the absolute flatness and unspotted purity of a frozen lake-surface
+covered thickly by new-fallen snow? It is no joy to skaters and curlers
+indeed, but for those who have eyes and have taught themselves how to
+see with them, little time is left for the distractions of mere games.
+The snow-shoe is the true winter implement, and especially the Norwegian
+_ski_, which provides the most glorious exercise and makes accessible
+the most delightful spots. An occasional run down-hill is the by-reward
+of the skilful, but his main prize is the sights he is privileged to
+behold. He can enter the heart of forests or ascend large slopes without
+the toil of sinking into the soft snow, to whose presence they owe the
+quality of their winter charm. Ski, moreover, grant access with relative
+comfort to the higher regions, and enable them to be crossed in suitable
+places at a time when the crevasses of the glaciers are deeply buried or
+soundly bridged, and when the snowy world sweeps in larger and simpler
+surfaces away. Some climbers have found pleasure in attaining in winter
+the summits of high peaks, whence they have beheld great panoramas with
+a distinctness of distant vision that the summer climber seldom attains.
+They tell us that the white filling of the valleys and covering of the
+lower slopes tends to flatten the effect of a mountain scene beheld from
+above. Whatever the special charm of such expeditions, they cannot be
+made with frequency. Weather conditions are usually adverse. Short days
+are a hint to make short expeditions. Thus in winter Nature herself
+calls attention rather to her own details. She endows with unusual
+attraction what is near at hand. She sculptures her ornaments on a tiny
+scale and finishes them with a marvellous elaboration. The wise follow
+her mood and adapt their eyes to her intentions. The winter months are
+none too long for them. Indeed they are gone all too soon, and one day,
+lo! the spring is there and the winter votaries turn and flee.
+
+[Illustration: 34. M�RJELEN ALP. Winter snow on ground. Foot of
+Eggishorn on left, ridges of Strahlhorner on right.]
+
+I have only once spent a portion of the spring in an Alpine region.
+It is not a comfortable season, but it has its own beauties as great in
+their kind as those of summer and winter. Now the snow begins to melt,
+and all the hillsides trickle and run with water. The great silence of
+winter is past. Nature whispers with a thousand tiny voices, and sings
+aloud along the valleys and gorges. The hillsides emerge brown from
+their snowy blanket, but the fresh green soon shoots through and early
+flowers are swift to put forth. The sense of young life is felt among
+the mountains as in the plains, for the awakening of the vegetable world
+is everywhere the same. But the mountains possess spring-time splendours
+of their own, depending upon the dissolution of the snow. Spring is the
+great time for avalanches. They fall indeed all the year round, chiefly
+at high levels, but it is only in the spring that the great avalanches
+get adrift. Certain great spring avalanches come down with remarkable
+regularity in particular places, one every year. An avalanche falls at a
+recognised spot in the neighbourhood of almost every village, which
+dates from its advent the opening of the spring. Any one who has beheld
+the descent of one of these giants will not forget the experience, nor
+will it occur to him to compare such an avalanche with the relatively
+small ones that tumble among the highest _n�v�_ regions in the summer.
+These are the veriest snow-balls compared with those vast discharges.
+
+A great spring avalanche is no sudden freak of Nature, but an
+inevitable occurrence, slowly engendered. The snow that piles up, flake
+by flake, during the winter months, on what in summer are the grass
+slopes below the snow-line, gradually becomes unstable as spring melting
+advances. The mass loses its cohesion, ceases to bind firmly together,
+and tends to flow downwards. The conformation of the ground decides how
+it shall fall. If the slopes upon which it lies are narrow, and lead
+straight to a suitable resting-ground, or if they are of gentle
+declivity, it may fall in small masses and early come to rest; for the
+distance to which it is projected depends upon the momentum of a fall,
+and the momentum depends upon the volume and the slope. But if the snow
+lies upon large concave slopes, or upon a cirque, then, when the
+discharge begins, all the snow within the cirque may flow together, and
+pouring down the bottom like a fluid, may form a great cataract; then
+tumbling over cliffs and rushing down hollows and through gorges, it
+will continue its descent till it reaches a valley bottom, flat enough
+to hold it. There it will pile up into a great cone or "fan,"
+solidifying as it comes to rest, and strongly bridging over the valley
+torrent.
+
+An avalanche of this kind does not fall in a few moments, but may
+occupy hours in its discharge. I saw several of them falling, in the
+first days of May 1882, in the neighbourhood of the Simplon road. Near
+B�risal I crossed one which had recently come to rest, traversing the
+road. By its rugged white surface, broken into great protuberances, its
+solidity, and its general form, it resembled a small glacier. To climb
+on to it one had to cut steps, so steep were the sides. Higher up I
+crossed several more such fallen masses, through which gangs of workmen
+were cutting out the road. Towards the top of the pass the snow was
+tumbling in smaller masses. Over a hundred little avalanches crossed the
+road within a couple of hours. Then they stopped. On the Italian side
+similar conditions obtained, but it was not till I reached Isella that
+the greatest fall took place, or rather was taking place, for it had
+begun before I arrived, and it continued after I had passed. There, a
+narrow gorge, with vertical cliff-sides facing one another, debouches on
+the main valley. It leads upwards to a great cirque in the hills, a
+cirque that is a grass-covered alpine pasture in the summer. The
+avalanche was pouring out through this gorge and piling itself up upon
+the main valley-floor. How the mass of it was being renewed from behind
+I could not see. Doubtless all the hill-sides above were shedding their
+snow, and it was flowing down and crowding into and through the gorge
+with a continuous flow. As the pressure was relieved below by the
+outpouring of the avalanche on to the valley floor, more snow came
+down--snow mixed with slush, and semi-liquid under the great pressure
+that must have been developed. As the fan was built up, the snow,
+relieved of strain, hardened into ice-like consistency.
+
+It is easy to describe the process that was going forward, but it is
+not easy to suggest to the reader the grandeur of effect that was
+produced. The volume of noise was terrific--a noise more massive and
+continuous than thunder, and no less deep-toned. A low grey cloud roofed
+in the view and cast over everything a solemn tone. The avalanche,
+pouring through the massive gateway of the hills and polishing its
+sides, came forth with an aspect of weight and resistless force that was
+extraordinarily impressive. Yet Nature did not seem to be acting
+violently, though her might was plain to see. She appeared to proceed
+with deliberation. One looked for an end of the snow-stream to come, but
+it flowed on and on, pulsating but not failing. The pressures that must
+be developed were easily conceived; correspondingly evident became the
+strength of the hills that could sustain them as if they had been but
+the stroking of a hand.
+
+Later in the season the traveller often encounters, in deep-lying
+valleys, the black and shrunken remnants of these mighty avalanches,
+melted down by summer heats. Little idea can they give him of the
+splendour of their birth and the white curdled beauty of their surface
+when they first come to rest. In the nature of things they travel far
+and fall low, well into the tree-belt, and even down to the
+chestnut-level on the Italian side. It is a strange sight to see these
+vast, new-fallen masses lying in their accustomed beds, but surrounded
+by trees all freshly verdant with the gifts of spring. Yearly each one
+falls in the same place, falls harmlessly and duly expected. Its coming
+is welcomed. Its voice is the triumphant shout of the coming season of
+summer exuberance and fertility. Nature, newly awakened, cries aloud
+with a great and solemnly joyous cry, and the people dwelling around
+hear her and arise to their work upon the land. It is not well for a
+mountain-lover never to have beheld this characteristic awakening, for
+it is one of the great events of the mountains' year.
+
+For the rest, spring in the Alps has many of the qualities of spring
+everywhere else, which need not detain us, for to say that is to say
+enough. Characteristically Alpine alone are the passing away of the snow
+and the phenomena that accompany it. After the avalanches have fallen,
+steady melting does the rest. Each warm day withdraws the winter blanket
+somewhat and reveals the earth to the sunshine. Convex slopes melt
+sooner than concave, steep slopes sooner than flats or gentle inclines.
+Thus the large uniform winter covering breaks up into islands and
+stripes of white. Gullies are defined against slopes, which previously
+were lost in them. The detailed anatomy of the hills is manifested more
+clearly from day to day.
+
+It may be claimed that the effect produced is patchy, and so, judged by
+spring-time photographs, it appears indeed to be. Never, for
+photography, are mountains less suitable than in the spring; by some
+ill-luck the camera seizes upon and magnifies the patchiness of the
+receding snow. In actual vision the margin of the snow bears a less
+piebald aspect. Indeed patchiness is not the effect that the eye
+receives from it. The edge is at once perceived to be melting. The white
+garb is being withdrawn. That fact is apparent. If one watches the
+changes from day to day, they will be found most entertaining from the
+manifestations of form they yield. Moreover, the daily alteration of the
+colouring of the ground from which snow has recently melted is most
+remarkable. The transition is from brown to green. Hence the edge of the
+snow is margined with brown, and that in turn by green--a kind of iris
+effect which ascends the hillside as the snow withdraws.
+
+Finally, spring is the time of spilling waters, of torrents brimful and
+overflowing, of voluminous cascades, of gurgling brooks everywhere--a
+time, too, when the waters are bright and crystalline, and when the
+valleys and lower slopes are as vocal with their song as the upper
+regions are with the deeper diapason of falling snow. If, amongst all
+these voices, the winds blow shrilly and the storms not infrequently
+rage, the effects produced, however uncomfortable they may be to the
+touch of the comfort-loving body, are essentially harmonious in a grand
+and glorious fashion.
+
+From spring to summer there is no step in Alpine regions. It is
+merely that as the year advances the level of spring rises. At the edge
+of the ever-retreating snow it is always spring. Even in August you have
+but to climb to find it, but it reigns then over a narrow belt and is
+not a land-encompassing mood. What turns spring into summer for the eye
+is not easy to indicate. Shall we be far wrong if we say that, in the
+first instance, it is the flowers? The little venturesome plants of
+spring, that blossom at the very edge of the withdrawing snow,
+themselves withdraw when they have smiled upon the world. They are
+followed by the bright carpet of early summer--the June carpet, which
+few mountaineers ever behold. It is lovely everywhere--loveliest perhaps
+in the Maritime Alps, or along the sunny Italian face of the Alpine
+wall. You must see it before the scythes get to work on the first hay
+crop, and even before the grass is full grown--a sheet of many
+colours--not, however, a mere chaos of all kinds of blossoms, but
+something far more orderly than that. For there is generally some
+predominant plant at a given spot, luxuriantly blossoming at a
+particular time, and all the rest do but serve to embroider it. Here
+indeed may be a sheet of one kind of blossom, there of another. It is as
+though some one had passed by and tossed fair Persian carpets down in
+different places, carpets of different design, but all in the same
+general style.
+
+[Illustration: 35. LOWER GLACIER AND GRINDELWALD CHURCH. June 3, 1903,
+the valley thickly covered with flowers; for four days heavy clouds hung
+low over peaks and ridges. Only a glimpse such as this to be seen at
+intervals in the slow swaying fringe of the cloud-curtain.]
+
+Even at this period greens are predominant, for the flowers are not to
+be discovered from a distance. And what greens they are--these shrill
+verdancies of early summer--the despair of artists, the joy of Nature's
+friends! Later on they will tone down to a more paintable key, but at
+first they transcend the powers of paint, having in them something
+almost of the shine of flame. Their coming is sudden. They descend upon
+the broad bosom of fertile valleys and the wide skirts of gentle slopes,
+as the daylight descends when the sun grows high. Yesterday all was
+brown; to-day the greens have come, exultant, exuberant, with the
+star-flowers spangled amongst them. Then indeed it is good to be alive.
+The voice has gone out to the valley--"Arise, shine, for thy light has
+come"--and the valley responds to the call.
+
+With July the full summer is there, and the summer crowd at hand. The
+longest days are passing. The freshness is wearing off from the valleys.
+Now heat, dust, and flies drive men aloft. It is the reception period of
+the high peaks, when they differentiate themselves plainly from the
+region below, and alone retain the perfect purity of the winter world.
+In winter the great mountains stretch themselves visibly down to the
+valleys. Then Mont Blanc begins at Chamonix, the Matterhorn at Zermatt.
+But in summer the high peaks seem to be planted aloft on the green
+world. The Matterhorn is reduced to a pyramid standing on the Schwarzsee
+Alp. Thus in summer, though the actual peaks themselves look larger,
+they are more removed out of the way. You must mount afar before you
+come to their apparent foot. You thus acquire the sense of their
+belonging to a world of their own. In winter snow glories are at your
+door. In summer you must labour to behold them, and when beheld they are
+emphasised by contrast with the fertile world you have left. That is why
+(apart from all questions of comfort and safety) summer climbing is more
+impressive than winter. It presents more stages, more variety. In
+winter-time all is winter; but in summer it is summer in the valleys,
+spring on the alps, and winter above the snow-line; only autumn is not
+there.
+
+Autumn, in fact, is the rarest of the seasons. Its effects are the most
+evanescent. That is one of its special charms--that, and the tender
+sadness that pertains to the passing away of things which have
+flourished and had their day in glory. October in the Alps is a season
+perhaps more generally delightful in these days than any other period of
+the year. Then the great summer crowd has gone, and there is room in the
+caravanserais and on the footpaths. The country-folks have leisure for a
+word with the wayfarer, and the painful sense of over-pressure is gone.
+In October the Alps are almost as they used to be in the sixties--a
+spacious region where a man may find himself alone, or almost alone, in
+the face of Nature. He cannot now, indeed, heal the scars that the crowd
+have furrowed upon the face of the earth, nor remove the ugly buildings
+and defacing embankments that have been raised to dam and form
+reservoirs or canals for the human flood, but with that exception he can
+possess the landscape in peace.
+
+October, again, is sometimes a month of much fine weather and of skies
+marvellously clear. If the days are short, they are yet long enough for
+early risers. Evening and morning are brought within the limits of a
+normal man's possible activity, so that he may enjoy both the splendour
+of sunrise and sunset without transgressing the daily hours of healthy
+wakefulness. The October sun does not climb so far aloft as does the
+royal monarch of the midsummer sky. If the effulgence of day is thus
+rendered less overpowering, in return the shadows spread wider and
+retain a richer colouring in their depths. More modelling is visible
+upon the hillsides and the snow-fields in the bright hours; there are
+bluer noontide shadows and perhaps even a bluer sky also.
+
+[Illustration: 36. GRINDELWALD LOOKING TOWARDS THE WENGEN ALP. Winter
+snow on the slopes.]
+
+All this is true and characteristic of Alpine autumn, but the most
+characteristic feature, there as elsewhere, is the fading of vegetation
+and the flaming colours that accompany it. Not only does the foliage of
+the trees disclose the change, but the very hillsides blend in harmony
+with the forests. Berries shine bright on small shrubs and even lurk
+amongst russet or crimson foliage upon the ground. Plants of all lowly
+sorts put on a new bright livery, and thus change the character of the
+foreground. The bright greens vanish; in their place large slopes grow
+orange and brown. But it is beneath, at lower levels, that the changes
+are greatest and the autumnal effects most striking. Seek for them in
+the Rhone valley or round the shores of Thun. There you will find the
+woods absolutely golden or crimson according to their kind--a colouring
+at once so rich and so brilliant as to seem almost incredible even to
+him who, having seen it once, and believing that he remembers it,
+beholds it again and finds it so far surpassing the wealth of his memory
+and expectation. To behold the snowy peaks rising into the clear
+autumnal sky, far away beyond a foreground such as this, is a sight well
+worth an effort. Would not some of our holiday-makers of the better sort
+find it pleasant sometimes to change the date of their outing, so as not
+always to herd with their fellows nor every year to behold Nature under
+a similar illumination?
+
+Just as spring definitely opens with the great avalanches, so winter
+opens as definitely with the great snow-falls. One day all is clear and
+bright. The snow-line has retreated to its very highest level. The hard
+ice of the glacier is revealed far up from the snout. The maximum number
+of crevasses are open, and the wide-yawning bergschrunds form moats at
+the foot of all the final snow slopes that lean against the great faces
+of the peaks. Next morning all is grey and wet and cold. Clouds cover
+everything; winds rage; large snow-flakes in countless millions fill the
+air and drive across the ground. The drifts pile up and up, and all the
+ground is covered, white to the very depths of the valleys. For two or
+three days or longer the storm rages, and when at last the sun bursts
+forth again and the clouds withdraw their curtains, lo! the visible
+world is deeply buried in the white winter garment that will not be
+withdrawn till spring once more arrives. As a rule the first great
+snow-fall of winter comes thus definitely upon the Alpine world. Others
+that follow may be as great or greater in volume, but they only
+emphasise existing conditions; they do not, as this one does, change the
+face of Nature.
+
+Thus the annual drama of the mountain world is played in its four acts,
+year after year, with infinite variety in detail and great uniformity in
+the large features. We talk of the seasons as definite divisions, but we
+must remember that their progress and succession is an affair not merely
+of day following day but of moment following moment. It is the steady
+progress, the gradual, imperceptible advance, that the close observer of
+natural beauty loves to watch. To-day is not absolutely like yesterday,
+and will not absolutely resemble to-morrow even though all three prove
+faultlessly fine. The superficial observer may note no change, but that
+is because he is superficial. There is always change, and in change the
+life of things consists.
+
+To know mountains truly, means to recognise the changes which pass
+over them and happen amongst them. A mountain-lover may be compelled to
+live in some city of the plains, but, if he could, and in so far as
+mountains are his chief delight, he would live amongst them, not merely
+in one season but in all. No man, however, is or can be entirely
+single-minded. We cannot confine our affections to a single category of
+natural beauty, nor even to Nature alone. We are folk of many interests.
+Even the most enthusiastic lover of mountains is something more, and
+fails from the ideal. Mountains must take their share with other
+interests in the life of any one who cares for them at all. In so far,
+however, as they are an interest for any of us, it behoves us to make
+that interest wide and comprehensive, not restricting it to mountains as
+mere things to climb, nor to mountains of a particular character or at a
+particular time of year, but allowing it to embrace mountain scenery as
+a whole and at all seasons. Those of us who can do this, will find that
+the wider and more varied our experience of and sensitiveness to all
+varieties of mountain scenery becomes, the more intense will it likewise
+grow to be at any special moment, and the more keenly will any
+particular effect of beauty affect our hearts. In mountains, as
+elsewhere, all seasons of the year are marked by beauties that belong
+specially to them. Each season prepares for that which is to follow, and
+every day that passes is a transitional step from the one to the other.
+Let me commend my fellows of the mountain brotherhood to bear this fact
+in mind when they are wandering amongst the hills. If they attend not
+merely to the spectacle of the moment, but to the changes that are daily
+wrought out before their eyes, they will find their pleasures enlarged
+and their capacity for enjoyment increased. They will obtain a greater
+consequent understanding not merely of the aspects and moods of the
+mountains, but of what I may call their settled character as manifested
+by the larger mutations of aspect which they undergo in passing through
+the vicissitudes of the seasons of the year.
+
+[Illustration: 37. RIMPFISCHORN AND STRAHLHORN FROM THE RIFFELBERG]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TYPES OF ALPINE PEAKS
+
+
+In a previous chapter reference has been made to the varied types of
+scenery which belong to different divisions of the Alpine chain, and the
+briefest kind of characterisation of those varieties was attempted. But
+the Alps, and indeed almost all the great snow ranges of the world,
+possess side by side within a single neighbourhood varieties of peaks
+sufficiently divergent to be capable of grouping and classification. For
+example, in the Mont Blanc group, there are domes of snow, needle-points
+of rock, ar�ted pyramids, serrated ridges, peaks twinned together, peaks
+closely grouped in larger number, and other varieties of mountains. In
+fact, just as whole districts of mountains possess, each one, an
+individual character due to their geographical position, their local
+history of uplift and denudation, the materials of which they are
+formed, and other such factors, so individual peaks for like reasons
+possess individual character, and conform more or less evidently to one
+or another well-marked type. That such is the case will be readily
+admitted. In common talk, indeed, we are accustomed to attribute
+fancifully to this mountain masculine ruggedness, to that feminine
+grace, to another qualities of terror. Some mountains attract to
+themselves a kind of human affection; others repel; yet others bore, or,
+on the contrary, interest without charming. In the present chapter,
+therefore, I intend to discuss the characters of mountains, especially
+of the great Alpine peaks, from this point of view, considering so far
+as space permits the characters and dispositions of all sorts and
+conditions of Alps.
+
+It will be perceived at once that the treatment of our subject will
+entirely depend on the point of view from which we regard it. Mountains
+are not beasts and possess no real characters. It is only we who, with
+our anthropomorphic tendency, endow them with imaginary qualities
+belonging actually to ourselves and projected forth from us on to the
+so-called external world. If mountains are primarily thought of as
+things to be climbed, we shall characterise them as they react upon the
+climber. If they are regarded as sights to be beheld, we shall
+characterise them as they affect our sense of vision. A climber may
+fancifully figure one mountain as friendly though severe, another as
+hostile, a third as mean, a fourth as recondite, a fifth as deceitful.
+Climbers, however, though I hope I may number some of them amongst my
+readers, are not primarily those for whom this book is written. It is
+aimed more broadly to interest the mountain-lover of whatever age or sex
+and whatever agility or endurance. I testify here, not so much of what I
+know, but of what I have seen and found delightful in the seeing, in
+hopes to revive recollections of pleasure in others and to suggest the
+possibility of further joys to the mountain traveller.
+
+Pre-eminent, then, to look at, pre-eminent as a mountain vision, one
+must, I assert, rank the great domes of snow, such as Mont Blanc. The
+two greatest Alpine mountains assume that form when beheld from
+characteristic points of view, sufficiently remote, and, of course, it
+is the apparent form only that here concerns us. A peak may actually be
+a blade of rock, snow-whitened, and yet may appear to be a dome, as the
+Lyskamm appears from north and south. It must be ranked amongst domes
+when so beheld. On these giant masses Nature frequently bestows a
+measurable pre-eminence, for it is not only in the Alps that they attain
+loftiest altitudes among their neighbours. Elburz which reigns over the
+Caucasus is a dome, so is Chimborazo, so likewise Nanga Parbat. But even
+if they were not actually piled higher than their satellites they would
+look bigger.
+
+A notable instance of the great dignity of effect of a snow dome beheld
+amongst more rugged and precipitous peaks--peaks, moreover, much loftier
+than the dome--was forced upon my notice in the Baltoro region of the
+Mustagh mountains of Kashmir. The Baltoro glacier, most wonderfully
+situated of all glaciers in the world, is surrounded by the greatest
+group of high peaks known to exist. A number of them exceed 25,000 feet
+in altitude, and several are over 27,000 feet. Moreover, most of these
+great mountains are of bold outline and precipitous structure. There is
+no deceit about them. They look their height. Some of them are
+needle-pointed and buttressed by the narrowest rock ridges, set with
+needle-pointed teeth. It would be imagined that no mountain forms could
+be more impressive than theirs, as one after another they come within
+range of the traveller's vision and grow familiar to him during the long
+days of his creeping advance along their feet. Impressive indeed they
+are, splendid beyond words, majestic surpassingly.
+
+It happens, however, that, amongst them all a solitary exception, there
+stands a single dome of snow, named by me the Golden Throne. I first
+beheld it somewhat dramatically, when, after climbing to a high
+elevation by night, the sun rose behind it, and it was revealed in all
+its width, flanked on either hand by a long line of jagged and aspiring
+peaks. They were higher than it--most of them considerably higher, yet
+beyond all question the dome was the most dignified of them all. It owed
+something of its dignity and distinction, no doubt, to contrast, to the
+rarity of its form in that region of splintered aiguilles; but that was
+not alone the cause. The suavity and continuous curvature of its
+outline, and the grace of it, as well as its greater breadth and
+apparent relative volume, made the Golden Throne absolutely, as well as
+by contrast, more dignified than its bolder neighbours. Had it differed
+from them only in form it would have prevailed, but it differed more
+noticeably from them in drapery and colour. Whereas they were of naked
+rock, it was enveloped in a mantle of purest snow, and the broad white
+mass (especially later when it shone in the advancing daylight) attained
+a pre-eminence in brightness and purity for which no ruggedness or
+precipitancy in the others could compensate.
+
+It is a far cry to the Golden Throne, but Mont Blanc is near at hand,
+and its aspect is familiar to countless people. None will deny that its
+reputation is pre-eminent among Alps. I claim that that pre-eminence is
+not solely due to its culminating position in point of size, but that
+its broad white mass and shining amplitude go a long way towards
+accounting for it. It would scarcely occur to any one but a climber to
+depose Mont Blanc from the first place--Mont Blanc, the "monarch of
+mountains," diademed with snow. As in human architecture the dome is the
+most dignified and impressive form, so also it is in nature. In Mont
+Blanc it attains perfection by the noble breadth of its base and
+adjustment of its buttresses. Whencesoever beheld, from north or south,
+from far or near, it always appears poised aloft in a dignity as
+impressive as it is reposeful, the white sheen of its spotless snows
+pure as the bosom of a summer cloud, but unlike that, gifted with an
+aspect of adamantine permanence.
+
+[Illustration: 38. THE MATTERHORN, TWILIGHT.
+
+
+    "The time may come when the Matterhorn shall
+    have passed away, and nothing save a heap of shapeless
+    fragments will mark the spot where the great
+    mountain stood; for, atom by atom, inch by inch,
+    and yard by yard, it yields to forces which nothing can
+    withstand. That time is far distant; and ages hence,
+    generations unborn will gaze upon its awful precipices,
+    and wonder at its unique form. However
+    exalted may be their ideas, and however exaggerated
+    their expectations, none will come to return disappointed!"--WHYMPER.
+]
+
+Next to Mont Blanc in abiding reputation, the Matterhorn takes rank
+among Alps by universal consent. We may regard it as the best example of
+pyramidal mountains. Four-square it stands upon its mighty base,
+fronting the four cardinal points of the compass, each face divided from
+its neighbour by a clearly-defined ridge or rock ar�te. As Mont Blanc
+the dome, so the Matterhorn in turn displays a form adopted by man for
+some of his grandest architectural efforts, the pyramids of Egypt. If
+the dome best expresses the idea of soaring aloft, when seen from
+without, the pyramid best expresses the idea of eternal repose and
+endurance without end. Geologists may tell us that even the Matterhorn
+is a passing phenomenon, that the frosts are daily causing it to
+disintegrate, and that thousands of tons of rock fall at frequent
+intervals down its sides. Climbers may describe its near aspect as
+ruinous, and we may know these statements to be true. None the less the
+mountain beheld as a whole, from even a moderate distance, seems to
+belie them. It appears to be from everlasting and to everlasting. It
+incorporates the ideal of permanence. We conceive it as belonging not to
+an age but to all time. Were it mathematically four-square, and its
+faces true planes of even slope, that would be its chief effect, that
+and the sense of mass and grandeur inseparable from an object of such
+visibly huge dimensions. But Nature has fashioned it subtly and endowed
+its faces and ridges with curves most delicate and refined. To its
+appearance of mass and endurance it adds a grace so exquisite, an uplift
+so imposing, that these qualities almost take the first place in the
+impression produced upon the beholder. Seen from the north-east it
+appears to best advantage. Towards Breuil it shows a more massive front.
+Its recondite western face, only visible from high snow-fields, displays
+precipices more appalling and a general aspect of more savage grandeur.
+But with singular good fortune for the unathletic traveller, it
+manifests its incomparable grace to perfection towards the easily
+accessible north-east, and 50,000 people go there annually to worship at
+its Riffel shrines. They may approach with no more devotional feeling
+than the average pilgrim manifests at Lourdes, but the fact that they go
+is homage to the reality of the emotion which many have actually felt in
+that glorious presence. The poetic brain has exhausted itself in efforts
+to find comparisons with living creatures whereby to describe it. Best
+is Ruskin's choice of a rearing horse. Traces of the neck clothed with
+thunder, of the mane-fringed crest with cloud streamers for hair, even
+of the sharp contrasting angle of the folded fore-leg, can be traced in
+the natural composition; but it is rather the might and spirit of the
+thing--its combination of wildness, force, and grace--that give aptness
+to this fetch of similitude.
+
+In writing of the Matterhorn one can make an assumption that would be
+impossible with any other mountain:--that most readers can recall a
+vision of its form to their minds. Let me make that demand upon the
+present reader. Observe then how beautifully the double curve of the
+left hand or Th�odule ridge, first convex, then concave, is terminated
+and contrasted with the sudden jags of the shoulder, and then taken up
+and continued again convex to the summit. How the right-hand or Stockje
+ridge, convex above, drops with a larger sweep and a more astounding
+ultimate steepness, to be again interrupted by a lower and more jagged
+shoulder, and again continued downward by the magnificent white convex
+curve, which, in its turn drooping into concave, leads the eye away to
+the broad foundation. No less essential than the outline to the total
+effect are the two white _n�v�_ basins that lie below the faces and
+steepen upwards to ice-slopes leading to crags that have all the
+appearance of cliffs. The importance to the composition of the third or
+middle shoulder--_the_ Shoulder _par excellence_ of climbers--should
+also be insisted on, but space does not here admit a lengthier analysis.
+The reader will find no difficulty in pursuing the investigation for
+himself.
+
+[Illustration: 39. WEISSHORN AND MATTERHORN FROM FIESCHERALP.]
+
+The four-sided pyramid, of which we have chosen the Matterhorn for
+type, is a rarer form than the three-sided, perhaps the commonest class
+of fully developed peak. Here again there cannot be a moment's
+hesitation in the choice of a representative mountain, for of such the
+Weisshorn is beyond question the finest and most famous in the Alps.
+What mountain-lover has not beheld it, towering gracefully and superbly
+aloft before him as he descended the upper reaches of the Rhone valley
+on some bright August day? Westward it opposes a face of rock and is a
+less gorgeous object to look upon. But its other two faces with their
+glacial robe are brilliant under all illuminations. What gives it
+distinction among the multitude of mountains similarly formed is the
+grace of its slender and long drawn-out ridges. Each of these sharp
+ar�tes, beheld from most points of view, drops very steeply from the
+spear-tipped summit; then gradually levels off to a shoulder, and so
+leads the eye down to the massive foundation that supports the whole.
+Slenderness above, massive strength below--such is the effective
+contrast that Nature provides.
+
+Another famous peak, the Jungfrau, appears from Interlaken almost as
+graceful as the Weisshorn; but its beauty is really of another order,
+and depends far more upon the brilliancy of the curdled surface of the
+snow, and its division between ice-falls, rocks, and ice-slopes, than
+upon the outline of the peak itself or the form of its ridges. For pure
+grace of pyramidal form the Aletschhorn surpasses the Jungfrau, but the
+better-known peak has advantages of position and of grouping to which we
+shall presently refer.
+
+Pyramidal peaks lend themselves kindly to embellishment by banners of
+cloud. Often we behold great sheets of white mist waving away from their
+ridges. The sharp definition and marble-like permanence of the mountain
+forms an admirable offset to the softness and inconstancy of the cloud,
+which is not merely ever varying the form of its outlines, but is
+throughout in constant and often swift motion under the dominion of a
+furious gale. The sense of violent agitation high aloft thus impressed
+upon the eye, well associates itself with an idea of rugged resistance
+proper to high peaks and splintered ridges. The slenderer the pyramid
+and the sharper its ar�tes, so much the better does it serve as
+flagstaff for a flying cloud.
+
+Best of all, however, for this purpose are the rock aiguilles, which
+never seem quite complete, never fully manifest the astonishing boldness
+of their structure, except when they are in turn concealed and revealed
+by mists that form and fade and form again--now cutting them off from
+all visible connection with the earth and almost seeming to lift them
+into the heavens, now half-hiding them and half-revealing, now as it
+were smoking away from their summits like steam from a volcano, now
+offering a white background to their rugged mass, now overshrouding and
+empurpling them with shadows stolen from the wardrobe of Night. They
+lack the dignity of the broader peaks, these needle rocks, and few of
+them really deserve (save from a climber's standpoint) to be called
+peaks at all. Generally they are only buttress pinnacles of greater
+mountain masses. Yet a tall and well-planted aiguille always possesses
+marked individuality of its own, which more than compensates for lack of
+volume and altitude. By its form it attracts the attention of the eye
+away from large but less wonder-evoking mountains. Thus it makes itself
+the centre of a view and is remembered when its larger neighbours are
+forgotten. More than any other kind of peak an aiguille depends for
+effect upon the character of its foundation and the place where it is
+planted. The Aiguille du G�ant is, perhaps, the most remarkable monolith
+shaft in the Alps, and has attained no little fame. But its fame is due
+to the difficulty of scrambling up it. For sheer impressiveness of
+effect from a distance it cannot enter into serious competition with the
+Aiguille du Dru. The actual summit-shaft of the Dru is not really
+remarkable for slenderness. Its sides are not the plumb vertical cliffs
+that the G�ant can show. But the foundations of the Dru carry its lines
+down, and the supporting masses seem expressly piled together for no
+other purpose than to lift the slender-seeming peak as far aloft as
+possible. The Dru, moreover, though actually an appanage of the Verte,
+is so situated as to be seen alone and admirably set off by glacier or
+wooded foregrounds from several easily accessible and convenient
+positions. Instead of standing aloof like the G�ant, it peers down into
+the valley and takes an interest in human affairs. It is there to signal
+the sunset with its flaming beacon, and to glow like a brand from the
+furnace in the presence of the dawn. The departing traveller turns back
+to it for a last look, and the returning votary of the Alps is impatient
+to pass the corner beyond which he well knows that it will come into
+view. It is one of a class, the aiguilles of Chamonix, but it possesses
+a marked individuality of aspect and it transcends all its neighbours
+and rivals. They may be harder to climb, but it _looks_ as precipitous
+and inaccessible as any, and, after all, the appearance is the essential
+element for a lover of the picturesque. There is much more that might be
+said about aiguilles, their value for contrast with other forms, their
+essentially subordinate, almost parasitic, character, and so forth, but
+our space has narrow limits and we must pass on.
+
+[Illustration: 40. AIGUILLE VERTE AND AIGUILLE DU DRU FROM THE
+CHAMONIX VALLEY. A well-known group, typical of the Aiguilles of the
+Mont Blanc chain.]
+
+We have considered domes and pyramids in special reference to their
+outline. But they and all sorts of other mountains have faces as well as
+bounding ridges, and these faces sometimes take the form of tremendous
+walls. We may therefore devote a moment's attention to mountain walls,
+or rather to what we may briefly describe as wall-faced mountains. These
+great walls are not necessarily, nor indeed often, truly precipitous,
+but the important point about them is that they look precipitous. They
+are not walls, but the eye is deceived into believing that they are. The
+Alps are rich in noble examples of this type. To name only the most
+famous: there are the Italian fronts of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, the
+Saas front of the Mischabelh�rner, and the north face of the Jungfrau.
+If you stand in a suitable position, facing rather than enfilading any
+of these great walls, their slope seems practically vertical. Climbers
+know that they can all be climbed; their instructed eyes can even trace
+the routes without difficulty. In so far as that knowledge interferes
+with the imposing impression which ordinary persons derive from the mere
+look of the thing, it is a misfortune. Yet even the climber can
+sometimes forget his _m�tier_, and lose himself in pure contemplation of
+Nature's splendour. It is nowhere easier so to do than in face of these
+gigantic walls. Pre-eminent amongst them is, of course, the Macugnaga
+face of Monte Rosa. Not merely does it excel in unbroken width and
+continuity of plunge, but its striping by buttress and couloir, its
+impending masses of s�rac, its huge piles of avalanche ruins below, and
+the frequency of the falls that take place, whose fresh traces are
+obvious even when they are not beheld in actual descent, all serve to
+increase the observer's sense of the actual steepness of the face. First
+beheld from near at hand, the vast size of the thing overwhelms the
+beholder, and yet this first impression is small compared with the
+ultimate sense of size which slowly grows within him as he gazes and
+learns the meaning of the details. His attention will soon be called to
+the fact that the whole face is ruled with lines. They seem fine, almost
+like the meshes of a spider's web, but a brief consideration proves that
+they are the tracks of falling masses--some of avalanches, others of
+falling stones. They are not fine lines at all, but deep grooves,
+perhaps ten feet wide and as deep as the height of a man. Realise that
+fact, as the climber does (in so doing he in his turn has the
+advantage), and you at once magnify, and may even overmagnify, the scale
+of the view.
+
+[Illustration: 41. BODEN AND GORNER GLACIERS. Monte Rosa from the
+Schwarzsee. The last gleam of the daylight. The foot of the Riffelhorn
+on the left.]
+
+It is a commonplace to proclaim the exhaustless prodigality of
+Nature's inventions, which every field of grass sufficiently proves, and
+yet it always seems to me that these great faces specially exemplify it.
+How easy, one might imagine, to invent detail for a precipice of ice and
+rock--but take a blank sheet of paper and try; you will find the task
+almost hopeless. Then turn to any view of Monte Rosa from Macugnaga and
+observe how it has been done, and how much, indeed how entirely, the
+effect of the view depends upon the structure and variety of the wall.
+The classical point whence the face is seen at its best is the Pizzo
+Bianco. There is a photograph from it in the eleventh volume of the
+_Alpine Journal_. Note how essential every detail is to the effect of
+the whole, and how impossible it would be to invent such a consistent
+multitude of details. The sky-line is of minor importance; it does not
+hold the eye. What first attracts it is the great sweeping buttresses
+that emerge through the snow and carry the attention down by their
+parallelism. As we look more closely at them we find that they in turn
+break up into minor groups of parallels, and these again into similar
+elements; yet with all this general repetition no two details are the
+same. The aspect of the general structure may be compared to that of a
+leaf with a number of ribs all obedient to a single law of form. The
+snow that fills the spaces between the buttresses and overflows them
+where it can, is no dead covering, but alive like a river. We obtain at
+first glance, now that we know how to look for it, a sense of its weight
+and movement. How strange it seems that that movement should not have
+been observed centuries ago! The flowing of the snow is expressed by all
+sorts of signs. Here it breaks into cliffs and tumbles; there it pours
+down in a continuous stream interrupted only by crevasses, which
+indicate its relative speed at adjacent points; there again, on some
+small ledge or gentler slope, it lags and piles up. But as a rule it is
+evidently in haste to get down, and the signs of this haste are a
+measure of the steepness of the slope. High aloft the plunge seems
+vertical, and one wonders how any snow can adhere to such uncompromising
+crags. When the mists are drawn across it, or a bed of clouds lies at
+its foot, filling the Macugnaga valley as with a white lake, the wall
+seems yet more cliff-like. It is only when low sunlight strikes it
+aslant and makes manifest its modelling that a suggestion is given of
+the actual angle of the slope leading up from the glacier floor below to
+the giddy crest.
+
+Another kind of mountain front, akin to these yet belonging to a class
+of its own, is the true rock-face. Such may have their ledges and
+gullies picked out with snow, or even (as in the case of the Meije) a
+small glacier caught on a shelf, but snow must not predominate, must not
+even cover a considerable fraction of their surface. Mountains with
+rock-faces of this kind are, of course, commonest among the secondary
+groups. Thus there are many in Canton Glarus and thereabouts, yet more
+among the Dolomites and in all the limestone districts. The west face of
+the Weisshorn may perhaps be counted a rock-wall, but, if that is
+excluded, the Grivola is, I think, the biggest example. The Bl�mlisalp
+and Breithorn, Altels and the Balmhorn, are other examples. If, however,
+I were to be compelled to select one such peak as type, I should choose
+Pelmo or Schlern in the Dolomites, and be content, even though some
+vaster example were quoted against me. For, after all, it is not the
+actual scale that matters, but the appearance of scale. I have heard it
+said that the north-east face of the Zinal Rothhorn is the biggest true
+cliff in the Alps. It may be, but it does not so appear from any
+ordinary point of view--the Rothhorn, in fact, seeming insignificant
+from almost everywhere.
+
+These rock fronts must not be looked at from too far away. Unless they
+subtend a high vertical angle to the vision they produce little effect.
+But stand beneath them, and what pomp and power they display! You must
+be near enough to see the details of their structure, and to trace the
+joints of their masonry, for it is in the recognition of their
+upbuilding, stone by stone, that their impressiveness consists. That is
+why a snow-slope drawn down across the edges of their strata is so
+little to be desired. If by good-luck the successive strata vary
+somewhat in colour, the cliff will be magnified thereby. To the
+perception of multiplicity recurrent detail is essential, and that
+perception involves relative proximity and is helped by familiarity. The
+oftener you stand beneath such a wall the bigger it appears to grow.
+
+It is not a thing that can be painted, still less photographed; for no
+painter could set down details enough, and the camera will not select
+the right ones. It is the horizontal details that we want. If the reader
+will observe how a high tower or other lofty building impresses its
+scale upon him, he will find it to be by the joints of its masonry,
+unless indeed he be standing far off and the tower is seen to rise high
+above the houses of a town whose size is instinctively perceived. Here
+again the accomplished climber who has actually scrambled up the sheer
+face of such a cliff and so measured it against his own slow progress
+and his accumulated fatigue, has an advantage over any mere spectator.
+This advantage is increased by the fact that he will recognise and know
+the size of many details of ledge and pitch which he has actually
+handled and surmounted. Such personal knowledge is the best of all
+measuring scales. A traveller who cannot attain it must be content with
+the lesser insight that can be attained by slow examination. In no case
+is the full effect to be perceived at once. Nature sometimes, as it
+were, flings herself upon our imaginations and suddenly overpowers us by
+her excessive grandeur. At other times she seems to say, "It is
+nothing"; so as to let superficial persons pass by; but just then
+perhaps we are in the presence of some superlatively great exhibition of
+her majesty which it requires experience, time, and attention to
+discover.
+
+It should remove any tendency to conceit in those who have travelled
+far and seen much to remember that, however often they may have beheld
+and delighted in glorious sights, the best-visioned of them and the most
+sensitive has missed far more than he has seen. What opportunities he
+must have had, and how relatively few of them has he utilised! At best
+he has been but like a traveller in a motor-car, whisking across
+historic lands, and passing here by an abbey, there through some old
+town, there again over some historic battle-field, and not suspecting
+their existence, or not knowing enough to thrill with the rich emotions
+they would excite in a better-informed mind. It is not the eyes that are
+lacking, but the knowledge and the time to acquire it. You may scurry
+along below the cliff of Pelmo without a flutter of the heart. But
+wander half a day beneath it, examine its details, watch the sunlight
+playing on its ledges, and the shadows in the gullies that cut them, a
+sense of its grandeur will invade your consciousness, and the memory of
+that will remain with you till you turn childish with old age and others
+know that you have lived too long.
+
+[Illustration: 42. THE BREITHORN FROM SCHWARZ SEE.]
+
+Whatever the dignity of these great walls, when suitably beheld, the
+peaks they belong to, if their summit crests are long and flat, are not
+comparable for individual beauty of form with the snow domes or the
+ridged pyramids. They have, however, an importance and perform a
+function of their own in any large mountain panorama of which they form
+a part. Before me as I write there chances to lie Donkin's photograph of
+the view from the New Weissthor, looking down the Gorner glacier. The
+pyramid of the Matterhorn is on the right; the wall of the Breithorn is
+in the midst; the curdled snow-face of the Lyskamm is near at hand on
+the left. It is not by any means a perfect natural composition, yet it
+does fix the attention, and a moment's thought shows that it does so by
+the marked contrast between the forms of the Breithorn and the Cervin.
+Blot either of them out and the character of the view is changed.
+
+I well remember standing, one very clear day, on the summit of a
+relatively high peak in the icy heart of Spitsbergen and surveying a
+vast panorama. The peaks in it being all actually small (though not
+appearing so) and the area of the panorama very large, the multitude of
+peaks in sight was numerically much greater than in any Alpine panorama,
+not excluding even that from Mont Blanc. In one direction the mountains
+happened to be all of one character. Each was similar in form to its
+neighbour. Some distance further round was another group formed of peaks
+as various as are the Alps. It was at once obvious how much the variety
+added to the picturesqueness. The same lesson can be learnt from the top
+of Monte Viso. Look southward and you will behold, ridge behind similar
+ridge, a remarkable uniformity. Face northward and round to the east,
+the effect is one of infinite variety. Such variety, contrast of walled
+peak with pyramid, of pyramid with dome, here thronged together, there
+sundered by some wide stretch of lower elevation, entertains and
+stimulates the observer's mind.
+
+Sometimes the repetition of a form with only slight change has the
+value of emphasis, or, as in the case of minor ridges dividing couloirs
+or side glaciers, it binds the composition together and forms a kind of
+warp and woof for Nature's detailed embroidery. The value of repetition
+is instinctively felt by most in the case of a pair of peaks, standing
+side by side and visibly linked together by some high connecting ridge,
+or apparently linked by what seems to be a ridge but is really produced
+by foreshortening. They are frequently named "the Twins." A notable
+instance of such a pair is the Dom and T�schhorn. Stand anywhere
+commanding a view down the Zermatt valley, where you can see this pair
+of peaks defining it on the right, and the Weisshorn's delicate and
+single pyramid opposed to them on the left, and you will at once
+recognise how much the great pair and the single peak gain by contrast
+with one another. Or climb (I should now say take the train) to the
+Gorner Grat and look abroad to the south. How much less effective would
+be the panorama if the two long walls of the Breithorn and Lyskamm had a
+third similar wall between them instead of the coupled domes named
+Castor and Pollux.
+
+[Illustration: 43. THE LYSKAMM. From the Riffelberg. Gorner glacier
+below.]
+
+It would be easy to continue this fanciful classification of Alps and
+discussion of types for another fifty pages, but it would serve no
+useful purpose. Long before this the reader has probably been objecting
+that it is an unscientific and incomplete classification, and that most
+peaks could be made to enter all the categories if regarded from
+suitable standpoints. Such, in fact, may be the case. My object in thus
+writing has merely been to suggest cross-routes and byways for the
+memories, fancies, and future observations of my readers. The mountains
+for us who love them are the playthings of our fancy. We may do with
+them what we please. They excite in us the sense of beauty, and we try
+to tell of the emotions we have felt in their presence. Those emotions
+quickened by them, how we know not, in fact arise in us. We are free to
+make of them what we please, to give them any kind of play. They are
+then bound by no scientific laws. A mountain may be a chunk of granite
+heaved up by I know not what play of forces and carved out by a
+perfectly orderly denudation; but to me, if I please, it is a Maiden, an
+Ogre, a Golden Throne. I can endow it with a character, and reckon up
+friends and foes to it amongst its neighbours. Or I can call it a fairy
+palace, and people it with sprites and dancing creatures of gossamer
+clothed in the dawn. No one can say me nay. Now and again, perhaps, I
+may whisper my dream to a sympathetic friend--but not often. For the
+most part we keep such heart-frolics of a happy hour in the inaccessible
+places of their origin.
+
+Brother climber! we have secrets of our own, you and I--secrets that we
+never told to one another, even when we stood side by side together on
+the mountain-top. But there was a thrill within each of us, was there
+not? and each knew that with the other it was well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PASSES
+
+
+A peak is primarily a thing to be looked at. It was only after the
+aspect of peaks had smitten the imagination of men that the desire to
+climb them arose. The climbing impulse is subordinate to the eye's
+delight. A pass, on the other hand, is a thing to be climbed and looked
+from, but only in a minor degree to be looked at. It is an experience
+rather than a sight. Few passes indeed are striking objects in a view.
+The Col Dolent, the G�ssfeldtsattel, the Col du Lion, and a few more are
+imposing when you approach the foot of their final slopes, but it would
+be difficult to distinguish between such slopes and a similar mountain
+face. The fact that the slope leads to a notch or saddle in the sky-line
+does not give it dignity; that comes to it from its own character as a
+slope, and would be the same if it led to any other kind of sky-line.
+Passes, therefore, in and for themselves, are not conspicuously striking
+and beautiful elements in any great mountain panorama, and do not call
+for discussion by us from that point of view.
+
+As experiences, however, they take another rank. I have long been
+prepared to maintain their general superiority to peaks in that respect.
+Passes generally lead through finer scenery than is commanded from the
+flank of a peak. A peak climbed rewards you with a panorama which no
+pass can offer; but, that excepted, the average pass is superior to the
+average peak for the scenery it reveals, and in the nature of things it
+must be. In climbing a peak, unless you are going up an ar�te, you
+normally have a steep slope rising straight in front of you. A few
+square yards of rocks or snow fill most of your vision as you look
+ahead. If you raise your eyes up the slope, you see it in its least
+impressive form, foreshortened into a mere belt. The real view is behind
+you, and you must turn round to behold it. That involves standing still
+and may mean delay. But in traversing a pass you normally ascend the
+bottom of a glacier valley, and the fine views are ahead and on both
+hands. The valley is not likely to be so narrow that you are not far
+enough away from its two sides, or at least one of them, to be able to
+behold the slope as a whole, from bottom to top, and not unduly
+foreshortened. Of course this general character of pass-routes is
+subject to infinite variation. The final slope is often steep, and the
+ascent of it will then be like the ascent of a mountain face; but,
+broadly speaking, it must be obvious that passes offer better chances
+for enjoying continuous fine scenery than peaks, and experience proves
+it.
+
+Pass-traversing, to me, however, and doubtless to many others, seems to
+possess more elements of romance than peak-climbing; for this reason--to
+climb a peak is to make an expedition, but to cross a pass is to travel.
+In the one case you normally return to the spot whence you set out; in
+the other you go from the known to the unknown, from the visible to what
+is beyond. The peak, which is before you when you set out to climb it,
+is only explained, not revealed, as you ascend; but every pass is a
+revelation: it takes you over into another region. You leave one area
+behind and you enter another; you come down amongst new people and into
+fresh surroundings. You shut out all that was familiar yesterday and
+open up another world.
+
+This is true of all passing over; it is of course especially true
+when you are making a new pass for the first time. Then you have to find
+the way down as well as the way up, and the interest is sustained to the
+last moment. It has been my good-fortune to have had opportunities of
+climbing many new peaks and crossing several new passes--one of them the
+longest mountain-glacier pass in the world. Beyond all question the
+passes have been more interesting and exciting than the peaks. When you
+reach the summit of your peak the excitement suddenly ends; on the top
+of a pass it only culminates. The long pass to which I have above
+referred took about a fortnight to reach from the highest habitations.
+We could see the saddle ahead all the time, and we slowly drew nearer to
+it. The wonder increased as to what we should find on the other side.
+Whither should we be led on? Where should we come out? What difficulties
+might bar our progress? Not till the very moment when we topped the
+ascent and stood upon the col could any of these questions begin to be
+answered. Nor could any of them be fully answered till the week of
+descent had been actually accomplished. But the first sight over, the
+first glimpse into the new world, that was worth toiling for--that, and
+the last long regretful look back down the valley up which we had come,
+whose details had fastened themselves durably upon our memories.
+
+[Illustration: 44. THE ROAD FROM VITZNAU TO GERSAU. The _Obere nase_
+corner. Pilatus group in the distance.]
+
+What the travelling explorer in previously untraversed places feels so
+keenly is, after all, only a slightly stronger form of the emotion that
+every pass affords to every climber who traverses it for the first time.
+He awaits the arrival at the summit for the moment of supreme
+revelation. He has the same slow development of desire to see over; the
+same sudden burst of illumination at the top; the same regretful look
+back; the same pleasurable anticipation of novel experiences awaiting
+him on the descent. He too leaves one world and comes into another;
+leaves if it be but the home of a night in exchange for untried
+quarters. It is this similarity between ordinary Alpine climbing and new
+exploration that gives to the former one of its greatest charms. The
+fact that a thing is new to us suffices. It is almost, perhaps quite, as
+good to behold for the first time what we have heard speech of, as to
+behold what no one has ever beheld before. We shall find friends to
+converse and share memories with about the one; we are liable to be
+considered bores if we talk too much about the other. The explorer
+writes his book and then dwells with his memories alone, but the Alpine
+traveller lays up a store of experiences and reminiscences, the pleasure
+of which he can share with a goodly number of friends, old and young.
+
+Passes, like peaks, admit of classification. The first and most
+beautiful is the long snow pass, the kind of pass which is reached by
+ascending one long glacier, and from which the descent leads down
+another long glacier, so that the point of departure is as widely
+separated as possible from the point of arrival, and the divergence of
+scenery between the two extremities most pronounced. These may be called
+the great snow highways.
+
+The longest snow highway-pass, and to my thinking one of the finest in
+the Alps, leads right through the heart of the Bernese Oberland from the
+L�tschen valley at one end to the Grimsel at the other. It is really not
+one pass but a succession of three, for three ridges have to be
+crossed--which, however, only increases its interest. It leads through
+snow scenery of superlative pomp and extent, and reveals that scenery in
+the most fascinating manner, continually opening out and presently again
+closing up the wildest vistas, and always providing new interests and
+fresh culminations. Bietschhorn, Aletschhorn, Jungfrau, Finsteraarhorn,
+not to mention other less important peaks, in turn dominate the view,
+and one glacier after another opens out a vision of remote blue valleys
+and lower ranges. I am aware that this long traverse does not oppose to
+the climber the smallest real difficulty from end to end, and that it is
+what is commonly described as "a mere snow pound." It calls for
+endurance and that is all. Unless the climber counts scenery first among
+the attractions of the way, he will be well advised to select some other
+expedition. He who does so count it will agree with me that this is _par
+excellence_ "the" pass of the Central Alps. It lacks only one element of
+charm: it brings the traveller down into the same kind of scenery as
+that from which he started. A similar remark may be made on the
+Strahleck, which is likewise a glorious snow highway. Both passes, it
+may be observed, are eminently suited for ski experts to traverse in
+winter, under suitable conditions of weather and equipment.
+
+To find the long snow pass in its most romantic form one must look for
+it in a region where a great mountain range divides districts of
+strongly contrasted scenic character. There can be no doubt whither we
+should turn. The great range that gazes southward over Italy and
+northward into Switzerland perfectly fulfils the conditions. This
+culminates along the watershed south of Zermatt, which place is
+therefore indicated as the starting-point at one end. Of the long snow
+passes leading southward from Zermatt, the Lysjoch undoubtedly takes
+first place for magnificence of scenery throughout the whole length of
+its route. Gymnastic climbers may ask, Why not the Sesiajoch? On the
+north its route coincides with that of the Lysjoch, but on the south
+they diverge, and the easier route lies through finer if less
+catastrophic scenery. The Sesiajoch plunges down a great wall, and the
+view does not vary for a long time. The Lysjoch leads down one of the
+loveliest glacier valleys in Europe and affords endless variety. There
+is really no comparison between the two.
+
+We may therefore select the Lysjoch as type of the noblest kind of
+Alpine pass. Consider what wealth of interest it supplies to those who
+traverse it from Zermatt at one end to Gressoney at the other; for to
+enjoy a pass properly it should be followed from village to village
+throughout its full length, and not merely from hut to hut. The modern
+method of zigzagging across the crest of a chain without descending far
+below the snow-line, taking one pass one day and another the next, is, I
+am aware, not without fascinations, to which who has not succumbed? but
+it is not the best way to enjoy scenery, for it lacks the enforcing
+emphasis which the exchange of levels yields.
+
+It is of the essence of such a pass as the Lysjoch that it leads you
+from the foot of a great glacier, up through its whole length to its
+head, and then from the head of another glacier down to its foot. It
+thus traces a definite and natural succession of the features of a
+glacier. It is like following the course of a river from mouth to
+source, or passing through the progress of the seasons of a year. From
+step to step there is a succession of related features, each being
+another stage of the one before and of the one next to follow. Thus
+there is a growth of interest. What you behold is not a mere succession
+of unrelated vistas. Each foreground in turn implies all that has been
+passed and all that is yet to come on the upward way. True, convenience
+generally dictates that you shall not actually enter upon a glacier at
+its extreme foot, and mount right up it to its head. There is probably
+better going for part of the way along the bank. But the glacier is
+commonly close at hand and in full view most of the time, so that you
+become familiar with it at all points of its course. To ascend it is to
+advance through stages of increasing glory and purity. First you have
+its shabby moraine-strewn extremity; then its cleaner surface and open
+white crevasses. Higher up they turn continually bluer and the ice grows
+still whiter. The glacier widens; the slopes that border it become less
+grassy. You are leaving the habitable, profitable world behind, and
+approaching the clean undevelopable lands, which man may visit but where
+he must not dwell. The naked crags stand forth on either hand, furrowed
+with snow couloirs, and clothed with white raiment. Now you come to the
+snow-covered surface of the glacier itself. Blue-looking pools of water
+may be seen here and there. The snow becomes purer as you advance. There
+are no more dust-patches or groups of rocks interrupting the clean
+surface. Higher up, the glacier breaks into bolder forms as it pours
+down over steeper and more rugged slopes. The s�racs tower aloft,
+fantastic in form and unstable in position. Great crevasses marvellously
+coloured in their depths yawn all about. You wind your way amongst them,
+creeping over snow-bridges and under impending walls and pinnacles of
+ice, all decked with sparkling icicles. Finally, you emerge on to some
+gentler-sloping, wide-expanding field of spotless snow, that only a
+gentle undulation diversifies with the most delicately displayed
+modelling. All around are steep slopes of snow or ice, cliffs of
+newly-riven rock, avalanche tracks and heaps of ruin. The details of the
+high peaks can be distinguished, their overhanging cornices, their
+furrowed sides. Ahead, and not so far away, is now the pass--a broad
+opening between great heaped-up domes of snow, perhaps with crests of
+rock cutting through. The slope grows easier. At last the ground is
+level, and a distant view opens before you as behind. You are on the
+top.
+
+The ascent has been marked, as a morning's work should be, by steady
+growth of interest. The descent, though it merely reverses the order of
+events and succession of interests, is not a simple inversion of the
+experiences of the ascent. It would be if you descended backwards,
+facing the pass, but such is not the human method of going. You now face
+downwards, and have before you the blue valley, the distant lower
+ranges, and perhaps some fragment of the broad lowlands in view, whereas
+in going up you look at the heights. The valleys promise rest and
+refreshment to your growing fatigue. The way becomes less laborious as
+you descend. You leave the snow behind gladly. The first flowers welcome
+you. And now as you quit the ice and traverse the high meadows the
+steady increase of fertility is delightful to observe. You enter the
+tree-level through a fringe of skimpy and wind-beaten scouts. The timber
+becomes finer as you advance. After all, this fertile earth is the place
+for man. Down you go into a new valley, the torrent hurrying and
+tumbling beside you. You come to a poor village and then to one more
+thriving. Fruit-trees begin to find place, and then chestnuts. How
+delightful it is to come down to the chestnut-level! It is then no far
+cry to the figs and the Italian lakes, and all the luxury of north
+Italian nature--its rich atmosphere, its colour, its suave forms, and
+picturesque surprises.
+
+[Illustration: 45. AMSTEG IN THE REUSSTHAL. On the St. Gotthard Railway.
+Entrance to the Windgelle Tunnel above the last house on right of
+picture.]
+
+To cross thus and through such stages from the austere Swiss valleys to
+Italian frolic and ease, is to enjoy one of the greatest pleasures. You
+can do it by going over a peak, but clearly peaks are not natural
+passage-ways. They do not suggest themselves for traverse, whereas
+passes do. The whole idea of a peak is a provocation to the climber to
+get to the top. A pass invites him to come over; it calls from valley to
+valley. Who would ever think of going to a col and then returning in his
+tracks to the starting-point unless misfortune compelled him? The
+suggestion is absurd. Passes are the natural gateways of the hills--at
+first the easiest and lowest gaps; next the best gaps that could be
+found from valley to valley; lastly, any notch between two peaks, even
+if they are twin-culminating summits of a single mountain. Indeed,
+provided the point of crossing is a notch, so that, when you stand in
+it, you see a peak rising on either hand of you, you have the feeling
+that you are going over a pass--that the wall Nature has erected in your
+way has been overcome; and that feeling is the thing.
+
+The broad portals of the great mountain highways offer, as I have said,
+and obviously must offer, scenery of the grandest and most logically
+consistent type along all the way; but there are passes of other kinds
+richly endowed with power to please. I would choose next, as a
+delightful type, the most opposed in character to the broad snow col,--I
+refer to those range-traversing routes which lead over steep
+mountain-walls. Such on a great scale for the Alps are the Col du Lion,
+the Domjoch, and the Col de Miage. I think, however, that the classical
+pass of this kind is the Triftjoch. It will at all events perfectly
+serve as an example of the rest. Seeing that, by definition, the final
+slope of all such passes is a steep wall, that wall, dropping from the
+watershed, must be at the end of some deep glacial recess. Herein lies
+the distinguishing feature of the way. The lower part of the route will
+resemble the lower part of any other pass, but ultimately somewhere in
+the _n�v�_ region the traveller is led into a deeply embayed cirque.
+
+The snow-field may and often does lie almost level at the foot of the
+wall, perhaps above some final ice-fall which it has been difficult to
+surmount. These high _n�v�_ basins that look so lake-like and restful in
+the heart of the hills are always lovely. Imposing precipices rise
+around them, and in fact feed them with showers of avalanches on active
+days. But in fine summer weather the avalanches have all fallen. The
+surrounding walls are like a defensive fortress, towering so high and
+steeply, and excluding the world and all its vicissitudes and violences.
+It is only a seeming, for nowhere, in fact, do storms eddy and surge
+with more violence than in these theatres of the mountains. But seeming
+is the very substance of beauty, and all the fine-weather aspect of
+these places is suggestive of peace. The further you advance the more
+completely are you enclosed. Sometimes a bend in the hollow may actually
+so shut you in, that no glimpse of the lower regions is to be seen in
+any direction. Such isolation is delightful for a while. Besides
+yourselves there is no other trace to be found of the existence of the
+human race, or of its ever having existed; you might be on the surface
+of the moon and discover nothing more indifferent to mankind and their
+motions. A few hours of sunshine will blot out every sign of your
+passing. This entire cleanness and invulnerability is specially
+delightful to men who have grown up in crowded cities, where, save
+sometimes in the sky, the very reverse is the case, and nothing is
+visible that does not imply the handiwork of man.
+
+The final climb is like all wall-climbing, and commands no view
+unless you can turn round; but so much the more does the last step tell,
+the step that lifts your eyes above the crest and suddenly displays to
+you the great vista on the other side. In peak-climbing, the views to
+right and left rapidly develop and approach as you near the top; it is
+only in the ascent of these wall-ended passes that the view is kept back
+to the last, and then suddenly revealed. In the case of the Triftjoch,
+as you climb to it from Zermatt, the result is even more than usually
+impressive; for what bursts upon your vision, right opposite to you, on
+the far side of a splendid and vast circle of snow-field, is the whole
+pyramid of the Dent Blanche, from base to summit, with its finest side
+turned towards you. For the view thus to burst upon the traveller with
+overwhelming suddenness, the steepness of the wall of ascent must be
+continued to the very top. If it rounds off for the last few feet, as
+sometimes happens, the effect is spoiled. The Triftjoch view is one of
+the best arranged, because the gap you pass through is so narrow, and
+the distance is beheld as it were in a frame of rocks, which form a
+foreground. Most saddles of the kind are wider. Then the view lacks
+foreground and is no better than part of a mountain-top panorama. The
+narrow gaps are the ones to look for. They can be found all over the
+Alps, but not usually along the crest of the main ranges.
+
+[Illustration: 46. THE DENT BLANCHE FROM THE RIFFELBERG. July 22, 1903.
+The Dent Blanche and all the other peaks mostly engaged in powdering
+their heads behind a curtain of cloud. The water in foreground is not a
+lake, merely a pond of rain-water.]
+
+There is, however, a great charm attached to many passes across minor
+ridges. They enable an expedition to be made, out and back, from a
+single centre, with variety of scenery all the way--up one side valley
+and down another. The side valleys often deserve more attention than
+they get. A climber's natural tendency is to go for the big
+expeditions--the highest mountains and the greatest passes. It is worth
+observing that the greater the scale on which mountains are built, the
+more widely are the main features separated. Minor peaks and lower
+ridges have their different members nearer together. Juxtaposition often
+produces admirable results, and may educate the eye to look for effects
+on a great scale which have once been observed in little. After all,
+variety is the great thing,--variety and the emphasis that contrast
+gives to beauty of different kinds. It is so easy to grow accustomed, so
+easy to become dull to an effect that is constantly before the eyes. How
+tired of ourselves, and one of another, we should become, if we were not
+always growing older! In the mountains, if we would have our sense of
+their beauty ever fresh, our appreciation of it ever keener and keener,
+we should alter our point of view: exchanging great for small, arid
+magnificence for fertile attractiveness, snow for rock, peak for pass,
+alp for valley. We should beware of specialisation. Why climb only
+aiguilles? Why scramble up nothing but rock-faces? There may be breadth
+or narrowness even in our play. We are likely to manifest in life as a
+whole the qualities that we show in sport. Why not make play react on
+life?
+
+A highway-pass penetrates a range by help of a corridor, a wall-pass
+leads right over a cliff. These are the two most definitely marked types
+of col. We might feel ourselves compelled to assign most cols to one
+type or the other, if we allowed our freedom to be restrained by the
+bondage of scientific definition. There is, however, a kind of pass
+which I prefer to capture for a group by itself, though no descriptive
+name for it occurs to me,--I mean passes like the Weissthor or the Col
+du G�ant, which are approached by regular snow highways on one side, and
+fall very rapidly on the other. They and their like are always popular,
+and there are many of them. Their chief general characteristic is the
+contrast that must strike every one between the ascent and the descent,
+on one side and on the other, and between the views in opposite
+directions from the col. This side, you look down a glacier valley with
+a broad white foreground limited by a mountain avenue, along which some
+great glacier flows, winding away. That side, a cliff plunges from your
+feet, and such foreground as there may be consists of the nearest
+mountains before you. Thus the near view fixes your attention in one
+direction, the remote distance in the other. One is essentially a view
+among mountains, the other an outlook over the wide earth. One impresses
+by its wildness, the other by its extent. You keep facing about, and,
+each time you turn, the contrast of scenery enforces the charm of either
+outlook.
+
+Obviously the right way to enjoy such a pass to most advantage is to
+ascend by the gentler slope and to go down the cliff. It is not the
+easiest way for the climber, who is likely to prefer to mount the cliff
+and descend the slope. The technically and �sthetically best are here at
+variance. In ascending by the highway side the fine view is always
+before you, but if you go up the cliff nothing faces you but a few acres
+of snow and rock. On the contrary, when you descend the cliff, the
+uninteresting outlook is at your back and the fine view in front all the
+way.
+
+The crest of some passes of this sort, notably of the Weissthor, is a
+point of vantage for enfilading a great mountain face. Usually one looks
+up or down such faces, or, being actually upon them, can only look a
+short distance to right or left. But from the crest of a suitable pass
+you may see the great curtain of ice and rocks edgewise, and the view
+has an impressiveness of its own. Those who have seen Niagara, or any
+wide waterfall of considerable height, will remember how fine it is to
+stand and look along the edge of it. Fronting it, you obtain a sense of
+its width; below it, you feel its force and volume; but in profile its
+grace is its leading quality. So is it with a wide mountain-wall. It is
+not enough to see it from below, or from over against. It must also be
+looked along. Then its surface modelling, its outsets and insets, its
+ribs and gullies, the meandering as well as the slope of its front
+become apparent. Few great walls of this kind do not grandly curve
+round. They are most impressive when that curvature is apparent. Once
+thus beheld, a wall takes on a new meaning when seen again from some
+more common standpoint. It no longer looks flat. Its bays and buttresses
+become perceptible to the trained eye, which is thus better enabled to
+appreciate the complexities of form and the true architecture of any
+other mountain-wall afterwards encountered.
+
+There remains but one more type of pass that appeals for special
+mention before our space is exhausted. It is the Couloir Pass, a col led
+up to by a narrow snow-or ice-filled gully. The Col du Mont Dolent and
+the Col du Lion are the grandest examples of the type, which however is
+not an uncommon one. For me these passes always possess singular charm.
+They are really a subdivision of the wall-pass group, but they arouse
+emotions altogether their own. Once in the couloir you are completely
+isolated, almost as though perched in the air. A wall of rocks close at
+hand shuts you in on either side. The steep slope rises in front.
+Behind, you look straight away to some far distance with nothing to
+interrupt the vision. So indeed you do from the face of a wall or cliff,
+but the effect is greatly enhanced by your enclosure on either hand. The
+contrast between those near rocks to left and right and the absolute
+openness behind makes the steep drop of the slope appear much steeper
+than it is. Perhaps you may be compelled to remain for hours in the
+narrow gully. So much the more striking becomes the view revealed at the
+top and the sudden sense of being in the open. It has been implied that
+the couloir has to be ascended, for such is usually the choice, and
+sometimes the only wise choice; but it is far more delightful to descend
+one, with the view in front all the way and the valley bottom slowly
+approaching. Never is the depth beneath better appreciated than under
+such circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: 47. THE VILLAGE OF SOLDIMO, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE VAL
+MAGGIA.]
+
+I have thus far been referring to passes from the climber's point
+of view, as leading from one mountain centre to another. Truly, however,
+the whole of a pass is the route through a mountain region from plain to
+plain. Few mountaineers nowadays ever cross a range in that way except
+by train, and yet it is one of the most delightful experiences.
+Motor-cars will enable us to enjoy such traverses by road, when the
+Swiss have learnt the wisdom of granting free passage across the Alps to
+any kind of vehicle. It is only when a range of mountains is approached
+from the plain that its mass and geographical value as a dividing wall
+can be felt. Arriving by train among mountains is a very different
+thing, for you can see nothing from a train unless you are the
+engine-driver--all revealing views being necessarily ahead. Afoot there
+is usually some definite point, immediately perceptible, where you first
+come in contact with the slope. You enter the mouth of a valley; the
+hills reach forth their arms to embrace you, and you consciously enter a
+new world. Beside you is now a riotous river on the one hand and a
+steepening slope on the other. It is not long before you know that you
+have begun to ascend. The flatness of the valley's mouth presently
+changes into a gentle slope. At first the fertility of the plain
+accompanies you into the hills, but the fields grow smaller, the
+villages may be cramped for space and forced to adapt themselves to
+difficult ground, attaining a new picturesqueness in the process. Thus
+for long miles, hour after hour, and, in large mountain regions, day
+after day, the character of the scenery slowly changes. The mountains
+grow bigger; vegetation varies with level and aspect; Nature grows more
+austere, and therewith more magnificent. You traverse some vast defile,
+like the gorge of Gondo perhaps, where road and river find passage
+beneath opposite cliffs, water-worn and of imposing height. You enter
+secluded basins, where the valley widens to close again; you pass round
+the margin of lakes that hold the hill-tops, as it were, in their
+depths. And always the flanking heights grow greater, and their tops,
+when visible, further and further away. Side valleys radiate, leading
+around romantic corners to invisible fastnesses. The slope of the main
+valley steepens again. You reach the foot of the forest region, the
+snouts of glaciers begin to appear, and high aloft the snows look down
+upon you. Now you traverse the last village and approach the foot of the
+glacier that fills your valley's head. You mount beside it through the
+tree-belt and out on to the grassy alp, then up that to the region of
+broken rocks and stones, and so to the margin of the snow. It is only
+the last stage of your traverse which now arrives, but that last stage
+is the beginning and end of the mere climber's pass. To you it means
+much more--it is the crest of the great range that you have been so long
+penetrating to these its uttermost recesses. The final wall is before
+you, the great white wall that looked so ethereal, so cloud-like, when
+first beheld from afar. You toil up it, stand on the crest, and look
+abroad over the world of mountains. Then down to the stones, to the
+grass, to the trees, the high village, and the valley road. So onward
+again by the roaring torrent, down the ever more fertile, more luxuriant
+valley, till you come to the low hills and the wide flat stretches that
+at last lead you out on to the plain once more.
+
+[Illustration: 48. FL�ELEN AT END OF LAKE OF URI, SOUTH ARM OF LAKE OF
+LUCERNE. The pyramid of the Bristenstock in the background. F�hn wind
+blowing.]
+
+A long traverse of that kind is a real pass, a whole pass; nothing else
+is more than a fragment--a choice fragment it may be, but still a part
+and not the whole. The old mountaineers, such as John Ball, used to take
+their passes in this complete form. So did the old coach-travellers like
+John Ruskin in his early days. Now mountaineers scorn to waste time on
+so lengthy an experience and to remain for so long at low levels. It is
+not their way. They have continual business aloft. They leave to
+motorists that kind of expedition. What good-fortune, then, that
+motor-cars should have been invented in time to provide such possible
+delights for climbers when their days of activity are done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GLACIERS
+
+
+Incidentally, in the course of the preceding chapters, glaciers have
+been frequently referred to, but they form so prominent a feature in
+Alpine scenery as to demand a chapter alone. For, in fact, it is the
+glaciers that most of us think about when we turn our minds to the Alps.
+Minor ranges have walls of rock as precipitous and grand, gullies as
+difficult to climb, valleys as beautiful and even as profound as the
+Alps. Other European ranges are for a longer or shorter part of the year
+snow-covered, and often deeply snow-covered, so as to present
+snow-ar�tes, cornices, couloirs, and snow-slopes that might almost have
+been stolen from the highest regions of so-called eternal snow. The
+Pyrenees, if exception be made of one or two small glaciers of no
+importance, are practically a range of this sort. They possess
+fascinations, and great fascinations, but lacking glaciers they lack
+what every traveller amongst them must feel to be the essential element
+of greatness. Where glaciers exist the mountains are of the grand style.
+A small Spitsbergen peak draped and surrounded by glaciers has a more
+imposing effect than a great tropical hill, three times as big, which
+lacks glaciers.
+
+Snow that vanishes away before it is a year old is generally
+feeble-looking stuff. It is only snow with a history, snow that has
+weathered twenty hot summers, that really tells in a view. The first is
+a mere inert covering of the ground; the second is a mighty and moving
+agent. In short, the one is dead; the other is alive. A sheet of snow,
+lying where it fell, is amorphous. It might be twice the size or half
+the size and any single square yard of it would be the same. But a
+glacier, the moving accumulation of a score or scores of winter
+snow-falls, is a unit, and all its parts imply the rest. Increase or
+diminish the area and you must needs change every detail, just as the
+whole body of a man is modified when he begins to grow stout or to waste
+away.
+
+It is not often that you can see the whole of a glacier in a single
+view, unless it be a very small glacier. Generally you see only a part;
+but, to one who knows, that part implies the whole. When you see a man's
+leg you know that there is the rest of him round the corner; from the
+attitude of what is visible it is often possible to infer much about
+what is hidden. So, too, is it with a glacier. The more familiar a man
+is with glacier phenomena, the more certainly can he infer from the
+known to the unknown. How easy it is with a little practice to tell at a
+glance whether a bit of white beheld aloft is part of a glacier or
+merely a bed of winter snow that will presently disappear. The one is
+modelled by its own motion; the other merely borrows its modelling from
+the ground on which it lies inertly.
+
+The sense of motion, unity, and life--it is when these are
+instinctively perceived in glaciers that a view of snow-mountains begins
+to possess its true significance. Before it had been discovered that
+glaciers move, people used to call them frightful, terrible, and so
+forth. Ignorance blinded men's eyes to the beauty that was actually in
+sight. Not knowing how to look, they could not see it. What forests,
+grass, and flowers are to the lower regions, that glaciers are to the
+higher--they are the vitalising element. Hence the importance to the
+mountain-lover of learning to know glaciers and familiarising himself
+with their structure, their ways, and their moods. It is easy enough to
+declare that every form and movement of a glacier is determined by the
+action of definite forces--so perhaps are all the ways and doings of
+men. But we pretend that they are not, and talk of our whims and moods,
+and may take the same liberty of speech about glaciers.
+
+Every climber knows that there are glaciers of all sorts and
+characters, and every mountain traveller knows that they behave
+differently in different climates and latitudes. In the Arctic regions
+they flow faster and spread more widely. They have a more viscous
+appearance to the eye. They bulge and swell at the lower end, so that no
+one would ever have invented the name "snout" for the termination of an
+Arctic ice-stream. Moreover they break very readily into crevasses, even
+upon gentlest inclines in their lower course, whilst high up they seem
+less ready to form ice-falls than in the Alps. Glaciers in Norway vary
+from the Arctic to the temperate character as you go from north to
+south. The glaciers of Lyngen resemble those of Greenland. The glaciers
+of Jotunheim are almost Alpine--more than Alpine, indeed, in the
+development of their glorious ice-cascades, but less than Arctic in the
+outreach of their lower extremities. The glaciers of the Tropics, again,
+present peculiarities of their own, due to the fact that the ice
+evaporates rather than melts. Thus their surfaces are dry and almost
+granitic in aspect. Their towering s�racs seldom fall. Avalanches are
+much rarer than one would expect. Glacier streams are insignificant.
+Thus it is in the Bolivian Andes and thus also in the regions of Kenya
+and Ruwenzori. In the great Asiatic mountain territory there are
+glaciers of many types, corresponding to the great variety of climates.
+Those of Sikkim seem to be almost of the tropical character. Those of
+the Mustagh are of the temperate sort; and there are many intermediate
+varieties.
+
+[Illustration: 49. FURGGEN GLACIER ICEFALL. Furggjoch at top of
+picture.]
+
+Alpine glaciers are of the medium type, lying as they do half-way
+between the Arctic and tropical extremes. They have not the rapid flow
+of the Arctic nor the dry rigidity of the tropical sort. Their walls are
+not silent as in the Central Andes, nor thundered over by continual
+avalanches like those of the upper Baltoro. They are of medium size
+also. In a single day almost any of them may be ascended from snout to
+snow-field, and descended again. To explore their remotest recesses no
+elaborately equipped expedition is required. Yet they are large enough
+to be imposing, and penetrate deep enough into the heart of the hills to
+isolate their votaries completely from the world of human habitation. It
+is to this medium quality that the Alps owe much of their charm. This,
+too, it is that makes them an almost perfect mountain play-ground. Were
+they but a little smaller, how much they would lose that is most
+precious! Were they larger, how many persons that now can afford the
+cost and the strength to explore them would have to linger at their
+gates wistfully looking in. In area, too, they are large enough for
+grandeur and yet small enough for easy access. No part of them is beyond
+the range of a summer holiday, yet a commanding view of them is as
+apparently limitless as is the view from the greatest Asiatic peaks
+which, thus far, have been climbed. They are the only range of
+snow-mountains in the world thus blessed with moderation.
+
+It is for this reason that the Alpine climber so soon acquires an
+understanding of glaciers as units. A novice, after a single year's
+Alpine experience, can talk easily and with understanding of all the
+parts of a glacier. It takes twenty seasons to know them well, but the
+foundations of knowledge can be laid in one. The modern tendency amongst
+climbers is to devote their main attention to rock-scrambling; but those
+who have spent the best years of their life amongst mountains, generally
+end by giving their hearts to glaciers and the high regions of snow. The
+best advice that can be given to a young climber is, "Learn to know
+glaciers." They offer the strongest contrast to the ordinary
+surroundings of life. They present the most varied phenomena. They most
+readily impress the imagination. They are the vital element, the living
+inhabitants of the high world.
+
+[Illustration: 50. THE GLETSCHERHORN FROM THE PAVILION, HOTEL CATHREIN,
+CLOSE TO CONCORDIA HUT. One of the finest situations for views of the
+ice-world where no climbing is required.]
+
+If elsewhere I have praised the charms of contrast, of passing from
+low to high, from fertile to barren, let me here exalt another method.
+Who that has tried it will not agree that it is likewise well,
+sometimes, to hide oneself in the very heart of the upper snows, and
+there dwell for a while apart from the haunts of men? Formerly this was
+difficult to accomplish, but now, in the Alps at any rate, it is easy;
+for well-found high-level huts are many. Such, for instance, is the
+Becher Refuge, planted in the midst of the Tirolese �belthal glacier, or
+the K�rsinger Hut, on the north slope of the Gross Venediger. Settled in
+either of these, you are in the midst of the high snowy world. The
+_n�v�s_ are within a stone's throw, and the final peaks may be gained by
+a morning's walk. The Concordia Hut (now H�tel, I believe) is similarly
+situated; whilst the hut on the top of the Signal Kuppe of Monte Rosa is
+yet more highly elevated. It is easy to spend a day or two in any of
+these huts, and so to pass before the eyes the whole daily drama as it
+is played upon the heights. So easy is it, that one wonders why more
+mountain-lovers do not avail themselves of the opportunity. The
+drawback, of course, is that such a hut is a centre of human activity.
+You forsake the hordes of men below, only to join a colony above.
+Solitude in these places is not to be had except in bad weather.
+
+There is one way, and one only, by which fully to experience the long
+emotion of a dweller in the heights: it is to camp out. Few, indeed, are
+they who have tried it in the Alps. Some have slept in a tent on the
+mountain-side before a great climb; but they are fewer now than a score
+of years ago. It is not, however, to such brief lodging I refer; but to
+a settlement made and victualled for several days. Mr. Whymper, I
+believe, is one of the few English climbers who has spent many days
+together with a tent at high altitudes in the Alps, and he has not
+published any notice of his experiences. It is a thing I have long
+wished to do, knowing so well the charms of such life in other mountain
+regions.
+
+From a high-planted camp you can climb if you must, but you can also
+enjoy yourself without climbing. To awake on a fine morning in the midst
+of the snow-fields and see the coming of day at leisure, with no
+preparations to be made for immediate departure; then to watch the sun
+climb aloft and flood the depths of the valleys with its glory; to spend
+the whole day at leisure in the vicinity of your tent, strolling now to
+look into some bergschrund, now to scramble on to some neighbouring
+point of rock, returning at intervals to dine, or read some pleasant
+book, or to sketch in the shadow of the tent;--that is the way to let
+the mountain-glory sink in. My climbing days on the heights have left me
+pleasant memories enough, but the high-level days of idleness have been
+more delightful, even when they were days of storm and driving snow.
+
+[Illustration: 51. THE TRUGBERG. Looking up the Aletsch glacier from
+corner of M�rjelen See.]
+
+To be in the midst of a storm at a high altitude is a wonderful
+experience, which all climbers pass through sooner or later; but it is
+an uncomfortable experience. When you are camping-out high up you can
+enjoy a storm far more easily. I have sat warmly in my sleeping-bag and
+looked out for hours through a chink of the tent-door, fascinated to
+watch the whirling of the snow and to listen to the wild music of the
+gale. It is not the fine weather alone that is fair. There is a yet
+grander glory in the storms. What can be more superb than to watch the
+oncoming of such a visitant, to see the white valleys and dark
+precipices swallowed up in the night of its embrace, to feel the power
+of its might and the volume of its onrush, and to see and feel all this
+with the sense of security such as a limpet may be conceived to feel in
+the presence of waves breaking upon it? Who would not wish to spend a
+few hours in the Eddystone Lighthouse in the midst of a December gale?
+That would surely be worth while; like standing beneath the Falls of
+Niagara.
+
+Equally wonderful is it when the winds are still and a white fog
+envelops your little camp. Then you know what it is like to be alone.
+Above, around, and below all is impalpable whiteness. You might be
+floating in the air on a bit of snow-carpet for all the eye can tell you
+to the contrary. Never is silence more emphatic, not even in the darkest
+hour of the night. The ear strains with listening and hears only the
+pulsations of the heart, till some distant falling stone or rumbling
+avalanche, some crack of a new-forming crevasse, some slight shifting of
+a near snow-bed, sends a shiver through the air. And then, perhaps,
+there is a writhing in the mist and shortly forms emerge. You cannot
+tell at first whether they are tiny objects near at hand or remote
+masses. Under such circumstances I have mistaken a little fragment of
+paper drifting along the snow for a polar bear! Presently avenues of
+clearness open up to close again. Finally, the mist grows thin and
+glittering, the sunshine penetrates it, there is a moment of scorching
+heat, and lo! all is clear, and the great world around is perfectly
+revealed.
+
+[Illustration: 52. PALLANZA--SUNSET.]
+
+What beauty there is in the great snow-fields that wearied waders
+through their soft envelope are in no condition to appreciate! For to be
+seen at their grandest they must be seen in the full glare of
+mid-daylight, when details are swallowed up in radiant, all-enveloping
+splendour. Every one knows the glory of overpowering sound. For that
+orchestras are enlarged and choruses increased in number. Who that has
+heard the full-throated music of ten thousand men, singing as one, will
+forget the majesty of that voluminous sonorance? The thunder of great
+guns is used, by common consent, to express the salutations of a people.
+What is true of sound is also true of light. Great views are ennobled by
+the splendour of full sunshine. There is an indescribable charm about
+desert sunrises and sunsets, but the glory of the desert is greatest at
+noon when the sunshine seems to swallow up the world and almost to hide
+it in excess of brightness. As with the deserts so is it with the
+snow-fields. When the eye can barely suffer to rest on them, they are
+most impressive. If there be specks of dust upon the snow, they
+disappear then from vision. With the brightness comes perfect purity,
+and the very idea of possible contamination vanishes away.
+
+Reference has been made above to the beauty of linear form presented by
+many mountains projected against the sky. The great snow-fields have a
+beauty of surface form, a delicacy and perfection of modelling, far more
+remarkable. The graceful outline of a rock-peak, such as the Matterhorn,
+is, after all, a conception based upon a fact. The actual outline is a
+line elaborately jagged, which the eye converts into a continuous curve
+by purposely neglecting to observe the small indentations. But the
+curvature of a _n�v�_ is often apparently perfect. Its slight
+imperfections are too small for the eye to see even when they are looked
+for. Where it curves over, the outline of its edge is as delicate as any
+line that can be fashioned by the most elaborate artifice. No razor's
+edge is apparently more true. So also are the surfaces, in the
+perfection of their rise and fall. Not more perfect are the heavings of
+the last dying swell on a calming tropical ocean. But the swelling of
+the snows is still, and can be watched from dawn to eve with the
+incredibly delicate shades upon it that change with the hours yet never
+grow coarse, only towards the day's end they become blue and bluer, till
+the pink lights of sunset melt against them before the pallor of night
+comes on.
+
+[Illustration: 53. KRANZBERG--ROTTHALHORN--AND JUNGFRAU: SUNSET.]
+
+The details of the snow-fields are few, except when the surface is
+forced to break up by submerged inequalities of the glacier's bed. Then
+_n�v�_ ice-falls are formed, which are far more majestic than the
+ice-falls of the middle region (such as that of the Col du G�ant). The
+high ice-falls are always deeply covered with recent snow, and the
+broken white mantle upon the tumbled chaos produces mysterious hollows
+and gives rise to long fringes of glittering icicles not elsewhere in
+summer to be seen. To gaze into a crevasse in such a situation is to
+look into a veritable fairy's grotto, where the recesses are bluer and
+the walls more white than the memory ever avails to recall, and where
+the icicles seem to be hung for the very purpose of sublime decoration.
+Glimpses of such sights are often granted to the mere climber as he
+hastily scrambles over a bergschrund by an insecure snow-bridge; but he
+has no time to stop for half an hour and let his fancy play truant in
+the depths. To do that, one must be living aloft, with all the day to
+spend as one pleases, no peak to attain and return from, within short
+time-limits, and no companions to say "Hurry up."
+
+Perhaps these pages may have the good fortune to inspire some
+mountain-lover with the wish to camp out aloft. A suggestion may,
+therefore, not be out of place. Let the intending high-level resident
+choose the situation of his camp with care. It must be out of the way of
+excursionists, or he will be invaded by continual visitors, who will
+expect entertainment and will thus deplete his stores and spoil his
+solitude. It ought not, however, to be difficult of access, or the
+problem of revictualling will be complicated and expensive. Such a camp
+should consist of two tents--one of them for guides or porters. The
+traveller's tent should be solid, and should possess a double roof or
+fly, so that it may be occupied with comfort in the hot hours of the
+day. It should be so firmly planted that no gale can overthrow it. Its
+furniture should be sufficient for comfort. Do not plan to move on from
+day to day, but settle down for a week or more at one spot, where there
+are rocks for a tent platform, and short scrambles that can be safely
+undertaken alone. Let the snow-field be near also, a snow-field that can
+be traversed on _ski_, and do not forget to take the _ski_ with you, nor
+fear that you will not be able to use them on fairly level ground
+without previous practice. Keep a man with you to fetch water and do the
+rough cooking, so that all your time may be your own to enjoy to the
+full a rare opportunity which may not come again.
+
+The middle region of the glaciers is the region best known to the
+votaries of the Alps, because it is the most accessible from the popular
+hotels. This middle region may be defined as limited by the snow-line
+above and the tree-level below. It is therefore larger towards the end
+of the season as the snow-line is pushed up by the melting of the winter
+snows. On the Aletsch glacier it roughly corresponds with the stretch
+between the Belalp and the Concordia; on the Gorner glacier with the
+corresponding stretch between the Riffelhorn and the foot of Monte Rosa.
+Its characteristic features are the open crevasses and the flowing or
+standing water on the surface of the ice. This is the place to come to
+for glacier picnics. It is the paradise of the moderate walker or the
+superannuated mountaineer. It is a safe region for the experienced to
+wander over alone, and for the inexperienced to visit with experts. You
+can start late and be back early. You need not venture forth before the
+weather has declared its intentions. Hence it is the popular glacier
+belt, and its beauties are best known and most widely appreciated.
+
+If it lacks the aloofness and romance of the _n�v�s_, it possesses
+ample charms of its own. The impressive silence of the heights is here
+replaced by a chorus of the voices of many waters. The large simplicity
+and sweeping forms of the snow-fields give way here to a multiplicity of
+detailed forms that require time to appreciate and understand. Every
+step in this area yields a new wonder, a fresh incident, another
+surprise. All around is continual change as you go along. There is no
+end to the features that demand and reward your attention. No wonder
+that glacier wandering at this level should be so popular an amusement.
+
+What is its principal and characteristic charm? Undoubtedly the water,
+and the phenomena to which it gives rise. To begin with, there are the
+streams, small and great. The little trickles, that creep between the
+lumps of the uneven surface and deepen the furrow dividing them. They
+flow and unite together like the veins of a leaf, thus giving rise to
+larger arteries, and these by their union to yet larger. Thus the main
+drainage torrents are formed, which, on great Arctic and Himalayan
+glaciers, become veritable rivers, impossible to be leapt over or
+forded. The beds of these torrents are blue in colour and like
+transparent glass in aspect--a lovely contrast with the general surface
+of the glacier. For that is made white by the innumerable fissures that
+penetrate its surface, due to the dissolvent effect of the sun's heat,
+from which the icy water protects the bed of a stream. It is a favourite
+pastime to sit beside such a torrent and watch the water flow by between
+its white banks, one in bright sunshine, the other, perhaps, in shadow,
+with the blue ribbon of transparent ice between them and crystalline
+water scampering along with an aspect of joy in freedom.
+
+But there is a grim fate in store for it not far ahead. It must make
+haste to laugh in the sunshine while it can, and to display its
+short-lived clearness. Next time we see it, it will be thick and unclean
+with sediment, and far below in the valleys where men live and work.
+Little, however, does it seem to care as it hurries and dances along,
+and throws up its little glittering, splashing hands into the air. We
+follow it downward, and soon hear a musical booming not far away, like
+the note of a deep organ pipe. It is a _moulin_ or pot-hole, a
+cylindrical perforation of the glacier into which the torrent leaps, and
+where it disappears, to flow thenceforward in darkness along the rocky
+bed of the glacier, till it reappears at the snout into the open valley.
+
+Even lovelier than the streams are the pools on the surface of a
+glacier, when they have a clean floor unsoiled by moraine or sandy
+deposit. These pools are sometimes of large dimensions. They, too, have
+blue basins with white edges. Looked down upon from a distance, they
+appear like great sapphire eyes gazing at the heavens. Seldom, if ever,
+in the Alps are such pools found in the _n�v�_ region; to behold them
+there, one must go to Arctic glaciers, of which they form one of the
+chief glories. If the lakes on the Gorner glacier do not equal those for
+purity or perfection of contrast between untainted blue and unsullied
+white, they are none the less most lovely. Sometimes a lake may be found
+not on but beside a glacier, where the ice forms one bank and the
+mountain another. Such are the M�rjelen See by the Great Aletsch, and
+the little-visited lake at the west foot of Monte Rosa. On these you may
+see floating or stranded masses of ice, and perchance find one that has
+recently turned over, displaying its blue part that was before
+submerged.
+
+[Illustration: 54. M�RJELEN SEE AND GREAT ALETSCH GLACIER. Winter ice
+not yet melted on the lake.]
+
+Now and again, if you look for them, you will find crevasses filled
+with water, whose depth renders up a yet bluer tone than can elsewhere
+be met with in the regions of ice. Perhaps, at one end the crevasse will
+be roofed over, and there you may gaze into the deep shadow and find the
+blue deepen almost to black. If you drop in a stone, you may hear the
+bubbles come rippling up and the wavelets lapping against the sides. If
+the roof be thin enough, a hole may be made in it with the ice-axe, and
+a beam of sunshine admitted which will increase the scale of the harmony
+in blue. Well do I remember one glorious pool of water, roofed over with
+a dome of ice, through which the sunshine glimmered. At one side was a
+natural portal, at the other a window. Two or three white blocks of ice
+floated on the water, and its uneven depths were of all tones from
+sky-blue to black; but that was in Spitsbergen, where glacier details
+are far lovelier than the Alps can show.
+
+But the middle glacier region, the region of what is fantastically
+called the "dry glacier," presents other charms than those of water.
+Note, for example, the brilliance of its surface and the peculiarity of
+its texture. It consists of an infinite multitude of loosely compacted
+rounded fragments of ice with a little water soaking down between them.
+If you watch it closely, you will see that the moving water makes a
+shimmering in the cracks between the ice-fragments. You will also
+observe that the blue of the solid ice below the skin of fragments
+appears dimly through the white, and the least tap with an ice-axe to
+scrape away the surface reveals it clearly. Each little fragment of ice
+has a separate glitter of its own, so that the whole surface sparkles
+with a frosted radiance. It is not the same at dawn after a cold night,
+for then there is no water between the fragments, but all is hard and
+solid. No sooner, however, does the sun shine upon them, than the bonds
+are released and the ice-crystals begin to break up with a gentle
+tinkling sound and little flashes of light reflected from tiny wet
+mirror-surfaces. One can spend hours watching these small phenomena as
+happily as gazing upon the great mountains themselves. Size is a
+relative term. The biggest mountain in relation to the earth is no
+greater than is one of these small ice-fragments in relation to a
+glacier. Reduce the scale in imagination and the smallest object may be
+endowed with grandeur, for all such conceptions are subjective.
+
+The open crevasses that are never far away on the dry glacier are full
+of beauties. It is not easy to tire of peering down into them. Sometimes
+one may be found into which a man armed with an ice-axe may effect a
+descent. He will not stay there long, for the depths are cold. Once I
+was able not only to descend into a crevasse but to follow it beyond its
+open part into the very substance of the glacier. It was a weird place,
+good to see but not good to remain in, and I was glad to return to
+sunshine very soon.
+
+The moraines and scattered stones that are frequently encountered on the
+dry glacier are more interesting than beautiful. It is well to make the
+acquaintance of the medial moraines and to scramble over them, first for
+the wider view that one gets from the top, and next in order to realise
+their dimensions, always larger than one expects. Seen from a distance
+medial moraines look smaller than they are. The eye must be educated to
+realise their true dimensions. When that has been accomplished, the
+great scale of the glacier that carries them can be felt, but not
+before.
+
+There is generally a breeze blowing over a dry glacier, so that when
+the pleasant luncheon-hour arrives, a sheltered spot must be sought out,
+one open to the sun and protected against the breeze, with good water
+near at hand, and stones of convenient dimensions for seats and tables.
+Experienced wanderers will detect such spots far sooner than novices. It
+is with them as with good camping grounds: they are not easy to identify
+at a glance, but they are well worth hunting out.
+
+So also is it with points suitable for photography. A dry glacier is
+full of details for a camera, and yet how few good photographs does one
+see taken at this level among the mountains, unless they be distant
+views. Nowhere are there better foregrounds to be discovered; yet when
+they are looked for, how hard it is to find them. The composition is
+generally faulty in the inexperienced amateur's picture. But those who
+are experienced in the art seem to find suitable foregrounds everywhere.
+It is the result of much taking thought.
+
+Generally it happens that the return from a day's glacier wandering
+leads up the hillside along the margin, so that as we ascend, the area
+of our adventures spreads itself out below, and the eye can range over
+the whole of it at once. We look for the place where we lunched, for the
+broad streams with difficulty crossed, for the large pools we looked
+down into. They are not often discoverable. What looked so important
+near at hand has shrunk to an insignificant unidentifiable detail. The
+river is one of hundreds of the same kind. The pools are innumerable.
+The moraine stretches along for miles, and one of its mounds seems like
+another. We thus begin to realise the size of the great icy expanse. Our
+track over it has revealed but little of the multitude of sights there
+are to see. We have but glanced at a few samples out of countless
+thousands. Were we to return on the morrow we could not retrace our
+steps, nor find again the objects we saw to-day. For a moment the grand
+scale of the glacier imposes itself upon us, but before night has gone
+we shall have forgotten it. Only by coming again and yet again does it
+gradually sink into our understandings and become a part of the habit of
+thought with which we approach the Alps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ALPINE PASTURES
+
+
+It is to be feared that the reader, whose persistence has availed to
+carry him thus far through the adventure of this book, may bring an
+accusation against me, on the ground that each form and type of scenery,
+as in its turn it has come to be discussed, has been described in
+language of too superlative praise, as though it and it alone were
+pre-eminent above all other Alpine forms and types. Let me forthwith
+confess that the accusation is well founded; for the fact is that,
+whether the attention be turned upon peaks of rock or domes of snow,
+upon cliffs or aiguilles, upon snow-fields or ice-falls, upon passes,
+alps, or valleys, the kind under immediate consideration always seems
+the finest, the central type and the most beautiful. We quit the valleys
+for the high snows in search of beauty. From the heights we return to
+the valleys on the same quest. Everywhere we may find it, and to find it
+is all we need ask; for it is like pure gold, whereof no fragment is
+intrinsically more precious than another. Each new-found nugget seems
+for the moment best of all.
+
+[Illustration: 55. THE CASTLE OF Z�HRINGEN-KYBURG, THUN.]
+
+Beauty is not the prerogative of any zone or level of the mountains more
+than of any other. It is of different kinds in different regions, but
+not of different degrees. Some kinds may appeal to one man more than
+other kinds, but these in their turn will be preferred by a man of
+different disposition, and neither can boast that his taste is superior.
+Youthful vigour may find the keen consciousness of beauty most readily
+arising after difficulties have been overcome. Age may feel its sense of
+beauty deadened by toil. In neither case is the power of appreciation to
+be regarded as a test of the quality of the beauty perceived; it is
+merely an indication of the character of the person perceiving it.
+
+The normal Alpine climber is more sensitive to the beauty of the high
+regions than to the beauty of low levels. Nor is the fact surprising. He
+values that which he wins by toil, as is the natural habit of man. Yet
+he will by no means deny that there are beauties of the valleys and the
+middle regions, though he may freely confess that they appeal to him
+less powerfully. But even he, lying upon some high pasture or in the
+borders of a wood on some off-day, when the sun shines brightly and the
+peaks that he knows and loves look down upon him through a clear
+atmosphere, will realise consciously enough the fascination of the
+scene. The beauty of the middle region, however, stands in need of no
+apology, of no lengthy recommendation, for this is the region which the
+ordinary traveller most frequents and specially associates with his
+Alpine ramblings. The valleys are the home of the tripper; the alpine
+pastures, of the tourist; the snows, of the climber. Each class perhaps
+looks down upon the one below, but each is well rewarded and may rest
+content with what it receives.
+
+The grassy region between the belt of forest and the snows is known in
+Switzerland as the alps or high pastures, and it is from these "alps"
+that the great mountain range of Central Europe takes its name. An alp
+is essentially a summer grazing ground. It is the locality of cattle and
+horses, sheep and goats. A high Alpine village without an alp is an
+exceptional place. The normal village needs an alp for its equipment as
+much as it needs fields and woodland. The fact that there is an alp for
+summer grazing enables the grass lands at lower levels to be used as
+hay-fields; thus a supply of winter feed for the cattle is procured. Hay
+is also cut on some of the lower alps, but that is an exceptional use.
+
+The easily accessible alps are grazed by cattle. Highest alps whither
+cattle cannot go, or where frequent precipices surround the beasts with
+danger, are reserved for sheep and goats. Goat-alps are sometimes
+islands in the midst of glaciers, as, for instance, those at the foot of
+the Breithorn and the Twins along the south side of the main Gorner
+Glacier. Oftenest the alps grazed by sheep and goats are high up in the
+immediate vicinity of the snow-line, little patches of grass in a
+wilderness of rocks, or broken up by precipices. Some great grassy
+places at the ordinary cattle-alp level are so isolated by rock-walls
+that cattle cannot be taken to them with safety. Large flocks of sheep
+will then be found there. Such, for example, is the Muttenalp above
+Thierfehd in the T�di district, which is grazed by some 1500 or 2000
+sheep. A single shepherd looks after them, and is almost entirely cut
+off from the lower world throughout the long summer months. The alp in
+question lies in a hollow of the hills, with terraced slopes rising like
+an amphitheatre from a grassy hollow, only accessible from below by a
+giddy path. There would be grass enough here for many cattle if the path
+could be cheaply improved.
+
+Nothing in the Alps is more lonely and forlorn in aspect than are these
+high shepherds' huts. They are always wretchedly built. The lads or men
+that occupy them are the poorest of their village and the worst clad. In
+an alp where cheese is made there is plenty of work to fill every hour
+of the day; but a shepherd who lives aloft and does not have to drive
+his flock back to the village every day, finds time hanging heavily on
+his hands, and acquires a forlorn expression that matches his attire,
+his surroundings, and the miserable weather which so often envelops him.
+Those of us who climbed among out-of-the-way parts of the Alps in the
+seventies or earlier often had to take shelter for the night in
+shepherds' huts, and very uncomfortable they were. But modern climbers
+hardly know that such refuges exist.
+
+One such hut I well remember at the head of the Ridnaunthal in
+Tirol. Now there are no less than three luxurious climbers' huts built
+beside or near the glacier further up. The old shepherd's hut has fallen
+to decay. Only a fragment of one of its walls was left when I passed the
+place recently. Modern comforts, however, are not all clear gain. To
+sleep a night in the old upper Agels alp was not a comfortable
+experience, but it had its recompenses. The rough stone-built cabin was
+perfectly in harmony of aspect with its surroundings, as a club-hut is
+not. Built out of the stones that lay around, its crannies stuffed with
+moss, its roof formed of slabs and sods, it seemed a part of the
+mountain landscape, a natural growth rather than an artificial
+structure. A philosopher, ignorant of the conditions of life there,
+might have argued that the hut had been invested with an intentional
+protective coloration and form. The hut was hard to find, hard even to
+see when you were looking straight that way. It stood in a gorge upon a
+sloping grassy shelf, clutching a dark rock-cliff, as though it feared
+to slide down and tumble over into the roaring torrent. There was
+another dark cliff over against it, and the gorge curved round, so that
+you could not see far, either up or down. Everywhere the dark
+rock-cliffs shut it in, and only the minimum of sky was visible
+overhead, as it were poised on cliffs. There was always a bitter wind
+blowing when I was there, and always the river roaring, and its spray
+rising to the door of the hut like a wet cloud.
+
+The entry was by a low and narrow door, and there was a tiny window
+beside it. A little passage or track led from the door down the room to
+the fire at the far end, where cheese was made of goat's milk. On one
+side of the passage was a bed of hay, retained by a board. On the other
+were some shelves fastened against the wall. The door did not fit, and
+the walls were full of holes through which the wind whistled. It was
+indeed a wretched shelter; but we slept well enough within it, rolled up
+in our wraps. The hospitality of the simple peasant was as hearty, his
+welcome as warm, as his means were exiguous. No one sleeps in these
+goat-herd huts any more. Climbers have provided better accommodation for
+themselves, but in so doing they have lost that intimate touch with the
+life of the mountain-dwellers which a former generation learned to
+enjoy.
+
+When now we speak of alps, it is the cattle alps that are generally
+intended and understood. These cattle alps are of all sizes and
+descriptions, large and small, relatively high planted or relatively
+low. Some, like Moser's alp above Randa, belong to an individual and
+afford grazing only for a few beasts; but most are the property of the
+commune and are worked co-operatively for the benefit of all the
+cattle-owners who may wish to send their cows aloft to graze. Most alps
+are divided into two levels, a lower and a higher. The cattle are driven
+to the lower alp for the beginning and end of the summer season, to the
+higher for the middle weeks. Every such alp must be supplied with the
+necessary buildings for the accommodation of the herdsmen and
+cheese-makers, and generally for the cattle also, though in some parts
+of Switzerland the cattle are left out in the open throughout the whole
+summer season. Pigs are usually kept at a cattle alp to consume the
+refuse of the whey. An old woman once told me that pigs are "the fourth
+child of milk," the other three being butter, s�rac, and cheese. What
+with the coming and going of the cattle, the pigs, and the herdsmen, the
+milking at dawn and eve, and the cheese-making that follows, a cattle
+alp is a very busy place. Some are better equipped than others, but in
+almost all one finds a shake-down on hay, a fire, and good shelter
+against all possible inclemencies of the weather. The immediate
+neighbourhood of the huts is liable to be dirty, especially when there
+are pigs, and at certain seasons there is a plague of flies in the hot
+hours of sunshine. But, as a rule, these discomforts infest only a very
+small area, and it is enough to pass beyond that to escape them.
+
+Now that the throng of climbers is so great near the fashionable
+centres, cattle alps are unsuited to accommodate them, and club-huts or
+even hotels have been built for their service. Yet even now a climber
+who quits the beaten track often has an opportunity of spending a night
+under the conditions which were universal in the days of the Alpine
+explorers. To climb the mountains without associating with the folk
+whose lives are passed upon their lower slopes is to lose half the
+pleasure of mountaineering, as I shall attempt to prove in the next
+chapter. Valley-life is not widely different from life in the plains. It
+is the life on the alps that is characteristic of the mountain-dweller.
+There the peasant learns sureness of foot. There he grows familiar with
+the aspect of the high peaks and the glaciers. There, as the years pass
+by, he becomes differentiated from the man of the plains. No one can
+really acquire the mountain-spirit who has had no contact with the
+people of the alps. That spirit does not reside in the club-huts, one of
+which is already in telephonic communication with a Stock Exchange--a
+foretaste of what the future will bring to others. The great charm and
+recreative power of mountain-wandering arose from the fact that the
+climber cut himself off from the life of the Cities of the Plain and
+exchanged it for the life of the hillside. He came into communication
+with another set of men, with other habits, other ideals. Each year that
+passes in the Alps makes that change less considerable and by so much
+the less salutary.
+
+[Illustration: 56. CHALETS AND CHURCH. RIEDERALP.]
+
+The crowd of holiday visitors to Switzerland tends to settle in the high
+pasture region more than was the habit thirty years ago. Formerly hotels
+flourished in the valley-bottoms, in villages or close to them. Now they
+are built with ever-increasing frequency upon the alps. The Riffel and
+M�rren led the way. Such hotels now exist by dozens, and more are built
+every year. Round Zermatt there are smaller or larger inns, about 3000
+feet higher than the village, in many directions. But to live in one of
+these high hotels is yet to live the normal life of hotel-frequenting
+man. The scenery is changed, but not the human medium. It is the
+inevitable consequence of Alpine vulgarisation which drives the true
+lover of nature and of the freedom of simple life further afield.
+
+To know what the high pastures are really like, what kind of a
+foreground they naturally provide for an outlook on the world of
+mountains, you must not go to the modern Triftalp inn or the Schwarz
+See, but rather to such unspoiled places as the alps of Veglia or of By,
+both glorious expanses of wide pasturage, which no crowd as yet has
+attempted to invade, or is likely to attempt, thanks to their
+situations, remote from the great tripping highways. There you may
+obtain simple accommodation for a few fine days, and wander as you
+please over the undulating meadows, with no sound to break the stillness
+save the rustling of the breeze, the laughter of the waters, and the
+musical clang of cow-bells more or less remote.
+
+It would be easy to divide the alps into many classes and to
+discourse of their characters from many points of view, but there are
+two main kinds of high pastures, differentiated from one another by
+their situations, which will naturally occur to every lover of
+mountains. One kind covers the floor and lower slopes of some
+high-planted valley; the other lies on some open shelf or convex curving
+mountain-knee. The first sort is recondite; the other displays itself to
+the world and commands extensive views. The impression they produce is
+very different. One is wild and gloomy; the other gay and brilliant. One
+has to be sought; the other summons you from afar.
+
+[Illustration: 57. EVENING IN ZERMATT. The promenade after dinner--a
+scene more reminiscent of Earl's Court than the "heart of the Alpine
+world."]
+
+The high grassy valleys are not so common as the knees, nor do I at this
+moment recall one of them that is likely to be known by the general run
+of my readers, though there are plenty scattered about in all sorts of
+corners of the Alpine range. Perhaps the T�sch alp will do for type,
+though compared with many it is relatively open and accessible. There
+are better examples near the Dent du Midi, which may be more widely
+known than I imagine. The ascent to such an alp may lie straight up the
+valley, first through the forest, afterwards through glades and grassy
+openings, often of singular loveliness. At last you come to the stunted
+and scattered outliers of the forest, pathetic trees all crooked and
+misformed, bending away from the habitual wind and stretching forth
+angular arms after it as it hurries by. When these are left behind, the
+open grass-land spreads before and around you, seamed with radiating
+paths, that start away as with a most definite intention, but soon
+divide and subdivide, leading in fact nowhither.
+
+If it is early in the season and you are ahead of the cattle, the grass
+may be relatively tall and the flowers countless in number and variety.
+You will wade not ankle-but knee-deep in them, and the air will be
+filled with delicious perfume. Then indeed it is good to wander at this
+level. It is essentially the level for wandering. You may go as well in
+one direction as another. The views are in every direction and from
+every place. There are no points to ascend, no goals to reach. Now it is
+a fold of the ground, some little hollow with a pool, that attracts the
+eye; now it is an outcrop of rock; now some gap ahead filled by a
+snow-peak; now some downward vista of forest or valley. Anywhere you may
+find entertainment. Anywhere you may be tempted to sit down and gaze
+around.
+
+[Illustration: 58. BERN FROM THE NORTH-WEST. Spire of Cathedral against
+the dimly seen mountains of the Bernese Oberland.]
+
+The higher you go the shorter becomes the grass, but it is all the
+more succulent. As the season advances the flowers fade. But the alp
+nevertheless retains its charm. The kind of alp now specially under
+consideration, the hollow sequestered high pasture, is often round some
+corner, cut off from distant and especially from downward views. Perhaps
+a portion of a snowy peak can be seen over a shoulder of the surrounding
+foreground. Oftenest even the snows are shut out, and the vision is
+limited by enclosing slopes or walls of shattered rock, where snow lies
+late in chinks and crannies. Such places have a wild and at first sight
+a forbidding aspect. But we grow to appreciate them and find delight in
+them as the novelty wears off. They have the dignity, the solemnity of
+solitude. Such elements of beauty as they possess are simple. They do
+not overwhelm the imagination by imposing shapes, nor astonish and
+puzzle it by complexities of colouring. Such places are best seen in
+dull weather when distant views are not to be had, and the eye has to
+take its pleasure in gazing upon what is near at hand. Then the brown
+rocks emerging from the grass and embroidered with lichens have their
+chance. In some places, where water habitually trickles over them, they
+are quite black and glossy. After all, there is variety enough of colour
+to be found about them, if one takes the trouble to look. Moreover, how
+much entertainment is to be found in the really intricate modelling of
+the grass-covered surfaces. Far different are they from mere low level
+fields which long ploughing has invested with a continuous curvature
+like that of a _n�v�_ basin. The grassy alps possess a complex
+accidentation of form. They bend and curve with an exhaustless variety.
+They burst, as it were like a breaking wave, against the rocks that
+perforate the grass. How many shelves and islands grass covers among the
+rocks! What picturesque corners it makes! What sheltered nooks! What
+attractive camping grounds! What charming sites for picnics, aloof from
+the ways of the crowd! In these remote and solitary places it is
+charming to while away the hours of an idle day, seeing nothing that has
+name or fame, following no track, accomplishing no expedition, no walk
+even that can be identified, yet finding everywhere something to look
+at, some entertainment for the disencumbered mind.
+
+It is, however, the high and open alps, lying on the slopes or laps
+of the great hills, that are the favourite places with visitors of all
+sorts. Here the variety is so great, the opportunities of enjoyment are
+so many, the possible beauties so multitudinous, that it is almost
+impossible to indicate them in a brief space. Who that has climbed much,
+or merely wandered much, through Alpine regions has not an exhaustless
+store of memories of these open, far-commanding alps? What a variety of
+reminiscences arise when the thoughts are turned towards this belt of
+the mountains! It forms a stage in the ascent and again in the descent
+of every peak and pass; and it is the special arena for the "off-day."
+
+[Illustration: 59. LOOKING DOWN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM TOSA.]
+
+My own keenest enjoyments of the open alps are associated with two
+examples, not, I fear, very widely known--the Fontanella alp above
+Valtournanche, and the alp over which one descends from Rutor towards La
+Thuille. Both may be described as staged or terraced alps. They lie on a
+series of shelves, separated from one another by walls or steep
+descents. For aught I know, they may be dull to ascend; but to descend
+they are of marvellous beauty. This beauty is greatly enhanced by the
+waters that fall in cascades from step to step, and lie in pools, or
+race along over the successive flats. The waters and the meadows form
+foreground to the loveliest distances. There are undulations and slopes
+of green in front; green slopes to right and left; and then the sight
+leaps across a blue valley to the opposite woods and upper hillsides
+crowned with rocky crests, above which other ridges rise and peaks
+appear, till far away soars some snowy giant into the serene sky. In the
+descent we must turn this way and that--now facing a waterfall, now
+going down some recondite gully, now down some outward-looking slope.
+And always, presently, comes the flat meadow on a lower shelf, and the
+call to tarry upon it and look back at the waterfall, or sit beside the
+torrent, or watch the reflections in a quiet pool. There are several
+examples of these lovely staged alps in Ticino, as you go down from the
+Basodino towards Bignasco. Wherever you find them they are fascinating.
+They always seem greener on the flats than any other alp. Their
+picturesqueness has in it an element of the scenic. The arrangement
+seems to have been made for effect.
+
+There is another kind of far-commanding open alp, that all
+mountaineers must often have enjoyed. It is a long, relatively narrow
+slope or level of high pasture that lies horizontally between two cliffs
+or rocky belts. Such an alp lies above Zermatt to the south-westward,
+along the foot of the Unter Gabelhorn, round which it curves, so that as
+you walk along it your direction gradually changes from about south to
+west. It begins high up on the flank of the Zermatt valley, and it is
+carried round into the valley of Z'mutt, always at the same high level.
+There is no lovelier walk in that fine neighbourhood than this; for the
+foreground is always a slope dropping away to an invisible cliff at your
+feet, so that the eye constantly enjoys a delightful visual leap across
+the neighbouring valley to the great pyramid of the Matterhorn, or the
+more distant snowy range that ends in Monte Rosa.
+
+[Illustration: 60. IN THE VAL BAVONA. River Bed filled by avalanche.
+Basodino in the distance.]
+
+The extent and development of the alpine belt vary greatly, not merely
+in different regions, but in different parts of the same region. On
+descending some mountains, rocky d�bris are found to cover a large area
+of undulating ground, and then the grass slopes plunge steeply to the
+forest, and are quickly traversed. On others the grass reaches high and
+undulates slowly down, so that you may be walking over it for hours
+before you reach the trees. These lazily sloping alps are most charming
+when rightly used and approached, though to the climber, eager to gain
+the snowy heights, their extent may seem tedious, especially when they
+have to be traversed in the dark.
+
+There are some magnificent alps along the north side of the Rhone
+valley above Sierre. The slopes that support them rise rapidly from the
+valley with an equal and continuous slant. When those are surmounted
+there comes a great area of undulating land which begins amongst the
+trees but soon opens out to the sky and stretches far back towards
+Wildhorn, Wildstrubel, and the rest. On these great alps there lie many
+small lakes, and all the alpine region hereabouts is very diversified,
+and filled with foregrounds of all characters and kinds of
+picturesqueness--and then what distant views they have to set off, for
+across the Rhone valley to the southward is all the splendour and extent
+of the Pennine range, with Mischabel or Weisshorn standing out in front
+in overpowering magnificence.
+
+Perhaps we shall be held justified in claiming that the views from the
+region of the high pastures are their chief charm, rather than the
+nearer views upon them. Certain it is that most of the great peaks are
+best seen from the alpine level, and that the favourite views of them,
+the characteristically memorable and popularly best remembered views,
+are from alps. Such is the view of Mont Blanc from the Fl�g�re, of the
+Matterhorn from the Riffel alp, of the Weisshorn from the T�sch alp, of
+the Mischabelh�rner from above Saas-F�e. The spectator stands high
+enough and not too high; he can be near enough at this level and yet not
+too near. The mountain still retains its individuality, its existence
+separate from its neighbours, and yet can be seen as a whole. A little
+nearer and it begins to disclose the details of its structure, whilst
+its mass fills a larger area than can be embraced at a glance. A little
+further away and the mountain is only beheld as one of several, part of
+a larger mass, a component element of another effect.
+
+From the alpine level you look down as well as up. The depth beneath
+and the height above may be, or appear to be, approximately equal.
+Moreover, the distance to which the sight penetrates, the area over
+which it ranges, bears some moderate proportion to the size of the
+mountain-masses included in it. In the view from a high peak, visible
+distances are so great, the area embraced is so vast, the peaks visible
+appear to be so countless, that each of them may shrink into individual
+insignificance. It is the multitude of peaks rather than the mass of
+any, their abundance rather than the form of any, that causes the
+overwhelming impression upon the spectator. But in views from the alpine
+level there is a greater simplicity and a no less effective moderation.
+The mountains in sight are few, and of them one is sure to be most
+prominently placed, one will be central if not unique; and that
+mountain, in the typical view from an alp, will be seen from base to
+summit, not merely its superstructure of rock and snow, but its wide
+foundation also, reaching down into the depths of the valley and
+spreading broadly with all needful amplitude.
+
+It is not thus that mountains are beheld from the valleys. As you
+traverse the whole Vispthal from Visp to Zermatt, you do indeed behold
+the summits of most of the great flanking peaks from successive points
+on the valley floor, yet it is only the expert who can recognise them,
+or tell which white fragment far aloft is the top of a great mountain
+and which are the mere shoulders of lower buttressing ridges. The knees
+of the hills hide their breasts and generally also their hoary heads
+from the view of one who passes along at their feet. If you would behold
+a great mountain as a whole, it is from the knees or the grassy lap of
+some other that you must look. Foreshortened foundations are then
+withdrawn; each component part of the whole vast structure takes its
+proper place and is seen to fulfil its own function. Buttresses stand
+forward and widen out below; high valleys can be traced into the heart
+of the mass; minor peaks are duly subordinated. The mountain, in fact,
+can be seen as a whole. It is thus you behold the Mischabel from the alp
+at the base of the Weisshorn or the Fletschhorn; thus the Matterhorn
+from the Riffelalp; thus the Jungfrau from M�rren. A true instinct has
+selected and made such points of view famous.
+
+[Illustration: 61. IN THE VAL D'AOSTA. The Mont Blanc group of mountains
+hidden in clouds.]
+
+We have left ourselves little space to discuss the value of the high
+pastures as an element in the mountain landscape, parts of the scene to
+be looked at, not positions to gaze from. That their value in this
+respect also is very great must be obvious enough, for in most mountain
+views the grassy belt fills the largest part. Of course it is not the
+most impressive. We look at the mountains, or at some mountain, some
+glacier, waterfall, or cliff, and make it the centre of our observation.
+As a rule, however, except when we stand in the midst of the snowy
+world, the mountain that is centrally gazed at does not occupy so large
+a part of the field of view as is filled by the grassy expanse at its
+foot. The grassy alp, in fact, generally bears to a mountain the
+relation that the background does to a Madonna in a picture. Or we may
+say that alp and sky are the fabric on which the mountain is
+embroidered.
+
+In many parts of the world the grassy belt is absent from the ranges,
+and its loss is greatly felt. Peaks rising out of slopes of d�bris and
+sand have a grandeur of their own, but it is not the normal grandeur of
+the Alps. In some other ranges the tree-level leads at once to rocks and
+snow. It is the merit of the Alps that a broad belt of delicately
+modelled grass-land almost invariably intervenes between forest and
+snow. This grassy belt covers the wide substructure of the peaks. Above
+it is the realm of frost, of split rock and jagged forms. But as soon as
+the grass-level is reached suave outlines and rounded surfaces,
+broadening as they descend, take the place of the accidented forms
+above. The value of the contrast will be apparent to all. Small and very
+correct little models of the Matterhorn in bronze are sold for
+letter-weights, in which the culminating pyramid alone is given, planted
+on a rectangular stone plinth. They are interesting mementoes. But
+compare one of them with a view of the mountain as seen from the
+Riffelalp, rising above the long bulging grass-covered slopes that
+descend almost to Zermatt, and you will at once realise how important an
+element in the general impressiveness of the mountain are those lower
+slopes, and that not merely for their form but for their rich
+coloration.
+
+The green of the alps is the true key-note of Swiss colour. To it all
+the rest are subordinate. By contrast with it, rather than with the
+remote transparence of the air-submerged rocks, the snows manifest their
+whiteness and the sky its blue. From season to season of the year it
+changes its tint, between the shrill green of opening spring and the
+amber of autumn. It changes likewise from hour to hour beneath the
+varied slanting of the sunshine. How velvet-dark seems the alpine belt
+at night when the moon is high! Even in the twilight you cannot tell
+that these slopes are grass-covered, till
+
+    "Under the opening eye-lids of the morn"
+
+"the high lawns appear." At first the sunshine lies upon them in
+patches, like carpets of gold on a rich green floor. The sunlit area
+increases as the gold itself changes into green, whilst the dominant
+note of colour rises in the scale. Long before mid-day the broad belt
+attains its unity of effect, and divides the dark forests and deep
+valleys from the radiant heights. Most of us, who delight in mountain
+scenery, praise this peak or that, this broken glacier, wide-spreading
+snow-field, or intricacy of splintered ridges, forgetting that it is
+often the unobtrusive, tenderly modelled alps below, that endow these
+high eminences with half their charm. The beauty of a scene depends upon
+the harmony of all its parts. It is well sometimes to fix attention on
+those that seldom insist upon it for themselves.
+
+
+     NOTE TO PAGE 229.--Mr. Coolidge informs me that the Muttenalp
+     belongs, not to the Thierfehd, but to Brigels in the Grisons,
+     and is reached over the Kisten Pass. That is why the path down
+     to the Linththal is so bad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE HUMAN INTEREST
+
+
+It has often occurred to me, when travelling over glaciers and among
+mountains, seldom or never before visited by men, how much the
+impression they produce upon a first spectator loses by lacking the
+human interest. Of course some stray huntsman or dumb and forgotten
+native may have been there before, but if the fact is unknown to us, it
+is as though he had not existed.
+
+When climbing Illimani, the great Bolivian mountain, the human interest
+accompanied us up the lower slopes. Here were old fields, old irrigation
+channels, even ancient ruined huts. Higher up we still had the memory of
+former adventurers to keep our hearts warm; but when we had forced the
+great rock-cliff that guards the peak, and were upon the upper
+snow-field, we were, so far as we knew, in an unvisited world. There did
+indeed exist an ancient tradition that once, long long ago, an Aymara
+Indian had gone aloft, seeking the abode of the gods, and that having
+found it, he was taken by the gods to themselves and never returned to
+his people; but the tale was too slender a thread to form a sensible
+connection between us and the world of bygone humanity. The climb took
+us over one high peak, then across a great snow-field and up the highest
+peak. We revisited and rested on the lower peak in the descent. While
+there resting, I dropped my hand on the rock beside me, and snatched it
+away, feeling something soft and clammy, a kind of texture instinctively
+perceived to be strange at such a place.
+
+Looking to see what the substance was, I found it to be a fragment of
+goat-hair rope, such as the Indians of the Bolivian plateau have used
+from time immemorial. Instantly the old legend was recalled to my
+remembrance. It was true! The Indian had actually been here where I was
+sitting. Here he rested. Hence he looked abroad over the country of his
+birth--probably his last long look on any view in this world; for he
+never returned, and must presently have lost his life in some hidden
+crevasse. The thought of that nameless one animated the scene, and
+enriched the emotions we experienced with a new interest. I thought now
+of how he had felt with this great prospect spread abroad before him. I
+wondered whether his gods had appeared to him, whether he had beheld
+visions and dreamed dreams, and what those visions were like. There
+beneath him he had perhaps gazed for the last time on his birthplace,
+and identified the little hut that was his home. Did he know that he
+would never return? Did he think about his friends so far below and
+wonder whether they were looking up towards him? Did he promise himself
+great future fame in his tribe? Did he dream that they would identify
+him with the very gods? For the remainder of our resting-time the whole
+view was animated by thoughts of this man. It is the best instance I can
+cite of the value of a human interest in giving sentiment to a mountain
+scene.
+
+The same lesson was taught me by the Spitsbergen mountains, amongst
+which I spent two long summer seasons. The coast of Spitsbergen is rich
+with the tales and traditions of human achievement and suffering. Few
+places have been the scene of tragedies so numerous and so long drawn
+out. In few have more dramatic adventures occurred and more varied
+enterprises been undertaken. But the interior of Spitsbergen, and
+especially its mountain ranges, had scarcely been penetrated before. The
+mountains beyond reach of the shore were unclimbed, with one exception.
+The landscapes were unknown to man. It was necessary to spend some time
+in these solitary places to realise how much they lost by this
+aloofness. No peak possessed name or history. None had ever been the
+centre of any one's landscape. None had measured mid-day for any toiler,
+or served as reckoning point for the close of his labour. No villagers
+had ever imagined those Arctic glaciers as the home of any gods or the
+paradise of any heroes. They had never found their way into ancient tale
+or legend. They had never been worshipped or sung by man, historic or
+pre-historic. They were just elemental lumps of the earth, with no more
+human sentiment attached to them than to any dozen stones you may gather
+off a heap and make mountains of in your imagination.
+
+Pick up any fragment of rock you please and place it upon your table.
+Look closely at it and persuade yourself that it is not six inches but
+20,000 feet high. On that assumption search for routes up it. Examine
+its faces and its ridges, its cracks and its gullies. You will be able
+to climb about it in a day-dream, to have accidents upon it, to succeed
+or to fail in various ascents. But who will care to "hear tell" of your
+proceedings? And yet, apart from geographical and geological
+considerations, which are in fact historical, any casual mountain is no
+more interesting in its essence than your stone. There are hundreds of
+thousands of mountains in the world. What intrinsic interest has one of
+them more than another, from a climber's point of view, except in two
+respects, the difficulty of the climb and the human interest? But the
+difficulty is of no account, for if that is what you want you can find
+it on Scafell, and need not wander to seek it.
+
+No! it is above all the human interest that ennobles a peak and makes
+the ascent of it desirable. It is to climb an elevation that men have
+seen; to climb a peak that has been named, that has been looked at for
+centuries by the inhabitants at its base, that travellers have passed by
+and observed, that has a place in the knowledge and memory of men. If
+there were a great mountain in full view of London or Rome, how much
+more interesting it would be to climb than some nameless lump in Central
+Asia, like K2, that was never within view of any abode of men.
+
+This was one of the main attractions of the unclimbed Alps to early
+explorers of the high levels. Mont Blanc was known of old. How many
+generations of men had looked from Thun at the Oberland giants and told
+stories about them. How much the famed devils and dragons added to the
+fascination of the Matterhorn. The Alps had looked down upon the march
+of armies and the flux of peoples for uncounted thousands of years.
+Their solitudes were peopled by the dreams of all the generations that
+had passed by them or dwelt amongst them. The subliminal consciousness
+that this was so, counted for much in the strong attraction that drew
+the pioneers aloft.
+
+The pioneers in their turn have richly endowed the Alps with a further
+human interest. Why do so many people want to climb the Matterhorn? It
+is not a better climb than the Dent Blanche. The reason is because of
+the stronger human interest that the Matterhorn evokes. All who have any
+knowledge of Alpine history have read the story of the long siege, the
+triumphant conquest, and the dramatic tragedies of which the Matterhorn
+has been the scene. It is the fascination of those memories that draws
+men to the peak, and makes the climbing of it seem so desirable an
+adventure to so many people.
+
+Thus also is it, more or less, all over the Alps. Each peak now has its
+story. Each ascent has been made before and described. Wherever we go
+now we find and recognise the traces of our predecessors. Here is an old
+tent-platform; we know who built it and when. This is the site of such
+an accident; that crag turned back such a party on such an occasion. The
+memory of bygone climbers is everywhere. It peoples the solitudes and
+humanises the waste places. These memories will grow mellower as they
+deepen into the past. The best stories will become classical, and the
+scenes of them will be endowed with a prestige far beyond any that now
+attaches to them.
+
+A very dull person looks interesting when beheld down a vista of
+several centuries. The memory of the first climbers of the great Alpine
+peaks will remain among the mountains to a far-distant future. I daresay
+my Illimani Indian was a crack-brained semi-civilised person, but I
+would sooner see him than a living Cabinet Minister. I can never think
+about his peak without recalling him. So is it with the bays of
+Spitsbergen. The whale-fishers were no doubt a coarse lot of quarrelsome
+seamen, who stank of blubber most disgustingly; and yet if I could call
+Mr. William Heley from his grave, and hear how he emptied out the
+Dutchmen on one occasion and they emptied him out on another; if I could
+get him to show me his huts where they stood, and could hear him yarn
+about the fishery, how entertaining that would be, and how gladly would
+I exchange the morning newspaper for such talk. We cannot in fact recall
+these men, but in fancy we can and do. It is because we possess and
+exercise this power of fancy that the mountains, which have been in past
+times the scene of human activity and life, are so much more interesting
+to wander amongst, except from a purely scientific and adventurous point
+of view, than those which have not.
+
+What is true of bygone individuals is no less true of bygone peoples.
+Valleys that have been long inhabited and the high pastures that have
+been frequented of old are far more pleasant to visit than valleys that
+have scarcely beheld the face of man. We were made conscious of this
+difference in the Mustagh mountains of high Kashmir. There the secluded
+fastness of Hunza-Nagar is the home of an ancient civilisation. The
+gently sloping floor of the valley is divided into terraced fields,
+supported by cyclopean walls that might be as old as Mycen� itself. The
+villages are built upon their own ruins, who can say to how great a
+foundation depth? The paths are worn deeply into the ground. The Raja's
+castle, dominating his little capital, has a venerable aspect, and if
+not actually old, incorporates an ancient type. There are little ruins
+by the roadside and carvings upon the rocks. Where-ever you look, the
+marks of long frequentation are to be traced. Moreover, the people
+themselves bear the imprint of surrounding nature upon them. Their
+action in movement, their way of life, their adaptation to their
+environment--all imply old habit and deep-rooted tradition. The valley
+in which they are enclosed is the world to them. Its every feature has
+entered into their habits of thought. The surrounding mountains are a
+part of their existence, and borrow from man in turn a reflected glow of
+traditional interest.
+
+From this man-impregnated valley we presently passed over the mountains
+to the valley of Braldu, descending upon the highest village. Above that
+poverty-stricken place the traces of man were few. There were faintly
+marked tracks; there were even a few small ruined huts; but all that
+these indicated was the occasional passage of hunters or the brief
+visits of shepherds or gold-washers. Once the glacier was reached, the
+last of these traces was left behind. It was impossible not to feel the
+contrast between this region and peopled Hunza. The scenery was not
+less, was even more stupendous, but the human interest was lacking.
+There were few named spots, and hardly a remembered tradition. The
+scenery to the natives with us was not the home of their fathers, but
+the elemental earth. It might have been fetched from the other side of
+the moon, for all they had to tell about it. Two recorded parties had
+preceded us for a certain distance up this valley, and their ghosts
+alone peopled the solitude, but not a trace had they left upon the
+surface of the ground discoverable by us. If we had found even the
+remnants of one of their encampments, it would have animated the
+surroundings with the memory of man; but we saw none. The lack was a
+vacuum, an intellectual hunger, continuously felt.
+
+[Illustration: 62. CH�TILLON, VAL D'AOSTA.]
+
+Few mountain regions in the world, outside of the Arctic and Antarctic
+solitudes, are thus denuded of human interest. The mountains of the Old
+World and the New have been inhabited over a large part of their
+valley-area; but often the inhabitants have been people about whom
+little is known. It is one of the great charms of the Alps that they
+have long been the home of a fine group of peoples. "Your country," I
+once remarked to a citizen of a South American Republic, "ought to be
+the Switzerland of South America." "I will make it so," he replied, "if
+you will fill it for me with the Swiss."
+
+Throughout the large Alpine area various races have dwelt and dwell at
+the present time. The character of the population changes from valley to
+valley, and there is no small variety, not merely in dialects, but even
+in languages. There is a similar variety in habits, in domestic
+architecture, in costume, and in bearing. Much of these differences in
+the character of the inhabitants we are wont to impute in our thoughts
+to the mountain districts themselves. When we talk of the charms of the
+Italian Alps, are we not thinking of the attractiveness of the people,
+and the picturesqueness of their abodes and places of worship, as much
+as of the luxuriance of the valleys, the sparkling of the waters, and
+the mere beauty of the hills? The spirit of the people seems to infuse
+itself into our memory of the mountains about them, as much as the
+character of the mountains has affected the nature and disposition of
+the people. Which, I wonder, borrows most from the other--the Lake of
+Lucerne from the old Tell legend, or the legends from the landscape of
+the lake?
+
+An essential part of the human interest in the Alps grows out of the
+length of time through which history has concerned herself with them.
+The history of the Alpine valleys has only been written, or begun to be
+written, in recent years. Early visitors to Zermatt no doubt were
+conscious of the deep impress made by man upon the valley landscape, but
+they could not interpret, as we now can, the meaning of much that they
+saw. But when the local archives were searched and the traditions
+written down, when it was realised that the life now being lived by the
+peasantry was in all essentials the same life that had been lived by
+their ancestors for hundreds of years, ancestors bearing the same names
+and owning the same properties that are still borne and owned by their
+living descendants, what an increase of interest that gave to a place.
+
+[Illustration: 63. A CORNER OF THE TOWN OF ALTDORF. The traditional
+scene of William Tell's exploits. Here Gessler ruled and the shooting of
+the apple took place. A place of patriotic pilgrimage of the youthful
+Swiss.]
+
+The old tales about the village deep in Tiefenmatten, about the
+pilgrimage that used to cross the Col d'H�rens, about the frequented
+routes over Theodul and Weissthor--does it not add a new charm to the
+places themselves to hear them told? Who is not interested to remember,
+when standing on the Theodul pass, that Roman coins have been found
+there? Climbers have taken fully as much interest in the question of
+where the Old Weissthor route lay as in actually climbing the passes. I
+well remember the keen delight that came to me when I discovered that a
+pass I had crossed, as I supposed for the first time, between the
+Fillarkuppe and the J�gerhorn, was in fact the real Old Weissthor
+itself, a well-known mountain-route centuries ago. To rediscover an old
+track like that is far more delightful than to invent and carry through
+some entirely new expedition.
+
+Correspondingly with the future as with the past--to make an expedition
+for the first time that others will often repeat is a lasting source of
+pleasure; but to make one that no sane person ever repeats or is likely
+to repeat is poor fun. I have had many opportunities of making new
+expeditions in the Alps and elsewhere, and have availed myself of a few;
+but none ever gave me the continuing satisfaction that I derive from the
+Wellenkuppe near Zermatt, a mountain that I invented, climbed, and
+baptized, and that immediately became and has since remained a most
+popular scramble.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Its summit had previously been touched by some unrecorded
+route by Lord Francis Douglas, in an attempt to climb the Gabelhorn; but
+for twenty years no one had thought of the peak, which had no name.]
+
+Some part of the popularity of the ascent of Mont Blanc from Chamonix is
+due to the fact that the mountain is the highest in the Alps; part is
+due to the fascinating beauty of the ice and snow scenery passed
+through; but far the greatest attraction is the long and interesting
+history of the climb. No one, I suppose, ascends Mont Blanc without a
+thought of Balmat and De Saussure, and at least some dim consciousness
+of the number of early climbers who mounted by the way he takes, and
+felt all the strange emotions and high excitements they so naively
+recorded. What would the T�di be if robbed of the memory of Placidus �
+Spescha? Even a Mont Ventoux can attain dignity and importance by
+association with so great a man as Petrarch.
+
+It is, however, to the passes rather than to the peaks of the Alps that
+history clings. Allusion has been made to the Weissthor and the Theodul,
+and many other minor passes similarly recorded might be mentioned; but
+it is the great passes, the deep depressions in the main range, that are
+chiefly memorable from the historical standpoint. Modern climbers
+unwisely neglect these great routes, or confine themselves to such as
+are tunnelled. John Ball and his contemporaries made a point of knowing
+as many main passes as they could. It was their pride to be able to say,
+not that they had climbed so many peaks, but that they had traversed the
+Alpine chain by so many great passes. Old literature is therefore fuller
+of accounts of the historic passes than are most present-day volumes,
+which regard them as a subject outworn.
+
+To mention the historic passes is to call up the name of Hannibal. Here
+is no place to revive that old discussion as to the situation of
+Hannibal's pass. Historians have not yet entirely convinced one another
+on the matter. But if a general certainty had been arrived at, if we
+could feel perfectly sure that Hannibal and his host had actually trod a
+particular route, it cannot be denied that that route would be well
+worth following, book in hand, for its historic interest alone.
+
+Some, perhaps many, of my readers will have traversed the Great St.
+Bernard, the Summus Penninus of antiquity. Few who have done so will
+have been oblivious, as they went, of the many great men in whose steps
+they were treading. Celts, Romans, Saracens, medi�val warriors,
+statesmen, saints, bishops, and monks streamed in their day across this
+col. Here passed Charles the Great and other Holy Roman Emperors,
+Lanfranc too, and the saintly Anselm in all the fervour of his young
+enthusiasm. The reader will forgive me for quoting once again Bishop
+Stubbs' translation of the letter of a Canterbury monk describing his
+passage of the pass in February 1188:--
+
+     "Pardon me for not writing. I have been on the Mount of Jove;
+     on the one hand looking up to the heavens of the mountains, on
+     the other shuddering at the hell of the valleys, feeling myself
+     so much nearer heaven that I was more sure that my prayer would
+     be heard. 'Lord,' I said, 'restore me to my brethren, that I
+     may tell them, that they come not into this place of torment.'
+     Place of torment indeed, where the marble pavement of the stony
+     ground is ice alone, and you cannot set your foot safely;
+     where, strange to say, although it is so slippery that you
+     cannot stand, the death (into which there is every facility for
+     a fall) is certain death. I put my hand in my scrip, that I
+     might scratch out a syllable or two to your sincerity--lo, I
+     found my ink-bottle filled with a dry mass of ice; my fingers
+     too refused to write; my beard was stiff with frost, and my
+     breath congealed into a long icicle. I could not write the news
+     I wished."
+
+[Illustration: 64. PONTE BROLLA. Over the Maggia, near its junction with
+the Melezza, looking up the Val Centavalli.]
+
+Mr. Coolidge, in that store of Alpine learning, his book entitled _Swiss
+Travel and Swiss Guide-Books_, reminds us that the first known
+guide-book was written for the crowd of pilgrims crossing this same
+pass, by no less unlikely a person than the Abbot of Thing�r in Iceland,
+about 1154. There was a building on the pass before the year 812. A
+century later the Little St. Bernard was similarly provided. The Simplon
+was thus equipped before 1235, the St. Gotthard before 1331, and the
+Grimsel before 1479. Modern Swiss travellers may not be aware of these
+facts in detail, but it is impossible for any intelligent man to
+frequent the Alps and not become conscious of the antiquity of the
+relation between man and the mountains.
+
+Sometimes traces of visibly ancient ways are encountered, as on the
+Albrun pass, for instance, or the Monte Moro. The sight of such a
+fragment of old paved way instantly carries the mind back into the past,
+and animates the route as with a ghostly procession. Thus, too, I found
+it in Bolivia and Chile, where remnants of the old paved Inca road, that
+traversed a large part of the continent from north to south, are often
+to be met with. The sentimental value of such relics is incalculable.
+They, as it were, hypnotise the mind and induce a mood in which we see
+the nature that surrounds us in a new way. They remove from the
+traveller the sense of isolation, and form a link between him and the
+countless generations that have gone before. He shares with them the
+toil of the way, and looks abroad on the scenes that they beheld.
+
+Still more interesting and rich in a historic sense are the Brenner
+and other passes over the Eastern Alps, which are known to have been
+important trade-routes in the age of bronze. Over them successive
+immigrant waves of humanity poured into Italy. Over them at a later date
+passed emperors with their armies. No route bears the evidence of its
+rich historical associations more visibly than the Brenner. An aura of
+antiquity rests upon its villages. Its many castles, its ancient
+churches, its noble village streets, its countless monuments, all tell
+the same tale. I never can cross the Brenner without having Albrecht
+D�rer by my side, who four times made the transit, sketch-book in hand,
+and whose careful and beautiful drawings of some of the views still
+exist in perfect preservation.
+
+[Illustration: 65. IN THE VAL D'AOSTA.]
+
+The presence of man, not as a traveller through the Alps, but as a
+long-settled resident there, deriving his subsistence from the soil, is
+an important scenic factor in yet another respect. The difference in
+aspect between a well-peopled mountain region and one sparsely or not at
+all inhabited is more striking to the eye than the inexperienced might
+be prepared to expect. The amount of landscape modelling that one man
+can effect in a lifetime is small, but a community of men, working
+generation after generation for many centuries, can effect much.
+
+The trained eye can perceive the effect almost everywhere in the
+Alps; the untrained must learn to look for it. Take, for example, such a
+well-known large grassy area as the slope descending from the Matterhorn
+to the Zermatt valley, between the Gorner glacier on one side and the
+Zmutt glacier on the other. If man had not laboured for centuries on
+that slope, it would be ragged with fallen and protruding stones. The
+grass upon it would be rough and uneven, or entirely replaced by stunted
+rhododendron, juniper, or the like bushes. Now it is all smoothed and
+tended. The loose stones are gathered into walls, bordering the
+mule-paths or supporting the lower edges of the fields. Earth has been
+carried on to bare patches. Little hay-huts and other farm-buildings are
+planted about on suitably protected places. The grass is mown to a
+velvety fineness of texture. Irrigation channels are led in all suitable
+directions, and the glacier dust deposited along their beds has raised
+long grassy mounds, which in process of time have sometimes grown to a
+height of two or three feet. More important still, in smoothing off
+asperities and giving a rounded curvature to the general surface, is the
+continual deposit of the same dust which this artificially distributed
+glacier-water lays down all over the meadows. There results a suavity of
+outline, a delicacy of modelling, and a fine quality of grassy surface,
+which change the aspect of the whole slope, even when beheld from a
+great distance, so that it would be impossible to mistake it for a slope
+correspondingly situated in any uninhabited or uncultivated mountain
+region in the world.
+
+[Illustration: 66. IN THE WOODS OF CHAMONIX.]
+
+What is true of the middle pastures is likewise true of the forests.
+Virgin hill-forests, such as one may see in the southern part of the
+Argentine or Chile, are very different in appearance from an Alpine
+wood, whether seen from far or near. Man, as we know only too well, has
+not treated mountain-forests wisely, and he is suffering the consequence
+to-day. But apart from cases of forest removal and the consequent
+changes of scenery thereby caused, the alteration in appearance produced
+by good forest management is very noticeable. Alpine woods have a
+gardened aspect. The mere sight of them is eloquent of the presence and
+activity of man, who here also has left unmistakable traces of his
+activity drawn broadly over every Alpine landscape.
+
+In the regulation of streams and rivers, again, the hand of man makes
+its long, slowly acting presence felt in the Alps. Gaze from the
+Riffelhorn down the St. Niklausthal, and notice how mainly of human
+determination are all the minor forms of the valley-floor. It is easy to
+compare with a photograph of that well-known view one, say, of the Bush
+Valley in British Columbia, which has been revealed to us by the
+explorations of Professor Norman Collie and his friends. Such a
+comparison manifests, as no words can, the great effect upon valley
+scenery on a large scale produced by the activity of man.
+
+It is only high aloft, close to and all above the snow-line, that man's
+energies have not availed to change the landscape. He has built a few
+huts there, but they are insignificant. He cannot turn a glacier from
+its course, nor can he dam it back in the event of its pleasing to
+advance. The great cliffs and d�bris slopes, the reservoirs of snow, the
+rivers of ice--these giant phenomena of the heights are beyond his
+governance, even if any material advantage tempted him to try meddling
+with them. The most he can do is to blast some small tunnel in ice or
+rock to control the outflow of a gathering of water, that might
+otherwise discharge itself with violence and work destruction far below.
+
+
+[Illustration: 67. IN A GARDEN AT LOCARNO. Last gleam of the sunset on
+the hills above Lago Maggiore.]
+
+It is the great good fortune of the Alps, beyond all other snowy
+ranges, to possess both the region of utterly untamed nature above, and
+a larger area of humanly modified land below. A normal Alpine view
+includes parts of both regions. Looking up from beneath, you have the
+gardened world for foreground and the wild world for distance. Looking
+down from above the reverse is the case. The contrast is always
+charming. What more beautiful setting for a snow mountain can be
+conceived than that which surrounds the Jungfrau as beheld from near
+Interlaken? How pleasant it is, when resting at some fine noontide hour
+on the summit of a lofty peak, to look abroad over the peopled Italian
+plain, or down into some deep valley, dotted with farms and villages,
+with here and there a white church standing in the midst of ch�lets. It
+is only the works of modern man, his huge caravanserais, his railway
+stations, and his accurately engineered roads, that are wholly
+hateful--blots on the landscape defiling and degrading it. Let us hope
+that these hideous intruders are not destined to a long existence. It is
+not likely, much though we may desire it, that in our time the tide of
+touristdom will abandon the Alps. It has come to stay. It will increase
+rather than diminish. But with the advance of civilisation perhaps its
+manners and tastes will improve, and it may, at some far distant time,
+come to demand a kind of housing that will not utterly destroy the very
+beauty which it blindly travels to seek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+VOLCANOES
+
+
+To the purely Alpine traveller, Volcanoes are not a matter of interest,
+because there does not exist a single volcano in the Alps, nor, so far
+as I am aware, even the ruins of one. Volcanic rocks there may be, but
+we are not concerned with rocks except in so far as mountains are built
+out of them. To the mountain-lover, however, in the broad sense--and it
+is for such I am writing--volcanoes are as interesting as any other
+definite type of peak, and I therefore propose to devote this chapter to
+a consideration of them from the picturesque and climbing point of view.
+For the European traveller there are volcanoes enough, both active and
+extinct, and that without going to Iceland. Most people have seen
+Vesuvius. Etna and Stromboli are frequently passed, and the former is
+not unfrequently climbed. Auvergne is a good place for a holiday. If
+ordinary tourists knew how well the volcanic Eifel repay a visit, they
+would oftener turn aside to them. Teneriffe is on the list of mountains
+most people hope some day to see. In my own mind, when volcanoes are
+mentioned, there always rises first the reminiscence of the great
+mountains in South Bolivia and Northern Chile, with their stately
+grandeur of scale and grace of outline.
+
+Every one who has climbed Vesuvius has some idea of the nature of
+volcano climbing. It is by no means the best sort, and the Alps as a
+play-ground are none the worse for lacking it. From a climber's rather
+than a petrologist's point of view, volcanic rocks are liable to seem
+both very hard and very brittle. They fracture with an astonishingly
+sharp edge, which cuts, like a knife, the fingers and clothes of the
+climber. Notwithstanding their apparent hardness, which seems to promise
+for them an unusual durability, they crack up with great rapidity under
+the action of frost or of blows, and rapidly subdivide into small
+angular debris. The smoothness of the fractured surfaces, when fresh,
+reduces the friction between the fragments much below that normal to the
+debris of ordinary rocks, so that slopes of volcanic debris are very
+unstable. The foot sinks into them, almost as into sand, and they cut
+the boots and gaiters to pieces. To run down such a slope is pleasant
+enough, but to wade up it is the worst kind of purgatory, provocative
+too of more sins of language than it can possibly purge in the time.
+
+The novice at volcano-climbing approaches his mountain with a light
+heart. However big it may be, it looks easy, and he promises himself a
+rapid ascent. The lower slopes of volcanoes are frequently most fertile,
+so that the first stages of the ascent may be along umbrageous paths or
+through vineyards and olive gardens. Ultimately the naked mountain has
+to be tackled, and then troubles begin, and they are the same all the
+world over. All that a volcano produces is toilsome for the foot of man.
+The slope continuously steepens. The disintegrated lava or the volcanic
+ash are alike disagreeable. The mountain is sure to be voted a fraud
+from the climber's point of view. Even Aconcagua, greatest of all
+volcanoes, is as rotten as the rest. There is hardly a firm crag on its
+mighty face.
+
+[Illustration: 68. PILATUS AND LAKE OF LUCERNE FROM THE SLOPES OF THE
+RIGI.]
+
+It follows that volcanoes are peaks of an unstable character. They
+are upstarts by nature, and they are easily pulled down. Among mountains
+they are the most short-lived. In their decay they lack the dignity of a
+peak of crystalline rock, that fights against disintegration and resists
+to the last, holding forth to the sky its splintered crags like
+passionately protesting hands. There is no protest in a volcano. It
+yields willingly to decay. The debris of its upper rocks flow down its
+face almost like water. They grind together into dust and are blown away
+by the winds. The old moraines of Aconcagua ultimately turn into sand
+dunes.
+
+Yet these mushroom monsters are not without their compensations. When
+active they enjoy a magnificence of public advertisement that no other
+kind of peak, even when it is the scene of a particularly ghastly
+accident, can ever hope to rival. They grow in height, or are blown to
+perdition, amidst earthquakes and terrific thunders. Lightnings flicker
+about them like the dartings of a serpent's tongue. The storm-clouds
+that envelop snowy peaks are nothing to the monstrous piles of smoke and
+darkness that wreathe the brows of an erupting volcano. Blasts of fire
+shoot from them, and for glaciers, their sides are flooded with molten
+lava. Few of us can hope to see such sights in the fulness of their
+glory.
+
+When the mountain is full-grown, and its days of activity are done,
+for a while it reigns, a figure of perfect grace, a very queen for
+elegance and beauty of form. Who that has ever seen Vesuvius can deny
+this fact. Probably no snowy peaks in the world are more absolutely
+perfect in form than the white-clad giant volcanoes of Kamchatka, or, on
+a smaller scale, the peerless Fuji of Japan. The outline of the cone,
+gently rising from the foot, and then steepening in its incomparable
+logarithmic curve, is the gracefullest that nature produces on a large
+scale. Even the effulgent domes of the greatest cumulous clouds that, on
+a faultless summer afternoon, soar into the clearest blue sky, are not
+to be compared with volcanoes at their best. These have the aspect of
+works of art, made, as it were, expressly to incorporate an idea of
+beauty. They possess the symmetry of a fine crystal, but at the same
+time, a grace far beyond what is possible to any crystalline form. And
+then, how they soar! How their beautiful heads seem almost to float in
+the blue! How symmetrically the mists gather about their summits! At one
+time the base will vanish in the bright opacity of the lower air, and
+the top will be seen in sharp distinctness, like a floating island in
+the sky. At another, the summit will fade away, and the shadowed base
+will fill the vision with its purple solidity. And always there hangs
+about a volcano the memory of its fire-begetting, and the suspicion that
+all may not yet be over. It is, as it were, an inscribed finger-post,
+warning us of the molten core within. It is at once a memorial and a
+monition to those that dwell beneath it. It is the witness of past and
+the herald of future convulsions; yet, being such, it is itself in form
+the peacefullest and tenderest in nature. No woman's robe droops more
+delicately over her bosom than droops the once molten drapery of a
+volcano. Its aspect bears a double and opposed suggestiveness. Such are
+volcanoes in the day of their perfection, before the denuding forces
+have made inroads on the symmetry of their form.
+
+[Illustration: 69. MONTREUX, LAKE OF GENEVA.]
+
+Yet even then it is not well to approach them too closely, unless you
+would have the sense of their beauty supplanted by a different kind of
+emotion. The nearer you approach a snow-mountain, such as Mont Blanc,
+and the more intimately you penetrate its white recesses, and acquaint
+yourself with its details of crevasse and s�rac, the more conscious are
+you of the perfection of its finish and the loveliness of its details.
+It is not so with a volcano at any time of its career. When it is newly
+fashioned and the lava streams are still in movement and smoking upon
+its sides, and the cinders and ashes of its recent ejection are piled
+upon it, to approach them is to behold sights more provocative of horror
+than of admiration. They appal, they create astonishment, but they do
+not attract. Cast your eye over the remarkable series of photographs by
+Dr. Tempest Anderson, published under the title "Volcanic Studies," and
+you will have ample proof of this. Consider the Icelandic gorges, the
+outer crater of Teneriffe, or the views of recent volcanic energies
+displayed in St. Vincent--the mud-rivers, the sand-strewn valleys; here
+is enough to interest and more than enough to appal, but the kind of
+beauty associated with a distant view of a volcano is absent. There is
+no grace, no charm, none of the sweet feminine outline which makes
+volcanoes the queens and fair ladies among hills.
+
+But when all the dramatic stage of their existence is over, and the
+fires are out and the earth around has ceased from quaking; when trees
+have gathered over the lava torrents and rich vegetation has covered up
+cinders and ash; when the sulphurous vents are become sapphire pools of
+clear water overshadowed by foliage, and all the ghastly details of
+tragedy are covered up by the splendid garments of tropical vegetation;
+then you may approach and ascend if you please, but it will not be as a
+climber, for the climber is one who seeks the naked places of the earth,
+and does not wander for choice in grassy dells and tree-embosomed
+shades.
+
+He, however, who should converse about volcanoes and say no more than
+this, would leave a most false impression upon his hearers, for Nature
+always provides compensations for her sincere and humble lovers, and
+even in the barest volcano she has not failed. The very rapidity with
+which they yield to destructive forces leads to results not discoverable
+in stronger and more resolute peaks. Frost, winter, and snow breach
+their sides with exceeding facility. Torrents dig gullies into them. The
+very winds blow their substance away. Hence it comes that a volcano in
+active process of destruction often provides detailed scenery of
+astonishing grandeur and boldness. Its vertical-walled gullies, its
+cliffs, its castellated ridges are like none other. There is no aspect
+of durability about them, no signs of hoary antiquity, none of the
+dignity that belongs to arch�an rocks. They are visibly in rapid decay,
+yet, for all that and even because of it, they are strangely imposing
+with a sort of rococo grandeur. If the Meije and Ushba are Romanesque,
+if the Matterhorn, Masherbrum, and Siniolkum are Gothic, we may describe
+the world's shattered volcanoes as Flamboyant. They boast a greater and
+more unusual variety of forms, a multiplicity of details that bewilders.
+The spiry exuberance of Milan Cathedral can be paralleled in the
+neighbourhood of Aconcagua. Nowhere are buttresses more emphatic, points
+of rock in perilous precipitance of decay more plentiful, cliffs more
+abrupt, the skeleton of the mountains more nakedly displayed.
+
+Yet better deserving of note is the brilliancy and variety of the
+colouring by which volcanic rocks are often characterised. The local
+colouring of Alpine rocks is seldom rich. The Dolomites indeed have a
+reputation for the richness of their tints, but it is mainly derived
+from the sunrise and sunset colouring which they reflect so brilliantly
+that it almost seems to proceed from them. The general effect of Alpine
+rocks is some variety of grey or brown, the tone of which is deepened by
+contrast with the snows. Except in volcanic districts, it is only in
+Spitsbergen, and at one or two spots in the Himalayas, that I have
+observed the local colouring of the rocks to form a prominent factor in
+the beauty of a mountain view. There indeed the red and yellow
+sandstones display their rich tints with great effect, so that the
+colour, shining over the wide expanses of Arctic glacier and snow-field,
+becomes a main element, and reduces the forms of the peaks to a
+secondary consideration. Yet in Spitsbergen this only happens in a
+relatively small area, within Kings Bay.
+
+In volcanic districts, however, the colouring of the rocks is almost
+always remarkable. It seems as though Nature had emptied her whole
+palette upon them. Hardly any tint, from white to black, is missing.
+Other mountains depend for their colour upon the atmosphere. These are
+independent of that source. Their own colour is predominant. All they
+ask for is transparent air and bright sunshine to display them. Their
+combination is so unusual, their chord so unlike any to which we are
+accustomed in ordinary natural surroundings, that they cannot fail to be
+the chief element in the view. That is why photographs of volcanic
+scenery convey an impression so different from actual sight. The normal
+blues, greens, and browns of the temperate habitable regions; the black,
+greys, and whites of the snowy world; the blue sea, white sand, and red
+cliffs of a Devonian coast: such chords of colour are usual; the eye
+expects them. Even a tropical landscape, except for its occasional
+blazes of blossom, belongs to the same category. Autumnal glories, first
+of golden harvest, later of iridescent foliage, are an accustomed sight.
+But all these schemes of colour belong to a wholly different category
+from that which volcanic rock-masses display. They bring together,
+combine, and contrast a whole series of unusual tints. Their purples are
+not the purples which we elsewhere know. Their greens are not the greens
+of vegetation. Their yellows are not the yellows of a blossoming field
+or a fading forest.
+
+Were I to catalogue in a list the colours I have seen in a volcanic
+panorama, it would little serve, for it is not the names that count but
+the special significance of each, and that is not capable of brief
+statement. Such a scene as I am recalling astonishes by the multitude
+and close juxtaposition of an apparently countless number of coloured
+strata. It looks as though Nature had kept changing her mind and
+staining each successive ejection with a different tint. Sometimes there
+comes a considerable thickness of a certain coloured rock, but above and
+below it thin strata will succeed of all sorts of colours. If such a
+series of deposits is intersected by a cliff, its face will be ruled
+across by a polychrome multitude of bands. Oftenest, however, the whole
+mass will be riven into gullies and weathered into pinnacles of all
+heights and varieties. Or short cliffs and elbows will alternate with
+slopes of debris. In such cases any sense of order in the succession of
+colours may be lost. A blue pinnacle will stand before a yellow one, and
+that beside a red with a green top. In one buttress purple may
+predominate, in another grey, in a third orange.
+
+The effect on slopes of debris is often most peculiar. Naturally they
+derive their tint from that of the rocks above, out of whose fragments
+they are formed. If those rocks are a mass of a single colour, such will
+be the tint of the debris slope. But if they be fed by the splintered
+fragments of two different beds, as for example one red, the other
+yellow, the slope below will be a kind of orange, varying in tone
+according to the supply of the two ingredients. Sometimes a slope will
+be, let us say, purple throughout its upper portion till it comes down
+to a point where white rocks emerge. Below them it will be streaked as
+by splashes of whitewash. In the floor of a valley, where all these
+ingredients mix together in sandy intimacy, the general tone will be of
+a light neutral tint, the colour being destroyed by the intimacy of the
+mixture, the minuteness of the fractures, and the multiplicity of the
+incidence and reflection of light.
+
+Where there is snow aloft its melting will enforce the local colour of
+the rocks or debris over which it flows. Similar will be the effect of a
+spring bursting out of the hillside. These waters will themselves be
+brilliantly stained, and if they chance to flow over a bed of snow, they
+will stain it in their turn. I have seen a blood-red area of snow
+produced in this fashion.
+
+The reader may not derive from the foregoing description an idea of any
+effect produced by the reality save strangeness. One should be a
+landscape-painter of remarkable skill to convey any other. But the
+actual effect in nature, when the first shock of strangeness has worn
+off, is an effect of remarkable beauty. The colours in their great
+variety and multitude do in fact harmonise and agree together. Being
+fashioned in one work-shop, the work-shop of Nature, the self-same that
+fashions the eyes and intelligences of men and implants in them the idea
+of beauty as part of nature's law, they do not appear chaotic or
+inharmonious to the natural man. On the contrary they are bonded
+together and informed by the sense of a common origin, a common purpose,
+and a common meaning. When this unity is felt and perceived by the eye,
+not only do the forms, for all their jagged and splintered multiplicity,
+harmonise into compositions of remarkable grandeur, but their rich and
+varied colouring ennobles and distinguishes those forms.
+
+Views of this kind affect the imagination and impress themselves upon
+the memory more than most. Amongst the many wide vistas or actual
+panoramas which a mountain-climber of a few years' experience must have
+seen, he will doubtless freely admit that there are few which he can
+recall to his memory with any completeness. The first he ever saw
+overwhelmed him with their intricate elaboration. Later on, when he knew
+better what to look for, his susceptibility to impression was already
+lessened. The same is likely to be true of valley views. How many of
+them can we conjure up in any detail? The Matterhorn from Zermatt, Mont
+Blanc from Chamonix, and a few other similarly well-known prospects we
+know by heart; but of how many valley views, that we have only beheld
+once or during a short interval, can we form a visual image in our
+minds. My own experience leads me to conclude, though without making any
+allowance for a possibly large personal equation, that desert views are
+more memorable than those in which fertility predominates. Various views
+in the naked Indus valley are firmly fixed in my mind, though none of
+them were more than briefly beheld. The same is true of the scenery in
+the desert volcanic regions with which I am acquainted: the
+neighbourhood of Arequipa in Peru, parts of the provinces of Oruro and
+Potosi in Bolivia, the surroundings of the volcanoes of Ascotan in
+Chile, and of Aconcagua in the Argentine. In all these districts the
+scenery I beheld remains photographed in my memory with exceptional
+vividness, not merely its strangeness but its beauty, and the element in
+the scenery most vividly memorable is the element of colour.
+
+In fact both colour and forms are strange to an eye accustomed to look
+upon the fertile and normally habitable regions of the earth. This is
+true not merely of the mountains themselves and their constituent parts
+but of all their surroundings. I have never looked down upon the boiling
+interior of an active volcano, such as travellers to Hawaii are
+privileged to behold on the top of Mauna Loa. That must be a sight
+passing wonderful. Nor have I ever beheld an erupting volcano from near
+at hand. But I have seen enough in the volcanic districts of South
+America to realise the marvels and fascinations they contain. Let me be
+forgiven for quoting one or two passages from my book on the Bolivian
+Andes, which were written when the impressions were fresh, though not a
+detail of them has yet escaped me.
+
+Near Ollague, on the Chile-Bolivian frontier, is an active volcano. It
+was puffing steam in white jets from its top when I passed. All the
+hills and ground beneath, utterly bare of vegetation, were red or yellow
+in colour, or of white ashes dotted over with black cinders. Proceeding
+southward for some 200 kilometres, this kind of scenery continued. We
+wandered in and out among volcanoes, lava-streams, and great level
+sheets of white saline deposit, like frozen lakes covered with snow.
+Most of the volcanoes were extinct, but some retained the perfection of
+their form--wide, infinitely graceful cones outlined by a pure unbroken
+curve against the clear sky. The surface of the hills was often coloured
+in the most brilliant fashion imaginable. The combinations of the rich
+colours and strange forms rising beyond, and apparently out of, the
+large, flat, greyish-white surface of the saline deposits were most
+beautiful. One white imitation lake was framed in a margin of black
+volcanic dust and cinders, merging upward into grey sand. White
+dust-spouts were dancing on its white floor. A riven hill near by
+revealed streaks of blood-red, chrome yellow, and I know not what other
+bright colours.
+
+Presently came the smoking volcano San Pedro, with a smaller cone at
+its foot, from which there stretched to a distance of two or three miles
+a flow of lava, long cold, but looking as it lies on the sandy desert as
+though newly poured out. It resembled a glacier with steep sides and
+snout much crevassed and all covered with black moraine. With this
+strange product of volcanic convulsion for foreground, the sunburnt and
+silent desert stretching around, and volcanoes great and small rising
+behind, San Pedro's head smoking over all, I thought I had never beheld
+a more weird and uncanny scene. Yet it was beautiful, beyond all
+question beautiful to a high degree. If a man could be transported to
+the surface of the Moon, say somewhere near Aristarcus or Gassendi,
+such, I imagine, might be the kind of landscape that would salute his
+eyes.
+
+[Illustration: 70. AFTER THE SUNSET. From the Sch�nzli, Bern.]
+
+Over against these mountains there rose on the other side of the valley
+a polychrome hill, the Cerro Colorado, covered, they say, with magnetic
+sand, which leaps into the air and flies about in sheets and masses when
+a thunderstorm comes near--to the very natural horror of the local
+Indians. At such times, amidst the roar of thunder and the electric
+flashes, surrounded by a desert shaken by earthquakes and dotted over by
+cinders, and with this dancing fiend of a hill close at hand, ignorant
+people may be pardoned for imagining themselves possessed by a horde of
+rioting devils.
+
+Not far away is the blood-red ca�on of the Rio Loa, 360 feet deep. I
+stood at the edge of this profound meandering trench at an hour when the
+low westering sun struck full on one face of it and a dark shadow fell
+from the other. With this sanguinary hollow at my feet, I looked across
+a great flat plain towards countless volcanic hills, many of them
+perfectly symmetrical in form, shining in the mellow evening light. The
+sunset is the time to enjoy to the fullest this clean lunar landscape,
+enriched by the world's fair atmosphere, when the shadows are stealing
+across the flat and climbing the opposite crimson hills, whence they
+seem to drive the colour up to the soft still clouds, where it fades
+away in the purple pomp of oncoming night.
+
+Is it possible, I wonder, by any words to convey to the reader the
+least notion of this sort of scenery? Picture to yourself a lake the
+size of Zug, or Annecy, or Orta. It is not a lake for all its flatness
+and the aspect of its shores, but a flat plain of salt, white as snow.
+Its banks and surroundings are not green, but wide-spreading sand, that
+stretches away and yet away till it vanishes perhaps into trembling
+mirage. Black spots are dotted all about as though newly scattered from
+some enormous pepper-pot. They are ashes. You can scarcely believe they
+are yet cold from the fire, that ejected them, however, ages ago.
+Yellow, crimson, green slopes rise nearer or farther away to form
+stately cones or ruined lumps of the crude earth. Alas! the picture is
+not paintable by me. Beheld, it smites the eye with a single indelible
+impression. Described, it is a mere succession of details and fragments,
+and there is no verbal lightning-stroke that will avail to smite them
+for an instant into simultaneous visibility.
+
+Strictly speaking, what has been written above has no place in an
+Alpine book. Yet the interest of the Alps to me, or of any range of
+mountains, lies in the fact that they are a specimen range, that they
+resemble more or less other ranges from Arctics to Tropics, that they
+are examples of one large category of mundane phenomena. To understand
+the position and character of Alpine scenery in the scenery of
+mountains, we must consider what the Alps lack as well as what they
+possess. Every range of mountains, indeed, has its own special and
+purely local elements of character, but outside of them it likewise
+possesses many more in common with other ranges. The experienced Alpine
+climber will find himself, if not at home, at all events not far from
+home in the mountains of Spitsbergen, Greenland, or the Antarctic, in
+the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Canadian Rockies; even in the snowy
+Cordillera of tropical Bolivia, or in the African groups of Kenya and
+Ruwenzori. The only kind of mountains, so far as I know, that will be
+wholly strange to him, and at first sight almost wholly
+incomprehensible, are the desert volcanoes. It has been for the purpose
+of bringing this fact clearly before his mind that I have felt myself
+justified in devoting a brief space to the character of such volcanic
+scenery.
+
+
+THE END
+
+_Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+BLACK'S BEAUTIFUL BOOKS
+
+This series of books is chiefly distinguished by its exquisite
+illustrations in colour. There is no volume that one cannot turn to
+again and again with renewed interest and delight. No expense has been
+spared in reproducing the exact colourings of the artists, and the books
+are beautifully printed and bound. Whether one regards them merely as
+beautiful things to be looked at and admired, or whether one goes to
+them for information and entertainment, one cannot but be pleased with
+these books, which are the outcome of the united efforts of artists,
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+public.
+
+
+THE =20s.= SERIES
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+ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
+
+=Size 9X6-1/4 ins.=
+
+
+Painted and Described by FRANCES E. NESBITT
+
+=Algeria and Tunis=
+
+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Described by SIR MARTIN CONWAY Painted by A. D. M'CORMICK
+
+=The Alps=
+
+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By H. M. CUNDALL, I.S.O., F.S.A.
+
+=Birket Foster=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (OVER 70 IN COLOUR) AND MANY SKETCHES IN THE
+TEXT
+
+
+Text by MARCUS B. HUISH, LL.B.
+
+=British Water-Colour Art, etc.=
+
+60 OF THE KING'S PICTURES IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E. Described by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Brittany=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
+
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+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WILLIAM MATTHISON Text by M. A. R. TUKER
+
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+77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by T. MOWER MARTIN, R.C.A. Described by WILFRED CAMPBELL
+
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+
+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+Painted by HENRY B. WIMBUSH Described by EDITH F. CAREY
+
+=The Channel Islands=
+
+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WARWICK GOBLE Described by PROF. ALEXANDER VAN MILLINGEN,
+D.D.
+
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+
+63 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Text by JOSEPH GREGO
+
+=Cruikshank's Water-Colours=
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+68 FULL-PAGE FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=The Durbar=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
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+=Egypt=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. Text by MARCUS B. HUISH
+
+=Happy England=
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+80 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+
+=English Costume=
+
+73 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS SKETCHES IN THE TEXT
+
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+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK � SOHO SQUARE � LONDON � W. AND OBTAINABLE
+THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME OR ABROAD
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+Painted by A. HEATON COOPER Described by WILLIAM T. PALMER
+
+=The English Lakes=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by COLONEL R. C. GOFF Described by MRS. GOFF
+
+=Florence and some Tuscan Cities=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by REV. J. A. M'CLYMONT,
+M.A., D.D.
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
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+By M. H. SPIELMANN, F.S.A., and G. S. LAYARD
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+=Kate Greenaway=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (51 IN COLOUR) AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS IN
+THE TEXT
+
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+By NICO JUNGMAN Text by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
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+=Holland=
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+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
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+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by REV. JOHN KELMAN, M.A.
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+=The Holy Land=
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+92 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, MOSTLY IN COLOUR
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+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by FLORA A. STEEL
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+=India=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.H.A. Described by FRANK MATHEW
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+=Ireland=
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+77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by ELLA DU CANE Described by RICHARD BAGOT
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+=The Italian Lakes=
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+69 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
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+
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+Painted by ROSE BARTON, A.R.W.S.
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+=Familiar London=
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+60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. Described by MARIAN AMY WYLLIE
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+=London to the Nore=
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+60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+=London Vanished and Vanishing=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by HERBERT M. MARSHALL, R.W.S. Described by G. E. MITTON
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+=The Scenery of London=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by A. S. FORREST Described by S. L. BENSUSAN
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+74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+By AUGUSTINE FITZGERALD Text by SYBIL FITZGERALD
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+Painted by NICO JUNGMAN Described by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by EDWARD THOMAS
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+=Oxford=
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+Painted by ALBERTO PISA Text by M. A. R. TUKER AND HOPE MALLESON
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+=Rome=
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+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by SUTTON PALMER Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
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+=Bonnie Scotland=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by NORMAN H. HARDY Described by E. Way Elkington, F.R.G.S.
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+68 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted and Described by Edgar T. A. Wigram
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+=Northern Spain=
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+Painted by SUTTON PALMER Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by WILFRID BALL, R.E.
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by G. E. MITTON
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+=The Thames=
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+Painted and Described by A. HENRY SAVAGE LANDOR
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+=Tibet and Nepal=
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
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+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
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+=Venice=
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+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ROBERT FOWLER, R.I. Described by EDWARD THOMAS
+
+=Beautiful Wales=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
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+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=War Impressions=
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+99 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+By CAPTAIN S. E. ST. LEGER
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+165 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
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+Painted by FRED. WHITEHEAD, R.B.A. Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by WALTER TYNDALE Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
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+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by A. S. FORREST Described by JOHN HENDERSON
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+=The West Indies=
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+74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
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+=World's Children=
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+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
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+=World Pictures=
+
+500 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+
+
+_A detailed prospectus, containing a specimen plate, of any volume in
+this List will be sent on application to the Publishers._
+
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+
+THE =10s.= SERIES
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+=Size 9 � 6-1/4 ins.=
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+Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. Described by A. K. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+
+=The Highlands and Islands of Scotland=
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+40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by A. FORESTIER Described by G. W. T. OMOND
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+=Bruges And West Flanders=
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+37 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+Painted by NICO JUNGMAN Described by G. E. MITTON
+
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+40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+THE =7s. 6d.= SERIES
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+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. Described by REV. W. S. CROCKETT
+
+=Abbotsford=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By C. LEWIS HIND
+
+=Adventures among Pictures=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
+
+
+By GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I.
+
+=The Beautiful Birthday Book=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR DECORATIVE BORDERS BY A. A.
+TURBAYNE
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+
+Painted by A. FORESTIER Described by G. W. T. OMOND
+
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+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+Text by A. CROXTON SMITH Painted by G. VERNON STOKES
+
+=British Dogs at Work=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR;
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Text by ROSALINE MASSON
+
+=Edinburgh=
+
+21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+
+=English Costume=
+
+In Four Sections, each containing 18 to 20 full-page Illustrations in
+Colour, and many Illustrations in the text:
+
+  Section I. Early English
+  "      II. Middle Ages
+  "     III. Tudor and Stuart
+  "      IV. Georgian, etc.
+
+Price 7s. 6d. net each.
+
+
+Painted by GEORGE S. ELGOOD, R.I. Text by ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet Laureate
+
+=The Garden that I Love=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By LADY BUTLER Painter of "The Roll Call"
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+=Letters from the Holy Land=
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+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY LADY BUTLER
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+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
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+=Middlesex=
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
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+Painted and Described by MRS. WILLINGHAM RAWNSLEY
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+=The New Forest=
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by ARTHUR GEORGE BELL Described by NANCY E. BELL
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+=Nuremberg=
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+Painted by H. J. DOBSON, R.S.W., A.R.C.A. Described by WILLIAM SANDERSON
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+=Scottish Life and Character=
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. Described by ARTHUR H. PATERSON
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+=The Homes of Tennyson=
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By C. LEWIS HIND
+
+=Days with Velasquez=
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+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
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+By OLIVER GOLDSMITH
+
+=The Vicar of Wakefield=
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+13 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ARTIST
+
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+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Text by MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH
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+=Westminster Abbey=
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+21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+Painted by GEORGE M. HENTON Described by Sir Richard Rivington Holmes,
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+Painted and Described by GORDON HOME
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+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+
+
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+BOOKS FOR ANGLERS
+
+=Price 7s. 6d. net each=
+
+=Size 8 � 5-1/3 ins.=
+
+
+Edited by F. G. AFLALO
+
+=Fishermen's Weather=
+
+Opinions and Experiences by 100 well-known Anglers.
+
+CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR FROM PICTURES BY CHARLES
+WHYMPER, F.Z.S.
+
+
+By W. EARL HODGSON
+
+=Trout Fishing=
+
+CONTAINING FRONTISPIECE AND A MODEL BOOK OF FLIES IN COLOUR
+
+
+By W. EARL HODGSON
+
+=Salmon Fishing=
+
+CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR, INCLUDING MODEL CASES OF
+74 VARIETIES OF SALMON FLIES, AND 10 FULL-PAGE REPRODUCTIONS FROM
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+
+
+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Paris=
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+125 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND TINT OF WHISTLER OIL-COLOURS,
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+=Rembrandt=
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+50 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 OF THEM IN COLOUR, FROM PAINTINGS BY
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+EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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+By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
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+=The Story of Stories=
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+32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR)
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+By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
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+=The Kinsfolk and Friends of Jesus=
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+8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND MANY OTHERS IN THE TEXT
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+             font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;  }
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+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alps, by Martin Conway
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Alps
+
+Author: Martin Conway
+
+Illustrator: A. D. McCormick
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2012 [EBook #39542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ALPS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephanie Kovalchik and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div class="box">
+      <p class="center x-small">
+        AGENTS IN AMERICA
+      </p>
+      <p class="center larger">
+        THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+      </p>
+      <p class="center x-small">
+        66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      <span class="larger">THE ALPS</span> <span class="smaller">DESCRIBED BY</span>
+      <span> W. MARTIN CONWAY</span> <span class="smaller">PAINTED BY</span>
+      <span>A. D. McCORMICK</span>
+    </h1>
+    <div class="box">
+      <p class="center">
+        LONDON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center larger">
+        ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        1904
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <p class="center">
+      <a id="HAYMAKERS"></a><img src="images/image005.jpg" width="312"
+      height="450" alt="" />
+    </p>
+    <p class="caption">
+      HAYMAKERS IN THE VAL MAGGIA
+    </p>
+    <p class="legend">
+      The loads carried by the women are enormous in size, what they are in
+      weight I don't know; but many of them are larger than those shown in the
+      picture. One load I measured was twice the height of the woman.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CONTENTS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <div class="toc">
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a title="Go to Chapter I." href="#ALPS">CHAPTER I</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        T<span class="smcap lowercase">HE</span> T<span class="smcap lowercase">REASURES
+        OF THE</span> S<span class="smcap lowercase">NOW</span> 1
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_22">CHAPTER II</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        H<span class="smcap lowercase">OW TO SEE</span> M<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">OUNTAINS</span> 22
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_46">CHAPTER III</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        H<span class="smcap lowercase">OW</span> M<span class="smcap lowercase">OUNTAINS
+        ARE MADE</span> 46
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_72">CHAPTER IV</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        A<span class="smcap lowercase">LL</span> S<span class="smcap lowercase">ORTS
+        AND</span> C<span class="smcap lowercase">ONDITIONS OF</span> A<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">LPS</span> 72
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_101">CHAPTER V</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        T<span class="smcap lowercase">HE</span> M<span class="smcap lowercase">OODS
+        OF THE</span> M<span class="smcap lowercase">OUNTAINS</span> 101
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_128">CHAPTER VI</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        M<span class="smcap lowercase">OUNTAINS ALL THE</span>Y<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">EAR ROUND</span> 128
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_151">CHAPTER VII</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        T<span class="smcap lowercase">YPES OF</span> A<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">LPINE</span> P<span class="smcap lowercase">EAKS</span>
+        151
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_177">CHAPTER VIII</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        P<span class="smcap lowercase">ASSES</span> 177
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_202">CHAPTER IX</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        G<span class="smcap lowercase">LACIERS</span> 202
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_226">CHAPTER X</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        A<span class="smcap lowercase">LPINE</span> P<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">ASTURES</span> 226
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_251">CHAPTER XI</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        T<span class="smcap lowercase">HE</span> H<span class="smcap lowercase">UMAN</span>
+        I<span class="smcap lowercase">NTEREST</span> 251
+      </p>
+      <p class="i5 larger">
+        <a href="#Page_274">CHAPTER XII</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        V<span class="smcap lowercase">OLCANOES</span> 274
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <div class="toc">
+      <p class="right1 smaller">
+        FACING PAGE
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        1. Haymakers in the Val Maggia <span class="right1"><i><a
+        href="#HAYMAKERS">Frontispiece</a></i></span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        2. Bern from the Sch�nzli <a href="#Page_2">2</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        3. View of the Bernese Alps from the Gurten, near Bern <a href="#Page_4">4</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        4. The Pier at Scherzligen, Lake of Thun&mdash;Evening <a href="#Page_6">6</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        5. Melchior Anderegg <a href="#Page_8">8</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        6. Storm coming up over Lake of Lucerne <a href="#Page_10">10</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        7. Looking up Valley towards Zermatt from near Randa <a href="#Page_14">14</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        8. Eiger, M�nch, and Jungfrau from Scherzligen, near Thun <a
+        href="#Page_16">16</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        9. Lucerne and Lake from the Drei Linden <a href="#Page_20">20</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        10. The Jungfrau from Interlaken <a href="#Page_24">24</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        11. Fiescherhorn and Lower Grindelwald Glacier <a href="#Page_30">30</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        12. The Castle of Chillon <a href="#Page_34">34</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        13. The Corpus Christi Procession to the Hofkirche of St.&nbsp;Leodegar
+        <a href="#Page_38">38</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        14. Cloud-burst over Lucerne <a href="#Page_43">44</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        15. At Meiringen <a href="#Page_48">48</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        16. Storm Clouds over the Lake of Thun <a href="#Page_52">52</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        17. Vitznau and Lake of Lucerne <a href="#Page_54">54</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        18. The Falls of Tosa, Val Formazza <a href="#Page_60">60</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        19. Looking over Lucerne from the Drei Linden <a href="#Page_70">70</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        20. Fran�ois Devouassoud <a href="#Page_72">72</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        21. At Bignasco <a href="#Page_76">76</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        22. Looking down the Aletsch Glacier from Concordia Hut <a
+        href="#Page_82">82</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        23. Asconia&mdash;on Lago Maggiore <a href="#Page_84">84</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        24. Locarno from the Banks of the Lake <a href="#Page_88">88</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        25. Pallanza&mdash;Evening <a href="#Page_90">90</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        26. The Madonna del Sasso, Locarno <a href="#Page_92">92</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        27. Locarno at Sunset, and North End of Lago Maggiore <a href="#Page_99">100</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        28. Moonlight in the Val Formazza from the Tosa Falls <a href="#Page_104">104</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        29. A Mountain Path, Grindelwald <a href="#Page_108">108</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        30. The Aletschhorn <a href="#Page_112">112</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        31. The Grosser Aletsch-Firn from Concordia Hut <a href="#Page_116">116</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        32. Thunderstorm breaking over Pallanza <a href="#Page_124">124</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        33. The Wetterhorn <a href="#Page_130">130</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        34. M�rjelen Alp <a href="#Page_134">134</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        35. Lower Glacier and Grindelwald Church <a href="#Page_142">142</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        36. Grindelwald looking towards the Wengen Alp <a href="#Page_146">146</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        37. Rimpfischorn and Strahlhorn from the Riffelberg <a href="#Page_149">150</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        38. The Matterhorn, Twilight <a href="#Page_156">156</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        39. Weisshorn and Matterhorn from Fiescheralp <a href="#Page_160">160</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        40. Aiguille Verte and Aiguille du Dru from the Chamonix Valley <a
+        href="#Page_164">164</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        41. Boden and Gorner <a href="#Page_166">166</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        42. The Breithorn from Schwarz See <a href="#Page_172">172</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        43. The Lyskamm <a href="#Page_174">174</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        44. The Road from Vitznau to Gersau <a href="#Page_180">180</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        45. Amsteg in the Reussthal <a href="#Page_188">188</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        46. The Dent Blanche from the Riffelberg <a href="#Page_192">192</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        47. The Village of Soldimo, at the Entrance of the Val Maggia <a
+        href="#Page_198">198</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        48. Fl�elen at end of Lake of Uri, South Arm of Lake of Lucerne <a
+        href="#Page_203">200</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        49. Furggen Glacier Icefall <a href="#Page_206">206</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        50. The Gletscherhorn from the Pavilion, H�tel Cathrein, close to
+        Concordia Hut <a href="#Page_208">208</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        51. The Trugberg <a href="#Page_210">210</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        52. Pallanza&mdash;Sunset <a href="#Page_212">212</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        53. Kranzberg&mdash;Rotthalhorn&mdash;and Jungfrau: Sunset <a
+        href="#Page_214">214</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        54. M�rjelen See and Great Aletsch Glacier <a href="#Page_220">220</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        55. The Castle of Z�hringen-Kyburg, Thun <a href="#Page_226">226</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        56. Chalets and Church. Riederalp <a href="#Page_234">234</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        57. Evening in Zermatt <a href="#Page_236">236</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        58. Bern from the North-West <a href="#Page_238">238</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        59. Looking down the Val Formazza from Tosa <a href="#Page_240">240</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        60. In the Val Bavona <a href="#Page_242">242</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        61. In the Val d'Aosta <a href="#Page_246">246</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        62. Ch�tillon, Val d'Aosta <a href="#Page_260">260</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        63. A Corner of the Town of Altdorf <a href="#Page_262">262</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        64. Ponte Brolla <a href="#Page_266">266</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        65. In the Val d'Aosta <a href="#Page_268">268</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        66. In the Woods of Chamonix <a href="#Page_270">270</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        67. In a Garden at Locarno <a href="#Page_272">272</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        68. Pilatus and Lake of Lucerne from the Slopes of the Rigi <a
+        href="#Page_276">276</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        69. Montreux, Lake of Geneva <a href="#Page_280">280</a>
+      </p>
+      <p class="indh">
+        70. After the Sunset <a href="#Page_290">290</a>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span class="larger">THE <a id="ALPS"></a>ALPS</span> <span>CHAPTER I</span><br />
+      <span class="smaller">THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      J<span class="smcap lowercase">OHN</span> R<span class="smcap lowercase">USKIN</span>,
+      in a fine and famous passage, describes the effect of a first view of the
+      Alps upon a young and sensitive mind. He was at Schaffhausen with his
+      parents. "We must have spent some time in town-seeing," he writes, "for it
+      was drawing towards sunset when we got up to some sort of garden promenade&mdash;west
+      of the town, I believe; and high above the Rhine, so as to command the
+      open country across it to the south and west. At which open country of low
+      undulation, far into blue&mdash;gazing as at one of our own distances from
+      Malvern of Worcestershire, or Dorking of Kent,&mdash;suddenly&mdash;behold&mdash;beyond!
+      There was no thought in any of us for a moment of their being clouds. They
+      were clear as crystal, sharp on the pure horizon sky, and already tinged
+      with rose by the sinking sun. Infinitely beyond all<a id="Page_2"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[2]</span> that we had ever thought or dreamed,&mdash;the
+      seen walls of lost Eden could not have been more beautiful to us; not more
+      awful, round heaven, the walls of sacred Death. It is not possible to
+      imagine, in any time of the world, a more blessed entrance into life, for
+      a child of such a temperament as mine."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many a lad or man has felt a similar awakening when the snowy Alps first
+      smote upon his vision, though none has ever so nobly expressed the
+      emotion. It is a feeling not to be forgotten in after life. All who love
+      mountains have begun to love them from some remembered moment. We may have
+      known the hills from infancy, but to know is not necessarily to love. It
+      is the day of awakening that counts. To me the hills were early friends.
+      Malvern of Worcestershire was my childish delight. I climbed Snowdon at
+      the age of seven, and felt the delight that arises from standing high and
+      gazing far. But the mountains as beautiful things to look at came later.
+      Well do I remember the year when I was at last going to the Alps. A vague
+      feeling of expectation and suspense pervaded the summer term&mdash;the
+      unknown was in the future and hovered there as something large and bright.
+      What would<a id="Page_3"></a> <span class="pagenum">[3]</span>the great
+      snow mountains look like? That was the abiding question. One June day I
+      was idly lying prone upon a grassy bank, watching piled masses of cumulous
+      cloud tower in the east with the afternoon sun shining splendidly upon
+      them. Could it be that any snow mountains were really as fine as clouds
+      like these? I could not believe it.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image018.jpg" width="341" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        BERN FROM THE SCH�NZLI
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The seat of the Swiss Government. The Rathhaus, a modern "old Catholic
+        church," in centre of picture. The Bernese Oberland Mountains in
+        heat-haze at top.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At last the day came when the sea was crossed and the long railway journey
+      (how long it seemed!) was accomplished. We approached Olten. The Oberland
+      ought to have appeared, but only rain fell. We reached Bern, and drove up
+      to the little country village of Zimmerwald, where my friends were
+      staying; still there was no distant view&mdash;nothing but wooded and
+      green hills around, that reminded me of other views, and revealed no such
+      startling novelty as I was awaiting. One day passed and then another. On
+      the third morning the sun rose in a sky perfectly clear. When I looked
+      from my window across the green country, and over the deep-lying lake of
+      Thun, I saw them&mdash;"suddenly&mdash;behold&mdash;beyond!" Jungfrau,
+      M�nch, Eiger, and the rest, not yet individuals for me, not for a long
+      time yet, but all together, a great white wall, utterly unlike any dream
+      of<a id="Page_4"></a> <span class="pagenum">[4]</span> them that had
+      visited me before, a new revelation, unimaginable, indescribable, there
+      they stood, and from that moment I also entered into life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Returned to my school friends in due season, I thought to tell them of
+      this new and splendid joy that had come to me, but a few attempts cured me
+      of any such endeavour. It was impossible. My words fell upon deaf ears, or
+      rather I had no words. What I said failed to raise a picture in their
+      minds, as what had before been said to me had failed. I have never
+      repeated the attempt; I shall not do so now. The prophet who saw the
+      vision of the Almighty could speak only by aid of types and shadows. The
+      great revelations of nature's majesty are not describable. Who that had
+      never seen a thunderstorm could learn its majestic quality from
+      description? Who can enter into the treasures of the snow by way of words?
+      The glory of a great desert must be seen to be realised. The delicate
+      magnificence of the Arctics none can translate into language. We may speak
+      of that we do know, and testify that we have seen, but no one receives our
+      testimony, because words cannot utter the essential facts.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image022.jpg" width="450" height="345" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        VIEW OF THE BERNESE ALPS FROM THE GURTEN, NEAR BERN
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In writing about the Alps, therefore, we write and paint primarily to
+      remind those who know;<a id="Page_5"></a> <span class="pagenum">[5]</span>
+      to suggest further visions of a like character to those they possess
+      within themselves. Even the greatest master of descriptive writing can
+      only manifest his mastership by knowing what to omit and where to stop.
+      "Suddenly&mdash;behold&mdash;beyond!" That is enough for those who know.
+      For those who do not know, no words can embody and transmit the unfelt
+      emotion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the first day when I saw the snowy mountains, I have seen them again
+      and again in all parts of the world, and have come to know them from above
+      as well as from below. I have penetrated them in all directions and grown
+      to understand the meaning of their smallest details of couloir, crevasse,
+      ice-fall, cornice, ar�te, and bergschrund. It has not been all gain.
+      Gladly would some of us be able to shed our knowledge of detail, if it
+      were but for a moment, and once again behold the great wall of white as
+      ignorantly as we first beheld it&mdash;a thing, vast, majestic, and above
+      all mysterious&mdash;unapproachable as the clouds&mdash;a region not for
+      men but fairies&mdash;the rose-clad tops of the mountains where dance the
+      spirits of the dawn. Fairest of all is ever the first vision, not
+      completest. Later we know more, we understand more, we may even come to
+      love more, but the<a id="Page_6"></a> <span class="pagenum">[6]</span>
+      first vision of a young man's love is surpassed by no future splendour,
+      and the first glory of a mountain view never comes again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Doubtless there may exist some people who, even if they had been smitten
+      by the glory of the mountains in the age of their own most abounding
+      youthful powers of body, would not have been attracted to climb them; yet
+      such folks must be rare. Those who first see mountains in the years of
+      their solid maturity naturally escape the attraction. But most young and
+      healthy individuals as naturally desire to climb as they do to swim or to
+      wander. The instinct of man is to believe that joy is somewhere else than
+      where he stands. "Dort wo du nicht bist, dort ist das Gl�ck." It is not
+      true, but life is not long enough to teach us that it is not&mdash;and
+      fortunately, else were half our efforts quenched in the impulse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To see round, over, and beyond&mdash;that is the natural desire of all. We
+      want to go everywhere, to behold everything. Who would not rush to visit
+      the other side of the moon, were such journey possible? If Messrs. Cook
+      were to advertise a trip to Mars, who would not be of the party? "To see
+      round, over, and beyond"&mdash;that is a common human instinct, which
+      accounts for the passion of<a id="Page_7"></a> <span class="pagenum">[7]</span>
+      historical and scientific investigation, for the eagerness of politicians,
+      for the enthusiasm of explorers and excavators, for the inquisitiveness of
+      psychical societies, for the prosperity of fortune-tellers, and for the
+      energy of mountaineers. What! There is a height looking down on me and I
+      cannot attain it? There is a mountain wall around me and I cannot look
+      over it? Perish the thought! There is an historical limit behind which I
+      know nothing about the human race? Give me a spade, that I may dig out
+      some yet earlier ancestor and discover something about him. There is an
+      unmapped region at the south pole? What is my Government made of that it
+      does not send forth an expedition to describe it?
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image026.jpg" width="450" height="349" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE PIER AT SCHERZLIGEN, LAKE OF THUN&mdash;EVENING
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The Niesen on the right.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In face of the unknown all men are of one mind. They cannot but endeavour
+      to replace ignorance by knowledge. What is true of the mass is true to
+      some extent of each individual. There exists in the unit the same tendency
+      at all events as in the multitude. Each man wants to see what he has not
+      seen, to stand where he has not stood, to learn more than he knows. In the
+      presence of mountains this desire urges him upward. He does not start as a
+      mountaineer intending to climb, and climb. He starts for a single
+      expedition, just to see<a id="Page_8"></a> <span class="pagenum">[8]</span>
+      what high peaks and glaciers are like. The snowy regions beheld from a
+      distance puzzle him. Evidently they are not like the places he is familiar
+      with. He will for once go and take a nearer look. He will climb
+      somewhither and get a sight all round. Little does he suspect what the
+      outcome of his venture may be. A week ago he was perhaps laughing at the
+      tattered-faced climbers he met, as mad fools, going up to mountain-tops
+      just to come down again and say they had been there. Of such folly he at
+      any rate will never be guilty. Climbing has no fascinations for him; he is
+      merely going to have a look at the white world, so that he may know what
+      it is that he hears people talking about&mdash;their corridors and their
+      couloirs, crevasses, snow-bridges, s�racs, and bergschrunds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So he hires a guide and sets forth for the Breithorn, perhaps, or some
+      such high and safe-reputed peak. He hits upon a day when the weather turns
+      bad. Winds buffet him; rain and snow drench him; he labours through soft
+      snow; he is bewildered by fog. If the sun shines for a few moments, it is
+      only long enough to scorch the skin off his face and ensure him a few days
+      of great discomfort to follow. He has no view from the summit. He returns
+      wearied out to his inn.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image030.jpg" width="338" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        MELCHIOR ANDEREGG
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Born 1828. A celebrated Alpine guide; with the late Sir Leslie Stephen
+        made many first ascents, including the Rympfischhorn, Alphubel,
+        Oberaarhorn. Also well known for his wood-carving.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Yes!&mdash;and<a id="Page_9"></a> <span class="pagenum">[9]</span>
+      thenceforward the alpine fever masters him. He is caught and makes no
+      effort to escape. His keenest desire is to be off once more into those
+      same high regions&mdash;once more to feel the ice beneath his feet&mdash;once
+      more to scramble up clean crags fresh from nature's sculpturing and
+      undefiled by soil or vegetation. With each new ascent he becomes eager for
+      more. The summers are all too short for his satisfaction. He goes home to
+      read about other people's climbs, to study maps and guide-books, to lay
+      out schemes for future seasons. Dauphiny, the Graians, the Engadine and
+      Tirol&mdash;he must give a season or seasons to each. Thus is the climber
+      fashioned out of an ordinary man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Each new votary of the peaks in turn experiences the same sudden
+      conversion, expects to be able to explain his new delight to his lowland
+      friends, and in turn discovers the same impossibility. He learns, as we
+      all have learned, that the delight is not translatable into words; that
+      each must experience it for himself and each must win his own entrance
+      into the secret alone. The most we can do is to awaken the inquisitive
+      sense in another, who beholds the visible evidence of our enjoyment and
+      wonders what its source may be. In that fashion the infection can be<a
+      id="Page_10"></a> <span class="pagenum">[10]</span> spread, and is spread
+      with the extraordinary rapidity that the last half-century has witnessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What climber does not recall the enthusiasm of his first seasons? the
+      passionate expectation of the coming summer, the painful awaiting for the
+      moment when his foot should once again crunch the ice-corn of the glacier
+      beneath its hob-nailed sole? Gradually that enthusiasm passes and is
+      replaced by a settled mood of calmer, but no less intense, satisfaction.
+      But does the �sthetic delight in the beauty of the mountains remain
+      through all these experiences undimmed? Not always. In the first view of
+      them it is the beauty of the snowy peaks, of the great white walls, that
+      appeals to the eye. Ignorant of the meaning of every detail, the details
+      are almost unseen. It is the whole that is beheld in the glory of its
+      whiteness. The wonder of the silver snow beyond the green and beneath the
+      sky invades the mind of every new spectator. Small need be our surprise
+      that unsophisticated, semi-civilised peoples have always believed the
+      snowy regions to be part of the other world&mdash;the home of ghosts and
+      fairies, or of demons and dragons. "Not more awful, round heaven, the
+      walls of sacred Death," says Ruskin in the passage above quoted, thereby
+      manifesting<a id="Page_11"></a> <span class="pagenum">[11]</span> how
+      close in its instincts is the sympathy between genius and the purely
+      natural man. Almost universal is the feeling aroused by a first sight of a
+      great snowy range that it is unearthly. Mystery gathers over it. Its
+      shining majesty in full sunlight, its rosy splendours at dawn and eve, its
+      pallid glimmer under the clear moon, its wreathed and ever-changing
+      drapery of cloud, its terrific experiences in storm, all these elements
+      and aspects strike the imagination and appeal broadly to the �sthetic
+      sense. Nor are they ever quite forgotten even by the most callous of
+      professional mountaineers.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image034.jpg" width="450" height="370" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        STORM COMING UP OVER LAKE OF LUCERNE
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Sketch made from Fl�elen.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But with increase of experience on the mountains themselves come knowledge
+      and a whole group of new associations. A man does not climb a mountain
+      without bringing some of it away with him and leaving something of himself
+      upon it. Returned to the level and looking back, he does not see his peak
+      as before. Every feature of the road he traversed is remembered, and he
+      instinctively tries to fit the features to the view. That velvet slope
+      above the trees is the stony tract up which he toiled before dawn and
+      where he stumbled in the fitful lantern-light. That grey band beside the
+      glacier is the moraine, whose big<a id="Page_12"></a> <span class="pagenum">[12]</span>rocks
+      were unstable beneath his tread. That glacier&mdash;how slippery it was
+      before the sun smote it! There are the crevasses that made his track so
+      devious; and there began the snowfield so hard and pleasant under foot in
+      the early hours, so toilsome to wade through as the day advanced. In the
+      upper part of the mountain all the little features, that seemed
+      unimportant from below, take on a new meaning. He finds it hard to
+      identify different points. Can that tiny thread of snow be the broad gully
+      up which so many steps had to be cut? He looks at it through a telescope,
+      and the actual traces of his staircase become visible. The mountain judged
+      by the scale of remembered toil grows wonderfully in height. The eye thus
+      trained begins to realise and even to exaggerate the vast scale on which
+      peaks are built. But along with this gain in the truthful sense of scale
+      comes the loss of mystery. The peak which was in heaven is brought down to
+      earth. It was a mere thing of beauty to be adored and wondered at; it has
+      become something to be climbed. Its details have grown intelligible and
+      interesting. The mind regards it from a new aspect, begins to analyse its
+      forms and features, and to consider them mainly in their<a id="Page_13"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[13]</span> relation to man as a climber. As
+      knowledge grows this attitude of mind develops. Each fresh peak ascended
+      teaches something. The nature of the climbing on peaks not yet ascended
+      can to some extent be estimated from below. The inquiry naturally arises,
+      How shall that peak be climbed? Which is the way to attack it? The eye
+      traces possible routes and foresees probable difficulties. It rejects or
+      modifies proposed ways. It observes all kinds of structural details. It
+      notes the path of avalanches and the signs of falling stones. It
+      concentrates its attention upon ice-falls and endeavours to thread the
+      maze of their s�racs. Thus the intelligence replaces the �sthetic sense
+      and the enjoyment of beauty becomes or is liable to become dimmed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The longer a climber gratifies his instincts and pursues his sport, the
+      larger becomes his store of reminiscences and the greater his experience.
+      If he confines his attention to a single range of mountains such as the
+      Alps, he is almost always in sight of mountains he has climbed and
+      glaciers he has traversed. Each view shows him some route he has once
+      pursued, some glacier basin he has explored, some pass he has crossed. The
+      labyrinth of valleys and the crests of successive ridges do not<a
+      id="Page_14"></a> <span class="pagenum">[14]</span>puzzle him. He knows
+      how they are grouped and whither they lead. Beyond those mountains is the
+      Zermatt valley; that peak looks down on Zinal; that col leads to Saas.
+      Thus there grows in him the sense of the general shape and arrangement of
+      the country. It is no longer a tangled chaos of heights and depths, but an
+      ordered anatomy, formed by the action of definite and continuous forces.
+      So far as his knowledge extends this orderliness is realised. He has
+      developed a geographical sense. That in its turn poses problems for
+      solution. He notes some corner of his map where a deep-lying valley is
+      intricately fitted in amongst ridges which he has seen from without. He
+      becomes desirous to visit it, so that he may complete the map in his own
+      understanding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he goes to a new district he cannot but be eager to obtain a
+      geographical grasp of its form and arrangement. The instinct that desires
+      to see round corners and over walls has now new food to grow on. In a
+      fresh district the geographical problem is always fascinating, but in one
+      that has been explored by no mountaineer before, its fascination is
+      overwhelming, especially if the explorer be a surveyor and<a id="Page_15"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[15]</span> cartographer, as I can attest. To see
+      the sketch-map of a previously unsurveyed country grow upon the paper is
+      an intense satisfaction. The aspect of every peak gives rise to a twofold
+      problem. Can it be climbed, and if so by what route? How should it be
+      depicted on the map? These questions are ever present. The solution of
+      them is the thought of every hour, the first point of interest in every
+      view. As it is with the explorer, so to a less extent is it liable to be
+      with every climber; for all climbers are to some extent explorers, even
+      though they are but exploring previously described and mapped territory.
+      It is new to them, at any rate, and that is the important fact. Climbers,
+      when they begin to exhaust a district, move to another in hunger after the
+      unknown.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image040.jpg" width="450" height="341" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOOKING UP VALLEY TOWARDS ZERMATT FROM NEAR RANDA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Theodulhorn and Furggengrat in distance.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Hence, as the seasons go by, it happens that the �sthetic interest, which
+      was at first the climber's main delight, begins to fade. If he be a man of
+      scientific interests it is liable to an even quicker evanescence than if
+      he be not, for problems of geological structure, or of botanical
+      distribution, or of glaciology and the like, are a keen source of
+      intellectual enjoyment. At length, perhaps, the day comes when the loss is
+      felt. There is a gorgeous range of snow mountains with every effect of
+      cloud and sunshine that the eye can<a id="Page_16"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[16]</span> desire, displayed about and upon them, yet the
+      climber finds with dismay that his heart is cold. The old glory has
+      vanished from the scene and the old thrill is an unfelt emotion. What is
+      the matter? Have his eyes grown dim? Has he lost the faculty of delight?
+      Is he growing old? Whatever the cause, the effect is painful in the
+      extreme. It is one that many of us have felt, especially towards the close
+      of a long and successful climbing season, or extensive journey of
+      exploration. There is but one remedy&mdash;to quit the mountains for a
+      while and attend to the common business of life. When winter months have
+      gone by and summer is again at hand, the old enthusiasm is liable to
+      return. Sooner or later the true mountain-lover will begin to starve for
+      sight of the snows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When age comes upon him and his limbs grow stiff and his heart enfeebles,
+      the desire to climb may slacken, but the love of mountains will not
+      diminish. Rather will it take on again something of its first freshness.
+      Then it was purely objective; now it becomes objective once more. The
+      desire to obtain and to possess passes away. We know what it is like to be
+      aloft. We foresee the toil with no less, perhaps with even greater
+      clearness of prevision than we foresee the triumph and the<a id="Page_17"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[17]</span> delight. We have learnt the secret of
+      the hills and entered into the treasures of the snow. Now we can afford to
+      rest below and gaze aloft. If the mystery of our first views can never
+      return, the glow of multitudinous memories replaces it not unworthily. The
+      peaks have become inaccessible once more. They again belong to another
+      world, the world of the past. The ghosts of our dead friends people them,
+      and the ghosts of our dead selves. When the evening glow floods them at
+      close of day it mingles with the mellow glories of the years that are
+      gone. The old passionate hopes and strivings, the old disappointments and
+      regrets, the old rivalries, and the old triumphs, vaguely mingling in a
+      faint regret, beget in the retired mountaineer an attitude of peace and
+      aloofness. He feels again the incommunicable and indescribable delight
+      that thrilled him at the first; but now, though it is less passionate,
+      less stimulating, less overwhelming than of yore, it is mellower and not a
+      whit less beautiful and true.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image044.jpg" width="450" height="345" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        EIGER, M�NCH, AND JUNGFRAU, FROM SCHERZLIGEN, NEAR THUN
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      One precious thing beside memory the retired mountaineer possesses, which
+      he who has never climbed must lack: it is knowledge. The keenest
+      mountain-lover who never climbed does not really know the nature of what
+      he is looking at. Even<a id="Page_18"></a> <span class="pagenum">[18]</span>
+      Ruskin, the most gifted mountain-lover that never climbed, constantly
+      reveals in his writings failures to understand. The true scale of things
+      was never apparent to his eye. Like all beginners, at first
+      underestimating, he presently came to overestimate the size of cliffs and
+      ridges. Ability to see things truly is a great possession. None but an
+      experienced mountaineer can ever so see mountains. He instinctively
+      recognises the important features and distinguishes them from the
+      unimportant. He is conscious of what is in front and what behind. He does
+      not mistake foreshortened ridges for needle-pointed peaks. A range of
+      mountains is not a wall to him but a deep extending mass. He feels the
+      recesses and the projections. He has a sense of what is round the corner.
+      The deep circuits of the hills are present in his imagination even when
+      unbeheld. He knows their white loneliness. The seen end of a glacier-snout
+      implies to him all the unseen upper course and expanse of its gathering
+      ground. Thus every view to him is instinct with implications of the unseen
+      and the beyond. Such knowledge well replaces the mystery of his youthful
+      ignorance. If time has taken something away, it has amply repaid the
+      theft. It is not his debtor. He may mingle now with the<a id="Page_19"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[19]</span> crowd who never quit the roads, and no
+      external sign shall distinguish him from them, but the actual difference
+      between them is fundamental. For the snows are beyond their ken and belong
+      to the same region as the sky; but they are within his area; they form
+      part of his intellectual estate; they hold his past life upon their
+      crests. Where the lowlander looks and wonders, the mountaineer possesses
+      and remembers, nor wonders less for being able to realise the immensity of
+      the mass of beauteous detail that unites to form a mountain landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To attain such ripe fruition, however, does not come to every man, nor to
+      any without taking thought. The most callous person will feel some thrill
+      from a first view of a snowy range, but it may soon become a commonplace
+      sight, its beauty soon be unperceived. Only by taking thought can this be
+      avoided. Unless we can learn from year to year to see more, and more
+      recondite, beauties in nature, we are yearly losing sensitiveness to
+      nature's beauty. There is no standing still in this matter. We must
+      advance or we must go back. A faculty must be used or it will atrophy. It
+      is not enough to go to the mountains in order to grow in their grace.
+      Sensitiveness to beauty<a id="Page_20"></a> <span class="pagenum">[20]</span>
+      increases in the man who looks for beauty and greatly desires to find it.
+      Pure nature is always and everywhere beautiful to the eye that knows how
+      to see. The perception of the beauty of a thing is, however, not the same
+      as the mere sight of a thing. Many may behold a view, and of them all only
+      one may see beauty in it. He does so because he brings with him the innate
+      or trained capacity for seeing that kind of beauty. But how is that
+      capacity to be acquired or emphasised by training? This question might be
+      answered in a volume and even then the answer would be incomplete and
+      would not compel assent from all. We can only afford a single phrase here
+      for the reply&mdash;"by taking thought." If, when a sight produces on the
+      spectator the thrill that comes from the recognition of beauty, he will
+      concentrate his attention upon it and remember it (as a youth remembers
+      the beautiful face of a girl he has merely passed in the street), and if
+      he will be on the alert to find it again and yet again, he will assuredly
+      obtain by degrees a completer understanding and a more sensitive
+      recognition of that particular kind of beauty. He will find more sides and
+      aspects of it than he at first suspected. It will lead him on to a larger
+      knowledge and a wider<a id="Page_21"></a> <span class="pagenum">[21]</span>
+      sympathy. His �sthetic capacity will be increased and his powers of
+      delight continuously developed. All this in the case of mountain-beauty
+      will come to him, not merely because he wanders among or upon mountains,
+      but because being there he retains towards them a definite attitude of
+      mind,&mdash;an attitude, however, which is not that of the climber, and
+      which mere climbing and exploration do not by themselves encourage. He
+      that looks for structure will find structure; he that studies routes will
+      find routes. To find beauty it is beauty that must be searched for as a
+      prospector searches for gold. More priceless than gold, beauty abundantly
+      rewards those who find her. With that guerdon in mind let the
+      mountaineering reader ask himself, "Hast thou entered into the treasures
+      of the snow?"
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image050.jpg" width="450" height="363" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LUCERNE AND LAKE FROM THE DREI LINDEN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Pilatus with storm breaking over mountain and town.<a id="Page_22"></a>
+        <span class="pagenum">[22]</span>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER II</span><br /> <span class="smaller">HOW TO SEE MOUNTAINS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I H<span class="smcap lowercase">AVE</span> borrowed the title of this
+      chapter from that of an excellent book, recently published, called <i>How
+      to Look at Pictures</i>. The natural man might suppose that such were
+      questions on which there is nothing to say. The picture is before you, and
+      all you have to do is to open your eyes and let the image of it fall on
+      your retina. What can be more simple? Yet that is not all, because the eye
+      only sees that which it brings with it the power of seeing. How much more
+      one sees in the face of a friend than in that of a stranger! It is similar
+      with all objects. In order to see aright and to see fully, the power of
+      seeing must be acquired. Some learn more easily than others, but all must
+      learn. It is admittedly so with music. The most self-satisfied person
+      cannot refuse to admit that even a short tune is better grasped,<a
+      id="Page_23"></a> <span class="pagenum">[23]</span> better <i>heard</i>,
+      on a second hearing than the first time. What is true of a simple tune is
+      more obviously true of a complicated work. The most accomplished musician
+      does not grasp a Wagner opera at a first hearing. Man is a creature with
+      faculties that need training. He is not born with faculties fully trained
+      by instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To perceive beauty in a scene implies a power of selection. There is
+      beauty in every view if you know how to find it, but the eye has to sift
+      it out. Open your eyes at random. They are saluted by an infinite
+      multitude of details. You can pass from one to another, but you cannot see
+      them all at once. Looking at a tree, you can see a few leaves and twigs
+      surrounded by a green spludge, which experience has taught you is made up
+      of leaves or twigs, but you do not see all the leaves at once; so with
+      blades of grass, flowers in a field, strata edges on a cliff, or crevasses
+      in a glacier. In a broad effect of sunset you cannot be simultaneously
+      conscious of more than a few forms and colours, and, of those you are
+      simultaneously conscious of, one will be more important than the rest&mdash;one
+      will give the key-note. Nor can you be equally conscious at one moment of
+      forms and colours, or of colours and light and shade. If a view strikes<a
+      id="Page_24"></a> <span class="pagenum">[24]</span> you at all, it strikes
+      you by some effect in it which you perceive, even though you may not be
+      able to state in words what that effect is. It is clear, however, that any
+      effect is the result of selection by the eye. The effect upon the eye
+      would be unchanged if a quantity of details were blotted out, so long as
+      none of those details formed part of the effect. Thus if you were
+      attracted by the bright effulgence of a snow slope seen against a clear
+      sky (to take a simple instance), and if your mind were concentrated upon
+      that contrast, you would not notice the sudden obliteration of a crevasse
+      in the slope. That detail would form no part of the effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As you gaze at any scene you may be continually and rapidly changing the
+      effects you are observing, and that without altering the direction of the
+      eye. Such, in fact, is what every view-gazer is always doing. He is
+      searching for a satisfying effect of beauty out of the multitude of
+      possible effects that could be found, such possible effects being always
+      practically infinite in number. Ultimately it is probable that some one
+      effect will obtain the mastery within him, an effect that his eye is
+      specially capable of seeing and his mind of comprehending. He passes on
+      his way, and a day<a id="Page_25"></a> <span class="pagenum">[25]</span>
+      afterwards recalls yesterday's view. What rises in his memory is not the
+      whole scene with all its details, but the special effect that ultimately
+      impressed him, the result of a kind of survival of the fittest within him
+      of a multitude of competing effects that he saw or almost saw.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image056.jpg" width="450" height="379" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        First ascended 1811.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Take, for example, a very simple instance, the view of the Jungfrau from
+      Interlaken on a clear day. What most people see is a roughly triangular
+      white mass below a blue sky, and limited on either hand and below by green
+      slopes and foreground. Suppose the looker to be a meteorologist whose
+      special study is the atmosphere and its clouds. Probably the first thing
+      he will notice will be the quality of the blueness of the sky and the tone
+      of the lower atmosphere between him and the white mountain and green
+      hills. He will, in fact, observe the air-tones, and consciously or
+      unconsciously they will be the key-note of his impression. Next comes an
+      East Londoner with a Toynbee Hall party, let us say. What strikes him is
+      the novelty of the white mountain. Its whiteness is his main impression,
+      the blue and the green being perceived as mere contrasts to that, and the
+      forms of mountain and hills being unimportant shapes of the colour limits.
+      The size of the mountain may<a id="Page_26"></a> <span class="pagenum">[26]</span>
+      be a subsidiary impression, but it will depend still upon the white
+      colour, the wonder being that so large a natural object should be of snow.
+      Anon comes a lover of woods and trees and of the green world. The white
+      mountain for him will merely emphasise and dignify the pine woods and the
+      grassy swards. He will note the draping of the hills by the pine-trees,
+      and the character of the woods. The white peak will have value in the view
+      to him, but only a value subordinate to that of the forest. After him
+      comes a climber, trained, let us say, in the Canadian Rockies, and now for
+      the first time visiting the classic land of climbers. When, on a clear
+      day, the Jungfrau bursts upon his vision, he will give all his eyes to her
+      and her only. He will not observe the greater or lesser blueness of the
+      sky, nor the forms and features of the foreground hills&mdash;that is to
+      say, they will not be the first object of his attention, the key-note of
+      the effect he perceives. No! he will notice the form of the snow peak, the
+      modelling of the glacier surface, the striping of the avalanche tracks,
+      the character of the outlining ridges and minor buttresses. He will be
+      subtly conscious of what is snow and what ice, of how and why rocks emerge
+      from the snowy envelope. Where the<a id="Page_27"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[27]</span> ignorant will conceive the peak to be a great
+      mound of snow, the newly-arrived climber will feel it to be a mass of rock
+      draped in snow and ice, and his attention will be caught and held by that
+      drapery, its forms and foldings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally there comes an artist, who knows nothing about mountains or
+      forests and cares nothing, but who loves above all else (let us say)
+      colour. What he will see will be some colour effect, some special harmony
+      of tints in sky and snow and forest, some unifying effect that will make
+      white, blue, and green all qualities of a single glory. If he paint the
+      view, that is the effect he will strive to render, and in so doing he will
+      care little about forms and details, little about modellings of glacier
+      drapery and rocky skeleton. The colour-chord will be his aim, and all the
+      power of his vision and the skill of his hand will be concentrated upon
+      that. Or perhaps the artist will not come alone but in company with
+      another of different character. This one cares less about colour than
+      form. What will strike him will be the graceful architecture of the view,
+      the delicate outlines, the intricate rareness of surface modelling in the
+      snow, the strongly relieved emphasis of the limiting lines of the framing
+      hills.<a id="Page_28"></a> <span class="pagenum">[28]</span> Whether the
+      sky be blue of a special tone and the foreground embellished with every
+      shade and combination of greens will be immaterial to him for the time. He
+      will feast his eyes upon form, and form will be the real subject of
+      whatever representation of the scene he may endeavour to set down.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Any one can multiply instances for himself and carry further to any extent
+      the analysis of possible simultaneous varieties of effect in a single
+      view. If to that he add the changes of effect that nature makes by
+      variations of the weather, time of day, and season of the year, it will be
+      evident enough how a single scene may be beheld with infinite variety by
+      the eye of man; and the suspicion will arise that all conceptions, all
+      appreciations, may not be equally fine or equally easy to grasp, and that,
+      where one man may see little, another may be able to see an effect of
+      singular beauty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the true and proper function of a landscape painter to find effects
+      in views, but it does not follow that the effects he sees are those seen
+      by any man in the street. "I never saw a sunset look like that," said a
+      man to Turner when looking at one of his pictures. "No!" was the reply,<a
+      id="Page_29"></a> <span class="pagenum">[29]</span> "but don't you wish
+      you could?" It should be the business of a painter to inspire such envy in
+      those who see his works. If he merely shows us things as we see them for
+      ourselves, he is of little service. At best he does but revive our
+      memories. He should do more. He should stimulate our imaginations to a
+      higher activity, or provide us with something to look for in the future
+      even more than to revive in the past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To return to our two painters of a previous paragraph: if their drawings
+      of the Jungfrau were shown to the meteorologist, he might be prompt to
+      observe that the atmospheric effect was not rendered, and that the colour
+      of the sky was incorrect. The Toynbee Hall excursionist would find the
+      snow lacking in the radiance that had dazzled him. The forest-lover would
+      declare that he could not identify the character of the trees and that the
+      various greens of the foreground were untrue to nature. Whilst the climber
+      would regard the colourist's Jungfrau as a daub in which all the character
+      of the peak was missed. He would fail to recognise any possible route up
+      its painted image or the signs of the difficulties and dangers of the way.
+      Finally,<a id="Page_30"></a> <span class="pagenum">[30]</span> each artist
+      might regard the other's picture as a more or less mistaken effort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet if all these gentry were animated by a proper spirit they would
+      recognise that their own view was not the only way of seeing the peak, but
+      that any of the others was equally truthful, perhaps equally worthy, nay,
+      that some other effect than those they respectively felt might be
+      superior. Each might learn from the drawings another kind of effect to
+      look for, and raising his eyes from the paper to the peak might then and
+      there see the pictured effect for himself, and thenceforward be able to
+      discover the like again in other places. It is difficult to estimate how
+      far the effective sight of any man has been thus educated, either by
+      pictured scenes, or by a word in season from some companion who shared
+      with him this or the other splendid view. Each of us starts but poorly
+      equipped; each may discover something for himself and to some extent
+      develop his faculties by his own unaided efforts; but ultimately each,
+      even the most naturally gifted, learns far more from others than he
+      originates. The most efficient teachers of how to look are painters&mdash;of
+      how to look at scenery, landscape painters. It is unfortunate that the
+      snowy ranges<a id="Page_31"></a> <span class="pagenum">[31]</span> have
+      not been studied by a larger number of the great landscape artists. Turner
+      handled them in their broader aspects and from relatively low and distant
+      points of view; by so doing he greatly helped to spread and deepen a
+      knowledge of mountain beauty. No inconsiderable number of later artists,
+      mostly, however, admittedly of the second rank, have devoted at least a
+      part of their time to mountain-landscape art, some pursuing it to the
+      higher and inner recesses of the snowy region. Yet it must be admitted
+      that the great mountain pictures are yet to be painted. Stott seemed on
+      the verge of a higher success. Segantini almost touched the goal, and
+      would doubtless have come nearer if he had lived longer. Such men amongst
+      the dead, and many living artists, whose names I do not venture to set
+      down lest by inadvertent omission I were to be unjust, have earned our
+      thankfulness by the lessons they have taught; yet plenty more remains to
+      be accomplished. The hills have not inspired landscape painters with all
+      the fulness of their charm.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image064.jpg" width="450" height="353" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        FIESCHERHORN AND LOWER GRINDELWALD GLACIER
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is often forgotten that mountains and even snowy mountains found their
+      way into pictures at a very early date. Even the father of modern<a
+      id="Page_32"></a> <span class="pagenum">[32]</span> landscape painting,
+      Hubert Van Eyck, introduced admirable renderings of lines of snowy peaks
+      into the backgrounds of some of his pictures, as, for instance, in the
+      "Three Maries at the Sepulchre," belonging to Sir Frederick Cook, where
+      the effect of a distant range is beautifully suggested. Albrecht D�rer
+      again, about a century later, made a series of the carefullest studies of
+      mountain scenes in the neighbourhood of the Brenner road, and
+      thenceforward he was fond of introducing excellently-drawn peaks into the
+      backgrounds of his engravings and woodcuts. He possessed a remarkable
+      knowledge of the essential facts of mountain form, so that even a modern
+      mountaineer can learn from his works some of the elements of "how to see."
+      Well-drawn mountains are of frequent occurrence in sixteenth century
+      woodcuts and drawings by the prolific masters of sixteenth century south
+      German and Venetian schools. The fact is one of many proofs of the
+      vitality of that first modern outburst of mountain enthusiasm which
+      gradually faded as the sixteenth century advanced.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is the commonplace of seventeenth and eighteenth century writers, who
+      chance to refer to mountain scenery, to describe it as of monstrous,<a
+      id="Page_33"></a> <span class="pagenum">[33]</span> horrible, or even
+      hideous character. Contemporary artists gave it corresponding expression.
+      We are wrong to assume that their pictures and prints manifest any
+      incapacity to draw, because we do not recognise in them the peaks and
+      landscapes we know. The fact was that those artists gave quite truthful
+      expression to the impression produced upon them by mountain scenery. Most
+      Alpine lovers have seen prints professing to depict such objects as the
+      Grindelwald glaciers and the surrounding heights, and have wondered how
+      any one with the view before him can have so libelled it. But the artist
+      intended no libel. All snowy peaks to him were inaccessible altitudes; in
+      imagination he doubled their steepness. I myself, when a boy, approached
+      the Matterhorn with a belief that it was built of precipices. I had always
+      heard it so spoken of. With the thing itself before me I sat down to draw
+      it, and quite unintentionally and unconsciously exaggerated its steepness
+      and sharpness in a way that now seems difficult to account for. If such
+      was the effect of preconception upon a modern lad who had already climbed
+      several relatively high Alpine mountains, how easy it must have been for a
+      seventeenth-century artist to be misled, who never<a id="Page_34"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[34]</span> thought of climbing at all, and to whose
+      mind the notion of any individual interest attaching to a particular peak
+      was altogether foreign. He merely felt a general awe, or horror, of his
+      surroundings, and in depicting mountain scenery very properly made the
+      rendering of either emotion his chief aim. Pictures painted at that time
+      under those influences are not to be regarded as valueless and ridiculous.
+      They are of great value as enabling us to see with our own eyes what
+      mountain scenery actually looked like to the people of those days, and
+      thus to account for the extraordinary language employed by travellers
+      going <i>the grand tour</i> who attempted to describe the scenery through
+      which they passed when crossing the Alps.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image070.jpg" width="450" height="310" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE CASTLE OF CHILLON
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend smaller">
+        Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls:<br /> A thousand feet in depth below
+        <br /> Its massy waters meet and flow.<br /> <span class="right2">B<span
+        class="smcap lowercase">YRON.</span></span>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I have thus far only spoken of the educative effect of mountain paintings
+      in teaching us how to see mountain scenery, but there are other forms of
+      art equally efficient. As a matter of<a id="history1">history</a>, it was
+      the writers,<a title="Go to footnote 1." href="#fn1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+      and especially the poets, who induced the intelligent public to change
+      their attitude towards mountains. I do not know who was the initiator of
+      the movement or in what country it was first apparent. Rousseau deserves
+      to be remembered in this connection. Sir Walter<a id="Page_35"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[35]</span> Scott and Byron carried on the work, and were
+      supported by the poets of the Lake School. Goethe and Schiller were widely
+      influential in the same direction. At first it was the vague romanticism
+      of the hills and of the supposed simple life of mountain peasants that
+      attracted sympathetic notice and description. Gradually mountains came to
+      be looked at in greater detail and for their own sake. Finally, in our own
+      day, Ruskin for the first time attempted to analyse mountain beauty, and
+      not only produced in the fourth volume of <i>Modern Painters</i> a most
+      suggestive and illuminating work, but by the magic of his language and the
+      charm and aptness of his illustrative drawings attracted to it the
+      attention of all that was best in English society. Whether what followed
+      was directly due to his initiative, I do not know. The next important step
+      was the publication of Mr. Edward Whymper's <i>Scrambles amongst the Alps</i>,
+      which rapidly attained popularity of the best kind. It is difficult
+      nowadays to put one's self in the place of mountain lovers who met with
+      that book when it first appeared. To us it is still full of freshness and
+      charm, but to them it was far more significant. They compared its
+      illustrations with those in<a id="Page_36"></a> <span class="pagenum">[36]</span>
+      <i>Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers</i>, published twelve years before, and
+      they were smitten with admiration. "Look at the poor old
+      chromo-lithographs," wrote Leslie Stephen, "which then professed to
+      represent the mountains, and compare them with Mr. Whymper's admirable
+      woodcuts. The difference is really remarkable. Though some of these old
+      illustrations, copied from photographs, suggest the general outlines with
+      tolerable fidelity, most of them utterly fail to represent a mountain at
+      all to an educated eye.... The old daubs are mere random indications of
+      certain obtrusive features which could not well be overlooked. Mr.
+      Whymper's woodcuts seem to bring the genuine Alps before us in all their
+      marvellous beauty and variety of architecture." Ruskin and Whymper, in
+      fact, took up mountain-drawing where D�rer had left it three hundred and
+      fifty years before. They looked at the mountains themselves with the
+      humility that belongs to men who love the truth, and they taught others so
+      to look. Alpine climbing taught men for the first time what mountains
+      actually are. The power so to see them was simultaneously developed, and
+      photography has helped.
+    </p>
+    <p class="footnote">
+      <a id="fn1"></a><a title="Return to text." href="#history1" class="label">[1]</a>
+      NOTE.&mdash;As to the historical question referred to at the foot of page
+      34, see Coolidge's <i>Swiss Travel</i>, pp. 24 and 128, and the references
+      there given to A. von Haller's <i>Die Alpen</i> of 1732.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question of mountain-photography is a<a id="Page_37"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[37]</span> thorny one, but it must be faced. The reader
+      can scarcely deny that if mountains really looked like the ordinary run of
+      commercial photographs of them, they would be ugly or at least
+      unattractive objects. A volume of such photographs would scarcely lead a
+      man, who had never left his home, eagerly to desire a close acquaintance
+      with snowy peaks. That, however, was actually what Mr. Whymper's woodcuts
+      did. Hundreds of readers of his book were thereby led to become
+      mountaineers. Wherein does this different efficiency consist? A
+      photograph, in theory, repeats every detail of the view it contains. Such
+      details as drop out are either too small or too faint to be visible in the
+      print. A camera does not select. It takes all. In this respect it differs
+      altogether from the human eye. If you look fixedly in a definite direction
+      and regard carefully what it is that you actually see, you will discover
+      it to be a few central details only, and that they are surrounded not
+      merely by vaguely defined objects but by objects duplicated. Thus the
+      sight of the eye and the sight of a camera are not alike, either in what
+      is beheld or what is selected. The sense of beauty depends upon what the
+      eye selects. It would seem then<a id="Page_38"></a> <span class="pagenum">[38]</span>
+      that the beauty of a view could not possibly be reproduced by photography,
+      and such was the crude conclusion once held by artists of the capacities
+      of this modern process. Photographers, however, have proved that such is
+      not necessarily the case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the infinite effects, all of them beautiful, that a single landscape is
+      capable of yielding, and yielding simultaneously, most are beyond the
+      reach of photography; but the same is likewise true of any one
+      art-process. Pen-and-ink drawing, for example, is as incapable of
+      reproducing colour effects as photography. Each art has its own limited
+      area of possible effect. Photography, in so far as it is an art, is
+      subject to its own definite and rather narrow limitations. A photographer
+      can choose his subject and determine its exact limitations. As he can deal
+      only with forms and tones, he must choose a subject so arranged by nature
+      that its forms are in themselves beautiful, and its tones a harmonious
+      distribution of light and shade. But light and shade varies with the hour
+      of the day and season of the year, and forms vary with the drift of clouds
+      over the hills, so that the selection of moment becomes for the
+      photographer as important <a id="Page_39"></a> <span class="pagenum">[39]</span>
+      as the choice of point of view, direction, and area of subject. Again, by
+      choice of length of exposure and by methods of development, the
+      photographer can alter the quality of light and shade in his negative and
+      the amount of detail he renders. These three factors are entirely under
+      the photographer's control, and in so far as he avails himself of them,
+      not merely to reproduce a view but to reproduce the picturesque effect in
+      a view, he becomes and deserves to be regarded as an artist.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image076.jpg" width="341" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION TO THE HOFKIRCHE OF ST.&nbsp;LEODEGAR
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The Principal Catholic Church of Lucerne.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In our own days, as the photograph exhibitions of the Alpine Club have
+      demonstrated, there are no inconsiderable number of mountain
+      artist-photographers. It has been proved that snow mountains are a
+      specially suitable subject for such art. Views in the high regions of ice
+      and rock seldom depend for their chief beauty upon colour. He whose eye is
+      sensitive to colour-effects can, indeed, find such in profusion in the
+      regions of snow, but they are not the effects to which experience shows
+      mountain lovers are as a rule most sensitive. What most of us love in
+      mountains is primarily their form. Grand forms are profusely supplied by
+      frost-riven rocks and cloven glaciers. In great snow-fields and slopes,
+      the <a id="Page_40"></a> <span class="pagenum">[40]</span> surface
+      modelling is often of transcendent beauty, and that modelling can be
+      rendered to perfection by photography, if the right moment be chosen.
+      Photographers who have known what to look for and what to reject, have
+      perhaps done more even than any other kind of artists in revealing the
+      mountains. But the right moment comes comparatively seldom and has to be
+      seized. A climber may pass for hours through gorgeous scenery, full of
+      subjects for a painter, yet there may not be offered to him one
+      photographable effect. He may expose plate after plate, and carry away
+      with him the most interesting topographical and geographical records, but
+      among them all there will not be a single picture that will render a
+      picturesque effect and be worthy to rank as a work of art. The
+      artist-photographer is a man who can snatch the right moment for the right
+      effect. He must be able to recognise immediately and instinctively, when
+      it comes before his vision, an effect of beauty that can be reproduced. He
+      must see in the complexity of every view what the camera will make of it,
+      knowing for a certainty what it can be made to reflect and what to
+      exclude. In fact he must possess the same qualities as any other kind of
+      landscape<a id="Page_41"></a> <span class="pagenum">[41]</span> artist,
+      the eye that recognises an effect suited to his art and the skill to
+      render that effect in his resulting work of art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such photographers, as I have said, there are and have been. Their works
+      have opened the eyes of many a climber to effects of beauty in mountains
+      of which they had before been unconscious. Returning to the regions of
+      snow, they have been thus enabled to look for them and to find them. Their
+      own sensibility to beauty has thus been enriched and their power of
+      enjoyment correspondingly increased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In consequence of the work of poets, writers, painters, photographers,
+      indeed all kinds of artists, and of the stimulus exerted by them upon
+      mountain travellers of all sorts, men have learned in the last
+      half-century to see mountains far better, more truly, and more beautifully
+      than was possible before. We find in them complexities and refinements of
+      beauty the very existence of which was previously unsuspected. We do not
+      merely wonder at their size or shudder at their savagery. We can do that
+      when the mood is on us, but the mood seldom comes. Our forefathers
+      generally looked at them from a distance and thought of them as a whole,<a
+      id="Page_42"></a> <span class="pagenum">[42]</span> seldom doing more than
+      to identify here and there a single individual from the mass. We, on the
+      contrary, have learnt to know them from nearer at hand. We have made
+      friends with them; we can call them all by their names. We know the aspect
+      of each from many points of view, and their features are as familiar to us
+      as were the features of woodside and stream to the medi�val villager. This
+      intimacy with the mountains has taught us that all the snowy ranges of the
+      world are, as it were, of a single race, and that he who knows one knows
+      something about all.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Alpine climber, who knows the Alps, can be interested in mere
+      description of mountain ascents elsewhere. Knowing what Alpine peaks look
+      like and how they appear in picture and photograph, he can, by aid of
+      pictures and photographs, attain a tolerably complete idea of the aspect
+      of other mountain ranges. Hence the explorers of such ranges, of the
+      Caucasus, the Himalayas, the peaks of Central Africa, South America, and
+      New Zealand, have been called upon to describe the peaks they have
+      climbed, the valleys and glaciers they have traversed, and the scenery of
+      the regions and ranges they have explored, in a way that would have been
+      unintelligible<a id="Page_43"></a> <span class="pagenum">[43]</span> two
+      generations ago. What we now demand of a mountain explorer is not merely
+      to tell us the adventures of his route, but to explain to us wherein the
+      quality of the mountain scenery differs from that which is familiar nearer
+      home. He must be prepared to answer many questions which would not have
+      been asked till recently. Has he been to the Himalayas or the Andes? We
+      want to know whether those great mountains look their size, and, if so,
+      wherein the effect is manifested of a scale greater than the Alps. Is he
+      returning from Sikhim? We shall ask him to tell us what the great peaks
+      there look like when seen from the beautiful forest below. What are the
+      atmospheric effects peculiar to the region? And, with yet more
+      persistence, what is the quality of mountain form which distinguishes the
+      great peaks there, so that, beheld merely through the medium of
+      photographs, they so impress their individuality upon us?
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image084.jpg" width="450" height="372" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        CLOUD-BURST OVER LUCERNE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Knowing, as we do, the great variety of mountain scenery that can be found
+      in the Alps, between the Dolomites of Tirol at one end and the crags of
+      Dauphiny at the other, we expect to be told whether, in the case of the
+      long Andes range, corresponding varieties are discoverable, and<a
+      id="Page_44"></a> <span class="pagenum">[44]</span> what and where they
+      are. Such questions and multitudes more arise within us. It is much if a
+      traveller can answer a few of them. At best he leaves us hungry. It is
+      this hunger that impels us to travel afar ourselves, if fortune permit.
+      Some indeed travel and explore for merely scientific reasons. They desire
+      to add to knowledge and to diminish the area of the unknown. Some perhaps
+      believe that they go merely in search of sport. The normal man is more
+      complex. He has these ends in view to a greater or less extent perhaps;
+      but, if he be a normal mountaineer, deep down within him there assuredly
+      resides a true and hearty attachment to mountains and mountain scenery for
+      the sake of their beauty. He may be too dumb to express it or too shy to
+      admit, but we soon discover that the feeling is there, and that it is a
+      dominant fact in his nature. He may not have analysed it. He may never
+      speak of it, never perhaps even state it to himself, yet when we stand
+      beside him on a mountain height, gazing abroad on the undefiled world of
+      snow spread abroad at our feet, we find that we share with him a common
+      feeling and embrace a common joy. After all, it is the beauty of the snows
+      that<a id="Page_45"></a> <span class="pagenum">[45]</span> takes us all
+      back to them, and again back. Were that beauty blotted out, how many of us
+      would be climbers? We are like anglers in this respect. We set an aim
+      before us and pursue it with vigour and seem to be wholly intent upon it,
+      but it is the beautiful, natural surroundings of our sport to which it
+      owes its charm. Only the artist can make the realisation of that beauty
+      his active aim, and activity is a necessity to most of us, so we employ
+      ourselves actively in the world of beauty, and take her for the exceeding
+      great reward of our seemingly needless and unprofitable toil.<a
+      id="Page_46"></a> <span class="pagenum">[46]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER III</span><br /> <span class="smaller">HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      "O<span class="smcap lowercase">LD</span> as the hills" is not a
+      comparison that would be considered apt if invented to-day, for we now
+      know that, geologically speaking, the greatest mountain ranges are of
+      recent elevation, and that even low hills are seldom of great antiquity.
+      It was not till men became climbers, and so grew to have an intimate
+      acquaintance with mountains in detail, that a recognition of the rapid
+      degradation which all mountains are suffering was clearly obtained. To
+      look at the Matterhorn from below is to behold an apparently everlasting
+      tower, yet its base is strewn with ruins, and its flanks are continuously
+      swept by falling masses of rock.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The realisation of this different point of view, which we must presently
+      discuss in more detail, forms a clear mark of division between the
+      attitude towards mountains, of men in the pre-scientific<a id="Page_47"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[47]</span> age and to-day. Our forefathers
+      naturally regarded the hills as eternal and everlasting. They defined the
+      beginning of things in such phrases as "Before the mountains were brought
+      forth." The tops of peaks, actually their newest feature, were
+      hoary-headed to them. This was indeed partly due to their limited idea of
+      the stretch of time into the past. Six thousand years, which to us seems
+      but a day, was an eternity to them. Of course six thousand years is a
+      brief period in the life of a mountain. Judged by such a standard it may
+      be called eternal, and that was the kind of meaning they attached to the
+      word. Mountains have grown young as our notions of time past have
+      extended. If we could lengthen our time-span, the interval of time (about
+      one-tenth of a second) of which we are simultaneously conscious, if we
+      could extend it to years instead of a fraction of a second, we should
+      actually see the mountains changing. In a sense that is what we have
+      imaginatively accomplished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pre-scientific man possessed no such power. Dwellers in mountain countries
+      beheld the peaks apparently ever the same. Each summer, as it stripped
+      away part of the winter accumulation of<a id="Page_48"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[48]</span> snow, revealed the same apparently unaltering
+      features. They knew nothing of the movement of glaciers. They regarded
+      snow-mountains as accumulations piled up continuously from the beginning
+      of the world and destined to go on increasing till the end. I remember
+      reading in the comparatively recent book of travel written by an
+      Anglo-Indian, how he went up some Himalayan valley and came to the glacier
+      at the head of it. He attempted to go no further. He conceived himself to
+      have reached the limit of possible advance. He mounted some way up the
+      hillside and looked along towards the head of the valley; all was ice&mdash;an
+      accumulation fallen from the cliffs on either hand for thousands of years
+      and some day destined to fill the trough to the brim&mdash;such was his
+      notion of the thing he was looking at.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Changeless, eternal, forbidding, still, silent, and horrible&mdash;thus
+      the snowy ranges appeared to the pre-scientific gaze. To us they seem the
+      very reverse. We know them to be ceaselessly changing, of relatively short
+      persistence, the theatre of movements of all kinds both violent and slow&mdash;not
+      places of death by any means, but the home of an active, a beneficent, and
+      a formative life&mdash;not<a id="Page_49"></a> <span class="pagenum">[49]</span>
+      regions cut off and unrelated to the lowlands and habitable world, but the
+      very parent of such, the laboratory where soil is made, and the head of
+      water collected that distributes it below; the counterbalance of the
+      denuding forces that would level the earth with the ocean; regions
+      beneficent as they are beautiful, and as necessary to the well-being of
+      the habitable world as is the richest and most fertile plain.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image090.jpg" width="327" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        AT MEIRINGEN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Ridge above the Br�nig Pass in distance.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      He that would know mountains and mountain regions aright must know them as
+      the theatre of change, the domain of action. He must not merely look upon
+      peaks as they are, but must conceive of them as they have been and will
+      be. As this kind of knowledge grows and becomes instinctive within him, it
+      will alter his attitude towards Alpine panoramas and broaden his grasp of
+      the significance of mountain physiognomy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us briefly consider the stages of formation and decay of a single
+      group of mountains, not volcanic. If we go back to the very start, we may
+      imagine their future site occupied by a plain. The slow cooling and
+      consequent shrinking of the world involves the wrinkling of its surface,
+      and the position of the wrinkles is determined by a variety of forces, as
+      yet little understood, with<a id="Page_50"></a> <span class="pagenum">[50]</span>
+      which we need not concern ourselves. Suffice it to assume that our plain
+      occupies the position of the next coming group of wrinkles. A single range
+      or line of mountains hardly exists in the world outside of the commonplace
+      cartographer's mind. Old-fashioned maps used to represent mountains by a
+      kind of caterpillar meandering about on them, and thus gave currency to
+      the notion that mountains are generally arranged along a single line&mdash;a
+      notion, by the by, that (in the minds of politicians negotiating boundary
+      treaties) has been prolific in costly disputes and misunderstandings.<a
+      id="dings2"></a><a title="Go to footnote 2." href="#fn2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+      Mountains generally exist in rows of more or less parallel ranges
+      intricately jointed together, and they do so because, when the wrinkling
+      that caused them began, it did not begin with a single wrinkle, but with a
+      row of wrinkles, such as a soft tablecloth makes on a smooth table when
+      parts of it are moved toward one another.
+    </p>
+    <p class="footnote">
+      <a id="fn2"></a><a title="Return to text." href="#dings2" class="label">[2]</a>
+      Witness the Argentine and Alaska boundary disputes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the first sign of a mountain range will be a series of undulations
+      upon the surface of the supposed plain. These undulations will be roughly
+      parallel to one another. We call the direction of their parallelism the
+      strike of the <a id="Page_51"></a> <span class="pagenum">[51]</span>
+      ranges. From the moment the wrinkling movement begins, a set of forces is
+      put in operation tending to level the wrinkles and fill up the hollows or
+      valleys between them. These are the forces of denudation. People often
+      vaguely speak as though mountains were first elevated to their full height
+      and then only began to be pulled down; but of course the process of
+      mountain sculpture is due to the simultaneous operation of the elevating
+      and destructive forces. Every mountain is being pulled down in the very
+      process of its elevation. It grows only because it is elevated faster than
+      the destructive forces avail to level it. For all we yet know, some of the
+      mountain ranges which seem most rapidly disintegrating may, in fact, still
+      be growing. No one has yet divided the mountain ranges of the world into
+      those which have not yet reached and those which have passed their
+      maturity. When that has been done we shall doubtless find some clearly
+      marked difference in aspect between them which now we do not know enough
+      to recognise. The visible difference once discovered, the two groups will
+      raise different kinds of emotion in the man who sees them. He will note
+      the aspect of growth in one set <a id="Page_52"></a> <span class="pagenum">[52]</span>
+      and of decay in the other, and will be correspondingly affected, as we all
+      now are by the young leaves and buds of spring and the fruits and faded
+      foliage of autumn. Sad folk will love the fading and sanguine folk the
+      growing hills. There will arise a new subject for poets and a new group of
+      similes for preachers and moralists. In this way also science enlarges the
+      material of art.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we must return to our nascent mountain group, as yet a mere series of
+      parallel wrinklings, higher here, lower there, with lines of depression
+      between them. Rain falling will need to drain away, and in doing so will
+      form pools in hollows, and will run along the furrows till it reaches the
+      open country and can turn away. Thus the first streams of a nascent group
+      of mountains follow and do not flow across the strike. Only the rivulets
+      that actually flow down the slopes will flow in a direction perpendicular
+      to the strike, and will be tributaries to the main lines of drainage that
+      flow along the strike.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image096.jpg" width="450" height="330" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        STORM CLOUDS OVER THE LAKE OF THUN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Looking up the Kander Thal. The Niesen on the right.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The mountains are rising steadily as the millenniums of years pass on. The
+      rain keeps falling on them, and as they grow higher the snows of winter
+      first, and later of all the year, whiten their summits and gradually
+      descend upon<a id="Page_53"></a> <span class="pagenum">[53]</span> their
+      slopes as the summits reach higher and higher aloft. If the rain always
+      fell uniformly over the whole area, and if the ranges were of rock,
+      homogeneous like a great lump of plaster, equally strong in every
+      direction&mdash;if such were the case, each range would remain
+      approximately symmetrical on both sides, and the crest of it would lie
+      evenly between its two flanking troughs. But that is never the case. The
+      rain-bringing winds are sure to come more frequently from one side of the
+      mountain area than from the other. The wet quarter will be the east or the
+      west or the south-west, as the case may be, and more moisture will be
+      precipitated and consequently more denudation effected by it on one side
+      of the ridges than on the other, with important sculpturing results as we
+      shall presently observe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may best regard the rising mountain area as a plateau with a wrinkled
+      top, such a plateau as Tibet, for example. As time advances the plateau
+      will present ever loftier walls to the outside world, but the undulations
+      within will not greatly develop by any directly wrinkling process. It is
+      not the wrinkling that splits the plateau up into ranges, but quite other
+      forces. All that the wrinkling does is to give to those forces<a
+      id="Page_54"></a> <span class="pagenum">[54]</span> their first direction.
+      The interior of Tibet shows us what, but for these other forces, a great
+      mountain region would be like. It would be traversed from end to end by
+      low and roughly parallel ridges, separated from one another by shallow
+      valleys raised high aloft on the great plateau-pedestal. In the shallow
+      valleys there would lie many lakes, some having no outlets, others drained
+      by slow streams flowing along the strike of the ranges, and fed by
+      driblets from the slopes of the flanking hills.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But at the ends and around the periphery of the plateau generally a
+      different condition of things will be found. Let us regard the ends first.
+      The slow flowing rivers of the plateau as they reach its extremity will
+      become swift, where they plunge down to the plain. In proportion to their
+      swiftness is the speed with which they cut down their beds into the mass
+      of the plateau-pedestal. If the end of the plateau were a cliff, the
+      rivers would tumble over it in waterfalls, and these would cut their way
+      back and thus dig out ca�ons in place of the shallow valleys of the
+      original wrinkling. In any case a similar result will be arrived at, and
+      the plateau will be more and more cut down into deep valleys with high<a
+      id="Page_55"></a> <span class="pagenum">[55]</span> ridges between. What
+      were originally small wrinkles above the mean level of the plateau and
+      slight depressions beneath it will be changed by denudation into high
+      mountains and deep valleys, their scale being determined by the amount of
+      general elevation of the plateau above the low-lying country. As the
+      general elevating process goes on, so does the excavation. The deep
+      valleys will be formed first at the edge of the plateau. They will work
+      back into its heart in process of time. The original Tibetan plateau is
+      now greatly reduced, and only the remaining middle part of it preserves
+      any resemblance to its primary surface-form. As you go eastward or
+      westward from that central portion you come into ever deepening valleys
+      and ever relatively higher peaks, measured from the neighbouring valley
+      floor.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image100.jpg" width="450" height="369" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        VITZNAU AND LAKE OF LUCERNE
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Vitznau is the terminus of the Rigi Railway. The two promontories on the
+        right and left of the picture are the Nasen, Ober Nase and Untere Nase.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Thus far we have only spoken of the natural development of the strike
+      rivers, those original lines of flow that follow the direction of the
+      ranges. We must now observe how their course is affected by the
+      development of the tributary streams that flow down the slopes of the
+      ridges approximately at right angles to the strike. In the case of the
+      Himalayas the rains come from southerly quarters. The damp air-current<a
+      id="Page_56"></a> <span class="pagenum">[56]</span> drifts against and
+      over the plateau from that direction. Contact with the elevations against
+      which it drifts causes the rains to fall. As the damp current flows
+      further north it becomes continually dryer, so that less and less rain
+      falls. Thus denudation is most energetic on the southern slopes. As the
+      plateau rises its southern edge (to consider that alone for a moment) is
+      most vigorously cut into by the water pouring down that face and forming
+      gullies, which continuously tend to deepen and to cut back into the mass
+      of the plateau. The process has only to go forward long enough, for the
+      most energetic of these side-streams to eat its way back, right through
+      the outermost wrinkle of the plateau, till it taps the first or
+      southernmost of the strike rivers. From that moment the course of the
+      strike river is changed, and instead of flowing away along its original
+      valley, it turns at right angles and flows out through the gully cut by
+      the side-stream, which thus becomes the main river. The next wrinkle is in
+      turn attacked by the side-streams flowing down its south slope and in turn
+      cut through, so that the second strike river becomes thus tributary to the
+      first. And so the process continues.<a id="Page_57"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[57]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is the history of the formation of a great river like the Indus. It
+      is filled by the robbed waters of countless smaller rivers, one by one
+      drawn within its drainage area by the action of side-streams cutting
+      through intervening ridges. All these rivers and their tributaries go on
+      cutting their way back with ever-increasing vigour as the trunk outlet is
+      lowered by their united volume. This is the process whereby an original
+      plateau is sculptured into a maze of ridges and valleys. The towering
+      heights we behold were never elevated in isolated magnificence. A
+      different thrust did not send up the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn, and Monte
+      Rosa, but all the neighbourhood was elevated by one great heaving. To
+      begin with, some lines of elevation were a little higher than others, and
+      they determined the position of principal peaks and ridges; but as the
+      mass was elevated the hollows were engraved by the <i>burin</i> of flowing
+      water. The higher the mass was raised the deeper the hollows were
+      impressed and the wider became their opening, for the self-same forces
+      operate on every slope and continually eat it away and open side-valleys
+      and subsidiary side-valleys into them. These forces operating on both
+      sides of every ridge<a id="Page_58"></a> <span class="pagenum">[58]</span>
+      rapidly pull down its crest and ultimately round it off and reduce it
+      lower and lower continually, so that it is only a question of time for the
+      biggest mountain mass to be lowered to the level of the plains around it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Running water is not the only agent that has to be considered. Even more
+      energetic agents act in the higher regions of frost. There the snow that
+      is melted by the sun (whose dissolving power is as operative in the
+      regions so-called of perpetual snow as it is below) percolates into the
+      crevices of the rocks and finds out all their weak places. At night this
+      water freezes, and in freezing expands, thus acting like a wedge and
+      splitting the rock it has penetrated. Next time the sun shines the pieces
+      thus split off may fall. Sooner or later, after repeated operations of the
+      wedge, they must fall, and a new surface of rock will be uncovered to be
+      split and shivered in its turn. The rocks that fall tumble ultimately on
+      to the snow-fields that spread over the high open spaces, where they are
+      taken charge of by the great carrying agents of the heights&mdash;the
+      glaciers. The higher a peak is, relatively to its neighbours, the more
+      rapidly will frost attack it, and the more energetic will be the
+      destruction<a id="Page_59"></a> <span class="pagenum">[59]</span> wrought
+      upon it. I have heard it estimated, or perhaps only guessed, that 1000
+      tons of rock fall daily from the upper portion of the Matterhorn's
+      rock-pyramid. The great peaks of the Himalaya are falling yet more rapidly
+      to pieces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But what in this relation is the action of the glaciers? At one time they
+      were regarded as a great abrading agency. It was thought that the high
+      valleys were fashioned out by them. Later it was concluded that their
+      hollowing action was a negligible quantity. The general belief now is that
+      it is not considerable. Whatever may be the action of glaciers upon their
+      beds, it is at all events a small matter compared with their action as
+      transporting agents. Glaciers are not hoary accumulations of snow,
+      collected in hollow places since the beginning of the world, as our
+      forefathers supposed, but flowing streams of ice, whose rate of movement
+      varies with the slope, the latitude, the mean temperature, and other
+      factors of their situation. The snow that falls at high elevations lies in
+      great masses where it finds lodgment, or falls to such places from the
+      steep rocks which are unable to give it steady support. By these means it
+      falls and drifts together into those great upper reservoirs we call the
+      snow-fields&mdash;resplendent<a id="Page_60"></a> <span class="pagenum">[60]</span>
+      areas of purest white, so toilsome to cross when the sun shines hotly upon
+      them, and so incomparably beautiful to look upon. Here by melting of the
+      surface, percolation into the body of the snow-field, and freezing there,
+      and by the pressure of the ever-increasing accumulation of snow, the
+      substance is gradually changed into granulated ice, and the ice thus
+      formed slowly moves down-hill. The various neighbouring streams of ice
+      flow and unite together, and thus, reaching lower and lower levels and
+      continually melting, they come to a line where the annual increment of
+      snow is equal in amount to the depth of snow annually melted. This is
+      called the snow-line. Still downward flows the mass, and now the amount
+      melted becomes greater than the amount annually received. The thickness of
+      the ice steadily diminishes till at last the total arrival melts and the
+      glacier ends in a so-called snout.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image108.jpg" width="318" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE FALLS OF TOSA, VAL FORMAZZA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Said to be the grandest in the Alps, 470 feet high. The Tosa falls in
+        three cascades. The first only is shown in the picture.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The great importance of glaciers in mountain formation is the part they
+      play as carrying agents. There is practically no limit to the weight of
+      rock they will bear down with them in their steady uninterrupted flow.
+      Whatever falls upon the glacier at any part of its course is carried down
+      by it and ultimately dumped off its sides or end.<a id="Page_61"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[61]</span> A stone that falls on the highest rim of
+      the snowfield will presently be covered up by newly-fallen snow and will
+      be carried down at, or close to, the floor of the glacier, where it will
+      either be ground to powder or will not emerge till it is melted out at the
+      end of the glacier's snout. A stone that plunges in a crevasse to the
+      bottom of the glacier will have similar experiences. Stones that tumble on
+      to the glacier surface further down will not be so deeply covered by
+      annual accumulations of snow, and will therefore sooner emerge again on to
+      the surface by the melting away of the accumulation above them. Stones
+      that fall on to the glacier below the snow-line will not be covered up at
+      all, but will simply be carried down on the surface.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The visible collections of stone rubbish carried by a glacier are called
+      its moraines. As the surface of a glacier tends to become convex the
+      moraine-stuff tends to be rolled off towards the sides, where it forms the
+      right and left lateral moraines. Where two glaciers flow together and
+      unite, the right lateral moraine of the one and the left of the other will
+      join and be carried down as a medial moraine on the surface of the united
+      glacier. Such medial moraines may be<a id="Page_62"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[62]</span> observed in considerable numbers flowing down,
+      side by side, on glaciers formed by the union of a number of higher
+      tributaries. First comers to the Alps, beholding them from a distance, or
+      seeing them in photographs, sometimes have thought they were cart-ruts,
+      thus showing how false a scale of size their unaccustomed vision applies
+      to mountain views.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A given kind of rock subjected to the action of frost and the other
+      disintegrating forces operative at high levels, usually breaks up into
+      debris of a roughly uniform average size. There will, of course, be some
+      large masses and a lot of dust and gravel, but the average lump will be
+      fairly uniform. A climber in a given district comes to know what to expect
+      on a moraine, and he will immediately notice if the average size of the
+      debris is much larger or smaller than usual. Thus, when he sees a
+      debris-slope or a moraine from a distance, he is instinctively conscious
+      that its granulated aspect represents great blocks of rock. That gives him
+      a roughly correct scale for the view. The lowlander, who has never been in
+      contact with a moraine, has no such sense, and can imagine that the brown
+      streak he sees a few miles away is, as it looks to be, a mere line of
+      dust. It was <a id="Page_63"></a> <span class="pagenum">[63]</span>
+      through the aspect of the moraines and debris-slopes that I first obtained
+      an approach to a direct visual understanding of the vaster scale of the
+      Himalayas than that of the Alps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A cliff below the snowy regions, if it does not rise out of the sea, is
+      protected at its base by the debris fallen from it. What tumbles from
+      above piles up below, and keeps the foot of the cliff from being eaten
+      away. But a cliff or slope of rock rising out of a glacier or snow-field
+      is deprived of such protection. All the stones that fall from it are
+      carried away by the ice, so that the surface of the whole cliff keeps on
+      peeling off, and that face of the mountain is gradually planed away. Where
+      a great glacier bay reaches into the mountains this action may be very
+      energetic. The whole surrounding cirque is constantly eaten at and
+      continually extends its inner circumference. In some regions this action
+      is more rapid than in others. Where, as in the tropics, the heat is great
+      by day and the frost at high altitudes bitter by night, destruction goes
+      quickly forward, and the mountains are vigorously reduced. Weak points in
+      the rocky structure are soon found out. The range itself will be
+      penetrated. A pass thus formed tends to be continuously lowered. In the<a
+      id="Page_64"></a> <span class="pagenum">[64]</span> neighbourhood of the
+      greatest altitudes the destruction is of course most vigorous. This is the
+      reason why, in so many places, alike in the Himalayas and the Andes,
+      cross-cutting rivers find their way through a range by a gorge that passes
+      quite near a culminating peak. The great Indus gorge below Nanga Parbat is
+      the most notable instance I can recall.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have thus, in the briefest possible manner, sketched out how some of
+      the chief sculpturing forces operate to form mountains. I have not
+      attempted to go into detail or to explain the various corrections and
+      modifications that have to be applied to make the simple outline
+      correspond with facts. Some valleys are actual depressions formed by the
+      caving in of the earth along a line of weakness. Every mountain region
+      contains examples of such hollows. Now and again by some complication or
+      intersection of the wrinkling process a small area may be forced up
+      considerably higher than the surrounding elevation and thus the mass
+      provided for an exceptionally high peak. Volcanic peaks also remain to be
+      considered, and have been excluded from the foregoing brief survey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the main, however, the statement is correct<a id="Page_65"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[65]</span> that the mountains of a region are produced by
+      the sculpturing into ridges and subsidiary ridges of a great and slowly
+      elevated mass. What begins as a growing plateau, passes through the stage
+      of rocky and snowy ranges, becomes later on an area of undulating country,
+      and if time sufficed would ultimately flatten out once more into a plain.
+      Between the first stage and the last the sculpturing operations of nature
+      pass through many phases. In the beginning, when the area has only just
+      begun to rise from the level, those forces operate gently. Slopes are
+      slight and streams flow easily down them. When the mountains have been
+      roughly blocked out and the valleys precipitously deepened, the region
+      enters into the dramatic stage of its history. The peaks are at their
+      highest, the valleys at their deepest relatively to the heights. Cliffs
+      are boldest, needles sharpest, torrents most voluminous and rapid. Now is
+      the time when great mountain-falls most frequently occur. The rocks do not
+      merely crumble away stone by stone, but huge masses are undermined and
+      fall with gigantic crash and violence into the valleys, temporarily
+      damming them across and forming lakes, which presently burst, and pour an
+      incredible volume of water in destructive<a id="Page_66"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[66]</span> flood down the narrow and winding valley
+      below. The flood transports and grinds up great quantities of rock and
+      carries the material afar, for hundreds of miles perhaps, before the plain
+      is reached and the mud deposited upon it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the theatrical stage mud avalanches are likewise common. To produce
+      them there must be a great supply of loose debris on steep rocks at a high
+      level and much rapidly melting snow about them, whose water drains into
+      gullies and unites in larger gullies, all with banks of rotten and
+      crumbling rock. On a suitable day in early summer, when the sky is clear
+      and the sun hot, the stones will fall in such numbers that they will plug
+      some gully and dam back the water. It will collect and burst the dam, and
+      a flow of stones, dust, and water will begin. At other neighbouring spots
+      the same thing will happen, and the elements of the avalanche will flow
+      together, block a larger gully, and presently burst that block also. So it
+      will go on till a great mass of mud, water, and rocks collects somewhere
+      and finally bursts loose in an avalanche which sweeps all before it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such an avalanche I saw from close at hand on 8th July 1892, in the
+      mountains of Nagar. We<a id="Page_67"></a> <span class="pagenum">[67]</span>
+      were walking up the right bank of a great glacier river, and were forced
+      at intervals to cross its tributaries which came rushing down the hillside
+      on our left. Approaching the mouth of one of these side gullies we heard a
+      noise like thunder and beheld a vast black wave bulging down it. It passed
+      before we arrived and there was silence for a few minutes. Presently the
+      sounds of another were heard aloft, and it soon heaved into view&mdash;a
+      terrific sight. The weight of the mud rolled masses of rock down the
+      gully, turning them over and over like so many pebbles. They restrained
+      the muddy torrent and kept it moving slowly with accumulating volume. Each
+      big rock in the vanguard of the avalanche weighed many tons; some were
+      about 10-foot cubes. The stuff behind them filled the gully some 15 feet
+      deep by 40 wide. The thing travelled perhaps at the rate of seven miles an
+      hour. Sometimes a bigger rock than usual barred the way till the mud,
+      piling up behind it, swept it on. The avalanche ate into the sides of the
+      gully and carried away huge undermined masses that fell into it. We saw
+      three enormous avalanches of this sort pass down the same gully in rapid
+      succession, and, after we had gone by, others followed. All<a id="Page_68"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[68]</span> the neighbouring similar gullies
+      discharged such groups of mud avalanches during that period of the year.
+      They are one of the chief agents used by nature to pull down mountains
+      during this, the dramatic stage of their existence. The roaring torrential
+      river below carries off the mud and receives the boulders in its bed,
+      where they are rolled along and in time ground to powder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mud avalanches are rare now in the Alps, and are only caused by some
+      exceptional event, such as the bursting of a glacier lake. Once they were
+      common. Mountain-falls of any great size are also much rarer in the Alps
+      now than they were formerly or than they are in some Himalayan regions.
+      Alps and Andes have passed beyond the culmination of their dramatic stage.
+      The mountains of Hunza, Nagar, and North Kashmir generally, are in the
+      midst of theirs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A mountaineer who has acquired a knowledge of how mountains are made, who
+      has seen in action the forces I have briefly described, who has climbed
+      among mountains in sunshine and storm, in heat and frost, who has spent
+      nights on their cold crests, who knows how and where avalanches of snow,
+      ice, and rock are likely to fall and has a realising sense of their force,
+      their<a id="Page_69"></a> <span class="pagenum">[69]</span> frequency, and
+      their mass: a mountaineer who has attained by long experience a knowledge
+      of the ways and action of glaciers, who can as it were feel their weight
+      and momentum, in whose mind, when he looks at them, they are felt to be
+      moving and vigorous agents, who sees the lines of motion upon them, their
+      swing round corners, their energy in mid course, their feebleness at the
+      snout:&mdash;such a man can look abroad over a mountain panorama with an
+      understanding, a sense of the significance of what he beholds, which, far
+      from detracting from its aspect of beauty, adds greatly to it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To him a mountain area is no confused labyrinth of valleys and tangle of
+      ridges, but the orderly and logical expression of a number of forces, and
+      of forces that are still operative. To him what he beholds is not a
+      painting on the wall, finished and done once and for ever, but, as it
+      were, a scene in a play&mdash;a scene to which others have led up, and
+      after which others will follow, all linked together and arising one out of
+      another in unavoidable and necessary sequence. He perceives the
+      arrangement of the peaks to be as logical as that of the men in a regiment
+      on parade. Each stands in its own proper place, buttressed, and founded
+      upon a broad and<a id="Page_70"></a> <span class="pagenum">[70]</span>
+      sufficient base. Its drapery of snow is not a kind of fortuitous
+      whitewashing, splashed on anyhow by the whim of a storm. It is a vital
+      part of the peak to which it adheres, owing all its forms to the modelling
+      of that peak&mdash;here lying in deep and almost level snow-fields where
+      broad hollows exist beneath it; there breaking into a mass of towering
+      s�racs where it is forced to fall over a step in its bed; there again
+      reuniting in a smoothly surfaced area where the bed is once more
+      relatively smooth; yet again opening a system of crevasses where its
+      substance is torn asunder by unequal rates of flow.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image120.jpg" width="450" height="364" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOOKING OVER LUCERNE FROM THE DREI LINDEN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The Towers of the Musegg in the middle distance.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      To the instructed eye it is not mysterious why one peak should be a tower
+      of rock and the next a dome of snow. All the forms assumed are the result
+      of a few simple causes. They express the past history of the action of
+      natural forces, not difficult of comprehension. Be assured that the
+      understanding eye is well rewarded for the power of comprehension it has
+      slowly and perhaps laboriously acquired. Such understanding comes not
+      merely by familiarity with mountain regions, and is not to be attained by
+      climbing alone, no matter for how many seasons or with what refinement of
+      gymnastic ability. It comes indeed only to the climber, to the man who
+      makes himself familiar with the fastnesses<a id="Page_71"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[71]</span> of the hills by actually going amongst them;
+      but it only comes to him if he avails himself of his opportunities to
+      watch the action of Nature's forces when he comes in contact with them. It
+      is not enough merely to see, it is necessary also to look, to examine, to
+      remember, and to love. He that thus acquaints himself with the high
+      places, will learn to know them as they can be known by no other. They
+      will become to him a home, full of reminiscences, full of shared
+      pleasures, full also of problems yet to be solved, and of hopes yet to be
+      fulfilled. To such a mountain-lover weariness of mountains can never come.
+      His climbing days may be ended, for whatever reason; he may cease to
+      expect or even to desire to mount far aloft; but the mountains themselves,
+      whencesoever seen, will remain to him a joy, permanent, indescribable, and
+      of priceless worth, which he at least will hold to be superior to all
+      other emotions aroused within him by the beauties of Nature.<a id="Page_72"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[72]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER IV</span> <span class="smaller">ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF
+      ALPS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      R<span class="smcap lowercase">ELATIVELY</span> few Alpine climbers of the
+      present generation know the Alps. They know a district or two, perhaps,
+      though even that amount of knowledge is not so common as might be
+      expected. It were truer to say that the normal present-day climber knows a
+      special kind of climbing and only cares to go where that is to be found.
+      The popular kind of climbing to-day is rock-climbing. The new mountaineer
+      is a specialist rock-climber. Having once fallen in love with
+      rock-climbing, he devotes himself to it, becomes more and more skilful,
+      hunts out harder and harder climbs, and only cares to go where those are
+      to be had. He has discovered that England is not ill-provided with such
+      scrambles, if you know where to look for them; and he knows. He may be
+      found at<a id="Page_73"></a> <span class="pagenum">[73]</span> Easter and
+      Whitsuntide in recondite gullies in Wales, the Lakes, Derbyshire, or
+      Scotland. In the summer he is to be looked for among the Chamonix
+      Aiguilles or in the Dolomites, or, if at other centres, then on the more
+      difficult rock routes. Naturally a small area suffices him. It is not
+      mountains he seeks but climbs. A single peak will afford him several, a
+      small group might even occupy him for a lifetime of scrambling holidays.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image124.jpg" width="350" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        FRAN�OIS DEVOUASSOUD
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      He does not care for easy ways. He hates snow-pounding. A glacier route
+      does not attract him unless it be difficult. Hence his knowledge even of
+      his own particular district or districts is likely to be incomplete. He is
+      not drawn to travel far afield. A wanderer by nature he cannot be; nor is
+      the wandering instinct likely to be developed in him. He does not care for
+      all sorts and conditions of Alps, but for one sort. Only where that kind
+      is to be found is he attracted to go. All present-day mountaineers, of
+      course, are not of this type; but this is the type that present-day
+      mountaineering tends to develop; and of this type the output is
+      considerable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old generation of climbers&mdash;the founders of the Alpine Club&mdash;men
+      who were active in the<a id="Page_74"></a> <span class="pagenum">[74]</span>
+      sixties and seventies, were essentially wanderers. The craft of climbing
+      was less an object of pursuit to them than the exploration of the Alps.
+      Probably the reason was that they had the Alps to explore, and theirs was
+      the pleasure of exploration which we have not. The Alps have all been
+      explored before our coming. The old men had not even decent maps of the
+      snowy regions to go by. No one knew what was round most upper corners, or
+      whither passes led, or how you could get by high-level routes from place
+      to place. It was a great delight to solve such problems, and it led
+      climbers to become geographers and to interest themselves in the general
+      structure and topography of the Alps. No such problems now remain to be
+      solved. Admirable maps exist, solving them all. The game of exploration is
+      played out in Central Europe. He that would take a hand in it now must
+      wander further afield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet even now to know the Alps would be a life-work for any one. To know
+      them, like the writer of a Climbers' Guide, is more than a life-work. For
+      the Alps cover a much larger area than most people realise. Ordinary
+      persons think of the Alps and Switzerland as almost identical,<a
+      id="Page_75"></a> <span class="pagenum">[75]</span> yet less than a third
+      of the Alpine area is in Switzerland. By the Alps I mean the whole
+      mountain area between the Mediterranean and the plains of North Italy,
+      France, and Northern Europe, from where they begin at an arbitrary point
+      of offshoot from the Apennines, called the Colle di Tenda, to where they
+      fade out along a curved line, which may be vaguely described as joining
+      Vienna to Fiume. They lie therefore in the five countries, Italy, France,
+      Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very few people indeed have any considerable general knowledge of the
+      whole of this great area, or indeed even any sense of the size of it and
+      the main features of its chief divisions. I spent one summer in the
+      attempt to traverse round along the curved middle line of it from the Col
+      di Tenda at one end to the neighbourhood of Vienna at the other, and after
+      walking approximately a thousand miles, including zigzags, I only reached
+      the termination of the snowy ridges, but by no means that of the
+      forest-covered eastern outliers. That journey, however, taught me how much
+      there is to know, and enables me to realise how little I have actually
+      learnt of the contents and character of the Alps as a whole.<a id="Page_76"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[76]</span> This one fact, however, it demonstrated
+      to me: that the several divisions and subdivisions of the Alps contain
+      varieties of scenery of the utmost diversity. Thus a man who knows only
+      the great ranges of the Central Alps must still regard himself as ignorant
+      of the Alps at large. Not only are there all sorts and conditions of
+      peaks, but there are all sorts and conditions of types of scenery, and
+      between these types there is as much divergence as there is between a
+      Kentish landscape and a view from the Gorner Grat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this chapter I by no means propose to describe all the regions and
+      types of scenery that the Alps contain, but only to mention a few of them
+      as specimens of far more numerous other types, which there is no space
+      here to include or of which I am ignorant. A scientific writer would
+      divide these types of scenery according to the geological nature of their
+      upbuilding and substance. For instance, he would broadly contrast the
+      limestone with the slaty-crystalline areas, and show how scenery and
+      structure match. I propose to adopt no such rational method, but to roam
+      at random through the region of old memories, and refer as chance directs
+      to such types of scenery and such local varieties as happen <a id="Page_77"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[77]</span>to suggest themselves in turn for
+      description or brief analysis.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image130.jpg" width="313" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        AT BIGNASCO
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Old Bridge over the Maggia. Shrine at end, looking up Val Bavona.
+        Basodino in background.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Literally speaking, "alps" are high pastures where cattle go to graze in
+      summer-time. We here use the name with no such meaning, but to designate
+      the mountains in general. The Alps, <i>par excellence</i>, to the normal
+      man are the great groups of snowy peaks in the heart of the Alpine area.
+      Let us in the first place confine our attention to them. In popular
+      estimation these groups are the following, the Dauphiny, Mont Blanc, Monte
+      Rosa, Oberland, and Engadine masses. In the second rank come others we
+      will refer to later.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Place au g�ant!</i> First among all is Mont Blanc and its satellites,
+      pre-eminent in size, pre-eminent also in dignity. For this group is really
+      one buttressed mountain, and all its minor masses are supports to the
+      central dome, like the semi-domes, vaulted porticoes and abutments of
+      Hagia Sophia to the uplifted cupola. He who stands on the summit of the
+      great mountain beholds that this is so. His position there is pre-eminent.
+      No other neighbouring height rivals that which he occupies. The highest
+      are many hundred feet below, and they are all obvious supporters and
+      tributaries of Mont Blanc itself. It is only the<a id="Page_78"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[78]</span> yet smaller and remoter elevations that assert
+      a claim to independence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This pre-eminence of the central mass is the key-note of Mont Blanc
+      scenery. Moreover the mountain is not merely pre-eminent in altitude, but
+      in volume and simplicity of form. Its upper part is a great white dome,
+      whereas the buttress-peaks are for the most part rocky pinnacles. The
+      contrast between these slender, jagged supports and the reposeful majesty
+      of the Calotte is a most picturesque feature and a very rare one, not
+      repeated, so far as I remember, in any other part of the Alps. It
+      dominates the scenery of the whole district. No doubt within the district
+      there are views of great beauty and considerable comprehension, where Mont
+      Blanc forms no part&mdash;such, for example, as the Montenvers view up the
+      Mer de Glace&mdash;but the characteristic prospects contain Mont Blanc as
+      their central and most important object. This is specially true of all the
+      views from summits, a quality that distinguishes them from summit-views in
+      other districts. Whatever Aiguille you stand upon, and whatever may have
+      been the character of the scenery passed through on the way up, the moment
+      you arrive upon the top, Mont Blanc assumes the predominance<a id="Page_79"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[79]</span> and all else takes second rank. The
+      ordinary summit-view, the wide world over, is a panorama, in which the
+      uninterrupted roving of the vision round the whole circuit is the chief
+      charm. From a minor summit in the Mont Blanc region, the great mountain
+      shuts out a large fraction of the distant panorama and attracts chief
+      attention to itself. Of the other conspicuous beauties of this district,
+      its glorious ice scenery, its astonishingly precipitous crags and slender
+      needle-peaks, we shall take occasion to speak hereafter. In this place it
+      is only the dominant note of each locality that calls for brief
+      description.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From Mont Blanc we naturally pass to Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn. The
+      fact that the two peaks call for co-ordinate attention, at once marks the
+      dispersion of interest characteristic of the Pennine Alps. Indeed not two
+      but nearly a dozen mountains in that group are of almost equal importance,
+      each having votaries who prefer it to the rest. The Matterhorn, of course,
+      is in its own way pre-eminent, if seen from certain points of view; but,
+      when beheld from other summits around, it does not maintain an appearance
+      of leadership. Monte Rosa from Macugnaga, the Dom and T�schhorn from Saas,
+      the Weisshorn<a id="Page_80"></a> <span class="pagenum">[80]</span> from
+      north or east, the Dent Blanche from the Triftjoch, are objects as
+      imposing each in its own way as is the Matterhorn from Zermatt or the
+      Riffelalp. That peak, as we shall hereafter take occasion to observe in
+      more detail, surpasses them, and perhaps all the rock mountains in the
+      world, in grace of outline from certain points of view. It likewise
+      rejoices in a rare prestige, due to its tragic history and its
+      geographical position. But to those who know it from all sides, and know
+      its neighbours also, it is not the unique and dominating mountain of its
+      district that it is popularly supposed to be. The Zermatt mountain area is
+      probably best to be differentiated from the other great Alpine groups by
+      the almost uniform magnificence and relative equality of its chief peaks.
+      It resembles some splendid Venetian oligarchy as contrasted with
+      monarchical Mont Blanc. The nobles of the Pennine Court with their
+      satellites present greater variety, a more elaborate organisation, and a
+      more varied historical record. Each seems worthy to be chief when beheld
+      from a selected vantage point. Seen from elsewhere, each subordinates
+      itself to some other. This is the region of large independent glaciers, of
+      deep recesses, of noble passes from place to place. It is also<a
+      id="Page_81"></a> <span class="pagenum">[81]</span> specially rich in
+      minor points of view about 10,000 feet high, and of good sites for hotels
+      some 3,000 feet lower, where each possesses a specially fine outlook of
+      its own, which it shares with no other. The dominant note of the district
+      is grandeur; if it lacks anything, it is charm. This, in fact, is a
+      stalwart group, which must be wandered over and inspected from many sides
+      and along many routes. No "centre" reveals it. It is a place for walkers
+      and climbers in the heyday of their vigour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Turn we next to the Bernese Oberland, the queen district, if Mont Blanc is
+      the king. The Oberland has always seemed to me to be the most graceful and
+      romantic of the great Alpine masses. The very names of its peaks enshrine
+      the poetry that the peasant-dwellers on their flanks learned from them in
+      days long gone by. The Maiden, the Monk, the Ogre, the peak of Terror, and
+      what not. And then how richly they roll off the tongue&mdash;Finsteraarhorn,
+      Lauteraarhorn, Bl�mlisalp, Strahleck! No other part of Switzerland can
+      rival the Oberland for names&mdash;certainly not Zermatt with its
+      Meadow-peak, Red-peak, Broad-peak, Black-peak, White-tooth, and the like
+      feeble designations. Easily first for beauty and prestige<a id="Page_82"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[82]</span> among Oberland mountains is the peerless
+      Jungfrau&mdash;but you must only see her from the north. Thence she is
+      beheld, a most effulgent beauty, fair among the fairest mountain visions
+      upon earth. The elegance of her form, displayed and emphasised by the
+      white samite of her drapery, and beheld from the lake at her foot, abides
+      in the memory of all who are privileged to behold her. Only one rival does
+      she possess in the district, and that is not a mountain but a glacier, the
+      Great Aletsch, greatest of all in the Alps, beautiful exceedingly to look
+      down upon, beautiful in its middle course, and fairest of all in the wide
+      expanses of its ample gathering ground. It subordinates to itself all the
+      high surrounding peaks and renders them the mere rim of its cup. To a less
+      degree magnificent, yet far finer than the general run of Alpine glaciers,
+      are the other chief ice-rivers of the Oberland district, which thus
+      becomes <i>par excellence</i> the home of long glacier-passes, leading
+      through great varieties of mountain scenery, and connecting centres
+      relatively remote. The longest and finest glacier-traverse in the Alps is
+      that which leads from the Grimsel to the L�tschen valley right through the
+      heart of the range.<a id="Page_83"></a> <span class="pagenum">[83]</span>
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image138.jpg" width="352" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOOKING DOWN THE ALETSCH GLACIER FROM CONCORDIA HUT
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Eggishorn peak dark.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Dauphiny, compared with the Pennines and the Oberland, presents to one
+      sensitive to mountain character more contrasts than similarities. For this
+      is an austere region, which gathers itself up together and stands apart,
+      away from natural through routes and the ordinary courses of the human
+      tide. Its valleys are deep, sombre, and stony; its alpine pastures meagre;
+      its forests few and thin. Its peaks hide themselves behind their own
+      knees. He that would know them must search them out. But they reward the
+      search. It is because of the steepness of their bases that they are so
+      recondite, and that very steepness gives them a dignified character all
+      their own. The Meije is their typical representative, a mountain of
+      strangely complex sky-line and irregular shape, that supports its own
+      private glaciers cut-off upon cliffs, and presents the climber with
+      surprises round every corner. Few are the regular pyramids, fewer still
+      the domed snow caps in the tangled complexity of this region, where Nature
+      has impressed her chisel deeply, and has hewn out the great rock masses
+      with unusual ruggedness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very different is the remote Engadine group, remarkable for the high level
+      and broad expanse of the floor of its chief valley, where lake beyond<a
+      id="Page_84"></a> <span class="pagenum">[84]</span> lake reflects the
+      summer sunshine and carries the white curtain of winter on its level
+      frozen surface. A region, this, of fine forests and large expanses of rich
+      grazing grounds, of picturesque torrents and smiling flower-strewn slopes.
+      Its snowy group is little more than an appendage of minor importance to
+      the general scenic attractions of the district. Two fine mountain cirques,
+      defining the basins of two picturesque glaciers, are its dominant
+      features, and in each cirque one peak shines forth pre-eminent. The
+      scenery of these cirques, however, is not of any special character that
+      calls for mention as distinguishing it from the scenery of the other great
+      Alpine groups. The <i>note</i> of the Engadine is not sounded there, but
+      rather in the wide, lake-strewn valley itself, where the snow-crests count
+      mainly as the silvery embellishment of its frame.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image142.jpg" width="450" height="409" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        ASCONIA&mdash;ON LAGO MAGGIORE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Climbers who have spent a season or two in each of these five groups may
+      think that they know the Alps, but they will be greatly mistaken. Most of
+      them, indeed, will admit that they cannot afford to neglect the Dolomites,
+      and will at least intend to spend a season amongst them. From a scrambling
+      point of view, if they are rock-climbers, they will be well rewarded, for
+      Dolomite<a id="Page_85"></a> <span class="pagenum">[85]</span>
+      rock-climbing is a thing apart. Dolomite scenery is even more truly
+      unique. Less grand than that of the great mountain groups, it has a
+      distinction all its own. There is nothing forbidding about the
+      precipitance of its cliffs and summits. Their relative lightness of tint
+      and the warm suffusion of the sun-pervaded atmosphere that so frequently
+      envelops them, makes their elevated parts seem almost to float in the sky.
+      The visible traces of the horizontal bedding of the rocks that compose
+      them render the effect of even their slenderest pinnacles less aspiring
+      than that of the flaked and tilted slaty-crystalline spires of older and
+      more rugged formations. Some of the sentiment of Italy hangs about the
+      Dolomites. The airs that are drifted over them seem steeped in Italian
+      colour, even as their names re-echo the music of the Italian tongue. The
+      valleys between them soon dip into the level of chestnut and vine ere yet
+      they forsake the mountains. The chalets are pregnant with suggestions of
+      Italy, and the inhabitants possess more of Italian grace than of Swiss
+      ruggedness. It is, however, colour, and especially atmospheric colour,
+      that the mention of the Dolomites first calls to the mind of the votaries
+      of those hills and valleys. Who that has<a id="Page_86"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[86]</span> beheld dawn or sunset on Cristallo or
+      Rosengarten can forget the glorious display of rosy lights and purple
+      shadows? The mountain forms are sometimes fine, oftener picturesque (as
+      Titian knew). They have the rare merit of seeming to group into the
+      happiest of combinations and contrasts as though by exceptional good luck;
+      but the luck is of such frequent recurrence that instead of being an
+      exception it must be counted the rule. In the presence of Mont Blanc or
+      the Matterhorn it is natural to adore. The Dolomites men love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such, then, are the six main groups of Alps that the ordinary run of
+      tourists know. They include the most majestic scenery, but are far from
+      including all the finest. There yet remain a bewildering multitude of
+      minor groups and areas, each rich in its own charm. Such are the Maritime
+      Alps, the Cottians around Monte Viso, the Graians led by Grand Paradis and
+      Grivola, the limestone Alps of Savoy, the green hills of north Switzerland
+      and Bavaria, the Lepontine Alps, the hills of the Italian Lakes, the T�di,
+      the Rh�tikon, the Adamello, Ortler, Oetzthal, Stubaithal, and Zillerthal
+      snowy masses, the Hohe Tauern, the Carnic and Julian Alps, and various
+      other mountain groups of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola. How many<a
+      id="Page_87"></a> <span class="pagenum">[87]</span> of us know a tithe of
+      all these? It is impossible here to do more than refer briefly to a few of
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amongst the fairest of them all, the Maritimes should assuredly be
+      reckoned, little visited though they be except by Italians. Their eastern
+      and northern valleys, which alone are known to me, must be counted lovely,
+      even judged by the high standard of loveliness that the Italian Alpine
+      valleys set. Any one of them, transported to the midst of a Swiss group of
+      mountains, would be the pearl of the district. What more enchanting resort
+      can be imagined than the Baths of Valdieri, planted amidst umbrageous
+      copses and beside laughing waters? Here all the elements of picturesque
+      landscape group themselves together in the most perfect natural harmony.
+      Nowhere in the opening season are the flowers more rich, the hillsides
+      more verdant, the foliage of the trees more varied. Nowhere do woods climb
+      slopes in more graceful procession. Nowhere are the rocks and lofty
+      snow-peaks set in more fascinating frames of unexpected foreground. It is
+      a valley of endless surprises and delights. Moreover, its waters are clear
+      and glancing. They burst from the hillsides, tumble in crystalline
+      brilliance over <a id="Page_88"></a> <span class="pagenum">[88]</span>
+      clifflets, dance through the meadows, and race-along beneath the shadow of
+      beeches and chestnuts. No ogres, we may be sure, lurk in the fastnesses of
+      these hills, but only the most delicate fairies, glittering with dew. And
+      then the views from the peaks&mdash;how memorable they are, how unlike
+      those of the Central Alps! For from these summits you behold always the
+      sea, far stretching, and ever apparently calm. It looks indeed like any
+      other sea, but you know that it is the Mediterranean with all Africa
+      beyond it, away there in the sunny south. On the other side, far, far off
+      to the north, is the great Alpine wall, and at your feet the sea-like
+      Lombard plain. Those sweeps of flatness on either hand, how they tell in
+      the midst of a mountain view! They bring into it a sense of repose. There
+      Nature has finished her work of pulling down, and man can rest upon the
+      fertile soil in peace. Sweet indeed is Valdieri, but it is no sweeter than
+      its neighbouring glens. He that loves mountains in less savage mood than
+      the great giants are wont to bear, let him fly to the Maritimes and he
+      will not be disappointed.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image148.jpg" width="450" height="354" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOCARNO FROM THE BANKS OF THE LAKE
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Madonna del Sasso on the slope above.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Proceeding northward, the Cottians and the Tarentaise and Graians present
+      loftier peaks and<a id="Page_89"></a> <span class="pagenum">[89]</span>valleys
+      beautiful, though lacking the richness and luxuriance of the Maritimes. In
+      fact these groups stand between the Pennines and the Maritimes alike in
+      position and in character. From the Pennines the fertile valleys are so
+      far removed as scarcely to enter into the normal scenery of the region. In
+      the Maritimes the chestnut woods are at the very foot of the peaks. They
+      are further away in the Cottians, but not absolutely removed from the
+      Alpine area. You may sleep near a vineyard one night and yet be on the
+      snows next day. The great glory of the Cottians is the fine pyramid of
+      Monte Viso, which so many climbers in the Swiss Alps know from afar off.
+      It stands splendidly alone and commands one of the most superb panoramas
+      in the Alps, wide ranging as Mont Blanc's, but seen as from the top of a
+      tower instead of a slowly curving dome with a large white foreground that
+      hides the depth beneath. From the Viso the sight plunges down and then
+      flies away and yet away over the Lombard plain to peaks so remote as
+      practically to defy identification by unaided skill of recognition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We cannot linger in the west, for our space is limited and more than half
+      of it is spent. Flying eastward, then, we come next to the<a id="Page_90"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[90]</span> Italian valleys of the Monte Rosa group,
+      to which indeed they belong, though I purposely omitted reference to them
+      when writing of that, for in style of scenery they are widely different
+      and frequented by travellers of another sort. Here are mountain centres
+      indeed&mdash;Breuil, Gressoney, Alagna, and so forth&mdash;whence great
+      climbs may be made. It is not in these centres, however, that the beauty
+      of the valleys culminates, but further down. There are in fact three zones
+      in each valley: the upper, which is purely Alpine though lacking the
+      grandeur of the northern slope; the middle, where on either hand are found
+      peaks that just reach the snow level and rise from luxuriantly afforested
+      bases: and the lower, which in summer time is too hot and fly-infested to
+      be an agreeable resort. The middle zone is the region of fine scenery, of
+      beautiful low passes, and of superb points of view, whence the whole
+      Pennine range to the north is gloriously beheld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the lower limit of this zone stands Varallo, in the Sesia valley, a
+      most beautiful resort for one jaded with the austere scenery of the snow
+      and ice world. Here art and nature together claim the traveller's
+      attention. The remarkable lifelike<a id="Page_91"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[91]</span> sculptures of the Sacro Monte and the frescoes
+      of Gaudenzio Ferrari well deserve their wide repute, whilst the walk over
+      the Col della Colma to the lake of Orta is one of the most charming known
+      to me the wide world over. Once I beheld from the crest of the pass a
+      cloudless sunrise on Monte Rosa, when the rosy glow of the snows was not
+      more beautiful than the rich and rare violets and purples of the lower
+      foreground hills.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image152.jpg" width="450" height="318" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        PALLANZA&mdash;EVENING
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        South end of Lago Maggiore. Campanile of the Church of St.&nbsp;Leonardo,
+        mountains of Saas in the background.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      By this pass we may well enter the Italian Lake districts, whose fame is
+      known to all. He would be a niggard indeed who should refuse to reckon as
+      Alpine this gem of scenery. Many of us regard, and rightly, a drop down
+      into the land of the lakes as a necessary part of a full Alpine holiday,
+      the contrast between their luxuriance and high Alpine asceticism serving
+      best to display the charms of each. It is indeed the distant prospects of
+      the snowy range that give a finishing touch of utter perfection to the
+      scenery of the lakes, the finest view-point of all for comprehension and
+      perfect composition being, perhaps, the terrace of Santa Catarina del
+      Sasso. The climber, however, will not really learn to know the lakes if he
+      remains, as most do, idly on their shores. Here, if anywhere, he should
+      ascend. Down<a id="Page_92"></a> <span class="pagenum">[92]</span> below,
+      save for the water, the scenery may be matched all round the Italian plain
+      and in many a valley, but up aloft on Monte Mottarone, Monte Nudo, Monte
+      Generoso, and hills of that size, you are in the presence of panoramas
+      nowhere else to be matched. The Rigi, the Niesen, and their fellows offer
+      corresponding but not equal prospects north of the main range; for though
+      lakes and snows and wide stretches of landscape are visible from them,
+      they lack vision of the Lombard plain and the magic opalescence of the
+      Italian atmosphere. The mountaineer who has no experience, or if
+      experienced, no joy in the grass-crowned foot-hills that flank the great
+      ranges is no true mountain-lover. For such persons this book is not
+      written. They have their own kinds of pleasure and reward, pleasures which
+      are not low and rewards well worth the winning, but they are not those
+      that I have sought after or can rightly estimate.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image156.jpg" width="336" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE MADONNA DEL SASSO, LOCARNO
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        A Pilgrimage Church, picturesquely situated on a wooded rocky cliff high
+        above the town and Lago Maggiore.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Some of the fair qualities of Italian lake scenery mingle with the bolder
+      forms of the mountains of Ticino, and something of the softness of
+      Maggiore's air tempers the fresh breezes falling from Ticino snows. Here
+      lies the peerless Val Maggia, whose orchard-bearing floor sweeps up
+      between mile<a id="Page_93"></a> <span class="pagenum">[93]</span> after
+      mile of noble cliffs. Here every village church and almost every cottage
+      seems to have been designed and planted for picturesque effect. It is a
+      valley of many gardens, trimly kept, of much emigrant-won prosperity, a
+      home of the vine and the fig-tree, also of trout-streams and other
+      bright-glancing waters. Comfortably habitable and home-suggesting is it; a
+      place to fall in love with, which every visitor hopes to see again, and
+      every native promises himself that he will return to for the evening of
+      his days. Such as it is, such also are its neighbours. Its upper reaches
+      are more splendid than I can suggest. There is a grace in their many
+      waterfalls, a majesty in their great steps and verdant levels, a relative
+      wealth in their vegetation, and a charm about their villages, that must be
+      seen to be understood. Even the Maritimes can boast no more beautiful
+      valley scenery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Bergamasque Alps are, I believe, not dissimilar in character, but I
+      know only the mere outskirts of them. What I have seen does not equal
+      Ticino. These carry us by a natural transition to the Adamello group,
+      which yields a remarkable long traverse over high-planted snows commanding
+      a stupendous depth and comprehensiveness<a id="Page_94"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[94]</span> of outlook, which culminates in the
+      extraordinary panorama visible from the highest point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We are thus brought back again to the dominantly snowy groups, whereof a
+      number remain yet uncharacterised. First among these secondary masses the
+      Ortler and its fellows call for mention&mdash;a group far better known by
+      our German and Italian colleagues than by ourselves. The chief peaks,
+      though built on a smaller scale, have much of the apparent bulk and
+      grandeur of the greater masses of the Central Alps. Their ice-walls and
+      their glacier scenery in general are of the grand type. Like the great
+      peaks, too, they are withdrawn from southern luxury. When all is said,
+      however, they remain second-rate, nor can I recall any special note of
+      beauty by which this district is distinguished.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Oetzthal, Stubaithal, and Zillerthal groups, which follow one another
+      to the eastward, are, I think, in better case; though they have lost in
+      charm by the rapid shrinkage of their glaciers since I first knew them
+      almost thirty years ago. The average height of the peaks is small when the
+      large area of glacier they support is considered. Formerly the glaciers
+      were much larger. Several<a id="Page_95"></a> <span class="pagenum">[95]</span>
+      that I knew have utterly vanished, and the largest are greatly reduced.
+      The snow-fields, however, still retain their wide expanse. In consequence
+      of the smallness of the peaks, a greater number of them exist in a given
+      area than elsewhere in the snowy Alpine regions. This makes the
+      foregrounds in the summit views more complex. As the scale does not
+      obtrude itself, the eye magnifies it, and the result is an imposing
+      effect. A similar effect of complexity struck me in Spitsbergen, where the
+      peaks are very much smaller still, and group themselves so closely
+      together that they seem to form a spiny tangle at once puzzling to the
+      topographer and pleasing to the lover of mountain varieties. Owing to the
+      smallness of scale of the Stubai peaks, for instance, you can climb two or
+      three of them in a single day from a high-planted hut, and thus behold in
+      the afternoon a peak you climbed in the morning. Such wandering about at
+      high levels is a new and agreeable experience to mountaineers accustomed
+      to the long scrambles that the greater ranges afford.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hohe Tauern, which splits into the two groups, dominated respectively
+      by the Gross Glockner and Gross Venediger, scarcely calls for<a
+      id="Page_96"></a> <span class="pagenum">[96]</span> other remark, from a
+      scenic point of view, than what was said about the Ortler. The panoramas
+      from the two chief peaks are unusually fine, a quality which they share
+      with three or four of the main elevations of the three groups just
+      referred to. The glacier scenery of the northern slope of the Venediger
+      and the southern of the Glockner group is the finest in Tirol, whilst the
+      Glockner itself is built on great lines, has the qualities of a true
+      giant, and affords some climbing of a high order. If the reader, however,
+      will consent to descend from these superior considerations to others of a
+      more practical character, his attention may be called to the fact that, in
+      this many-hutted district, facilities are afforded to a climber which he
+      will not often find equalled elsewhere except in one or two minor Tirolese
+      groups. So numerous and large are the huts, and so well provided with all
+      the necessaries for life and reasonable comfort, that it is almost
+      superfluous to carry food, or for a party of moderately experienced
+      climbers to require the services of a guide. There are huts where you can
+      breakfast, lunch, dine, and sleep at convenient intervals. If this tends
+      to destroy the charm of solitude, which is one of the greatest that the<a
+      id="Page_97"></a> <span class="pagenum">[97]</span> regions of snow
+      usually afford, it enables even the average climber to wander more freely
+      than he can elsewhere, and less burdened with baggage or the often
+      unsympathetic companionship of a guide. The gain more than compensates
+      most men for the loss, and makes this district specially deserving of the
+      guideless amateur's attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of regions further east and south I cannot write, knowing only from
+      personal acquaintance the mountains near the Semmering pass, and the hills
+      between them and Vienna. Here the forest scenery is the great charm. The
+      forest-clad hills and deep hidden lakes of the Salzkammergut, North Tirol,
+      and the Bavarian uplands must at least be mentioned. They belong to what
+      we English may describe as the Scotland of the Alps. No lover of mountains
+      will deny the potent charm of forests, especially in hilly country richly
+      watered. Their sombre gloom matches many a human mood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not all scenery is alike grateful to every one, or to any one at all
+      times. It behoves a traveller to know his own mood and to choose a resort
+      that matches it. If he wants solitude, he should not select Zermatt or
+      Chamonix. If he abounds in energy, he should not look to lakes and mild
+      climates for its satisfaction. If he loves variety, he<a id="Page_98"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[98]</span> should not plant himself in the midst of
+      a mainly snow-clad region. One district will suit him best in one year,
+      another in another. That will not delight him equally in maturity which
+      enlists the strongest enthusiasm of his youth. But the variety that is in
+      the Alps at large is infinite. There will always be discoverable the right
+      thing for each who cares to search it out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The habit of constantly returning to the same spot may almost be regarded
+      as a vice to be avoided.
+    </p>
+    <div class="poem">
+      <p>
+        "To give space for wandering is it
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        That the world was made so wide."
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p class="noindent">
+      Assuredly the wanderer has most rewards. The more he knows of other
+      regions, the more is the significance increased of the view which he at
+      any moment beholds, and so much the more capable does his eye become of
+      recognising all sorts and varieties of beauty. But this is only true of
+      one who travels with observant eyes and receptive understanding. It is
+      possible to travel far and wide without ever really seeing anything. Such
+      travel is the merest waste of energy. To travel should be to learn; but
+      travelling is only learning when the traveller makes learning his purpose.<a
+      id="Page_99"></a> <span class="pagenum">[99]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Discrimination is the quality that distinguishes intelligence from brutal
+      greed. It differentiates the <i>gourmet</i> from the <i>gourmand</i>. It
+      divides the mountain-lover from the common peak peak-hunter. It is the
+      quality that continues growing longest, whose exercise is never wearisome,
+      whose reward is always increasing. To be able to discriminate between the
+      qualities of different Alpine regions and to appreciate all their varied
+      merits is to know the Alps. All that it has been possible to do in the
+      present chapter is to indicate in briefest terms some of the
+      characteristic charms of the principal regions, known incompletely to the
+      present writer, and by him but feebly grasped. He ventures to hope that
+      even this sketch, slight and falteringly drawn as it is, may yet serve to
+      suggest to some readers a whole world of delights, which, if they choose,
+      they may immediately enter into and possess.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image166.jpg" width="450" height="369" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOCARNO AT SUNSET, AND NORTH END OF LAGO MAGGIORE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      By all means visit the famous centres. A true instinct has marked them out
+      and made them widely known as specially calculated to awaken the
+      imagination of the town-dwelling modern world. But do not regard them as
+      the whole Alps; do not start with the assurance that there alone is Alpine
+      beauty to be found in highest<a id="Page_100"></a> <span class="pagenum">[100]</span>
+      perfection. For you, perhaps, the highest Alpine beauty resides in less
+      well advertised localities. Let each seek out for himself that which he
+      can most keenly enjoy. It will be his possession and not another's. Let
+      him take it to his soul. But let him also remember that there are other
+      capacities, which he does not possess or has not yet developed, and that
+      for them also the mountains great and small possess powers of satisfaction
+      as rich and manifold as any he has himself experienced.<a id="Page_101"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[101]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER V</span><br /> <span class="smaller">THE MOODS OF THE
+      MOUNTAINS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      M<span class="smcap lowercase">OUNTAINS</span> do not merely vary from
+      district to district, but from time to time. Were it not so, how soon
+      should we tire of any single outlook or the neighbourhood of any one
+      centre! They change from hour to hour with the incidence of sunlight, and
+      from day to day with the passing season of the year. They change also,
+      often from moment to moment, with the inconstancy of the weather. In fact
+      they are never twice absolutely the same. In the heyday of our scrambling
+      enthusiasm, we perhaps regarded this variability of the mountains with
+      less satisfaction than it obtains from us later. We should have chosen an
+      unbroken series of long and cloudless days, with the snow all melted from
+      the rocks, and the summit views all complete in cloudless, transparent
+      visibility. Yet even then we found a<a id="Page_102"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[102]</span> singular joy in snatching an ascent in some
+      brief fine interval between two spells of bad weather. Whereas the details
+      of many a featurelessly fine ascent have passed from our minds, which of
+      us does not remember, and recall with a keen delight, climbs accomplished
+      in the teeth of storms, when Nature seemed to stand forth as an antagonist
+      whom we wrestled fiercely with, and joyously overcame?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may regard mountain moods from two points of view; as experienced by
+      the climber, and as affecting the aspect of mountain scenery when beheld
+      from a greater or less distance. The circumstances of his sport, though in
+      most cases they restrict the climber to one season of the year,
+      fortunately compel him to be on mountains at almost all hours of the
+      twenty-four. Most sports are functions of daylight; the climber must
+      travel by night as frequently as by day. None better than he, unless it be
+      the astronomer, knows the full secrets of midnight beauty. What climber's
+      memory is not stored with priceless recollections of the night and its
+      myriad voices, its noble diapason. By day the eye is supreme; by night the
+      ear. Then it is, when marching along upland valleys, that one hears the<a
+      id="Page_103"></a> <span class="pagenum">[103]</span> full chorus of the
+      rushing torrent, now booming close at hand, accompanied by infinite
+      ripplings and splashings of little waves, now fainter and more sibilant
+      but no less musical in the distance. Then, too, it is that the breezes
+      sing most sweetly among the trees; then that the glaciers are most
+      melodious, the moulins most tuneful; then, too, on the highest levels,
+      that the ultimate silences are most impressive. The hum of a falling
+      stone, the rattle of a discharge of rocks, the boom of an avalanche, the
+      crack of an opening crevasse, all these sounds should be heard framed in
+      the silence of night, when the sense of hearing is most alert and the
+      imagination most easily stirred.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Who does not recall the velvety darkness of the sleeping valleys through
+      which he passed near the midnight hour when just setting forth for some
+      long ascent? How that contrasted with and set off the brilliancy of the
+      star-spangled sky, where Orion, the Alpine climber's heavenly guide, shone
+      over some col or darkly perceptible ridge, and bade him expect the coming
+      of the day. Then, as the trees are left behind and the open alp is
+      reached, while night still reigns in her darkest hour, how sweet are the
+      airs, how uplifting the<a id="Page_104"></a> <span class="pagenum">[104]</span>
+      sense of widening space and enlarging sky, how stimulating the wonder of
+      the vaguely felt glaciers and mountain-presences around!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oftenest perhaps it is moonlight when the climber starts earliest upon his
+      way; then indeed he beholds glorious scenes and revels in the sight, nor
+      envies his sleeping friends in the valley below. Ah! dearly remembered
+      splendours of full moonshine upon the snow! how gladly we retain the
+      images of you in the very treasury of our hearts! Yet who shall attempt to
+      draw them forth for another, or write down even a faint suggestion of
+      their beauty for those by whom they have never been beheld? Surely at no
+      time are the great snows endowed with more dignity, more of the
+      impressiveness of visible size, more aspect of aloofness, of belonging to
+      another and a nobler world, than when the full moon shines perfectly upon
+      them. And then, too, how the snow-fields glisten over all their wide
+      expanse, yet with a pale effulgence that does not paralyse the eye! What
+      velvet blackness embellishes the shadows! How the rocks are fretted
+      against the snow! How clear are the foregrounds of glacier; how spiritual
+      are the distant peaks; how softly lies the faint light in the deep
+      hollows! Surely Night, the ancient<a id="Page_105"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[105]</span> Mother, speaks with a voice which all her
+      children understand.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image172.jpg" width="401" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        MOONLIGHT IN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM THE TOSA FALLS
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At such hours and amidst such scenes the mere onlooker oftenest shivers
+      and suffers, so that half the beauty escapes him; but the active
+      mountaineer, keenly awake, with the blood alive within him and a day of
+      hopes ahead, misses no sight that he is capable of seeing, yet dreams, who
+      shall say what visions of beauty that flit before his mind and vanish in
+      swift succession. And then&mdash;suddenly&mdash;he turns his head and
+      there in the east&mdash;always unexpected&mdash;is the bed of white that
+      heralds the day. The night is dying. Her rich darks and whites grow
+      pallid. Each moment a layer of darkness peels off. The sky turns blue
+      before one knows it; the rocks grow brown; there is blue in the crevasses,
+      and green upon the swards&mdash;all low-toned yet distinct. Faint puffs of
+      warm air come, we know not whence, touch our faces, and are gone. The
+      lantern has been extinguished; we stride out more freely; the day awakens
+      within us also.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now is displayed in all its magnificence the daily drama of the dawn.
+      While the mists yet lie cold and grey in the deep valleys, they glow
+      against the eastern horizon, where all the <a id="Page_106"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[106]</span> spectrum is slowly uprolled, more and more
+      fiery beneath, as it tends to red, and cut off below by the jagged outline
+      of countless peaks, looking tiny, away off there on the margin of the
+      world. Low floating cloudlets turn to molten gold. The horizon flames
+      along all its fretted eastern edge, a narrow band of lambent light, a
+      smokeless crimson fire. The belt of colour grows broader; it swamps and
+      dyes the cloudlets crimson. Long pink streamers of soft light strike up
+      from where the sun is presently to appear. The great moment is at hand.
+      All eyes rove around the view. At last some near high peak salutes the
+      day; its summit glowing like a live coal drawn from a furnace. Another
+      catches the light and yet another. The glory spreads downwards, turning
+      from pink to gold, and from gold to pure daylight, and then&mdash;lo! the
+      sun himself upon the horizon! a point of blinding light, soon changing to
+      the full round orb. The day has come, and the long shadows gather in their
+      skirts and prepare to flee away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now comes the climber's most perfect hour. He shares the strength and
+      promise of the young day. The fresh crisp air seems to lift him from the
+      earth. The sense of the very possibility of<a id="Page_107"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[107]</span> fatigue vanishes. He rejoices in his might.
+      He looks forward with confidence to no matter what difficulties may lie
+      ahead. The snow is hard and crisp beneath his feet. The ice-crystals
+      merrily crepitate as they break up, when the bonds of frost are withdrawn.
+      And now the patch of rocks, or other convenient resting place, where
+      breakfast is to be taken, is soon attained. Packs are cast off. It is an
+      hour of perfect delight. The heart of the upper regions has been reached.
+      The fair world of snow opens on every side. The valleys and habitable
+      places are all forgotten. The scenery is superb. At such a time and place
+      who would exchange with folks below, be they never so prosperous?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is soon time to be on the way once more. The fulness of the day
+      gradually comes on with all its pains and glories. The sun climbs
+      triumphantly aloft and sheds its burning radiance all around. Foreground
+      details vanish in excess of light, but the distances grow more distinct.
+      What is nearer stands out before what is more remote. The eye ranges afar
+      and feasts upon the widening panorama, which about noon, let us hope,
+      suddenly becomes complete, for we are on the top. No daylight is now too
+      brilliant<a id="Page_108"></a> <span class="pagenum">[108]</span> to
+      reveal all the multitudinous effect of what is spread abroad to be beheld.
+      The burning snowfields are below. The mere foreground of our vision is
+      miles away. We look down into sunlit valleys sprinkled with tiny dots of
+      houses and narrow lines of roads. We gaze afar over ridge beyond ridge, it
+      may be to some wide-stretching plain or ultimate crest of remotest ranges.
+      All swims in light, and we triumph in its very exuberance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then follows the afternoon of our descent. We plunge into ever-thickening
+      air as we go down. It is penetrated with the dust and flurry of the day.
+      As the hours advance it sheds an ever mellower tone upon the views.
+      Fatigue seems to invade the earth itself as it does our own limbs. We gain
+      the grassy places once more, as the sun begins to lose its towering
+      eminence of place. The rope and all its strenuous suggestions has been
+      discarded, and at length the most toilsome parts of the expedition are
+      over. We can fling ourselves upon the grass by some babbling brook, with
+      the clanging of cattle-bells not far away, and the haunts of men
+      pleasantly adjacent. The peaks we have sought out are not yet very far
+      away. We can still follow the traces of our own footsteps upon<a
+      id="Page_109"></a> <span class="pagenum">[109]</span> their flanks. Their
+      spirit is in us. All that we have so recently seen and felt is still
+      present in our minds, as we gaze with newly instructed eyes upon the
+      places we have visited.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image178.jpg" width="252" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        A MOUNTAIN PATH, GRINDELWALD
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The last walk remains, down through the gathering trees, through new-mown
+      hay-fields, past little farms clustering on the hillside&mdash;down and
+      ever down into the embrace of the narrowing earth, which holds out arms of
+      recognition to us, her children and the special votaries of her shrines.
+      When at length the mellow evening light is warm upon the hillsides, and
+      the rich shadows are creeping down upon it, we reach the village where we
+      are to rest. There, as we sit before some hospitable inn, and gaze yet
+      once again back to the heights whence we have come, the sunset fires are
+      lit upon them when the shades of night already fill the valleys. For a
+      moment the topmost summits facing west glow with the gold and fade to the
+      rose that ushered in the day and now glorify its close. The colour is
+      withdrawn. The warmth fades out of all the view. Pallor supervenes, and
+      "layer on layer the night comes on."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such are the normal effects and sequences of a fine Alpine summer day; but
+      days of that sort are rare. Usually what we call "weather" intervenes<a
+      id="Page_110"></a> <span class="pagenum">[110]</span> to break the normal
+      sequence with surprises that should not be unwelcome. I have thus far
+      referred mainly to the drama of the sunshine; but more varied, more
+      fascinating, more adventurous is the drama of the clouds, those mist
+      mountains that come and go, forming ranges loftier than the hills, whiter
+      than the snows, but endowed with the two-fold gifts of inaccessibility and
+      evanescence. Them we can neither climb nor map. Clouds we have with us
+      everywhere, but it is among mountains that we learn to know them, how they
+      form and fade, mount aloft or drift asunder. The mountain clouds have a
+      plainlier realised individuality than those that pass over cities and
+      plains. Their positions and relative altitudes are more easy to fix, their
+      changes more readily perceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not my intention here to analyse at length the characters and forms
+      of clouds from the picturesque point of view. That has been most
+      suggestively and eloquently attempted by Ruskin in various chapters of <i>Modern
+      Painters</i>, which every mountain-lover should have read. One correction
+      only of that fine description of mountain-clouds will I venture to make,
+      the point being of some importance. "I believe," wrote Ruskin, "the true
+      cumulus is never seen in a great<a id="Page_111"></a> <span class="pagenum">[111]</span>
+      mountain region, at least never associated with hills. It is always broken
+      up and modified by them.... The quiet, thoroughly defined, infinitely
+      divided and modelled pyramid never develops itself. It would be very grand
+      if one ever saw a great mountain peak breaking through the domed shoulders
+      of a true cumulus; but this I have never seen."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whether it be true that cumulus cloud is never formed in the Alps I cannot
+      say, my own notes not being accessible to me at this moment and my memory
+      at fault; but this I can assert, that, in the heart of the great ranges,
+      Himalayas and Andes, they frequently and magnificently occur. Never shall
+      I forget the piled splendours, the divided and involved intricacies of
+      rounded forms, the stupendous mass of the great towers of white cloud
+      which I have often seen, with their level bases just upon or just above
+      the summits of mountains more than 20,000 feet high, and their sharply
+      outlined crests 15,000 or even 20,000 feet higher. Such clouds are only
+      formed in warm uniformly ascending air currents, undisturbed by variable
+      winds. They never form about peaks, but they form beside or above them.
+      Often in Bolivia have I seen these great towers of mist<a id="Page_112"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[112]</span> rise with majestic deliberation behind
+      the long white crest of the Cordillera Real, till they reduced the snowy
+      peaks to mere pigmies at their feet. Then the afternoon wind would take
+      them and bend them over the range like waves about to break. White island
+      masses would sever themselves one by one and, passing the crest of the
+      watershed, would drift away over the high plateau. If cumulus is formed in
+      the Alpine region, its base would doubtless there also lie above the level
+      of the snows, and the form of the clouds would not be realised by an
+      observer in the mountain region. From Turin or Milan, gazing northward,
+      immense masses of cumulus are often seen, but I have never yet been able
+      to discover whether their bases rest on the snows or whether they merely
+      lie above the foothills and lake-district.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clouds that belong to mountains, that arise upon their slopes and
+      crests, and are the vestments they wear in the great ceremonies of Nature,
+      these are of another sort. The climber knows them from within and has a
+      very different sense of their meaning from his who merely watches them
+      from afar off. Mr. Whymper in a well-known passage describes how he spent
+      the<a id="Page_113"></a> <span class="pagenum">[113]</span> best part of
+      two days on the Matterhorn, wrestling with a violent storm. On his arrival
+      at Zermatt, he learned from the inn-keeper that the weather had been fine
+      but for "that small cloud" on the Matterhorn's flank. Such is the
+      difference between being in some clouds and seeing them from below.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image184.jpg" width="450" height="355" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE ALETSCHHORN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Clouds gathering at sunset.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Climbers, as a rule, begin their ascents by night, in weather which they
+      at least hope will prove fine. In doubtful weather nights are relatively
+      cloudless, unless it be in valleys. Not infrequently, indeed, a bed of
+      cloud will lie in a valley when all the upper regions are clear. I well
+      remember once starting from Zermatt for an ascent of one of Monte Rosa's
+      peaks at as black a midnight as can be conceived. Not a star shone in the
+      heavy sky. An hour's walking brought us into a thick fog, but we pushed on
+      and up. It lay quite still. Just before dawn we rose above it and could
+      almost feel our passing out through its clearly defined upper surface. We
+      looked abroad over its level surface as a leaping fish may be imagined to
+      see around it the surface of a lake. All above was absolutely clear. The
+      day that followed was radiantly fine and the mist lake presently faded
+      away. Such views of<a id="Page_114"></a> <span class="pagenum">[114]</span>
+      mountains rising out of a level sea of cloud are always felt to be
+      wonderful. Sella's photograph of the Caucasus range thus islanded is the
+      best-known example of that kind of view. It is not uncommon in mountain
+      regions. I have described examples of it in Spitsbergen and the Andes
+      which need not be quoted here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oftener the climber starts beneath the stars. His first attention is paid
+      to their aspect. If they seem unusually bright and twinkling, he augurs
+      ill of his prospects, but holds on, hoping for the best. Dark sky-islands
+      indicate the presence of clouds here and there. He trusts that the rising
+      sun may clear them away. In due season the dawn breaks, perhaps in unusual
+      and threatening grandeur, the light pouring along "wreathed avenues" of
+      advancing clouds and illuminating with its rich tints the cloud-banners
+      flying from precipitous peaks. Worst of all is it if umbrella clouds seem
+      to float stationary above the tops of rounded snowy summits. Then indeed
+      there is little ground left for hope. These cloud-caps, just lifted off
+      the heads of the mountains to which they belong, consist of vapour in
+      rapid movement and always imply a strong wind. The mist condenses to
+      windward of the summit, blows<a id="Page_115"></a> <span class="pagenum">[115]</span>
+      over it, and dissolves to leeward, thus making the cloud-cap appear
+      stationary, though every particle composing it is in rapid motion. Similar
+      is the internal composition of a cloud-banner, though the movement of its
+      parts is more easily perceived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oftenest, however, at the hour of dawn there is little wind, and the mists
+      condense lazily, forming, fading, forming again in the most whimsical
+      fashion. Or they eddy in hollow places, and reach forth over depressions
+      uncanny arms, which grasp and wither away and return again as though in
+      doubt what to attack. An hour may pass in this weird performance, and then
+      after all the sun may conquer and the misty battalions be swallowed up.
+      But that is unusual. Generally, after some preliminary skirmishing, the
+      moment comes when they gather themselves together, as by word of command,
+      and, coming on in united force, swallow up the mountain world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This final onrush is often a most magnificent and solemn sight. The
+      gathering squadrons of the sky grow dark and seem to hold the just
+      departed night in their bosoms. Their crests impend. They assume terrific
+      shapes. They acquire an aspect of solidity. They do not so<a id="Page_116"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[116]</span> much seem to blot out as to destroy the
+      mountains. Their motion suggests a great momentum. At first too they act
+      in almost perfect silence. There is little movement in the oppressively
+      warm air, and yet the clouds boil and surge as though violently agitated.
+      They join together, neighbour to neighbour, and every moment they grow
+      more dense and climb higher. To left and right, one sees them, behind also
+      and before. The moments now are precious. We take a last view of our
+      surroundings, note the direction we should follow, and try to fix details
+      in our memories, for sight will soon be impossible. Then the clouds
+      themselves are upon us&mdash;a puff of mist first, followed by the dense
+      fog. A crepitating sound arises around us; it is the pattering of hard
+      particles of snow on the ground. Presently the flakes grow bigger and fall
+      more softly, feeling clammy on the face. And now probably the wind rises
+      and the temperature is lowered. Each member of our party is whitened over;
+      icicles form on hair and moustache, and the very aspect of men is changed
+      to match the wild surroundings. Under such circumstances the high regions
+      of snow are more impressive than under any other, but climbers must be
+      well-nourished, in good hard<a id="Page_117"></a> <span class="pagenum">[117]</span>
+      condition, and not too fatigued, or they will not appreciate the scene. No
+      one can really know the high Alps who has not been out in a storm at some
+      great elevation. The experience may not be, in fact is not, physically
+      pleasant, but it is morally stimulating in a high degree, and �sthetically
+      grand. Now must a climber call up all his reserves of pluck and
+      determination. He may have literally to fight his way down to a place of
+      shelter. There can be no rest, neither can there be any undue haste. The
+      right way must be found and followed. All that can be seen is close at
+      hand and that small circle must serve for guidance. All must keep moving
+      on with grim persistence, hour after hour. Stimulants are unavailing and
+      food is probably inaccessible. All depends upon reserve stores of health
+      and vigour, and upon moral courage. To give in is treason. Each determines
+      that he for his part will not fail his companions. Mutual reliance must be
+      preserved.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image190.jpg" width="450" height="319" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE GROSSER ALETSCH-FIRN FROM CONCORDIA HUT
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The L�tschenl�cke on the extreme left.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      At first the disagreeable details are most keenly felt by contrast, but,
+      when an hour has passed and the conflict is well entered upon, they are
+      forgotten. We become accustomed to our surroundings and can, if we will,
+      observe them with a<a id="Page_118"></a> <span class="pagenum">[118]</span>
+      deliberate interest. How the winds tear the mists about! There is no
+      constant blast of air, but a series of eddying rushes, which come and pass
+      like the units of an army. Each seems to possess an individuality of its
+      own. Each makes its attack and is gone. One smites you in the face;
+      another in the back. Some seem not devoid of humour; they sport with the
+      traveller in a grim way. Others are filled with rage. Others come on as it
+      were reluctantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The aspect of the foreground rapidly changes. Rocks and stones disappear
+      under a thickening blanket of snow. What was a staircase on the way up is
+      found to be a powdery snow-slope in the forced descent. The new snow is
+      soft like a liquid. It flows into the footprints and blots them out. Can
+      it be that there are places somewhere where it is warm and dry&mdash;places
+      with roofs over them and snug chimney corners and hot things to eat and
+      drink? How strange the idea already seems! We belong to another world and
+      feel as though we had always belonged to it. Civilised life is like some
+      dream of a bygone night, and this that we are in is the only reality. It,
+      in its turn, we know, will hereafter seem to have been a dream, but now it
+      is the only fact. Here is the world of<a id="Page_119"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[119]</span> ice in the making. This is what snow-fields
+      and glaciers come from. Unpleasant is it? Well perhaps! but it is good to
+      have had such experiences. They develop a man's confidence, employ his
+      powers, and enrich his memory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After all it is the snow regions in their days of storm that I remember
+      best. One tempest that overwhelmed us on the flanks of Mount Sarmiento in
+      Tierra del Fuego&mdash;how clearly even its details arise upon the
+      lantern-screen of recollection! We were looking back northward over the
+      Magellan channels towards the southern extremity of the South American
+      continent, and a storm was pouring down thence upon us. "The darkness in
+      the north was truly appalling. It seemed not merely to cover, but to
+      devour the wintry world. The heavens appeared to be falling in solid
+      masses, so dense were the skirts of snow and hail that the advancing
+      cloud-phalanx trailed beneath it. Black islands, leaden waters, pallid
+      snows, and splintered peaks disappeared in a night of tempest, which
+      enveloped us also almost before we had realised that it was at hand. A
+      sudden wind shrieked and whirled around us; hail was flung against our
+      faces, and all the elements raged and rioted together. All landmarks
+      vanished; the snow<a id="Page_120"></a> <span class="pagenum">[120]</span>
+      beneath was no longer distinguishable by the eye from the snow-filled
+      air."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes the wind blows with a fury that is almost irresistible. I have
+      this note of such an experience. "The wind struck us like a solid thing,
+      and we had to lean against it or be overthrown. It lulled for an instant,
+      and we advanced a few yards; then it struck us again, and we gripped the
+      mountain and doubted whether we could hold on. A far milder gale than this
+      would suffice to sweep men from a narrow ar�te. It was not only strong,
+      but freezing. It dissolved the heat out of us so rapidly that we could
+      almost feel ourselves crystallising like so many Lot's wives. We stood up
+      to it for a minute or two, then rushed back into shelter and took stock of
+      our extremities. My finger-tips had lost all sensation. It was enough."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such raging tumults of the air are not a very common alpine experience,
+      though most climbers have had to encounter them. Sometimes the air is
+      still, or only gently in motion, while dense clouds envelop peak and
+      glacier. Then a great silence reigns, which yet is not like the silence of
+      night. It seems of a denser, more positive sort. Strange sounds punctuate
+      it in times of heavy snow-fall. There are<a id="Page_121"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[121]</span> slidings from rocks, dull sunderings of
+      snow-drifts grown too heavy to retain their unstable positions. There are
+      crackings in deep beds of snow, newly formed. Small avalanches of snow
+      fall with a cat-like, velvety movement, more of a flowing than a fall.
+      Stones plunge with a dim thud into snow-drifts. All these sounds are
+      heard, but the moving objects, though perhaps quite near at hand, remain
+      invisible. We feel ourselves to be in the midst of unseen presences and
+      activities, and instinctively picture them as hostile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the midst of such a silence the first boom of thunder breaking on the
+      ear sounds solemn indeed. It may be a distant discharge, and the next will
+      be nearer. But often the very cloud that envelops us is the thunderer, and
+      the first clap is quite close at hand. If so, it will not so much boom as
+      rattle, re-echoing from the rocks amongst or near which it strikes. It has
+      not come unforeseen. The air has been electrical for some time. We have
+      felt cobwebs upon our faces. Perhaps our ice-axes are hissing, and we may
+      have felt a shock or two from them. With the breaking<a id="Page_122"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[122]</span> of the storm comes hail that spatters
+      the rocks and pricks over the snow. The discharges multiply in frequency,
+      and if we are in the heart of the storm we hear them now on one side, now
+      on the other&mdash;rattling like the volley-firing of scattered companies.
+      Seldom, at high altitudes, are the individual discharges very violent,
+      though being near at hand they sound loud enough. The mountain is
+      exchanging electricity with the clouds over all its surface at a number of
+      suitable points. Many climbers have been struck by lightning, but few are
+      known to have been killed, though lightning-stroke may have been the cause
+      of mysterious accidents never accounted for. As a rule there is noise
+      enough to produce a great impression; there is a sense of the power and
+      activity of nature's forces; but there is little absolute danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Very different is the sensation of being in the midst of fine weather
+      clouds, such as are often encountered before sunrise, but dissolve and
+      disappear as the power of the sun increases. I well remember a beautiful
+      experience of the kind upon the Rutor. The night had been overcast; when
+      dawn appeared, the mists only seemed to thicken. We reached the summit
+      crest and felt our way over the other side and down. We knew from the map
+      that a great snow-field was sloping away before us in gentle undulations.<a
+      id="Page_123"></a> <span class="pagenum">[123]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "We could not see it, nor indeed could we see anything except a small area
+      of flat ripple-surfaced snow, losing itself in all directions in the
+      delicate sparkling mist, through which the circle of the soaring sun now
+      began to be faintly discerned. With compass and map we determined the
+      direction to be followed, and down we went over admirably firm snow.
+      Seldom have I been in lovelier surroundings than those afforded by the
+      rippled <i>n�v�</i> and the glittering mist. The air was soft. A perfect
+      silence reigned. Nothing in sight had aspect of solidity; we seemed to be
+      in a world of gossamer and fairy webs. Presently there came an
+      indescribable movement and flickering above us, as though our bright chaos
+      were taking form. Vague and changeful shapes trembled into view and
+      disappeared. Low, flowing light-bands striped the white floor. Wisps of
+      mist danced and eddied around. A faint veil was all that remained, and
+      through it we beheld with bewildered delight all the glory of the Mont
+      Blanc range, from end to end and from base to summit, a vision of bridal
+      beauty. Last of all, the veil was withdrawn and utter clearness reigned
+      all around."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such sudden and unexpected withdrawals of<a id="Page_124"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[124]</span> the cloud curtains, such revelations and
+      surprises are amongst the most transcendently beautiful effects that the
+      mountain-climber is privileged to behold. They amply repay hours of fog,
+      and compensate for days of bad weather. But even if the fog remain,
+      blotting out all distant views, it often provides a setting for near
+      objects, which gives them an emphasis amounting to a revelation. Many of
+      my readers must have beheld great s�rac towers of ice looming out of mist,
+      and magnified by it into excess of grandeur. Never is an ice-fall so
+      imposing as when traversed in not too dense a fog. What a sense of poise
+      between heaven and earth is received when one is in a steep couloir which
+      vanishes into mist above and below.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image200.jpg" width="450" height="390" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THUNDERSTORM BREAKING OVER PALLANZA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Sketch made out of window. Dust of the streets swept before it in
+        clouds.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I look back with special pleasure to several days of wandering over a
+      series of snow passes, which had never been traversed before by any member
+      of our party, when we had to feel our way over, through snow-storms and
+      clouds by help only of map and compass. They were easy Tirolese passes,
+      which might have proved monotonous in fine weather, but the prevailing
+      conditions made them intensely interesting and even exciting, for the
+      easiest pass may prove difficult if you miss the<a id="Page_125"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[125]</span> actual col. How closely we watched the
+      undulations of the glacier, and how keenly we analysed the formation of
+      the rocks. Every hint of structure was important. None could be neglected.
+      No step could be taken without thought. An ordinary crevassed glacier
+      required careful negotiation. Those occasional rifts in the clouds that
+      made manifest now some isolated point of rock, now some icy wall, now some
+      corniced crest of snow, were a series of framed pictures passed in review.
+      We enjoyed no panoramas, but the mountain detail that was forced upon our
+      close attention was no whit less beautiful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the low-level bad weather views, it is seldom that a traveller can
+      bring himself into a mood to regard them sympathetically. We are not
+      seals, and water is not our element. The oncoming of bad weather, beheld
+      from below, is a grievance to the holiday-maker. He may admit that it is
+      accompanied by impressive appearances, but he cannot pretend to appreciate
+      them. It is not till days of rain have followed one another, and disgust
+      has given place to resignation, that he is driven to face the elements and
+      seek for consolation in activity.<a id="Page_126"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[126]</span> Clouds lie low and rain is pouring from them,
+      but he must sally forth. Before long he loses sense of discomfort and
+      finds himself entering into the spirit of the day. The pouring clouds are
+      a low roof over his head; their margins rest on the pines, defining the
+      tops of some and half-burying others. Every outline is softened, every
+      form vague. Perhaps a glacier snout looms dimly forth, with all the stones
+      upon it glistening with wet. Everything is wet and all local colours are
+      enhanced. The grass glistens in every blade; so do the flowers, and the
+      pebbles on the foot-path. How sweetly everything smells. All has been
+      washed clean. There are no dusty bushes. Water drips and tinkles
+      everywhere. Little springs arise every few yards; runlets fall down every
+      bank. An infinite number of little treble voices unite in the chorus, and
+      can be heard near at hand alone. Further off they are lost in the great
+      "whish" that fills the air. Surely the clouds must be draining themselves
+      dry! But, no! They form as fast as they fall. One sees them gathering at
+      the edge by the trees. Long stretches of mist lie on the hills below the
+      general level, or move slowly along,
+    </p>
+    <div class="poem">
+      <p>
+        "Reach out an arm and creep from pine to pine."<a id="Page_127"></a>
+        <span class="pagenum">[127]</span>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p class="noindent">
+      Soon he is up amongst them. There it is not so much rain that falls, it is
+      a general dissolution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From such a walk one returns a happier creature. Next day, perhaps, the
+      weather will clear. The sun will shine on a glistening world and the
+      clouds will melt away. Then we see the low-lying fresh snow shining on the
+      green alps, and all the great rock-peaks glittering aloft in a new-shed
+      glory. The sky is unwontedly clear and so definitely blue; the trees and
+      grass so green; the snow so white. The early morning moments of such a day
+      are precious indeed. Diamond rain-drops deck grass and pine-needles. There
+      is radiance upon all the earth and freshness in the air. The discomforts
+      of the past are forgotten. We are rested and eager for movement, and the
+      world summons us forth. Nature, after all, knows best, and he is happiest
+      who yields himself, whether in the mountains or elsewhere, to perfect
+      sympathy with her many moods.<a id="Page_128"></a> <span class="pagenum">[128]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER VI</span><br /> <span class="smaller">MOUNTAINS ALL THE YEAR
+      ROUND</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I<span class="smcap lowercase">N</span> the chequer-boards of most men's
+      lives, the squares they can allot to the joys of mountain travel are
+      coincident with summer seasons. Thus most of us cannot know the snow
+      mountains all the year round, but only in their warm-weather garb. It may
+      be claimed that then they are at their best, but such claims, in the case
+      of Nature, are untenable. Nature is never or always at her best. One star
+      may differ from another star in glory, but not in beauty; for beauty is in
+      the eye that beholds, rather than in the thing that is beheld. A
+      particular effect in nature may be more attractive than another to a
+      particular man, but that is not really a measure of the beauty of the
+      effect, but of the capacity of the man. None of us can discover all
+      beauty; none of us can always behold beauty in everything; but all of<a
+      id="Page_129"></a> <span class="pagenum">[129]</span> us together can find
+      beauty everywhere and always in what Nature makes. He that can oftenest
+      discover beauty, and is most continuously conscious of it, is most richly
+      endowed and most to be envied. How often do we hear people say that in
+      their opinion Niagara, or the view from the Gorner Grat, or Mont Blanc, or
+      some other great sight, is disappointing, that it failed to come up to
+      their expectations, that its reputation is ill-deserved, and so forth.
+      Such persons seem to imagine that their opinions are worth something, and
+      that they, or any one, has a say in the matter; whereas the fact is, that
+      the sights of nature may measure men, but that individual men cannot
+      measure them. If a man thinks little of Niagara, that opinion measures
+      him, but not Niagara. All sights of nature are beautiful. All great
+      natural phenomena are greatly beautiful. That is a fundamental fact. Our
+      business is not to question it, but to see the beauty if and when we can.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great mountains therefore are not beautiful at one time, or more
+      beautiful at one time than another. They are beautiful always, and all the
+      year round. They may be more comfortable to live or scramble amongst at
+      some seasons, but he that can render his sense of beauty independent of<a
+      id="Page_130"></a> <span class="pagenum">[130]</span> his sense of comfort
+      may be able to grow equally conscious of mountain beauty at all seasons.
+      It is the opportunity that most of us lack, not the power. The fact that
+      the high Alps are beautiful in winter also was not popularly realised till
+      recently. A few men had faith that such would be the case, and they went
+      to see. They brought back lively accounts of the wonders and glories they
+      had beheld, and so incited others to follow in their steps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The classical first account in English of the high Alps in winter was A.
+      W. Moore's paper in the fourth volume of the <i>Alpine Journal</i>,
+      describing a visit to Grindelwald in December 1866, and the passage of the
+      Strahleck and Finsteraarjoch by full mid-winter moonlight. Mid-winter
+      moonlight is doubtless one of the great glories that the summer traveller
+      misses. So bright was it "that the faintest pencil memoranda were legible
+      with ease." The landscape beneath it is not the monochrome picture most of
+      us associate with moonlight. It is rich with subdued colour, most
+      beautiful to see. The full winter moon in the Alps bears to the summer
+      moon, for brightness, the same relation that the equatorial sun does to
+      the sun of our temperate regions. High planted<a id="Page_131"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[131]</span> near the zenith, the winter moon floods
+      mountain and valley with a white light that turns snow to silver and hangs
+      a curtain of velvet on every rock-face.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image208.jpg" width="331" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE WETTERHORN
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Grindelwald Chalets, flower-clad slopes and sunlit trees.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Who that has been to St. Moritz or Davos in winter does not come home with
+      a new conception of what the clearness of the atmosphere can be? The
+      summer air is like poor glass beside the crystal transparency of winter.
+      Perhaps the effect is to bring distances nearer and thus decrease apparent
+      scale&mdash;an effect which the whitening of the foundations of the hills
+      tends to increase; but in return, by what delicacy of detail, what
+      crispness of form, what glitter and brilliancy we are repaid. In course of
+      time we learn to read scale truthfully anew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another winter glory is the snow drapery of the lower slopes and glaciers
+      below the snow-line. All minor asperities of surface are smoothed away.
+      Flowing lines take the place of broken ones, and large surfaces most
+      delicately modelled predominate. In summer you must climb to the high
+      snow-fields to behold the delicate modelling of which snow is capable on a
+      large scale, but in winter such sights are all around you. To watch the
+      play of sunshine upon them from dawn to<a id="Page_132"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[132]</span> dusk, and the even more fascinating
+      appearance they assume under brilliant moonlight, is joy enough for the
+      hungriest eye.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then there are the frozen cascades by every roadside, glittering clustered
+      columns of ice fit for fairies' palaces. One beholds them at almost every
+      turn, for the veriest trickle of water, so it be persistent, suffices to
+      build them up. Nor must we forget to catalogue amongst the greater glories
+      of Alpine winter the snow-laden forests. One day the trees will be
+      burdened down by loads of snow. Another, every sprig and pine-needle will
+      be frosted over by the most delicate incrustation of tiny ice-crystals&mdash;a
+      natural lacework of surpassing fascination. When the early sun first
+      shines upon such a scene, which night has prepared to be a revelation to
+      the day, so magnificent a vision is provided that even the dullest
+      perceive something of its beauty, and for a moment forget the trifles of
+      their life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Akin to this glorification of the trees by frost are the glittering
+      "snow-flowers," those charming little groups of crystals that form on the
+      ground in suitable spots under the influence of wind-eddies and other
+      vagaries of the air. They are as pretty as they are short-lived, and
+      possess a quality of rareness that makes them additionally precious.<a
+      id="Page_133"></a> <span class="pagenum">[133]</span> If in winter we lose
+      the blueness of the lakes and the greenness of the hills, are we not more
+      than repaid? What in its way can be more fair than the absolute flatness
+      and unspotted purity of a frozen lake-surface covered thickly by
+      new-fallen snow? It is no joy to skaters and curlers indeed, but for those
+      who have eyes and have taught themselves how to see with them, little time
+      is left for the distractions of mere games. The snow-shoe is the true
+      winter implement, and especially the Norwegian <i>ski</i>, which provides
+      the most glorious exercise and makes accessible the most delightful spots.
+      An occasional run down-hill is the by-reward of the skilful, but his main
+      prize is the sights he is privileged to behold. He can enter the heart of
+      forests or ascend large slopes without the toil of sinking into the soft
+      snow, to whose presence they owe the quality of their winter charm. Ski,
+      moreover, grant access with relative comfort to the higher regions, and
+      enable them to be crossed in suitable places at a time when the crevasses
+      of the glaciers are deeply buried or soundly bridged, and when the snowy
+      world sweeps in larger and simpler surfaces away. Some climbers have found
+      pleasure in attaining in winter the summits of high peaks, whence they<a
+      id="Page_134"></a> <span class="pagenum">[134]</span> have beheld great
+      panoramas with a distinctness of distant vision that the summer climber
+      seldom attains. They tell us that the white filling of the valleys and
+      covering of the lower slopes tends to flatten the effect of a mountain
+      scene beheld from above. Whatever the special charm of such expeditions,
+      they cannot be made with frequency. Weather conditions are usually
+      adverse. Short days are a hint to make short expeditions. Thus in winter
+      Nature herself calls attention rather to her own details. She endows with
+      unusual attraction what is near at hand. She sculptures her ornaments on a
+      tiny scale and finishes them with a marvellous elaboration. The wise
+      follow her mood and adapt their eyes to her intentions. The winter months
+      are none too long for them. Indeed they are gone all too soon, and one
+      day, lo! the spring is there and the winter votaries turn and flee.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image214.jpg" width="450" height="356" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        M�RJELEN ALP
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Winter snow on ground. Foot of Eggishorn on left, ridges of Strahlhorner
+        on right.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I have only once spent a portion of the spring in an Alpine region. It is
+      not a comfortable season, but it has its own beauties as great in their
+      kind as those of summer and winter. Now the snow begins to melt, and all
+      the hillsides trickle and run with water. The great silence of winter is
+      past. Nature whispers with a<a id="Page_135"></a> <span class="pagenum">[135]</span>
+      thousand tiny voices, and sings aloud along the valleys and gorges. The
+      hillsides emerge brown from their snowy blanket, but the fresh green soon
+      shoots through and early flowers are swift to put forth. The sense of
+      young life is felt among the mountains as in the plains, for the awakening
+      of the vegetable world is everywhere the same. But the mountains possess
+      spring-time splendours of their own, depending upon the dissolution of the
+      snow. Spring is the great time for avalanches. They fall indeed all the
+      year round, chiefly at high levels, but it is only in the spring that the
+      great avalanches get adrift. Certain great spring avalanches come down
+      with remarkable regularity in particular places, one every year. An
+      avalanche falls at a recognised spot in the neighbourhood of almost every
+      village, which dates from its advent the opening of the spring. Any one
+      who has beheld the descent of one of these giants will not forget the
+      experience, nor will it occur to him to compare such an avalanche with the
+      relatively small ones that tumble among the highest <i>n�v�</i> regions in
+      the summer. These are the veriest snow-balls compared with those vast
+      discharges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great spring avalanche is no sudden freak of Nature, but an inevitable
+      occurrence, slowly<a id="Page_136"></a> <span class="pagenum">[136]</span>engendered.
+      The snow that piles up, flake by flake, during the winter months, on what
+      in summer are the grass slopes below the snow-line, gradually becomes
+      unstable as spring melting advances. The mass loses its cohesion, ceases
+      to bind firmly together, and tends to flow downwards. The conformation of
+      the ground decides how it shall fall. If the slopes upon which it lies are
+      narrow, and lead straight to a suitable resting-ground, or if they are of
+      gentle declivity, it may fall in small masses and early come to rest; for
+      the distance to which it is projected depends upon the momentum of a fall,
+      and the momentum depends upon the volume and the slope. But if the snow
+      lies upon large concave slopes, or upon a cirque, then, when the discharge
+      begins, all the snow within the cirque may flow together, and pouring down
+      the bottom like a fluid, may form a great cataract; then tumbling over
+      cliffs and rushing down hollows and through gorges, it will continue its
+      descent till it reaches a valley bottom, flat enough to hold it. There it
+      will pile up into a great cone or "fan," solidifying as it comes to rest,
+      and strongly bridging over the valley torrent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An avalanche of this kind does not fall in a few moments, but may occupy
+      hours in its discharge.<a id="Page_137"></a> <span class="pagenum">[137]</span>
+      I saw several of them falling, in the first days of May 1882, in the
+      neighbourhood of the Simplon road. Near B�risal I crossed one which had
+      recently come to rest, traversing the road. By its rugged white surface,
+      broken into great protuberances, its solidity, and its general form, it
+      resembled a small glacier. To climb on to it one had to cut steps, so
+      steep were the sides. Higher up I crossed several more such fallen masses,
+      through which gangs of workmen were cutting out the road. Towards the top
+      of the pass the snow was tumbling in smaller masses. Over a hundred little
+      avalanches crossed the road within a couple of hours. Then they stopped.
+      On the Italian side similar conditions obtained, but it was not till I
+      reached Isella that the greatest fall took place, or rather was taking
+      place, for it had begun before I arrived, and it continued after I had
+      passed. There, a narrow gorge, with vertical cliff-sides facing one
+      another, debouches on the main valley. It leads upwards to a great cirque
+      in the hills, a cirque that is a grass-covered alpine pasture in the
+      summer. The avalanche was pouring out through this gorge and piling itself
+      up upon the main valley-floor. How the mass of it was being renewed from<a
+      id="Page_138"></a> <span class="pagenum">[138]</span> behind I could not
+      see. Doubtless all the hill-sides above were shedding their snow, and it
+      was flowing down and crowding into and through the gorge with a continuous
+      flow. As the pressure was relieved below by the outpouring of the
+      avalanche on to the valley floor, more snow came down&mdash;snow mixed
+      with slush, and semi-liquid under the great pressure that must have been
+      developed. As the fan was built up, the snow, relieved of strain, hardened
+      into ice-like consistency.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is easy to describe the process that was going forward, but it is not
+      easy to suggest to the reader the grandeur of effect that was produced.
+      The volume of noise was terrific&mdash;a noise more massive and continuous
+      than thunder, and no less deep-toned. A low grey cloud roofed in the view
+      and cast over everything a solemn tone. The avalanche, pouring through the
+      massive gateway of the hills and polishing its sides, came forth with an
+      aspect of weight and resistless force that was extraordinarily impressive.
+      Yet Nature did not seem to be acting violently, though her might was plain
+      to see. She appeared to proceed with deliberation. One looked for an end
+      of the snow-stream to come, but it flowed on and on,<a id="Page_139"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[139]</span> pulsating but not failing. The
+      pressures that must be developed were easily conceived; correspondingly
+      evident became the strength of the hills that could sustain them as if
+      they had been but the stroking of a hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Later in the season the traveller often encounters, in deep-lying valleys,
+      the black and shrunken remnants of these mighty avalanches, melted down by
+      summer heats. Little idea can they give him of the splendour of their
+      birth and the white curdled beauty of their surface when they first come
+      to rest. In the nature of things they travel far and fall low, well into
+      the tree-belt, and even down to the chestnut-level on the Italian side. It
+      is a strange sight to see these vast, new-fallen masses lying in their
+      accustomed beds, but surrounded by trees all freshly verdant with the
+      gifts of spring. Yearly each one falls in the same place, falls harmlessly
+      and duly expected. Its coming is welcomed. Its voice is the triumphant
+      shout of the coming season of summer exuberance and fertility. Nature,
+      newly awakened, cries aloud with a great and solemnly joyous cry, and the
+      people dwelling around hear her and arise to their work upon the land. It
+      is not well for a mountain-lover never to have<a id="Page_140"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[140]</span> beheld this characteristic awakening, for it
+      is one of the great events of the mountains' year.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the rest, spring in the Alps has many of the qualities of spring
+      everywhere else, which need not detain us, for to say that is to say
+      enough. Characteristically Alpine alone are the passing away of the snow
+      and the phenomena that accompany it. After the avalanches have fallen,
+      steady melting does the rest. Each warm day withdraws the winter blanket
+      somewhat and reveals the earth to the sunshine. Convex slopes melt sooner
+      than concave, steep slopes sooner than flats or gentle inclines. Thus the
+      large uniform winter covering breaks up into islands and stripes of white.
+      Gullies are defined against slopes, which previously were lost in them.
+      The detailed anatomy of the hills is manifested more clearly from day to
+      day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may be claimed that the effect produced is patchy, and so, judged by
+      spring-time photographs, it appears indeed to be. Never, for photography,
+      are mountains less suitable than in the spring; by some ill-luck the
+      camera seizes upon and magnifies the patchiness of the receding snow. In
+      actual vision the margin of the snow bears a less piebald aspect. Indeed
+      patchiness is not the effect that<a id="Page_141"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[141]</span> the eye receives from it. The edge is at once
+      perceived to be melting. The white garb is being withdrawn. That fact is
+      apparent. If one watches the changes from day to day, they will be found
+      most entertaining from the manifestations of form they yield. Moreover,
+      the daily alteration of the colouring of the ground from which snow has
+      recently melted is most remarkable. The transition is from brown to green.
+      Hence the edge of the snow is margined with brown, and that in turn by
+      green&mdash;a kind of iris effect which ascends the hillside as the snow
+      withdraws.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Finally, spring is the time of spilling waters, of torrents brimful and
+      overflowing, of voluminous cascades, of gurgling brooks everywhere&mdash;a
+      time, too, when the waters are bright and crystalline, and when the
+      valleys and lower slopes are as vocal with their song as the upper regions
+      are with the deeper diapason of falling snow. If, amongst all these
+      voices, the winds blow shrilly and the storms not infrequently rage, the
+      effects produced, however uncomfortable they may be to the touch of the
+      comfort-loving body, are essentially harmonious in a grand and glorious
+      fashion.<a id="Page_142"></a> <span class="pagenum">[142]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From spring to summer there is no step in Alpine regions. It is merely
+      that as the year advances the level of spring rises. At the edge of the
+      ever-retreating snow it is always spring. Even in August you have but to
+      climb to find it, but it reigns then over a narrow belt and is not a
+      land-encompassing mood. What turns spring into summer for the eye is not
+      easy to indicate. Shall we be far wrong if we say that, in the first
+      instance, it is the flowers? The little venturesome plants of spring, that
+      blossom at the very edge of the withdrawing snow, themselves withdraw when
+      they have smiled upon the world. They are followed by the bright carpet of
+      early summer&mdash;the June carpet, which few mountaineers ever behold. It
+      is lovely everywhere&mdash;loveliest perhaps in the Maritime Alps, or
+      along the sunny Italian face of the Alpine wall. You must see it before
+      the scythes get to work on the first hay crop, and even before the grass
+      is full grown&mdash;a sheet of many colours&mdash;not, however, a mere
+      chaos of all kinds of blossoms, but something far more orderly than that.
+      For there is generally some predominant plant at a given spot, luxuriantly
+      blossoming at a particular time, and all the rest<a id="Page_143"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[143]</span> do but serve to embroider it. Here
+      indeed may be a sheet of one kind of blossom, there of another. It is as
+      though some one had passed by and tossed fair Persian carpets down in
+      different places, carpets of different design, but all in the same general
+      style.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image224.jpg" width="337" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOWER GLACIER AND GRINDELWALD CHURCH
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        June 3, 1903, the valley thickly covered with flowers; for four days
+        heavy clouds hung low over peaks and ridges. Only a glimpse such as this
+        to be seen at intervals in the slow swaying fringe of the cloud-curtain.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Even at this period greens are predominant, for the flowers are not to be
+      discovered from a distance. And what greens they are&mdash;these shrill
+      verdancies of early summer&mdash;the despair of artists, the joy of
+      Nature's friends! Later on they will tone down to a more paintable key,
+      but at first they transcend the powers of paint, having in them something
+      almost of the shine of flame. Their coming is sudden. They descend upon
+      the broad bosom of fertile valleys and the wide skirts of gentle slopes,
+      as the daylight descends when the sun grows high. Yesterday all was brown;
+      to-day the greens have come, exultant, exuberant, with the star-flowers
+      spangled amongst them. Then indeed it is good to be alive. The voice has
+      gone out to the valley&mdash;"Arise, shine, for thy light has come"&mdash;and
+      the valley responds to the call.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With July the full summer is there, and the summer crowd at hand. The
+      longest days are<a id="Page_144"></a> <span class="pagenum">[144]</span>
+      passing. The freshness is wearing off from the valleys. Now heat, dust,
+      and flies drive men aloft. It is the reception period of the high peaks,
+      when they differentiate themselves plainly from the region below, and
+      alone retain the perfect purity of the winter world. In winter the great
+      mountains stretch themselves visibly down to the valleys. Then Mont Blanc
+      begins at Chamonix, the Matterhorn at Zermatt. But in summer the high
+      peaks seem to be planted aloft on the green world. The Matterhorn is
+      reduced to a pyramid standing on the Schwarzsee Alp. Thus in summer,
+      though the actual peaks themselves look larger, they are more removed out
+      of the way. You must mount afar before you come to their apparent foot.
+      You thus acquire the sense of their belonging to a world of their own. In
+      winter snow glories are at your door. In summer you must labour to behold
+      them, and when beheld they are emphasised by contrast with the fertile
+      world you have left. That is why (apart from all questions of comfort and
+      safety) summer climbing is more impressive than winter. It presents more
+      stages, more variety. In winter-time all is winter; but in summer it is
+      summer in the valleys, spring on the alps, and<a id="Page_145"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[145]</span> winter above the snow-line; only autumn is
+      not there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Autumn, in fact, is the rarest of the seasons. Its effects are the most
+      evanescent. That is one of its special charms&mdash;that, and the tender
+      sadness that pertains to the passing away of things which have flourished
+      and had their day in glory. October in the Alps is a season perhaps more
+      generally delightful in these days than any other period of the year. Then
+      the great summer crowd has gone, and there is room in the caravanserais
+      and on the footpaths. The country-folks have leisure for a word with the
+      wayfarer, and the painful sense of over-pressure is gone. In October the
+      Alps are almost as they used to be in the sixties&mdash;a spacious region
+      where a man may find himself alone, or almost alone, in the face of
+      Nature. He cannot now, indeed, heal the scars that the crowd have furrowed
+      upon the face of the earth, nor remove the ugly buildings and defacing
+      embankments that have been raised to dam and form reservoirs or canals for
+      the human flood, but with that exception he can possess the landscape in
+      peace.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      October, again, is sometimes a month of much fine weather and of skies
+      marvellously clear. If the<a id="Page_146"></a> <span class="pagenum">[146]</span>
+      days are short, they are yet long enough for early risers. Evening and
+      morning are brought within the limits of a normal man's possible activity,
+      so that he may enjoy both the splendour of sunrise and sunset without
+      transgressing the daily hours of healthy wakefulness. The October sun does
+      not climb so far aloft as does the royal monarch of the midsummer sky. If
+      the effulgence of day is thus rendered less overpowering, in return the
+      shadows spread wider and retain a richer colouring in their depths. More
+      modelling is visible upon the hillsides and the snow-fields in the bright
+      hours; there are bluer noontide shadows and perhaps even a bluer sky also.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image230.jpg" width="450" height="343" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        GRINDELWALD LOOKING TOWARDS THE WENGEN ALP
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Winter snow on the slopes.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      All this is true and characteristic of Alpine autumn, but the most
+      characteristic feature, there as elsewhere, is the fading of vegetation
+      and the flaming colours that accompany it. Not only does the foliage of
+      the trees disclose the change, but the very hillsides blend in harmony
+      with the forests. Berries shine bright on small shrubs and even lurk
+      amongst russet or crimson foliage upon the ground. Plants of all lowly
+      sorts put on a new bright livery, and thus change the character of the
+      foreground. The bright greens vanish; in their place large slopes grow
+      orange and brown.<a id="Page_147"></a> <span class="pagenum">[147]</span>
+      But it is beneath, at lower levels, that the changes are greatest and the
+      autumnal effects most striking. Seek for them in the Rhone valley or round
+      the shores of Thun. There you will find the woods absolutely golden or
+      crimson according to their kind&mdash;a colouring at once so rich and so
+      brilliant as to seem almost incredible even to him who, having seen it
+      once, and believing that he remembers it, beholds it again and finds it so
+      far surpassing the wealth of his memory and expectation. To behold the
+      snowy peaks rising into the clear autumnal sky, far away beyond a
+      foreground such as this, is a sight well worth an effort. Would not some
+      of our holiday-makers of the better sort find it pleasant sometimes to
+      change the date of their outing, so as not always to herd with their
+      fellows nor every year to behold Nature under a similar illumination?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as spring definitely opens with the great avalanches, so winter opens
+      as definitely with the great snow-falls. One day all is clear and bright.
+      The snow-line has retreated to its very highest level. The hard ice of the
+      glacier is revealed far up from the snout. The maximum number of crevasses
+      are open, and the wide-yawning bergschrunds form moats at the foot of all
+      the final<a id="Page_148"></a> <span class="pagenum">[148]</span> snow
+      slopes that lean against the great faces of the peaks. Next morning all is
+      grey and wet and cold. Clouds cover everything; winds rage; large
+      snow-flakes in countless millions fill the air and drive across the
+      ground. The drifts pile up and up, and all the ground is covered, white to
+      the very depths of the valleys. For two or three days or longer the storm
+      rages, and when at last the sun bursts forth again and the clouds withdraw
+      their curtains, lo! the visible world is deeply buried in the white winter
+      garment that will not be withdrawn till spring once more arrives. As a
+      rule the first great snow-fall of winter comes thus definitely upon the
+      Alpine world. Others that follow may be as great or greater in volume, but
+      they only emphasise existing conditions; they do not, as this one does,
+      change the face of Nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus the annual drama of the mountain world is played in its four acts,
+      year after year, with infinite variety in detail and great uniformity in
+      the large features. We talk of the seasons as definite divisions, but we
+      must remember that their progress and succession is an affair not merely
+      of day following day but of moment following moment. It is the steady
+      progress, the gradual, imperceptible advance, that the close<a
+      id="Page_149"></a> <span class="pagenum">[149]</span> observer of natural
+      beauty loves to watch. To-day is not absolutely like yesterday, and will
+      not absolutely resemble to-morrow even though all three prove faultlessly
+      fine. The superficial observer may note no change, but that is because he
+      is superficial. There is always change, and in change the life of things
+      consists.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image236.jpg" width="387" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        RIMPFISCHORN AND STRAHLHORN FROM THE RIFFELBERG
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      To know mountains truly, means to recognise the changes which pass over
+      them and happen amongst them. A mountain-lover may be compelled to live in
+      some city of the plains, but, if he could, and in so far as mountains are
+      his chief delight, he would live amongst them, not merely in one season
+      but in all. No man, however, is or can be entirely single-minded. We
+      cannot confine our affections to a single category of natural beauty, nor
+      even to Nature alone. We are folk of many interests. Even the most
+      enthusiastic lover of mountains is something more, and fails from the
+      ideal. Mountains must take their share with other interests in the life of
+      any one who cares for them at all. In so far, however, as they are an
+      interest for any of us, it behoves us to make that interest wide and
+      comprehensive, not restricting it to mountains as mere things to climb,
+      nor to mountains of a particular character<a id="Page_150"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[150]</span> or at a particular time of year, but allowing
+      it to embrace mountain scenery as a whole and at all seasons. Those of us
+      who can do this, will find that the wider and more varied our experience
+      of and sensitiveness to all varieties of mountain scenery becomes, the
+      more intense will it likewise grow to be at any special moment, and the
+      more keenly will any particular effect of beauty affect our hearts. In
+      mountains, as elsewhere, all seasons of the year are marked by beauties
+      that belong specially to them. Each season prepares for that which is to
+      follow, and every day that passes is a transitional step from the one to
+      the other. Let me commend my fellows of the mountain brotherhood to bear
+      this fact in mind when they are wandering amongst the hills. If they
+      attend not merely to the spectacle of the moment, but to the changes that
+      are daily wrought out before their eyes, they will find their pleasures
+      enlarged and their capacity for enjoyment increased. They will obtain a
+      greater consequent understanding not merely of the aspects and moods of
+      the mountains, but of what I may call their settled character as
+      manifested by the larger mutations of aspect which they undergo in passing
+      through the vicissitudes of the seasons of the year<a id="Page_151"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[151]</span>.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER VII</span><br /> <span class="smaller">TYPES OF ALPINE PEAKS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I<span class="smcap lowercase">N</span> a previous chapter reference has
+      been made to the varied types of scenery which belong to different
+      divisions of the Alpine chain, and the briefest kind of characterisation
+      of those varieties was attempted. But the Alps, and indeed almost all the
+      great snow ranges of the world, possess side by side within a single
+      neighbourhood varieties of peaks sufficiently divergent to be capable of
+      grouping and classification. For example, in the Mont Blanc group, there
+      are domes of snow, needle-points of rock, ar�ted pyramids, serrated
+      ridges, peaks twinned together, peaks closely grouped in larger number,
+      and other varieties of mountains. In fact, just as whole districts of
+      mountains possess, each one, an individual character due to their
+      geographical position, their local history of uplift and denudation,<a
+      id="Page_152"></a> <span class="pagenum">[152]</span> the materials of
+      which they are formed, and other such factors, so individual peaks for
+      like reasons possess individual character, and conform more or less
+      evidently to one or another well-marked type. That such is the case will
+      be readily admitted. In common talk, indeed, we are accustomed to
+      attribute fancifully to this mountain masculine ruggedness, to that
+      feminine grace, to another qualities of terror. Some mountains attract to
+      themselves a kind of human affection; others repel; yet others bore, or,
+      on the contrary, interest without charming. In the present chapter,
+      therefore, I intend to discuss the characters of mountains, especially of
+      the great Alpine peaks, from this point of view, considering so far as
+      space permits the characters and dispositions of all sorts and conditions
+      of Alps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be perceived at once that the treatment of our subject will
+      entirely depend on the point of view from which we regard it. Mountains
+      are not beasts and possess no real characters. It is only we who, with our
+      anthropomorphic tendency, endow them with imaginary qualities belonging
+      actually to ourselves and projected forth from us on to the so-called
+      external world. If mountains are primarily thought of as things<a
+      id="Page_153"></a> <span class="pagenum">[153]</span> to be climbed, we
+      shall characterise them as they react upon the climber. If they are
+      regarded as sights to be beheld, we shall characterise them as they affect
+      our sense of vision. A climber may fancifully figure one mountain as
+      friendly though severe, another as hostile, a third as mean, a fourth as
+      recondite, a fifth as deceitful. Climbers, however, though I hope I may
+      number some of them amongst my readers, are not primarily those for whom
+      this book is written. It is aimed more broadly to interest the
+      mountain-lover of whatever age or sex and whatever agility or endurance. I
+      testify here, not so much of what I know, but of what I have seen and
+      found delightful in the seeing, in hopes to revive recollections of
+      pleasure in others and to suggest the possibility of further joys to the
+      mountain traveller.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pre-eminent, then, to look at, pre-eminent as a mountain vision, one must,
+      I assert, rank the great domes of snow, such as Mont Blanc. The two
+      greatest Alpine mountains assume that form when beheld from characteristic
+      points of view, sufficiently remote, and, of course, it is the apparent
+      form only that here concerns us. A peak may actually be a blade of rock,
+      snow-whitened, and yet may appear to be a dome, as<a id="Page_154"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[154]</span> the Lyskamm appears from north and
+      south. It must be ranked amongst domes when so beheld. On these giant
+      masses Nature frequently bestows a measurable pre-eminence, for it is not
+      only in the Alps that they attain loftiest altitudes among their
+      neighbours. Elburz which reigns over the Caucasus is a dome, so is
+      Chimborazo, so likewise Nanga Parbat. But even if they were not actually
+      piled higher than their satellites they would look bigger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A notable instance of the great dignity of effect of a snow dome beheld
+      amongst more rugged and precipitous peaks&mdash;peaks, moreover, much
+      loftier than the dome&mdash;was forced upon my notice in the Baltoro
+      region of the Mustagh mountains of Kashmir. The Baltoro glacier, most
+      wonderfully situated of all glaciers in the world, is surrounded by the
+      greatest group of high peaks known to exist. A number of them exceed
+      25,000 feet in altitude, and several are over 27,000 feet. Moreover, most
+      of these great mountains are of bold outline and precipitous structure.
+      There is no deceit about them. They look their height. Some of them are
+      needle-pointed and buttressed by the narrowest rock ridges, set with
+      needle-pointed teeth. It<a id="Page_155"></a> <span class="pagenum">[155]</span>
+      would be imagined that no mountain forms could be more impressive than
+      theirs, as one after another they come within range of the traveller's
+      vision and grow familiar to him during the long days of his creeping
+      advance along their feet. Impressive indeed they are, splendid beyond
+      words, majestic surpassingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happens, however, that, amongst them all a solitary exception, there
+      stands a single dome of snow, named by me the Golden Throne. I first
+      beheld it somewhat dramatically, when, after climbing to a high elevation
+      by night, the sun rose behind it, and it was revealed in all its width,
+      flanked on either hand by a long line of jagged and aspiring peaks. They
+      were higher than it&mdash;most of them considerably higher, yet beyond all
+      question the dome was the most dignified of them all. It owed something of
+      its dignity and distinction, no doubt, to contrast, to the rarity of its
+      form in that region of splintered aiguilles; but that was not alone the
+      cause. The suavity and continuous curvature of its outline, and the grace
+      of it, as well as its greater breadth and apparent relative volume, made
+      the Golden Throne absolutely, as well as by contrast, more dignified than
+      its bolder neighbours. Had it<a id="Page_156"></a> <span class="pagenum">[156]</span>differed
+      from them only in form it would have prevailed, but it differed more
+      noticeably from them in drapery and colour. Whereas they were of naked
+      rock, it was enveloped in a mantle of purest snow, and the broad white
+      mass (especially later when it shone in the advancing daylight) attained a
+      pre-eminence in brightness and purity for which no ruggedness or
+      precipitancy in the others could compensate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a far cry to the Golden Throne, but Mont Blanc is near at hand, and
+      its aspect is familiar to countless people. None will deny that its
+      reputation is pre-eminent among Alps. I claim that that pre-eminence is
+      not solely due to its culminating position in point of size, but that its
+      broad white mass and shining amplitude go a long way towards accounting
+      for it. It would scarcely occur to any one but a climber to depose Mont
+      Blanc from the first place&mdash;Mont Blanc, the "monarch of mountains,"
+      diademed with snow. As in human architecture the dome is the most
+      dignified and impressive form, so also it is in nature. In Mont Blanc it
+      attains perfection by the noble breadth of its base and adjustment of its
+      buttresses. Whencesoever beheld, from north or south, from far or near, it
+      always appears poised<a id="Page_157"></a> <span class="pagenum">[157]</span>
+      aloft in a dignity as impressive as it is reposeful, the white sheen of
+      its spotless snows pure as the bosom of a summer cloud, but unlike that,
+      gifted with an aspect of adamantine permanence.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image244.jpg" width="324" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE MATTERHORN, TWILIGHT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p class="legend1">
+      "The time may come when the Matterhorn shall have passed away, and nothing
+      save a heap of shapeless fragments will mark the spot where the great
+      mountain stood; for, atom by atom, inch by inch, and yard by yard, it
+      yields to forces which nothing can withstand. That time is far distant;
+      and ages hence, generations unborn will gaze upon its awful precipices,
+      and wonder at its unique form. However exalted may be their ideas, and
+      however exaggerated their expectations, none will come to return
+      disappointed!"
+    </p>
+    <p class="right">
+      W<span class="smcap lowercase">hymper.</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Next to Mont Blanc in abiding reputation, the Matterhorn takes rank among
+      Alps by universal consent. We may regard it as the best example of
+      pyramidal mountains. Four-square it stands upon its mighty base, fronting
+      the four cardinal points of the compass, each face divided from its
+      neighbour by a clearly-defined ridge or rock ar�te. As Mont Blanc the
+      dome, so the Matterhorn in turn displays a form adopted by man for some of
+      his grandest architectural efforts, the pyramids of Egypt. If the dome
+      best expresses the idea of soaring aloft, when seen from without, the
+      pyramid best expresses the idea of eternal repose and endurance without
+      end. Geologists may tell us that even the Matterhorn is a passing
+      phenomenon, that the frosts are daily causing it to disintegrate, and that
+      thousands of tons of rock fall at frequent intervals down its sides.
+      Climbers may describe its near aspect as ruinous, and we may know these
+      statements to be true. None the less the mountain beheld as a whole, from
+      even a moderate distance, seems to belie them. <a id="Page_158"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[158]</span>It appears to be from everlasting and to
+      everlasting. It incorporates the ideal of permanence. We conceive it as
+      belonging not to an age but to all time. Were it mathematically
+      four-square, and its faces true planes of even slope, that would be its
+      chief effect, that and the sense of mass and grandeur inseparable from an
+      object of such visibly huge dimensions. But Nature has fashioned it subtly
+      and endowed its faces and ridges with curves most delicate and refined. To
+      its appearance of mass and endurance it adds a grace so exquisite, an
+      uplift so imposing, that these qualities almost take the first place in
+      the impression produced upon the beholder. Seen from the north-east it
+      appears to best advantage. Towards Breuil it shows a more massive front.
+      Its recondite western face, only visible from high snow-fields, displays
+      precipices more appalling and a general aspect of more savage grandeur.
+      But with singular good fortune for the unathletic traveller, it manifests
+      its incomparable grace to perfection towards the easily accessible
+      north-east, and 50,000 people go there annually to worship at its Riffel
+      shrines. They may approach with no more devotional feeling than the
+      average pilgrim manifests at Lourdes, but the fact that they go is<a
+      id="Page_159"></a> <span class="pagenum">[159]</span> homage to the
+      reality of the emotion which many have actually felt in that glorious
+      presence. The poetic brain has exhausted itself in efforts to find
+      comparisons with living creatures whereby to describe it. Best is Ruskin's
+      choice of a rearing horse. Traces of the neck clothed with thunder, of the
+      mane-fringed crest with cloud streamers for hair, even of the sharp
+      contrasting angle of the folded fore-leg, can be traced in the natural
+      composition; but it is rather the might and spirit of the thing&mdash;its
+      combination of wildness, force, and grace&mdash;that give aptness to this
+      fetch of similitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In writing of the Matterhorn one can make an assumption that would be
+      impossible with any other mountain:&mdash;that most readers can recall a
+      vision of its form to their minds. Let me make that demand upon the
+      present reader. Observe then how beautifully the double curve of the left
+      hand or Th�odule ridge, first convex, then concave, is terminated and
+      contrasted with the sudden jags of the shoulder, and then taken up and
+      continued again convex to the summit. How the right-hand or Stockje ridge,
+      convex above, drops with a larger sweep and a more astounding ultimate
+      steepness, to be again interrupted by a<a id="Page_160"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[160]</span> lower and more jagged shoulder, and again
+      continued downward by the magnificent white convex curve, which, in its
+      turn drooping into concave, leads the eye away to the broad foundation. No
+      less essential than the outline to the total effect are the two white <i>n�v�</i>
+      basins that lie below the faces and steepen upwards to ice-slopes leading
+      to crags that have all the appearance of cliffs. The importance to the
+      composition of the third or middle shoulder&mdash;<i>the</i> Shoulder <i>par
+      excellence</i> of climbers&mdash;should also be insisted on, but space
+      does not here admit a lengthier analysis. The reader will find no
+      difficulty in pursuing the investigation for himself.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image250.jpg" width="450" height="330" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        WEISSHORN AND MATTERHORN FROM FIESCHERALP
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The four-sided pyramid, of which we have chosen the Matterhorn for type,
+      is a rarer form than the three-sided, perhaps the commonest class of fully
+      developed peak. Here again there cannot be a moment's hesitation in the
+      choice of a representative mountain, for of such the Weisshorn is beyond
+      question the finest and most famous in the Alps. What mountain-lover has
+      not beheld it, towering gracefully and superbly aloft before him as he
+      descended the upper reaches of the Rhone valley on some bright August day?
+      Westward it opposes a face of rock and is a less gorgeous object<a
+      id="Page_161"></a> <span class="pagenum">[161]</span> to look upon. But
+      its other two faces with their glacial robe are brilliant under all
+      illuminations. What gives it distinction among the multitude of mountains
+      similarly formed is the grace of its slender and long drawn-out ridges.
+      Each of these sharp ar�tes, beheld from most points of view, drops very
+      steeply from the spear-tipped summit; then gradually levels off to a
+      shoulder, and so leads the eye down to the massive foundation that
+      supports the whole. Slenderness above, massive strength below&mdash;such
+      is the effective contrast that Nature provides.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another famous peak, the Jungfrau, appears from Interlaken almost as
+      graceful as the Weisshorn; but its beauty is really of another order, and
+      depends far more upon the brilliancy of the curdled surface of the snow,
+      and its division between ice-falls, rocks, and ice-slopes, than upon the
+      outline of the peak itself or the form of its ridges. For pure grace of
+      pyramidal form the Aletschhorn surpasses the Jungfrau, but the
+      better-known peak has advantages of position and of grouping to which we
+      shall presently refer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pyramidal peaks lend themselves kindly to embellishment by banners of
+      cloud. Often we behold great sheets of white mist waving away<a
+      id="Page_162"></a> <span class="pagenum">[162]</span> from their ridges.
+      The sharp definition and marble-like permanence of the mountain forms an
+      admirable offset to the softness and inconstancy of the cloud, which is
+      not merely ever varying the form of its outlines, but is throughout in
+      constant and often swift motion under the dominion of a furious gale. The
+      sense of violent agitation high aloft thus impressed upon the eye, well
+      associates itself with an idea of rugged resistance proper to high peaks
+      and splintered ridges. The slenderer the pyramid and the sharper its
+      ar�tes, so much the better does it serve as flagstaff for a flying cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Best of all, however, for this purpose are the rock aiguilles, which never
+      seem quite complete, never fully manifest the astonishing boldness of
+      their structure, except when they are in turn concealed and revealed by
+      mists that form and fade and form again&mdash;now cutting them off from
+      all visible connection with the earth and almost seeming to lift them into
+      the heavens, now half-hiding them and half-revealing, now as it were
+      smoking away from their summits like steam from a volcano, now offering a
+      white background to their rugged mass, now overshrouding and empurpling
+      them with shadows stolen from the wardrobe of Night. They lack the dignity
+      of the<a id="Page_163"></a> <span class="pagenum">[163]</span> broader
+      peaks, these needle rocks, and few of them really deserve (save from a
+      climber's standpoint) to be called peaks at all. Generally they are only
+      buttress pinnacles of greater mountain masses. Yet a tall and well-planted
+      aiguille always possesses marked individuality of its own, which more than
+      compensates for lack of volume and altitude. By its form it attracts the
+      attention of the eye away from large but less wonder-evoking mountains.
+      Thus it makes itself the centre of a view and is remembered when its
+      larger neighbours are forgotten. More than any other kind of peak an
+      aiguille depends for effect upon the character of its foundation and the
+      place where it is planted. The Aiguille du G�ant is, perhaps, the most
+      remarkable monolith shaft in the Alps, and has attained no little fame.
+      But its fame is due to the difficulty of scrambling up it. For sheer
+      impressiveness of effect from a distance it cannot enter into serious
+      competition with the Aiguille du Dru. The actual summit-shaft of the Dru
+      is not really remarkable for slenderness. Its sides are not the plumb
+      vertical cliffs that the G�ant can show. But the foundations of the Dru
+      carry its lines down, and the supporting masses seem expressly piled
+      together for no other purpose than to lift the slender-seeming<a
+      id="Page_164"></a> <span class="pagenum">[164]</span> peak as far aloft as
+      possible. The Dru, moreover, though actually an appanage of the Verte, is
+      so situated as to be seen alone and admirably set off by glacier or wooded
+      foregrounds from several easily accessible and convenient positions.
+      Instead of standing aloof like the G�ant, it peers down into the valley
+      and takes an interest in human affairs. It is there to signal the sunset
+      with its flaming beacon, and to glow like a brand from the furnace in the
+      presence of the dawn. The departing traveller turns back to it for a last
+      look, and the returning votary of the Alps is impatient to pass the corner
+      beyond which he well knows that it will come into view. It is one of a
+      class, the aiguilles of Chamonix, but it possesses a marked individuality
+      of aspect and it transcends all its neighbours and rivals. They may be
+      harder to climb, but it <i>looks</i> as precipitous and inaccessible as
+      any, and, after all, the appearance is the essential element for a lover
+      of the picturesque. There is much more that might be said about aiguilles,
+      their value for contrast with other forms, their essentially subordinate,
+      almost parasitic, character, and so forth, but our space has narrow limits
+      and we must pass on.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image256.jpg" width="315" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        AIGUILLE VERTE AND AIGUILLE DU DRU FROM THE CHAMONIX VALLEY
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        A well-known group, typical of the Aiguilles of the Mont Blanc chain.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We have considered domes and pyramids in special reference to their
+      outline. But they and<a id="Page_165"></a> <span class="pagenum">[165]</span>
+      all sorts of other mountains have faces as well as bounding ridges, and
+      these faces sometimes take the form of tremendous walls. We may therefore
+      devote a moment's attention to mountain walls, or rather to what we may
+      briefly describe as wall-faced mountains. These great walls are not
+      necessarily, nor indeed often, truly precipitous, but the important point
+      about them is that they look precipitous. They are not walls, but the eye
+      is deceived into believing that they are. The Alps are rich in noble
+      examples of this type. To name only the most famous: there are the Italian
+      fronts of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, the Saas front of the
+      Mischabelh�rner, and the north face of the Jungfrau. If you stand in a
+      suitable position, facing rather than enfilading any of these great walls,
+      their slope seems practically vertical. Climbers know that they can all be
+      climbed; their instructed eyes can even trace the routes without
+      difficulty. In so far as that knowledge interferes with the imposing
+      impression which ordinary persons derive from the mere look of the thing,
+      it is a misfortune. Yet even the climber can sometimes forget his <i>m�tier</i>,
+      and lose himself in pure contemplation of Nature's splendour. It is
+      nowhere easier so to do<a id="Page_166"></a> <span class="pagenum">[166]</span>
+      than in face of these gigantic walls. Pre-eminent amongst them is, of
+      course, the Macugnaga face of Monte Rosa. Not merely does it excel in
+      unbroken width and continuity of plunge, but its striping by buttress and
+      couloir, its impending masses of s�rac, its huge piles of avalanche ruins
+      below, and the frequency of the falls that take place, whose fresh traces
+      are obvious even when they are not beheld in actual descent, all serve to
+      increase the observer's sense of the actual steepness of the face. First
+      beheld from near at hand, the vast size of the thing overwhelms the
+      beholder, and yet this first impression is small compared with the
+      ultimate sense of size which slowly grows within him as he gazes and
+      learns the meaning of the details. His attention will soon be called to
+      the fact that the whole face is ruled with lines. They seem fine, almost
+      like the meshes of a spider's web, but a brief consideration proves that
+      they are the tracks of falling masses&mdash;some of avalanches, others of
+      falling stones. They are not fine lines at all, but deep grooves, perhaps
+      ten feet wide and as deep as the height of a man. Realise that fact, as
+      the climber does (in so doing he in his turn has the advantage), and you
+      at once magnify, and may even overmagnify, the scale of the view.<a
+      id="Page_167"></a> <span class="pagenum">[167]</span>
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image260.jpg" width="346" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        BODEN AND GORNER GLACIERS
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Monte Rosa from the Schwarzsee. The last gleam of the daylight. The foot
+        of the Riffelhorn on the left.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is a commonplace to proclaim the exhaustless prodigality of Nature's
+      inventions, which every field of grass sufficiently proves, and yet it
+      always seems to me that these great faces specially exemplify it. How
+      easy, one might imagine, to invent detail for a precipice of ice and rock&mdash;but
+      take a blank sheet of paper and try; you will find the task almost
+      hopeless. Then turn to any view of Monte Rosa from Macugnaga and observe
+      how it has been done, and how much, indeed how entirely, the effect of the
+      view depends upon the structure and variety of the wall. The classical
+      point whence the face is seen at its best is the Pizzo Bianco. There is a
+      photograph from it in the eleventh volume of the <i>Alpine Journal</i>.
+      Note how essential every detail is to the effect of the whole, and how
+      impossible it would be to invent such a consistent multitude of details.
+      The sky-line is of minor importance; it does not hold the eye. What first
+      attracts it is the great sweeping buttresses that emerge through the snow
+      and carry the attention down by their parallelism. As we look more closely
+      at them we find that they in turn break up into minor groups of parallels,
+      and these again into similar elements; yet with all this general
+      repetition no two details<a id="Page_168"></a> <span class="pagenum">[168]</span>
+      are the same. The aspect of the general structure may be compared to that
+      of a leaf with a number of ribs all obedient to a single law of form. The
+      snow that fills the spaces between the buttresses and overflows them where
+      it can, is no dead covering, but alive like a river. We obtain at first
+      glance, now that we know how to look for it, a sense of its weight and
+      movement. How strange it seems that that movement should not have been
+      observed centuries ago! The flowing of the snow is expressed by all sorts
+      of signs. Here it breaks into cliffs and tumbles; there it pours down in a
+      continuous stream interrupted only by crevasses, which indicate its
+      relative speed at adjacent points; there again, on some small ledge or
+      gentler slope, it lags and piles up. But as a rule it is evidently in
+      haste to get down, and the signs of this haste are a measure of the
+      steepness of the slope. High aloft the plunge seems vertical, and one
+      wonders how any snow can adhere to such uncompromising crags. When the
+      mists are drawn across it, or a bed of clouds lies at its foot, filling
+      the Macugnaga valley as with a white lake, the wall seems yet more
+      cliff-like. It is only when low sunlight strikes it aslant and makes
+      manifest its modelling that a suggestion is given of the<a id="Page_169"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[169]</span> actual angle of the slope leading up
+      from the glacier floor below to the giddy crest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another kind of mountain front, akin to these yet belonging to a class of
+      its own, is the true rock-face. Such may have their ledges and gullies
+      picked out with snow, or even (as in the case of the Meije) a small
+      glacier caught on a shelf, but snow must not predominate, must not even
+      cover a considerable fraction of their surface. Mountains with rock-faces
+      of this kind are, of course, commonest among the secondary groups. Thus
+      there are many in Canton Glarus and thereabouts, yet more among the
+      Dolomites and in all the limestone districts. The west face of the
+      Weisshorn may perhaps be counted a rock-wall, but, if that is excluded,
+      the Grivola is, I think, the biggest example. The Bl�mlisalp and
+      Breithorn, Altels and the Balmhorn, are other examples. If, however, I
+      were to be compelled to select one such peak as type, I should choose
+      Pelmo or Schlern in the Dolomites, and be content, even though some vaster
+      example were quoted against me. For, after all, it is not the actual scale
+      that matters, but the appearance of scale. I have heard it said that the
+      north-east face of the Zinal Rothhorn is the biggest true cliff in the
+      Alps. It may be, but it<a id="Page_170"></a> <span class="pagenum">[170]</span>
+      does not so appear from any ordinary point of view&mdash;the Rothhorn, in
+      fact, seeming insignificant from almost everywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These rock fronts must not be looked at from too far away. Unless they
+      subtend a high vertical angle to the vision they produce little effect.
+      But stand beneath them, and what pomp and power they display! You must be
+      near enough to see the details of their structure, and to trace the joints
+      of their masonry, for it is in the recognition of their upbuilding, stone
+      by stone, that their impressiveness consists. That is why a snow-slope
+      drawn down across the edges of their strata is so little to be desired. If
+      by good-luck the successive strata vary somewhat in colour, the cliff will
+      be magnified thereby. To the perception of multiplicity recurrent detail
+      is essential, and that perception involves relative proximity and is
+      helped by familiarity. The oftener you stand beneath such a wall the
+      bigger it appears to grow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not a thing that can be painted, still less photographed; for no
+      painter could set down details enough, and the camera will not select the
+      right ones. It is the horizontal details that we want. If the reader will
+      observe how a high tower or other lofty building impresses its scale<a
+      id="Page_171"></a> <span class="pagenum">[171]</span> upon him, he will
+      find it to be by the joints of its masonry, unless indeed he be standing
+      far off and the tower is seen to rise high above the houses of a town
+      whose size is instinctively perceived. Here again the accomplished climber
+      who has actually scrambled up the sheer face of such a cliff and so
+      measured it against his own slow progress and his accumulated fatigue, has
+      an advantage over any mere spectator. This advantage is increased by the
+      fact that he will recognise and know the size of many details of ledge and
+      pitch which he has actually handled and surmounted. Such personal
+      knowledge is the best of all measuring scales. A traveller who cannot
+      attain it must be content with the lesser insight that can be attained by
+      slow examination. In no case is the full effect to be perceived at once.
+      Nature sometimes, as it were, flings herself upon our imaginations and
+      suddenly overpowers us by her excessive grandeur. At other times she seems
+      to say, "It is nothing"; so as to let superficial persons pass by; but
+      just then perhaps we are in the presence of some superlatively great
+      exhibition of her majesty which it requires experience, time, and
+      attention to discover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It should remove any tendency to conceit in those who have travelled far
+      and seen much to remember<a id="Page_172"></a> <span class="pagenum">[172]</span>
+      that, however often they may have beheld and delighted in glorious sights,
+      the best-visioned of them and the most sensitive has missed far more than
+      he has seen. What opportunities he must have had, and how relatively few
+      of them has he utilised! At best he has been but like a traveller in a
+      motor-car, whisking across historic lands, and passing here by an abbey,
+      there through some old town, there again over some historic battle-field,
+      and not suspecting their existence, or not knowing enough to thrill with
+      the rich emotions they would excite in a better-informed mind. It is not
+      the eyes that are lacking, but the knowledge and the time to acquire it.
+      You may scurry along below the cliff of Pelmo without a flutter of the
+      heart. But wander half a day beneath it, examine its details, watch the
+      sunlight playing on its ledges, and the shadows in the gullies that cut
+      them, a sense of its grandeur will invade your consciousness, and the
+      memory of that will remain with you till you turn childish with old age
+      and others know that you have lived too long.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image268.jpg" width="450" height="326" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE BREITHORN FROM SCHWARZ SEE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Whatever the dignity of these great walls, when suitably beheld, the peaks
+      they belong to, if their summit crests are long and flat, are not
+      comparable for individual beauty of form with the snow domes<a
+      id="Page_173"></a> <span class="pagenum">[173]</span> or the ridged
+      pyramids. They have, however, an importance and perform a function of
+      their own in any large mountain panorama of which they form a part. Before
+      me as I write there chances to lie Donkin's photograph of the view from
+      the New Weissthor, looking down the Gorner glacier. The pyramid of the
+      Matterhorn is on the right; the wall of the Breithorn is in the midst; the
+      curdled snow-face of the Lyskamm is near at hand on the left. It is not by
+      any means a perfect natural composition, yet it does fix the attention,
+      and a moment's thought shows that it does so by the marked contrast
+      between the forms of the Breithorn and the Cervin. Blot either of them out
+      and the character of the view is changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I well remember standing, one very clear day, on the summit of a
+      relatively high peak in the icy heart of Spitsbergen and surveying a vast
+      panorama. The peaks in it being all actually small (though not appearing
+      so) and the area of the panorama very large, the multitude of peaks in
+      sight was numerically much greater than in any Alpine panorama, not
+      excluding even that from Mont Blanc. In one direction the mountains
+      happened to be all of one character. Each was similar in form to its
+      neighbour. Some distance<a id="Page_174"></a> <span class="pagenum">[174]</span>
+      further round was another group formed of peaks as various as are the
+      Alps. It was at once obvious how much the variety added to the
+      picturesqueness. The same lesson can be learnt from the top of Monte Viso.
+      Look southward and you will behold, ridge behind similar ridge, a
+      remarkable uniformity. Face northward and round to the east, the effect is
+      one of infinite variety. Such variety, contrast of walled peak with
+      pyramid, of pyramid with dome, here thronged together, there sundered by
+      some wide stretch of lower elevation, entertains and stimulates the
+      observer's mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes the repetition of a form with only slight change has the value
+      of emphasis, or, as in the case of minor ridges dividing couloirs or side
+      glaciers, it binds the composition together and forms a kind of warp and
+      woof for Nature's detailed embroidery. The value of repetition is
+      instinctively felt by most in the case of a pair of peaks, standing side
+      by side and visibly linked together by some high connecting ridge, or
+      apparently linked by what seems to be a ridge but is really produced by
+      foreshortening. They are frequently named "the Twins." A notable instance
+      of such a pair is the Dom and T�schhorn.<a id="Page_175"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[175]</span> Stand anywhere commanding a view down the
+      Zermatt valley, where you can see this pair of peaks defining it on the
+      right, and the Weisshorn's delicate and single pyramid opposed to them on
+      the left, and you will at once recognise how much the great pair and the
+      single peak gain by contrast with one another. Or climb (I should now say
+      take the train) to the Gorner Grat and look abroad to the south. How much
+      less effective would be the panorama if the two long walls of the
+      Breithorn and Lyskamm had a third similar wall between them instead of the
+      coupled domes named Castor and Pollux.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image272.jpg" width="450" height="344" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE LYSKAMM
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        From the Riffelberg. Gorner glacier below.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It would be easy to continue this fanciful classification of Alps and
+      discussion of types for another fifty pages, but it would serve no useful
+      purpose. Long before this the reader has probably been objecting that it
+      is an unscientific and incomplete classification, and that most peaks
+      could be made to enter all the categories if regarded from suitable
+      standpoints. Such, in fact, may be the case. My object in thus writing has
+      merely been to suggest cross-routes and byways for the memories, fancies,
+      and future observations of my readers. The mountains for us who love them
+      are the playthings of our fancy. We may do<a id="Page_176"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[176]</span> with them what we please. They excite in us
+      the sense of beauty, and we try to tell of the emotions we have felt in
+      their presence. Those emotions quickened by them, how we know not, in fact
+      arise in us. We are free to make of them what we please, to give them any
+      kind of play. They are then bound by no scientific laws. A mountain may be
+      a chunk of granite heaved up by I know not what play of forces and carved
+      out by a perfectly orderly denudation; but to me, if I please, it is a
+      Maiden, an Ogre, a Golden Throne. I can endow it with a character, and
+      reckon up friends and foes to it amongst its neighbours. Or I can call it
+      a fairy palace, and people it with sprites and dancing creatures of
+      gossamer clothed in the dawn. No one can say me nay. Now and again,
+      perhaps, I may whisper my dream to a sympathetic friend&mdash;but not
+      often. For the most part we keep such heart-frolics of a happy hour in the
+      inaccessible places of their origin.<a id="Page_177"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[177]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Brother climber! we have secrets of our own, you and I&mdash;secrets that
+      we never told to one another, even when we stood side by side together on
+      the mountain-top. But there was a thrill within each of us, was there not?
+      and each knew that with the other it was well.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER VIII</span><br /> <span class="smaller">PASSES</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      A P<span class="smcap lowercase">EAK</span> is primarily a thing to be
+      looked at. It was only after the aspect of peaks had smitten the
+      imagination of men that the desire to climb them arose. The climbing
+      impulse is subordinate to the eye's delight. A pass, on the other hand, is
+      a thing to be climbed and looked from, but only in a minor degree to be
+      looked at. It is an experience rather than a sight. Few passes indeed are
+      striking objects in a view. The Col Dolent, the G�ssfeldtsattel, the Col
+      du Lion, and a few more are imposing when you approach the foot of their
+      final slopes, but it would be difficult to distinguish between such slopes
+      and a similar mountain face. The fact that the slope leads to a notch or
+      saddle in the sky-line does not give it dignity; that comes to it from its
+      own character as a slope, and would be the same if it led to any <a
+      id="Page_178"></a> <span class="pagenum">[178]</span> other kind of
+      sky-line. Passes, therefore, in and for themselves, are not conspicuously
+      striking and beautiful elements in any great mountain panorama, and do not
+      call for discussion by us from that point of view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As experiences, however, they take another rank. I have long been prepared
+      to maintain their general superiority to peaks in that respect. Passes
+      generally lead through finer scenery than is commanded from the flank of a
+      peak. A peak climbed rewards you with a panorama which no pass can offer;
+      but, that excepted, the average pass is superior to the average peak for
+      the scenery it reveals, and in the nature of things it must be. In
+      climbing a peak, unless you are going up an ar�te, you normally have a
+      steep slope rising straight in front of you. A few square yards of rocks
+      or snow fill most of your vision as you look ahead. If you raise your eyes
+      up the slope, you see it in its least impressive form, foreshortened into
+      a mere belt. The real view is behind you, and you must turn round to
+      behold it. That involves standing still and may mean delay. But in
+      traversing a pass you normally ascend the bottom of a glacier valley, and
+      the fine views are ahead and on both hands. The<a id="Page_179"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[179]</span> valley is not likely to be so narrow that you
+      are not far enough away from its two sides, or at least one of them, to be
+      able to behold the slope as a whole, from bottom to top, and not unduly
+      foreshortened. Of course this general character of pass-routes is subject
+      to infinite variation. The final slope is often steep, and the ascent of
+      it will then be like the ascent of a mountain face; but, broadly speaking,
+      it must be obvious that passes offer better chances for enjoying
+      continuous fine scenery than peaks, and experience proves it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pass-traversing, to me, however, and doubtless to many others, seems to
+      possess more elements of romance than peak-climbing; for this reason&mdash;to
+      climb a peak is to make an expedition, but to cross a pass is to travel.
+      In the one case you normally return to the spot whence you set out; in the
+      other you go from the known to the unknown, from the visible to what is
+      beyond. The peak, which is before you when you set out to climb it, is
+      only explained, not revealed, as you ascend; but every pass is a
+      revelation: it takes you over into another region. You leave one area
+      behind and you enter another; you come down amongst new people and into
+      fresh surroundings.<a id="Page_180"></a> <span class="pagenum">[180]</span>
+      You shut out all that was familiar yesterday and open up another world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This is true of all passing over; it is of course especially true when you
+      are making a new pass for the first time. Then you have to find the way
+      down as well as the way up, and the interest is sustained to the last
+      moment. It has been my good-fortune to have had opportunities of climbing
+      many new peaks and crossing several new passes&mdash;one of them the
+      longest mountain-glacier pass in the world. Beyond all question the passes
+      have been more interesting and exciting than the peaks. When you reach the
+      summit of your peak the excitement suddenly ends; on the top of a pass it
+      only culminates. The long pass to which I have above referred took about a
+      fortnight to reach from the highest habitations. We could see the saddle
+      ahead all the time, and we slowly drew nearer to it. The wonder increased
+      as to what we should find on the other side. Whither should we be led on?
+      Where should we come out? What difficulties might bar our progress? Not
+      till the very moment when we topped the ascent and stood upon the col
+      could any of these questions begin to be answered. Nor could any of them
+      be fully answered till the week of descent<a id="Page_181"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[181]</span> had been actually accomplished. But the first
+      sight over, the first glimpse into the new world, that was worth toiling
+      for&mdash;that, and the last long regretful look back down the valley up
+      which we had come, whose details had fastened themselves durably upon our
+      memories.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image280.jpg" width="345" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE ROAD FROM VITZNAU TO GERSAU
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The <i>Obere Nase</i> corner. Pilatus group in the distance.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      What the travelling explorer in previously untraversed places feels so
+      keenly is, after all, only a slightly stronger form of the emotion that
+      every pass affords to every climber who traverses it for the first time.
+      He awaits the arrival at the summit for the moment of supreme revelation.
+      He has the same slow development of desire to see over; the same sudden
+      burst of illumination at the top; the same regretful look back; the same
+      pleasurable anticipation of novel experiences awaiting him on the descent.
+      He too leaves one world and comes into another; leaves if it be but the
+      home of a night in exchange for untried quarters. It is this similarity
+      between ordinary Alpine climbing and new exploration that gives to the
+      former one of its greatest charms. The fact that a thing is new to us
+      suffices. It is almost, perhaps quite, as good to behold for the first
+      time what we have heard speech of, as to behold what no one has ever<a
+      id="Page_182"></a> <span class="pagenum">[182]</span> beheld before. We
+      shall find friends to converse and share memories with about the one; we
+      are liable to be considered bores if we talk too much about the other. The
+      explorer writes his book and then dwells with his memories alone, but the
+      Alpine traveller lays up a store of experiences and reminiscences, the
+      pleasure of which he can share with a goodly number of friends, old and
+      young.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Passes, like peaks, admit of classification. The first and most beautiful
+      is the long snow pass, the kind of pass which is reached by ascending one
+      long glacier, and from which the descent leads down another long glacier,
+      so that the point of departure is as widely separated as possible from the
+      point of arrival, and the divergence of scenery between the two
+      extremities most pronounced. These may be called the great snow highways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The longest snow highway-pass, and to my thinking one of the finest in the
+      Alps, leads right through the heart of the Bernese Oberland from the
+      L�tschen valley at one end to the Grimsel at the other. It is really not
+      one pass but a succession of three, for three ridges have to be crossed&mdash;which,
+      however, only increases its interest.<a id="Page_183"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[183]</span> It leads through snow scenery of superlative
+      pomp and extent, and reveals that scenery in the most fascinating manner,
+      continually opening out and presently again closing up the wildest vistas,
+      and always providing new interests and fresh culminations. Bietschhorn,
+      Aletschhorn, Jungfrau, Finsteraarhorn, not to mention other less important
+      peaks, in turn dominate the view, and one glacier after another opens out
+      a vision of remote blue valleys and lower ranges. I am aware that this
+      long traverse does not oppose to the climber the smallest real difficulty
+      from end to end, and that it is what is commonly described as "a mere snow
+      pound." It calls for endurance and that is all. Unless the climber counts
+      scenery first among the attractions of the way, he will be well advised to
+      select some other expedition. He who does so count it will agree with me
+      that this is <i>par excellence</i> "the" pass of the Central Alps. It
+      lacks only one element of charm: it brings the traveller down into the
+      same kind of scenery as that from which he started. A similar remark may
+      be made on the Strahleck, which is likewise a glorious snow highway. Both
+      passes, it may be observed, are eminently suited for ski experts<a
+      id="Page_184"></a> <span class="pagenum">[184]</span> to traverse in
+      winter, under suitable conditions of weather and equipment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To find the long snow pass in its most romantic form one must look for it
+      in a region where a great mountain range divides districts of strongly
+      contrasted scenic character. There can be no doubt whither we should turn.
+      The great range that gazes southward over Italy and northward into
+      Switzerland perfectly fulfils the conditions. This culminates along the
+      watershed south of Zermatt, which place is therefore indicated as the
+      starting-point at one end. Of the long snow passes leading southward from
+      Zermatt, the Lysjoch undoubtedly takes first place for magnificence of
+      scenery throughout the whole length of its route. Gymnastic climbers may
+      ask, Why not the Sesiajoch? On the north its route coincides with that of
+      the Lysjoch, but on the south they diverge, and the easier route lies
+      through finer if less catastrophic scenery. The Sesiajoch plunges down a
+      great wall, and the view does not vary for a long time. The Lysjoch leads
+      down one of the loveliest glacier valleys in Europe and affords endless
+      variety. There is really no comparison between the two.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may therefore select the Lysjoch as type<a id="Page_185"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[185]</span> of the noblest kind of Alpine pass. Consider
+      what wealth of interest it supplies to those who traverse it from Zermatt
+      at one end to Gressoney at the other; for to enjoy a pass properly it
+      should be followed from village to village throughout its full length, and
+      not merely from hut to hut. The modern method of zigzagging across the
+      crest of a chain without descending far below the snow-line, taking one
+      pass one day and another the next, is, I am aware, not without
+      fascinations, to which who has not succumbed? but it is not the best way
+      to enjoy scenery, for it lacks the enforcing emphasis which the exchange
+      of levels yields.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is of the essence of such a pass as the Lysjoch that it leads you from
+      the foot of a great glacier, up through its whole length to its head, and
+      then from the head of another glacier down to its foot. It thus traces a
+      definite and natural succession of the features of a glacier. It is like
+      following the course of a river from mouth to source, or passing through
+      the progress of the seasons of a year. From step to step there is a
+      succession of related features, each being another stage of the one before
+      and of the one next to follow. Thus there is a growth of interest.<a
+      id="Page_186"></a> <span class="pagenum">[186]</span> What you behold is
+      not a mere succession of unrelated vistas. Each foreground in turn implies
+      all that has been passed and all that is yet to come on the upward way.
+      True, convenience generally dictates that you shall not actually enter
+      upon a glacier at its extreme foot, and mount right up it to its head.
+      There is probably better going for part of the way along the bank. But the
+      glacier is commonly close at hand and in full view most of the time, so
+      that you become familiar with it at all points of its course. To ascend it
+      is to advance through stages of increasing glory and purity. First you
+      have its shabby moraine-strewn extremity; then its cleaner surface and
+      open white crevasses. Higher up they turn continually bluer and the ice
+      grows still whiter. The glacier widens; the slopes that border it become
+      less grassy. You are leaving the habitable, profitable world behind, and
+      approaching the clean undevelopable lands, which man may visit but where
+      he must not dwell. The naked crags stand forth on either hand, furrowed
+      with snow couloirs, and clothed with white raiment. Now you come to the
+      snow-covered surface of the glacier itself. Blue-looking pools of water
+      may be seen here and there. The snow becomes<a id="Page_187"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[187]</span> purer as you advance. There are no more
+      dust-patches or groups of rocks interrupting the clean surface. Higher up,
+      the glacier breaks into bolder forms as it pours down over steeper and
+      more rugged slopes. The s�racs tower aloft, fantastic in form and unstable
+      in position. Great crevasses marvellously coloured in their depths yawn
+      all about. You wind your way amongst them, creeping over snow-bridges and
+      under impending walls and pinnacles of ice, all decked with sparkling
+      icicles. Finally, you emerge on to some gentler-sloping, wide-expanding
+      field of spotless snow, that only a gentle undulation diversifies with the
+      most delicately displayed modelling. All around are steep slopes of snow
+      or ice, cliffs of newly-riven rock, avalanche tracks and heaps of ruin.
+      The details of the high peaks can be distinguished, their overhanging
+      cornices, their furrowed sides. Ahead, and not so far away, is now the
+      pass&mdash;a broad opening between great heaped-up domes of snow, perhaps
+      with crests of rock cutting through. The slope grows easier. At last the
+      ground is level, and a distant view opens before you as behind. You are on
+      the top.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ascent has been marked, as a morning's work should be, by steady
+      growth of interest.<a id="Page_188"></a> <span class="pagenum">[188]</span>
+      The descent, though it merely reverses the order of events and succession
+      of interests, is not a simple inversion of the experiences of the ascent.
+      It would be if you descended backwards, facing the pass, but such is not
+      the human method of going. You now face downwards, and have before you the
+      blue valley, the distant lower ranges, and perhaps some fragment of the
+      broad lowlands in view, whereas in going up you look at the heights. The
+      valleys promise rest and refreshment to your growing fatigue. The way
+      becomes less laborious as you descend. You leave the snow behind gladly.
+      The first flowers welcome you. And now as you quit the ice and traverse
+      the high meadows the steady increase of fertility is delightful to
+      observe. You enter the tree-level through a fringe of skimpy and
+      wind-beaten scouts. The timber becomes finer as you advance. After all,
+      this fertile earth is the place for man. Down you go into a new valley,
+      the torrent hurrying and tumbling beside you. You come to a poor village
+      and then to one more thriving. Fruit-trees begin to find place, and then
+      chestnuts. How delightful it is to come down to the chestnut-level! It is
+      then no far cry to the figs and the Italian lakes, and all the<a
+      id="Page_189"></a> <span class="pagenum">[189]</span> luxury of north
+      Italian nature&mdash;its rich atmosphere, its colour, its suave forms, and
+      picturesque surprises.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image290.jpg" width="365" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        AMSTEG IN THE REUSSTHAL
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        On the St. Gotthard Railway. Entrance to the Windgelle Tunnel above the
+        last house on right of picture.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      To cross thus and through such stages from the austere Swiss valleys to
+      Italian frolic and ease, is to enjoy one of the greatest pleasures. You
+      can do it by going over a peak, but clearly peaks are not natural
+      passage-ways. They do not suggest themselves for traverse, whereas passes
+      do. The whole idea of a peak is a provocation to the climber to get to the
+      top. A pass invites him to come over; it calls from valley to valley. Who
+      would ever think of going to a col and then returning in his tracks to the
+      starting-point unless misfortune compelled him? The suggestion is absurd.
+      Passes are the natural gateways of the hills&mdash;at first the easiest
+      and lowest gaps; next the best gaps that could be found from valley to
+      valley; lastly, any notch between two peaks, even if they are
+      twin-culminating summits of a single mountain. Indeed, provided the point
+      of crossing is a notch, so that, when you stand in it, you see a peak
+      rising on either hand of you, you have the feeling that you are going over
+      a pass&mdash;that the wall Nature has erected in your way has been
+      overcome; and that feeling is the thing.<a id="Page_190"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[190]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The broad portals of the great mountain highways offer, as I have said,
+      and obviously must offer, scenery of the grandest and most logically
+      consistent type along all the way; but there are passes of other kinds
+      richly endowed with power to please. I would choose next, as a delightful
+      type, the most opposed in character to the broad snow col,&mdash;I refer
+      to those range-traversing routes which lead over steep mountain-walls.
+      Such on a great scale for the Alps are the Col du Lion, the Domjoch, and
+      the Col de Miage. I think, however, that the classical pass of this kind
+      is the Triftjoch. It will at all events perfectly serve as an example of
+      the rest. Seeing that, by definition, the final slope of all such passes
+      is a steep wall, that wall, dropping from the watershed, must be at the
+      end of some deep glacial recess. Herein lies the distinguishing feature of
+      the way. The lower part of the route will resemble the lower part of any
+      other pass, but ultimately somewhere in the <i>n�v�</i> region the
+      traveller is led into a deeply embayed cirque.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The snow-field may and often does lie almost level at the foot of the
+      wall, perhaps above some final ice-fall which it has been difficult to
+      surmount. These high <i>n�v�</i> basins that look so<a id="Page_191"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[191]</span> lake-like and restful in the heart of
+      the hills are always lovely. Imposing precipices rise around them, and in
+      fact feed them with showers of avalanches on active days. But in fine
+      summer weather the avalanches have all fallen. The surrounding walls are
+      like a defensive fortress, towering so high and steeply, and excluding the
+      world and all its vicissitudes and violences. It is only a seeming, for
+      nowhere, in fact, do storms eddy and surge with more violence than in
+      these theatres of the mountains. But seeming is the very substance of
+      beauty, and all the fine-weather aspect of these places is suggestive of
+      peace. The further you advance the more completely are you enclosed.
+      Sometimes a bend in the hollow may actually so shut you in, that no
+      glimpse of the lower regions is to be seen in any direction. Such
+      isolation is delightful for a while. Besides yourselves there is no other
+      trace to be found of the existence of the human race, or of its ever
+      having existed; you might be on the surface of the moon and discover
+      nothing more indifferent to mankind and their motions. A few hours of
+      sunshine will blot out every sign of your passing. This entire cleanness
+      and invulnerability is specially delightful to men who have grown up in
+      crowded cities,<a id="Page_192"></a> <span class="pagenum">[192]</span>
+      where, save sometimes in the sky, the very reverse is the case, and
+      nothing is visible that does not imply the handiwork of man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The final climb is like all wall-climbing, and commands no view unless you
+      can turn round; but so much the more does the last step tell, the step
+      that lifts your eyes above the crest and suddenly displays to you the
+      great vista on the other side. In peak-climbing, the views to right and
+      left rapidly develop and approach as you near the top; it is only in the
+      ascent of these wall-ended passes that the view is kept back to the last,
+      and then suddenly revealed. In the case of the Triftjoch, as you climb to
+      it from Zermatt, the result is even more than usually impressive; for what
+      bursts upon your vision, right opposite to you, on the far side of a
+      splendid and vast circle of snow-field, is the whole pyramid of the Dent
+      Blanche, from base to summit, with its finest side turned towards you. For
+      the view thus to burst upon the traveller with overwhelming suddenness,
+      the steepness of the wall of ascent must be continued to the very top. If
+      it rounds off for the last few feet, as sometimes happens, the effect is
+      spoiled. The Triftjoch view is one of the best arranged, because the gap
+      you pass through is<a id="Page_193"></a> <span class="pagenum">[193]</span>
+      so narrow, and the distance is beheld as it were in a frame of rocks,
+      which form a foreground. Most saddles of the kind are wider. Then the view
+      lacks foreground and is no better than part of a mountain-top panorama.
+      The narrow gaps are the ones to look for. They can be found all over the
+      Alps, but not usually along the crest of the main ranges.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image296.jpg" width="309" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE DENT BLANCHE FROM THE RIFFELBERG
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        July 22, 1903. The Dent Blanche and all the other peaks mostly engaged
+        in powdering their heads behind a curtain of cloud. The water in
+        foreground is not a lake, merely a pond of rain-water.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      There is, however, a great charm attached to many passes across minor
+      ridges. They enable an expedition to be made, out and back, from a single
+      centre, with variety of scenery all the way&mdash;up one side valley and
+      down another. The side valleys often deserve more attention than they get.
+      A climber's natural tendency is to go for the big expeditions&mdash;the
+      highest mountains and the greatest passes. It is worth observing that the
+      greater the scale on which mountains are built, the more widely are the
+      main features separated. Minor peaks and lower ridges have their different
+      members nearer together. Juxtaposition often produces admirable results,
+      and may educate the eye to look for effects on a great scale which have
+      once been observed in little. After all, variety is the great thing,&mdash;variety
+      and the emphasis that contrast gives to beauty of different kinds. It is
+      so easy to<a id="Page_194"></a> <span class="pagenum">[194]</span> grow
+      accustomed, so easy to become dull to an effect that is constantly before
+      the eyes. How tired of ourselves, and one of another, we should become, if
+      we were not always growing older! In the mountains, if we would have our
+      sense of their beauty ever fresh, our appreciation of it ever keener and
+      keener, we should alter our point of view: exchanging great for small,
+      arid magnificence for fertile attractiveness, snow for rock, peak for
+      pass, alp for valley. We should beware of specialisation. Why climb only
+      aiguilles? Why scramble up nothing but rock-faces? There may be breadth or
+      narrowness even in our play. We are likely to manifest in life as a whole
+      the qualities that we show in sport. Why not make play react on life?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A highway-pass penetrates a range by help of a corridor, a wall-pass leads
+      right over a cliff. These are the two most definitely marked types of col.
+      We might feel ourselves compelled to assign most cols to one type or the
+      other, if we allowed our freedom to be restrained by the bondage of
+      scientific definition. There is, however, a kind of pass which I prefer to
+      capture for a group by itself, though no descriptive name for it occurs to
+      me,&mdash;I mean passes like the Weissthor<a id="Page_195"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[195]</span> or the Col du G�ant, which are approached by
+      regular snow highways on one side, and fall very rapidly on the other.
+      They and their like are always popular, and there are many of them. Their
+      chief general characteristic is the contrast that must strike every one
+      between the ascent and the descent, on one side and on the other, and
+      between the views in opposite directions from the col. This side, you look
+      down a glacier valley with a broad white foreground limited by a mountain
+      avenue, along which some great glacier flows, winding away. That side, a
+      cliff plunges from your feet, and such foreground as there may be consists
+      of the nearest mountains before you. Thus the near view fixes your
+      attention in one direction, the remote distance in the other. One is
+      essentially a view among mountains, the other an outlook over the wide
+      earth. One impresses by its wildness, the other by its extent. You keep
+      facing about, and, each time you turn, the contrast of scenery enforces
+      the charm of either outlook.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Obviously the right way to enjoy such a pass to most advantage is to
+      ascend by the gentler slope and to go down the cliff. It is not the
+      easiest way for the climber, who is likely to prefer to mount the cliff
+      and descend the slope.<a id="Page_196"></a> <span class="pagenum">[196]</span>
+      The technically and �sthetically best are here at variance. In ascending
+      by the highway side the fine view is always before you, but if you go up
+      the cliff nothing faces you but a few acres of snow and rock. On the
+      contrary, when you descend the cliff, the uninteresting outlook is at your
+      back and the fine view in front all the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crest of some passes of this sort, notably of the Weissthor, is a
+      point of vantage for enfilading a great mountain face. Usually one looks
+      up or down such faces, or, being actually upon them, can only look a short
+      distance to right or left. But from the crest of a suitable pass you may
+      see the great curtain of ice and rocks edgewise, and the view has an
+      impressiveness of its own. Those who have seen Niagara, or any wide
+      waterfall of considerable height, will remember how fine it is to stand
+      and look along the edge of it. Fronting it, you obtain a sense of its
+      width; below it, you feel its force and volume; but in profile its grace
+      is its leading quality. So is it with a wide mountain-wall. It is not
+      enough to see it from below, or from over against. It must also be looked
+      along. Then its surface modelling, its outsets and insets, its ribs and
+      gullies, the meandering as well as the slope of its front become<a
+      id="Page_197"></a> <span class="pagenum">[197]</span> apparent. Few great
+      walls of this kind do not grandly curve round. They are most impressive
+      when that curvature is apparent. Once thus beheld, a wall takes on a new
+      meaning when seen again from some more common standpoint. It no longer
+      looks flat. Its bays and buttresses become perceptible to the trained eye,
+      which is thus better enabled to appreciate the complexities of form and
+      the true architecture of any other mountain-wall afterwards encountered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There remains but one more type of pass that appeals for special mention
+      before our space is exhausted. It is the Couloir Pass, a col led up to by
+      a narrow snow-or ice-filled gully. The Col du Mont Dolent and the Col du
+      Lion are the grandest examples of the type, which however is not an
+      uncommon one. For me these passes always possess singular charm. They are
+      really a subdivision of the wall-pass group, but they arouse emotions
+      altogether their own. Once in the couloir you are completely isolated,
+      almost as though perched in the air. A wall of rocks close at hand shuts
+      you in on either side. The steep slope rises in front. Behind, you look
+      straight away to some far distance with nothing to interrupt the vision.
+      So indeed you do from the face of a wall<a id="Page_198"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[198]</span> or cliff, but the effect is greatly enhanced
+      by your enclosure on either hand. The contrast between those near rocks to
+      left and right and the absolute openness behind makes the steep drop of
+      the slope appear much steeper than it is. Perhaps you may be compelled to
+      remain for hours in the narrow gully. So much the more striking becomes
+      the view revealed at the top and the sudden sense of being in the open. It
+      has been implied that the couloir has to be ascended, for such is usually
+      the choice, and sometimes the only wise choice; but it is far more
+      delightful to descend one, with the view in front all the way and the
+      valley bottom slowly approaching. Never is the depth beneath better
+      appreciated than under such circumstances.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image304.jpg" width="450" height="234" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE VILLAGE OF SOLDIMO, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE VAL MAGGIA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I have thus far been referring to passes from the climber's point of view,
+      as leading from one mountain centre to another. Truly, however, the whole
+      of a pass is the route through a mountain region from plain to plain. Few
+      mountaineers nowadays ever cross a range in that way except by train, and
+      yet it is one of the most delightful experiences. Motor-cars will enable
+      us to enjoy such traverses by road, when the Swiss have learnt the wisdom
+      of granting free passage across the Alps to any kind of<a id="Page_199"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[199]</span> vehicle. It is only when a range of
+      mountains is approached from the plain that its mass and geographical
+      value as a dividing wall can be felt. Arriving by train among mountains is
+      a very different thing, for you can see nothing from a train unless you
+      are the engine-driver&mdash;all revealing views being necessarily ahead.
+      Afoot there is usually some definite point, immediately perceptible, where
+      you first come in contact with the slope. You enter the mouth of a valley;
+      the hills reach forth their arms to embrace you, and you consciously enter
+      a new world. Beside you is now a riotous river on the one hand and a
+      steepening slope on the other. It is not long before you know that you
+      have begun to ascend. The flatness of the valley's mouth presently changes
+      into a gentle slope. At first the fertility of the plain accompanies you
+      into the hills, but the fields grow smaller, the villages may be cramped
+      for space and forced to adapt themselves to difficult ground, attaining a
+      new picturesqueness in the process. Thus for long miles, hour after hour,
+      and, in large mountain regions, day after day, the character of the
+      scenery slowly changes. The mountains grow bigger; vegetation varies with
+      level and aspect;<a id="Page_200"></a> <span class="pagenum">[200]</span>
+      Nature grows more austere, and therewith more magnificent. You traverse
+      some vast defile, like the gorge of Gondo perhaps, where road and river
+      find passage beneath opposite cliffs, water-worn and of imposing height.
+      You enter secluded basins, where the valley widens to close again; you
+      pass round the margin of lakes that hold the hill-tops, as it were, in
+      their depths. And always the flanking heights grow greater, and their
+      tops, when visible, further and further away. Side valleys radiate,
+      leading around romantic corners to invisible fastnesses. The slope of the
+      main valley steepens again. You reach the foot of the forest region, the
+      snouts of glaciers begin to appear, and high aloft the snows look down
+      upon you. Now you traverse the last village and approach the foot of the
+      glacier that fills your valley's head. You mount beside it through the
+      tree-belt and out on to the grassy alp, then up that to the region of
+      broken rocks and stones, and so to the margin of the snow. It is only the
+      last stage of your traverse which now arrives, but that last stage is the
+      beginning and end of the mere climber's pass. To you it means much more&mdash;it
+      is the crest of the great range that you have been so long penetrating<a
+      id="Page_201"></a> <span class="pagenum">[201]</span> to these its
+      uttermost recesses. The final wall is before you, the great white wall
+      that looked so ethereal, so cloud-like, when first beheld from afar. You
+      toil up it, stand on the crest, and look abroad over the world of
+      mountains. Then down to the stones, to the grass, to the trees, the high
+      village, and the valley road. So onward again by the roaring torrent, down
+      the ever more fertile, more luxuriant valley, till you come to the low
+      hills and the wide flat stretches that at last lead you out on to the
+      plain once more.<a id="Page_202"></a> <span class="pagenum">[202]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A long traverse of that kind is a real pass, a whole pass; nothing else is
+      more than a fragment&mdash;a choice fragment it may be, but still a part
+      and not the whole. The old mountaineers, such as John Ball, used to take
+      their passes in this complete form. So did the old coach-travellers like
+      John Ruskin in his early days. Now mountaineers scorn to waste time on so
+      lengthy an experience and to remain for so long at low levels. It is not
+      their way. They have continual business aloft. They leave to motorists
+      that kind of expedition. What good-fortune, then, that motor-cars should
+      have been invented in time to provide such possible delights for climbers
+      when their days of activity are done.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER IX</span><br /> <span class="smaller">GLACIERS</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I<span class="smcap lowercase">NCIDENTALLY</span>, in the course of the
+      preceding chapters, glaciers have been frequently referred to, but they
+      form so prominent a feature in Alpine scenery as to demand a chapter
+      alone. For, in fact, it is the glaciers that most of us think about when
+      we turn our minds to the Alps. Minor ranges have walls of rock as
+      precipitous and grand, gullies as difficult to climb, valleys as beautiful
+      and even as profound as the Alps. Other European ranges are for a longer
+      or shorter part of the year snow-covered, and often deeply snow-covered,
+      so as to present snow-ar�tes, cornices, couloirs, and snow-slopes that
+      might almost have been stolen from the highest regions of so-called
+      eternal snow. The Pyrenees, if exception be made of one or two small
+      glaciers of no importance, are practically a range of this sort. They
+      possess fascinations,<a id="Page_203"></a> <span class="pagenum">[203]</span>
+      and great fascinations, but lacking glaciers they lack what every
+      traveller amongst them must feel to be the essential element of greatness.
+      Where glaciers exist the mountains are of the grand style. A small
+      Spitsbergen peak draped and surrounded by glaciers has a more imposing
+      effect than a great tropical hill, three times as big, which lacks
+      glaciers.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image308.jpg" width="302" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        FL�ELEN AT END OF LAKE OF URI, SOUTH ARM OF LAKE OF LUCERNE
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The pyramid of the Bristenstock in the background. F�hn wind blowing.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Snow that vanishes away before it is a year old is generally
+      feeble-looking stuff. It is only snow with a history, snow that has
+      weathered twenty hot summers, that really tells in a view. The first is a
+      mere inert covering of the ground; the second is a mighty and moving
+      agent. In short, the one is dead; the other is alive. A sheet of snow,
+      lying where it fell, is amorphous. It might be twice the size or half the
+      size and any single square yard of it would be the same. But a glacier,
+      the moving accumulation of a score or scores of winter snow-falls, is a
+      unit, and all its parts imply the rest. Increase or diminish the area and
+      you must needs change every detail, just as the whole body of a man is
+      modified when he begins to grow stout or to waste away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not often that you can see the whole of a glacier in a single view,
+      unless it be a very small<a id="Page_204"></a> <span class="pagenum">[204]</span>
+      glacier. Generally you see only a part; but, to one who knows, that part
+      implies the whole. When you see a man's leg you know that there is the
+      rest of him round the corner; from the attitude of what is visible it is
+      often possible to infer much about what is hidden. So, too, is it with a
+      glacier. The more familiar a man is with glacier phenomena, the more
+      certainly can he infer from the known to the unknown. How easy it is with
+      a little practice to tell at a glance whether a bit of white beheld aloft
+      is part of a glacier or merely a bed of winter snow that will presently
+      disappear. The one is modelled by its own motion; the other merely borrows
+      its modelling from the ground on which it lies inertly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sense of motion, unity, and life&mdash;it is when these are
+      instinctively perceived in glaciers that a view of snow-mountains begins
+      to possess its true significance. Before it had been discovered that
+      glaciers move, people used to call them frightful, terrible, and so forth.
+      Ignorance blinded men's eyes to the beauty that was actually in sight. Not
+      knowing how to look, they could not see it. What forests, grass, and
+      flowers are to the lower regions, that glaciers are to the higher&mdash;they
+      are the vitalising element. Hence the<a id="Page_205"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[205]</span> importance to the mountain-lover of learning
+      to know glaciers and familiarising himself with their structure, their
+      ways, and their moods. It is easy enough to declare that every form and
+      movement of a glacier is determined by the action of definite forces&mdash;so
+      perhaps are all the ways and doings of men. But we pretend that they are
+      not, and talk of our whims and moods, and may take the same liberty of
+      speech about glaciers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every climber knows that there are glaciers of all sorts and characters,
+      and every mountain traveller knows that they behave differently in
+      different climates and latitudes. In the Arctic regions they flow faster
+      and spread more widely. They have a more viscous appearance to the eye.
+      They bulge and swell at the lower end, so that no one would ever have
+      invented the name "snout" for the termination of an Arctic ice-stream.
+      Moreover they break very readily into crevasses, even upon gentlest
+      inclines in their lower course, whilst high up they seem less ready to
+      form ice-falls than in the Alps. Glaciers in Norway vary from the Arctic
+      to the temperate character as you go from north to south. The glaciers of
+      Lyngen resemble those of Greenland. The glaciers of Jotunheim are almost
+      Alpine&mdash;more than Alpine, indeed, in<a id="Page_206"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[206]</span> the development of their glorious
+      ice-cascades, but less than Arctic in the outreach of their lower
+      extremities. The glaciers of the Tropics, again, present peculiarities of
+      their own, due to the fact that the ice evaporates rather than melts. Thus
+      their surfaces are dry and almost granitic in aspect. Their towering
+      s�racs seldom fall. Avalanches are much rarer than one would expect.
+      Glacier streams are insignificant. Thus it is in the Bolivian Andes and
+      thus also in the regions of Kenya and Ruwenzori. In the great Asiatic
+      mountain territory there are glaciers of many types, corresponding to the
+      great variety of climates. Those of Sikkim seem to be almost of the
+      tropical character. Those of the Mustagh are of the temperate sort; and
+      there are many intermediate varieties.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image316.jpg" width="450" height="362" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        FURGGEN GLACIER ICEFALL
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Furggjoch at top of picture.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Alpine glaciers are of the medium type, lying as they do half-way between
+      the Arctic and tropical extremes. They have not the rapid flow of the
+      Arctic nor the dry rigidity of the tropical sort. Their walls are not
+      silent as in the Central Andes, nor thundered over by continual avalanches
+      like those of the upper Baltoro. They are of medium size also. In a single
+      day almost any of them may be ascended from snout to snow-field,<a
+      id="Page_207"></a> <span class="pagenum">[207]</span> and descended again.
+      To explore their remotest recesses no elaborately equipped expedition is
+      required. Yet they are large enough to be imposing, and penetrate deep
+      enough into the heart of the hills to isolate their votaries completely
+      from the world of human habitation. It is to this medium quality that the
+      Alps owe much of their charm. This, too, it is that makes them an almost
+      perfect mountain play-ground. Were they but a little smaller, how much
+      they would lose that is most precious! Were they larger, how many persons
+      that now can afford the cost and the strength to explore them would have
+      to linger at their gates wistfully looking in. In area, too, they are
+      large enough for grandeur and yet small enough for easy access. No part of
+      them is beyond the range of a summer holiday, yet a commanding view of
+      them is as apparently limitless as is the view from the greatest Asiatic
+      peaks which, thus far, have been climbed. They are the only range of
+      snow-mountains in the world thus blessed with moderation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is for this reason that the Alpine climber so soon acquires an
+      understanding of glaciers as units. A novice, after a single year's Alpine<a
+      id="Page_208"></a> <span class="pagenum">[208]</span> experience, can talk
+      easily and with understanding of all the parts of a glacier. It takes
+      twenty seasons to know them well, but the foundations of knowledge can be
+      laid in one. The modern tendency amongst climbers is to devote their main
+      attention to rock-scrambling; but those who have spent the best years of
+      their life amongst mountains, generally end by giving their hearts to
+      glaciers and the high regions of snow. The best advice that can be given
+      to a young climber is, "Learn to know glaciers." They offer the strongest
+      contrast to the ordinary surroundings of life. They present the most
+      varied phenomena. They most readily impress the imagination. They are the
+      vital element, the living inhabitants of the high world.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image320.jpg" width="296" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE GLETSCHERHORN FROM THE PAVILION, HOTEL CATHREIN, CLOSE TO CONCORDIA
+        HUT
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        One of the finest situations for views of the ice-world where no
+        climbing is required.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      If elsewhere I have praised the charms of contrast, of passing from low to
+      high, from fertile to barren, let me here exalt another method. Who that
+      has tried it will not agree that it is likewise well, sometimes, to hide
+      oneself in the very heart of the upper snows, and there dwell for a while
+      apart from the haunts of men? Formerly this was difficult to accomplish,
+      but now, in the Alps at any rate, it is easy; for well-found high-level
+      huts are many. Such, for instance, is the<a id="Page_209"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[209]</span> Becher Refuge, planted in the midst of the
+      Tirolese �belthal glacier, or the K�rsinger Hut, on the north slope of the
+      Gross Venediger. Settled in either of these, you are in the midst of the
+      high snowy world. The <i>n�v�s</i> are within a stone's throw, and the
+      final peaks may be gained by a morning's walk. The Concordia Hut (now
+      H�tel, I believe) is similarly situated; whilst the hut on the top of the
+      Signal Kuppe of Monte Rosa is yet more highly elevated. It is easy to
+      spend a day or two in any of these huts, and so to pass before the eyes
+      the whole daily drama as it is played upon the heights. So easy is it,
+      that one wonders why more mountain-lovers do not avail themselves of the
+      opportunity. The drawback, of course, is that such a hut is a centre of
+      human activity. You forsake the hordes of men below, only to join a colony
+      above. Solitude in these places is not to be had except in bad weather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is one way, and one only, by which fully to experience the long
+      emotion of a dweller in the heights: it is to camp out. Few, indeed, are
+      they who have tried it in the Alps. Some have slept in a tent on the
+      mountain-side before a great climb; but they are fewer now than a score of
+      years ago. It is not, however, to such brief lodging I refer;<a
+      id="Page_210"></a> <span class="pagenum">[210]</span> but to a settlement
+      made and victualled for several days. Mr. Whymper, I believe, is one of
+      the few English climbers who has spent many days together with a tent at
+      high altitudes in the Alps, and he has not published any notice of his
+      experiences. It is a thing I have long wished to do, knowing so well the
+      charms of such life in other mountain regions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From a high-planted camp you can climb if you must, but you can also enjoy
+      yourself without climbing. To awake on a fine morning in the midst of the
+      snow-fields and see the coming of day at leisure, with no preparations to
+      be made for immediate departure; then to watch the sun climb aloft and
+      flood the depths of the valleys with its glory; to spend the whole day at
+      leisure in the vicinity of your tent, strolling now to look into some
+      bergschrund, now to scramble on to some neighbouring point of rock,
+      returning at intervals to dine, or read some pleasant book, or to sketch
+      in the shadow of the tent;&mdash;that is the way to let the mountain-glory
+      sink in. My climbing days on the heights have left me pleasant memories
+      enough, but the high-level days of idleness have been more delightful,
+      even when they were days of storm and driving snow.<a id="Page_211"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[211]</span>
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image324.jpg" width="324" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE TRUGBERG
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Looking up the Aletsch glacier from corner of M�rjelen See.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      To be in the midst of a storm at a high altitude is a wonderful
+      experience, which all climbers pass through sooner or later; but it is an
+      uncomfortable experience. When you are camping-out high up you can enjoy a
+      storm far more easily. I have sat warmly in my sleeping-bag and looked out
+      for hours through a chink of the tent-door, fascinated to watch the
+      whirling of the snow and to listen to the wild music of the gale. It is
+      not the fine weather alone that is fair. There is a yet grander glory in
+      the storms. What can be more superb than to watch the oncoming of such a
+      visitant, to see the white valleys and dark precipices swallowed up in the
+      night of its embrace, to feel the power of its might and the volume of its
+      onrush, and to see and feel all this with the sense of security such as a
+      limpet may be conceived to feel in the presence of waves breaking upon it?
+      Who would not wish to spend a few hours in the Eddystone Lighthouse in the
+      midst of a December gale? That would surely be worth while; like standing
+      beneath the Falls of Niagara.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Equally wonderful is it when the winds are still and a white fog envelops
+      your little camp. Then you know what it is like to be alone. Above,
+      around, and below all is impalpable whiteness. You might be floating in
+      the air on a bit of snow-carpet for all the eye can tell<a id="Page_212"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[212]</span> you to the contrary. Never is silence
+      more emphatic, not even in the darkest hour of the night. The ear strains
+      with listening and hears only the pulsations of the heart, till some
+      distant falling stone or rumbling avalanche, some crack of a new-forming
+      crevasse, some slight shifting of a near snow-bed, sends a shiver through
+      the air. And then, perhaps, there is a writhing in the mist and shortly
+      forms emerge. You cannot tell at first whether they are tiny objects near
+      at hand or remote masses. Under such circumstances I have mistaken a
+      little fragment of paper drifting along the snow for a polar bear!
+      Presently avenues of clearness open up to close again. Finally, the mist
+      grows thin and glittering, the sunshine penetrates it, there is a moment
+      of scorching heat, and lo! all is clear, and the great world around is
+      perfectly revealed.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image328.jpg" width="450" height="330" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        PALLANZA&mdash;SUNSET
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      What beauty there is in the great snow-fields that wearied waders through
+      their soft envelope are in no condition to appreciate! For to be seen at
+      their grandest they must be seen in the full glare of mid-daylight, when
+      details are swallowed up in radiant, all-enveloping splendour. Every one<a
+      id="Page_213"></a> <span class="pagenum">[213]</span> knows the glory of
+      overpowering sound. For that orchestras are enlarged and choruses
+      increased in number. Who that has heard the full-throated music of ten
+      thousand men, singing as one, will forget the majesty of that voluminous
+      sonorance? The thunder of great guns is used, by common consent, to
+      express the salutations of a people. What is true of sound is also true of
+      light. Great views are ennobled by the splendour of full sunshine. There
+      is an indescribable charm about desert sunrises and sunsets, but the glory
+      of the desert is greatest at noon when the sunshine seems to swallow up
+      the world and almost to hide it in excess of brightness. As with the
+      deserts so is it with the snow-fields. When the eye can barely suffer to
+      rest on them, they are most impressive. If there be specks of dust upon
+      the snow, they disappear then from vision. With the brightness comes
+      perfect purity, and the very idea of possible contamination vanishes away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Reference has been made above to the beauty of linear form presented by
+      many mountains projected against the sky. The great snow-fields have a
+      beauty of surface form, a delicacy and perfection of modelling, far more
+      remarkable. The graceful outline of a rock-peak, such as the<a
+      id="Page_214"></a> <span class="pagenum">[214]</span> Matterhorn, is,
+      after all, a conception based upon a fact. The actual outline is a line
+      elaborately jagged, which the eye converts into a continuous curve by
+      purposely neglecting to observe the small indentations. But the curvature
+      of a <i>n�v�</i> is often apparently perfect. Its slight imperfections are
+      too small for the eye to see even when they are looked for. Where it
+      curves over, the outline of its edge is as delicate as any line that can
+      be fashioned by the most elaborate artifice. No razor's edge is apparently
+      more true. So also are the surfaces, in the perfection of their rise and
+      fall. Not more perfect are the heavings of the last dying swell on a
+      calming tropical ocean. But the swelling of the snows is still, and can be
+      watched from dawn to eve with the incredibly delicate shades upon it that
+      change with the hours yet never grow coarse, only towards the day's end
+      they become blue and bluer, till the pink lights of sunset melt against
+      them before the pallor of night comes on.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image332.jpg" width="450" height="334" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        KRANZBERG&mdash;ROTTHALHORN&mdash;AND JUNGFRAU: SUNSET
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The details of the snow-fields are few, except when the surface is forced
+      to break up by submerged inequalities of the glacier's bed. Then <i>n�v�</i>
+      ice-falls are formed, which are far more majestic than the ice-falls of
+      the middle region<a id="Page_215"></a> <span class="pagenum">[215]</span>
+      (such as that of the Col du G�ant). The high ice-falls are always deeply
+      covered with recent snow, and the broken white mantle upon the tumbled
+      chaos produces mysterious hollows and gives rise to long fringes of
+      glittering icicles not elsewhere in summer to be seen. To gaze into a
+      crevasse in such a situation is to look into a veritable fairy's grotto,
+      where the recesses are bluer and the walls more white than the memory ever
+      avails to recall, and where the icicles seem to be hung for the very
+      purpose of sublime decoration. Glimpses of such sights are often granted
+      to the mere climber as he hastily scrambles over a bergschrund by an
+      insecure snow-bridge; but he has no time to stop for half an hour and let
+      his fancy play truant in the depths. To do that, one must be living aloft,
+      with all the day to spend as one pleases, no peak to attain and return
+      from, within short time-limits, and no companions to say "Hurry up."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps these pages may have the good fortune to inspire some
+      mountain-lover with the wish to camp out aloft. A suggestion may,
+      therefore, not be out of place. Let the intending high-level resident
+      choose the situation of his camp with care. It must be out of the way of
+      excursionists,<a id="Page_216"></a> <span class="pagenum">[216]</span> or
+      he will be invaded by continual visitors, who will expect entertainment
+      and will thus deplete his stores and spoil his solitude. It ought not,
+      however, to be difficult of access, or the problem of revictualling will
+      be complicated and expensive. Such a camp should consist of two tents&mdash;one
+      of them for guides or porters. The traveller's tent should be solid, and
+      should possess a double roof or fly, so that it may be occupied with
+      comfort in the hot hours of the day. It should be so firmly planted that
+      no gale can overthrow it. Its furniture should be sufficient for comfort.
+      Do not plan to move on from day to day, but settle down for a week or more
+      at one spot, where there are rocks for a tent platform, and short
+      scrambles that can be safely undertaken alone. Let the snow-field be near
+      also, a snow-field that can be traversed on <i>ski</i>, and do not forget
+      to take the <i>ski</i> with you, nor fear that you will not be able to use
+      them on fairly level ground without previous practice. Keep a man with you
+      to fetch water and do the rough cooking, so that all your time may be your
+      own to enjoy to the full a rare opportunity which may not come again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The middle region of the glaciers is the region best known to the votaries
+      of the Alps, because<a id="Page_217"></a> <span class="pagenum">[217]</span>
+      it is the most accessible from the popular hotels. This middle region may
+      be defined as limited by the snow-line above and the tree-level below. It
+      is therefore larger towards the end of the season as the snow-line is
+      pushed up by the melting of the winter snows. On the Aletsch glacier it
+      roughly corresponds with the stretch between the Belalp and the Concordia;
+      on the Gorner glacier with the corresponding stretch between the
+      Riffelhorn and the foot of Monte Rosa. Its characteristic features are the
+      open crevasses and the flowing or standing water on the surface of the
+      ice. This is the place to come to for glacier picnics. It is the paradise
+      of the moderate walker or the superannuated mountaineer. It is a safe
+      region for the experienced to wander over alone, and for the inexperienced
+      to visit with experts. You can start late and be back early. You need not
+      venture forth before the weather has declared its intentions. Hence it is
+      the popular glacier belt, and its beauties are best known and most widely
+      appreciated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it lacks the aloofness and romance of the <i>n�v�s</i>, it possesses
+      ample charms of its own. The impressive silence of the heights is here
+      replaced by a chorus of the voices of many waters. The<a id="Page_218"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[218]</span> large simplicity and sweeping forms of
+      the snow-fields give way here to a multiplicity of detailed forms that
+      require time to appreciate and understand. Every step in this area yields
+      a new wonder, a fresh incident, another surprise. All around is continual
+      change as you go along. There is no end to the features that demand and
+      reward your attention. No wonder that glacier wandering at this level
+      should be so popular an amusement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What is its principal and characteristic charm? Undoubtedly the water, and
+      the phenomena to which it gives rise. To begin with, there are the
+      streams, small and great. The little trickles, that creep between the
+      lumps of the uneven surface and deepen the furrow dividing them. They flow
+      and unite together like the veins of a leaf, thus giving rise to larger
+      arteries, and these by their union to yet larger. Thus the main drainage
+      torrents are formed, which, on great Arctic and Himalayan glaciers, become
+      veritable rivers, impossible to be leapt over or forded. The beds of these
+      torrents are blue in colour and like transparent glass in aspect&mdash;a
+      lovely contrast with the general surface of the glacier. For that is made
+      white by the innumerable fissures that penetrate its surface,<a
+      id="Page_219"></a> <span class="pagenum">[219]</span> due to the
+      dissolvent effect of the sun's heat, from which the icy water protects the
+      bed of a stream. It is a favourite pastime to sit beside such a torrent
+      and watch the water flow by between its white banks, one in bright
+      sunshine, the other, perhaps, in shadow, with the blue ribbon of
+      transparent ice between them and crystalline water scampering along with
+      an aspect of joy in freedom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there is a grim fate in store for it not far ahead. It must make haste
+      to laugh in the sunshine while it can, and to display its short-lived
+      clearness. Next time we see it, it will be thick and unclean with
+      sediment, and far below in the valleys where men live and work. Little,
+      however, does it seem to care as it hurries and dances along, and throws
+      up its little glittering, splashing hands into the air. We follow it
+      downward, and soon hear a musical booming not far away, like the note of a
+      deep organ pipe. It is a <i>moulin</i> or pot-hole, a cylindrical
+      perforation of the glacier into which the torrent leaps, and where it
+      disappears, to flow thenceforward in darkness along the rocky bed of the
+      glacier, till it reappears at the snout into the open valley.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even lovelier than the streams are the pools on the<a id="Page_220"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[220]</span> surface of a glacier, when they have a
+      clean floor unsoiled by moraine or sandy deposit. These pools are
+      sometimes of large dimensions. They, too, have blue basins with white
+      edges. Looked down upon from a distance, they appear like great sapphire
+      eyes gazing at the heavens. Seldom, if ever, in the Alps are such pools
+      found in the <i>n�v�</i> region; to behold them there, one must go to
+      Arctic glaciers, of which they form one of the chief glories. If the lakes
+      on the Gorner glacier do not equal those for purity or perfection of
+      contrast between untainted blue and unsullied white, they are none the
+      less most lovely. Sometimes a lake may be found not on but beside a
+      glacier, where the ice forms one bank and the mountain another. Such are
+      the M�rjelen See by the Great Aletsch, and the little-visited lake at the
+      west foot of Monte Rosa. On these you may see floating or stranded masses
+      of ice, and perchance find one that has recently turned over, displaying
+      its blue part that was before submerged.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image340.jpg" width="450" height="322" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        M�RJELEN SEE AND GREAT ALETSCH GLACIER
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Winter ice not yet melted on the lake.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Now and again, if you look for them, you will find crevasses filled with
+      water, whose depth renders up a yet bluer tone than can elsewhere be met
+      with in the regions of ice. Perhaps, at one end the crevasse will be
+      roofed over, and<a id="Page_221"></a> <span class="pagenum">[221]</span>
+      there you may gaze into the deep shadow and find the blue deepen almost to
+      black. If you drop in a stone, you may hear the bubbles come rippling up
+      and the wavelets lapping against the sides. If the roof be thin enough, a
+      hole may be made in it with the ice-axe, and a beam of sunshine admitted
+      which will increase the scale of the harmony in blue. Well do I remember
+      one glorious pool of water, roofed over with a dome of ice, through which
+      the sunshine glimmered. At one side was a natural portal, at the other a
+      window. Two or three white blocks of ice floated on the water, and its
+      uneven depths were of all tones from sky-blue to black; but that was in
+      Spitsbergen, where glacier details are far lovelier than the Alps can
+      show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the middle glacier region, the region of what is fantastically called
+      the "dry glacier," presents other charms than those of water. Note, for
+      example, the brilliance of its surface and the peculiarity of its texture.
+      It consists of an infinite multitude of loosely compacted rounded
+      fragments of ice with a little water soaking down between them. If you
+      watch it closely, you will see that the moving water makes a shimmering in
+      the cracks between the ice-fragments. You will also<a id="Page_222"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[222]</span> observe that the blue of the solid ice
+      below the skin of fragments appears dimly through the white, and the least
+      tap with an ice-axe to scrape away the surface reveals it clearly. Each
+      little fragment of ice has a separate glitter of its own, so that the
+      whole surface sparkles with a frosted radiance. It is not the same at dawn
+      after a cold night, for then there is no water between the fragments, but
+      all is hard and solid. No sooner, however, does the sun shine upon them,
+      than the bonds are released and the ice-crystals begin to break up with a
+      gentle tinkling sound and little flashes of light reflected from tiny wet
+      mirror-surfaces. One can spend hours watching these small phenomena as
+      happily as gazing upon the great mountains themselves. Size is a relative
+      term. The biggest mountain in relation to the earth is no greater than is
+      one of these small ice-fragments in relation to a glacier. Reduce the
+      scale in imagination and the smallest object may be endowed with grandeur,
+      for all such conceptions are subjective.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The open crevasses that are never far away on the dry glacier are full of
+      beauties. It is not easy to tire of peering down into them. Sometimes one
+      may be found into which a man armed with an ice-axe may effect a descent.
+      He will not stay<a id="Page_223"></a> <span class="pagenum">[223]</span>
+      there long, for the depths are cold. Once I was able not only to descend
+      into a crevasse but to follow it beyond its open part into the very
+      substance of the glacier. It was a weird place, good to see but not good
+      to remain in, and I was glad to return to sunshine very soon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moraines and scattered stones that are frequently encountered on the
+      dry glacier are more interesting than beautiful. It is well to make the
+      acquaintance of the medial moraines and to scramble over them, first for
+      the wider view that one gets from the top, and next in order to realise
+      their dimensions, always larger than one expects. Seen from a distance
+      medial moraines look smaller than they are. The eye must be educated to
+      realise their true dimensions. When that has been accomplished, the great
+      scale of the glacier that carries them can be felt, but not before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is generally a breeze blowing over a dry glacier, so that when the
+      pleasant luncheon-hour arrives, a sheltered spot must be sought out, one
+      open to the sun and protected against the breeze, with good water near at
+      hand, and stones of convenient dimensions for seats and tables.
+      Experienced wanderers will detect such spots far sooner than novices. It
+      is with them as with good<a id="Page_224"></a> <span class="pagenum">[224]</span>
+      camping grounds: they are not easy to identify at a glance, but they are
+      well worth hunting out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So also is it with points suitable for photography. A dry glacier is full
+      of details for a camera, and yet how few good photographs does one see
+      taken at this level among the mountains, unless they be distant views.
+      Nowhere are there better foregrounds to be discovered; yet when they are
+      looked for, how hard it is to find them. The composition is generally
+      faulty in the inexperienced amateur's picture. But those who are
+      experienced in the art seem to find suitable foregrounds everywhere. It is
+      the result of much taking thought.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally it happens that the return from a day's glacier wandering leads
+      up the hillside along the margin, so that as we ascend, the area of our
+      adventures spreads itself out below, and the eye can range over the whole
+      of it at once. We look for the place where we lunched, for the broad
+      streams with difficulty crossed, for the large pools we looked down into.
+      They are not often discoverable. What looked so important near at hand has
+      shrunk to an insignificant unidentifiable detail. The river is one of
+      hundreds of the same kind. The pools are innumerable. The<a id="Page_225"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[225]</span> moraine stretches along for miles, and
+      one of its mounds seems like another. We thus begin to realise the size of
+      the great icy expanse. Our track over it has revealed but little of the
+      multitude of sights there are to see. We have but glanced at a few samples
+      out of countless thousands. Were we to return on the morrow we could not
+      retrace our steps, nor find again the objects we saw to-day. For a moment
+      the grand scale of the glacier imposes itself upon us, but before night
+      has gone we shall have forgotten it. Only by coming again and yet again
+      does it gradually sink into our understandings and become a part of the
+      habit of thought with which we approach the Alps.<a id="Page_226"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[226]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER X</span><br /> <span class="smaller">ALPINE PASTURES</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I<span class="smcap lowercase">T</span> is to be feared that the reader,
+      whose persistence has availed to carry him thus far through the adventure
+      of this book, may bring an accusation against me, on the ground that each
+      form and type of scenery, as in its turn it has come to be discussed, has
+      been described in language of too superlative praise, as though it and it
+      alone were pre-eminent above all other Alpine forms and types. Let me
+      forthwith confess that the accusation is well founded; for the fact is
+      that, whether the attention be turned upon peaks of rock or domes of snow,
+      upon cliffs or aiguilles, upon snow-fields or ice-falls, upon passes,
+      alps, or valleys, the kind under immediate consideration always seems the
+      finest, the central type and the most beautiful. We quit the valleys for
+      the high snows in search of beauty. From the heights we return to the
+      valleys on the same<a id="Page_227"></a> <span class="pagenum">[227]</span>
+      quest. Everywhere we may find it, and to find it is all we need ask; for
+      it is like pure gold, whereof no fragment is intrinsically more precious
+      than another. Each new-found nugget seems for the moment best of all.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image348.jpg" width="450" height="365" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        THE CASTLE OF Z�HRINGEN-KYBURG, THUN
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Beauty is not the prerogative of any zone or level of the mountains more
+      than of any other. It is of different kinds in different regions, but not
+      of different degrees. Some kinds may appeal to one man more than other
+      kinds, but these in their turn will be preferred by a man of different
+      disposition, and neither can boast that his taste is superior. Youthful
+      vigour may find the keen consciousness of beauty most readily arising
+      after difficulties have been overcome. Age may feel its sense of beauty
+      deadened by toil. In neither case is the power of appreciation to be
+      regarded as a test of the quality of the beauty perceived; it is merely an
+      indication of the character of the person perceiving it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The normal Alpine climber is more sensitive to the beauty of the high
+      regions than to the beauty of low levels. Nor is the fact surprising. He
+      values that which he wins by toil, as is the natural habit of man. Yet he
+      will by no means deny that there are beauties of the valleys and<a
+      id="Page_228"></a> <span class="pagenum">[228]</span> the middle regions,
+      though he may freely confess that they appeal to him less powerfully. But
+      even he, lying upon some high pasture or in the borders of a wood on some
+      off-day, when the sun shines brightly and the peaks that he knows and
+      loves look down upon him through a clear atmosphere, will realise
+      consciously enough the fascination of the scene. The beauty of the middle
+      region, however, stands in need of no apology, of no lengthy
+      recommendation, for this is the region which the ordinary traveller most
+      frequents and specially associates with his Alpine ramblings. The valleys
+      are the home of the tripper; the alpine pastures, of the tourist; the
+      snows, of the climber. Each class perhaps looks down upon the one below,
+      but each is well rewarded and may rest content with what it receives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grassy region between the belt of forest and the snows is known in
+      Switzerland as the alps or high pastures, and it is from these "alps" that
+      the great mountain range of Central Europe takes its name. An alp is
+      essentially a summer grazing ground. It is the locality of cattle and
+      horses, sheep and goats. A high Alpine village without an alp is an
+      exceptional place. The normal village needs an alp for its equipment as
+      much as<a id="Page_229"></a> <span class="pagenum">[229]</span> it needs
+      fields and woodland. The fact that there is an alp for summer grazing
+      enables the grass lands at lower levels to be used as hay-fields; thus a
+      supply of winter feed for the cattle is procured. Hay is also cut on some
+      of the lower alps, but that is an exceptional use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The easily accessible alps are grazed by cattle. Highest alps whither
+      cattle cannot go, or where frequent precipices surround the beasts with
+      danger, are reserved for sheep and goats. Goat-alps are sometimes islands
+      in the midst of glaciers, as, for instance, those at the foot of the
+      Breithorn and the Twins along the south side of the main Gorner Glacier.
+      Oftenest the alps grazed by sheep and goats are high up in the immediate
+      vicinity of the snow-line, little patches of grass in a wilderness of
+      rocks, or broken up by precipices. Some great grassy places at the
+      ordinary cattle-alp level are so isolated by rock-walls that cattle cannot
+      be taken to them with safety. Large flocks of sheep will then be found
+      there. Such, for example, is the Muttenalp<a id="Muttenalp3"></a><a
+      title="Go to footnote 3." href="#fn3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> above
+      Thierfehd in the T�di district, which is grazed by some 1500 or 2000
+      sheep. A single shepherd looks after them, and is almost entirely cut off
+      from the lower world throughout the long summer months. The alp in
+      question<a id="Page_230"></a> <span class="pagenum">[230]</span> lies in a
+      hollow of the hills, with terraced slopes rising like an amphitheatre from
+      a grassy hollow, only accessible from below by a giddy path. There would
+      be grass enough here for many cattle if the path could be cheaply
+      improved.
+    </p>
+    <p class="footnote">
+      <a id="fn3"></a><a title="Return to text." href="#Muttenalp3" class="label">[3]</a>
+      NOTE TO PAGE 229.&mdash;Mr. Coolidge informs me that the Muttenalp
+      belongs, not to the Thierfehd, but to Brigels in the Grisons, and is
+      reached over the Kisten Pass. That is why the path down to the Linththal
+      is so bad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing in the Alps is more lonely and forlorn in aspect than are these
+      high shepherds' huts. They are always wretchedly built. The lads or men
+      that occupy them are the poorest of their village and the worst clad. In
+      an alp where cheese is made there is plenty of work to fill every hour of
+      the day; but a shepherd who lives aloft and does not have to drive his
+      flock back to the village every day, finds time hanging heavily on his
+      hands, and acquires a forlorn expression that matches his attire, his
+      surroundings, and the miserable weather which so often envelops him. Those
+      of us who climbed among out-of-the-way parts of the Alps in the seventies
+      or earlier often had to take shelter for the night in shepherds' huts, and
+      very uncomfortable they were. But modern climbers hardly know that such
+      refuges exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One such hut I well remember at the head of the Ridnaunthal in Tirol. Now
+      there are no less than three luxurious climbers' huts built beside or near
+      the glacier further up. The old shepherd's<a id="Page_231"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[231]</span> hut has fallen to decay. Only a fragment of
+      one of its walls was left when I passed the place recently. Modern
+      comforts, however, are not all clear gain. To sleep a night in the old
+      upper Agels alp was not a comfortable experience, but it had its
+      recompenses. The rough stone-built cabin was perfectly in harmony of
+      aspect with its surroundings, as a club-hut is not. Built out of the
+      stones that lay around, its crannies stuffed with moss, its roof formed of
+      slabs and sods, it seemed a part of the mountain landscape, a natural
+      growth rather than an artificial structure. A philosopher, ignorant of the
+      conditions of life there, might have argued that the hut had been invested
+      with an intentional protective coloration and form. The hut was hard to
+      find, hard even to see when you were looking straight that way. It stood
+      in a gorge upon a sloping grassy shelf, clutching a dark rock-cliff, as
+      though it feared to slide down and tumble over into the roaring torrent.
+      There was another dark cliff over against it, and the gorge curved round,
+      so that you could not see far, either up or down. Everywhere the dark
+      rock-cliffs shut it in, and only the minimum of sky was visible overhead,
+      as it were poised on cliffs. There was always a bitter wind blowing when I
+      was there,<a id="Page_232"></a> <span class="pagenum">[232]</span> and
+      always the river roaring, and its spray rising to the door of the hut like
+      a wet cloud.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The entry was by a low and narrow door, and there was a tiny window beside
+      it. A little passage or track led from the door down the room to the fire
+      at the far end, where cheese was made of goat's milk. On one side of the
+      passage was a bed of hay, retained by a board. On the other were some
+      shelves fastened against the wall. The door did not fit, and the walls
+      were full of holes through which the wind whistled. It was indeed a
+      wretched shelter; but we slept well enough within it, rolled up in our
+      wraps. The hospitality of the simple peasant was as hearty, his welcome as
+      warm, as his means were exiguous. No one sleeps in these goat-herd huts
+      any more. Climbers have provided better accommodation for themselves, but
+      in so doing they have lost that intimate touch with the life of the
+      mountain-dwellers which a former generation learned to enjoy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When now we speak of alps, it is the cattle alps that are generally
+      intended and understood. These cattle alps are of all sizes and
+      descriptions, large and small, relatively high planted or relatively low.
+      Some, like Moser's alp above Randa, belong to an individual and afford
+      grazing only for a few beasts;<a id="Page_233"></a> <span class="pagenum">[233]</span>
+      but most are the property of the commune and are worked co-operatively for
+      the benefit of all the cattle-owners who may wish to send their cows aloft
+      to graze. Most alps are divided into two levels, a lower and a higher. The
+      cattle are driven to the lower alp for the beginning and end of the summer
+      season, to the higher for the middle weeks. Every such alp must be
+      supplied with the necessary buildings for the accommodation of the
+      herdsmen and cheese-makers, and generally for the cattle also, though in
+      some parts of Switzerland the cattle are left out in the open throughout
+      the whole summer season. Pigs are usually kept at a cattle alp to consume
+      the refuse of the whey. An old woman once told me that pigs are "the
+      fourth child of milk," the other three being butter, s�rac, and cheese.
+      What with the coming and going of the cattle, the pigs, and the herdsmen,
+      the milking at dawn and eve, and the cheese-making that follows, a cattle
+      alp is a very busy place. Some are better equipped than others, but in
+      almost all one finds a shake-down on hay, a fire, and good shelter against
+      all possible inclemencies of the weather. The immediate neighbourhood of
+      the huts is liable to be dirty, especially when there are pigs, and at
+      certain seasons there is a plague of flies in the hot hours of<a
+      id="Page_234"></a> <span class="pagenum">[234]</span> sunshine. But, as a
+      rule, these discomforts infest only a very small area, and it is enough to
+      pass beyond that to escape them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now that the throng of climbers is so great near the fashionable centres,
+      cattle alps are unsuited to accommodate them, and club-huts or even hotels
+      have been built for their service. Yet even now a climber who quits the
+      beaten track often has an opportunity of spending a night under the
+      conditions which were universal in the days of the Alpine explorers. To
+      climb the mountains without associating with the folk whose lives are
+      passed upon their lower slopes is to lose half the pleasure of
+      mountaineering, as I shall attempt to prove in the next chapter.
+      Valley-life is not widely different from life in the plains. It is the
+      life on the alps that is characteristic of the mountain-dweller. There the
+      peasant learns sureness of foot. There he grows familiar with the aspect
+      of the high peaks and the glaciers. There, as the years pass by, he
+      becomes differentiated from the man of the plains. No one can really
+      acquire the mountain-spirit who has had no contact with the people of the
+      alps. That spirit does not reside in the club-huts, one of which is
+      already in telephonic communication with a Stock Exchange&mdash;a<a
+      id="Page_235"></a> <span class="pagenum">[235]</span> foretaste of what
+      the future will bring to others. The great charm and recreative power of
+      mountain-wandering arose from the fact that the climber cut himself off
+      from the life of the Cities of the Plain and exchanged it for the life of
+      the hillside. He came into communication with another set of men, with
+      other habits, other ideals. Each year that passes in the Alps makes that
+      change less considerable and by so much the less salutary.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image358.jpg" width="450" height="334" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        CHALETS AND CHURCH. RIEDERALP
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The crowd of holiday visitors to Switzerland tends to settle in the high
+      pasture region more than was the habit thirty years ago. Formerly hotels
+      flourished in the valley-bottoms, in villages or close to them. Now they
+      are built with ever-increasing frequency upon the alps. The Riffel and
+      M�rren led the way. Such hotels now exist by dozens, and more are built
+      every year. Round Zermatt there are smaller or larger inns, about 3000
+      feet higher than the village, in many directions. But to live in one of
+      these high hotels is yet to live the normal life of hotel-frequenting man.
+      The scenery is changed, but not the human medium. It is the inevitable
+      consequence of Alpine vulgarisation which drives the true lover of nature
+      and of the freedom of simple life further afield.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To know what the high pastures are really like,<a id="Page_236"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[236]</span> what kind of a foreground they naturally
+      provide for an outlook on the world of mountains, you must not go to the
+      modern Triftalp inn or the Schwarz See, but rather to such unspoiled
+      places as the alps of Veglia or of By, both glorious expanses of wide
+      pasturage, which no crowd as yet has attempted to invade, or is likely to
+      attempt, thanks to their situations, remote from the great tripping
+      highways. There you may obtain simple accommodation for a few fine days,
+      and wander as you please over the undulating meadows, with no sound to
+      break the stillness save the rustling of the breeze, the laughter of the
+      waters, and the musical clang of cow-bells more or less remote.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It would be easy to divide the alps into many classes and to discourse of
+      their characters from many points of view, but there are two main kinds of
+      high pastures, differentiated from one another by their situations, which
+      will naturally occur to every lover of mountains. One kind covers the
+      floor and lower slopes of some high-planted valley; the other lies on some
+      open shelf or convex curving mountain-knee. The first sort is recondite;
+      the other displays itself to the world and commands extensive views. The
+      impression they produce is<a id="Page_237"></a> <span class="pagenum">[237]</span>
+      very different. One is wild and gloomy; the other gay and brilliant. One
+      has to be sought; the other summons you from afar.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image362.jpg" width="316" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        EVENING IN ZERMATT
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The promenade after dinner&mdash;a scene more reminiscent of Earl's
+        Court than the "heart of the Alpine world."
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The high grassy valleys are not so common as the knees, nor do I at this
+      moment recall one of them that is likely to be known by the general run of
+      my readers, though there are plenty scattered about in all sorts of
+      corners of the Alpine range. Perhaps the T�sch alp will do for type,
+      though compared with many it is relatively open and accessible. There are
+      better examples near the Dent du Midi, which may be more widely known than
+      I imagine. The ascent to such an alp may lie straight up the valley, first
+      through the forest, afterwards through glades and grassy openings, often
+      of singular loveliness. At last you come to the stunted and scattered
+      outliers of the forest, pathetic trees all crooked and misformed, bending
+      away from the habitual wind and stretching forth angular arms after it as
+      it hurries by. When these are left behind, the open grass-land spreads
+      before and around you, seamed with radiating paths, that start away as
+      with a most definite intention, but soon divide and subdivide, leading in
+      fact nowhither.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If it is early in the season and you are ahead<a id="Page_238"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[238]</span> of the cattle, the grass may be relatively
+      tall and the flowers countless in number and variety. You will wade not
+      ankle-but knee-deep in them, and the air will be filled with delicious
+      perfume. Then indeed it is good to wander at this level. It is essentially
+      the level for wandering. You may go as well in one direction as another.
+      The views are in every direction and from every place. There are no points
+      to ascend, no goals to reach. Now it is a fold of the ground, some little
+      hollow with a pool, that attracts the eye; now it is an outcrop of rock;
+      now some gap ahead filled by a snow-peak; now some downward vista of
+      forest or valley. Anywhere you may find entertainment. Anywhere you may be
+      tempted to sit down and gaze around.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image366.jpg" width="450" height="346" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        BERN FROM THE NORTH-WEST
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Spire of Cathedral against the dimly seen mountains of the Bernese
+        Oberland
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The higher you go the shorter becomes the grass, but it is all the more
+      succulent. As the season advances the flowers fade. But the alp
+      nevertheless retains its charm. The kind of alp now specially under
+      consideration, the hollow sequestered high pasture, is often round some
+      corner, cut off from distant and especially from downward views. Perhaps a
+      portion of a snowy peak can be seen over a shoulder of the surrounding
+      foreground. Oftenest even the snows are<a id="Page_239"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[239]</span> shut out, and the vision is limited by
+      enclosing slopes or walls of shattered rock, where snow lies late in
+      chinks and crannies. Such places have a wild and at first sight a
+      forbidding aspect. But we grow to appreciate them and find delight in them
+      as the novelty wears off. They have the dignity, the solemnity of
+      solitude. Such elements of beauty as they possess are simple. They do not
+      overwhelm the imagination by imposing shapes, nor astonish and puzzle it
+      by complexities of colouring. Such places are best seen in dull weather
+      when distant views are not to be had, and the eye has to take its pleasure
+      in gazing upon what is near at hand. Then the brown rocks emerging from
+      the grass and embroidered with lichens have their chance. In some places,
+      where water habitually trickles over them, they are quite black and
+      glossy. After all, there is variety enough of colour to be found about
+      them, if one takes the trouble to look. Moreover, how much entertainment
+      is to be found in the really intricate modelling of the grass-covered
+      surfaces. Far different are they from mere low level fields which long
+      ploughing has invested with a continuous curvature like that of a <i>n�v�</i>
+      basin. The grassy alps possess a complex<a id="Page_240"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[240]</span> accidentation of form. They bend and curve
+      with an exhaustless variety. They burst, as it were like a breaking wave,
+      against the rocks that perforate the grass. How many shelves and islands
+      grass covers among the rocks! What picturesque corners it makes! What
+      sheltered nooks! What attractive camping grounds! What charming sites for
+      picnics, aloof from the ways of the crowd! In these remote and solitary
+      places it is charming to while away the hours of an idle day, seeing
+      nothing that has name or fame, following no track, accomplishing no
+      expedition, no walk even that can be identified, yet finding everywhere
+      something to look at, some entertainment for the disencumbered mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is, however, the high and open alps, lying on the slopes or laps of the
+      great hills, that are the favourite places with visitors of all sorts.
+      Here the variety is so great, the opportunities of enjoyment are so many,
+      the possible beauties so multitudinous, that it is almost impossible to
+      indicate them in a brief space. Who that has climbed much, or merely
+      wandered much, through Alpine regions has not an exhaustless store of
+      memories of these open, far-commanding alps? What a variety of
+      reminiscences arise when the<a id="Page_241"></a> <span class="pagenum">[241]</span>
+      thoughts are turned towards this belt of the mountains! It forms a stage
+      in the ascent and again in the descent of every peak and pass; and it is
+      the special arena for the "off-day."
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image370.jpg" width="450" height="365" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        LOOKING DOWN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM TOSA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      My own keenest enjoyments of the open alps are associated with two
+      examples, not, I fear, very widely known&mdash;the Fontanella alp above
+      Valtournanche, and the alp over which one descends from Rutor towards La
+      Thuille. Both may be described as staged or terraced alps. They lie on a
+      series of shelves, separated from one another by walls or steep descents.
+      For aught I know, they may be dull to ascend; but to descend they are of
+      marvellous beauty. This beauty is greatly enhanced by the waters that fall
+      in cascades from step to step, and lie in pools, or race along over the
+      successive flats. The waters and the meadows form foreground to the
+      loveliest distances. There are undulations and slopes of green in front;
+      green slopes to right and left; and then the sight leaps across a blue
+      valley to the opposite woods and upper hillsides crowned with rocky
+      crests, above which other ridges rise and peaks appear, till far away
+      soars some snowy giant into the serene sky. In the descent we must turn
+      this way and that&mdash;now facing a waterfall, now going down<a
+      id="Page_242"></a> <span class="pagenum">[242]</span> some recondite
+      gully, now down some outward-looking slope. And always, presently, comes
+      the flat meadow on a lower shelf, and the call to tarry upon it and look
+      back at the waterfall, or sit beside the torrent, or watch the reflections
+      in a quiet pool. There are several examples of these lovely staged alps in
+      Ticino, as you go down from the Basodino towards Bignasco. Wherever you
+      find them they are fascinating. They always seem greener on the flats than
+      any other alp. Their picturesqueness has in it an element of the scenic.
+      The arrangement seems to have been made for effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is another kind of far-commanding open alp, that all mountaineers
+      must often have enjoyed. It is a long, relatively narrow slope or level of
+      high pasture that lies horizontally between two cliffs or rocky belts.
+      Such an alp lies above Zermatt to the south-westward, along the foot of
+      the Unter Gabelhorn, round which it curves, so that as you walk along it
+      your direction gradually changes from about south to west. It begins high
+      up on the flank of the Zermatt valley, and it is carried round into the
+      valley of Z'mutt, always at the same high level. There is no lovelier walk
+      in that fine neighbourhood than this; for the foreground<a id="Page_243"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[243]</span> is always a slope dropping away to an
+      invisible cliff at your feet, so that the eye constantly enjoys a
+      delightful visual leap across the neighbouring valley to the great pyramid
+      of the Matterhorn, or the more distant snowy range that ends in Monte
+      Rosa.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image374.jpg" width="323" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        IN THE VAL BAVONA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        River Bed filled by avalanche. Basodino in the distance.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The extent and development of the alpine belt vary greatly, not merely in
+      different regions, but in different parts of the same region. On
+      descending some mountains, rocky d�bris are found to cover a large area of
+      undulating ground, and then the grass slopes plunge steeply to the forest,
+      and are quickly traversed. On others the grass reaches high and undulates
+      slowly down, so that you may be walking over it for hours before you reach
+      the trees. These lazily sloping alps are most charming when rightly used
+      and approached, though to the climber, eager to gain the snowy heights,
+      their extent may seem tedious, especially when they have to be traversed
+      in the dark.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are some magnificent alps along the north side of the Rhone valley
+      above Sierre. The slopes that support them rise rapidly from the valley
+      with an equal and continuous slant. When those are surmounted there comes
+      a great area of undulating land which begins amongst the trees but soon<a
+      id="Page_244"></a> <span class="pagenum">[244]</span> opens out to the sky
+      and stretches far back towards Wildhorn, Wildstrubel, and the rest. On
+      these great alps there lie many small lakes, and all the alpine region
+      hereabouts is very diversified, and filled with foregrounds of all
+      characters and kinds of picturesqueness&mdash;and then what distant views
+      they have to set off, for across the Rhone valley to the southward is all
+      the splendour and extent of the Pennine range, with Mischabel or Weisshorn
+      standing out in front in overpowering magnificence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps we shall be held justified in claiming that the views from the
+      region of the high pastures are their chief charm, rather than the nearer
+      views upon them. Certain it is that most of the great peaks are best seen
+      from the alpine level, and that the favourite views of them, the
+      characteristically memorable and popularly best remembered views, are from
+      alps. Such is the view of Mont Blanc from the Fl�g�re, of the Matterhorn
+      from the Riffel alp, of the Weisshorn from the T�sch alp, of the
+      Mischabelh�rner from above Saas-F�e. The spectator stands high enough and
+      not too high; he can be near enough at this level and yet not too near.
+      The mountain still retains its individuality,<a id="Page_245"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[245]</span> its existence separate from its neighbours,
+      and yet can be seen as a whole. A little nearer and it begins to disclose
+      the details of its structure, whilst its mass fills a larger area than can
+      be embraced at a glance. A little further away and the mountain is only
+      beheld as one of several, part of a larger mass, a component element of
+      another effect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the alpine level you look down as well as up. The depth beneath and
+      the height above may be, or appear to be, approximately equal. Moreover,
+      the distance to which the sight penetrates, the area over which it ranges,
+      bears some moderate proportion to the size of the mountain-masses included
+      in it. In the view from a high peak, visible distances are so great, the
+      area embraced is so vast, the peaks visible appear to be so countless,
+      that each of them may shrink into individual insignificance. It is the
+      multitude of peaks rather than the mass of any, their abundance rather
+      than the form of any, that causes the overwhelming impression upon the
+      spectator. But in views from the alpine level there is a greater
+      simplicity and a no less effective moderation. The mountains in sight are
+      few, and of them one is sure to<a id="Page_246"></a> <span class="pagenum">[246]</span>
+      be most prominently placed, one will be central if not unique; and that
+      mountain, in the typical view from an alp, will be seen from base to
+      summit, not merely its superstructure of rock and snow, but its wide
+      foundation also, reaching down into the depths of the valley and spreading
+      broadly with all needful amplitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not thus that mountains are beheld from the valleys. As you traverse
+      the whole Vispthal from Visp to Zermatt, you do indeed behold the summits
+      of most of the great flanking peaks from successive points on the valley
+      floor, yet it is only the expert who can recognise them, or tell which
+      white fragment far aloft is the top of a great mountain and which are the
+      mere shoulders of lower buttressing ridges. The knees of the hills hide
+      their breasts and generally also their hoary heads from the view of one
+      who passes along at their feet. If you would behold a great mountain as a
+      whole, it is from the knees or the grassy lap of some other that you must
+      look. Foreshortened foundations are then withdrawn; each component part of
+      the whole vast structure takes its proper place and is seen to fulfil its
+      own function. Buttresses stand forward<a id="Page_247"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[247]</span> and widen out below; high valleys can be
+      traced into the heart of the mass; minor peaks are duly subordinated. The
+      mountain, in fact, can be seen as a whole. It is thus you behold the
+      Mischabel from the alp at the base of the Weisshorn or the Fletschhorn;
+      thus the Matterhorn from the Riffelalp; thus the Jungfrau from M�rren. A
+      true instinct has selected and made such points of view famous.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image380.jpg" width="450" height="369" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        IN THE VAL D'AOSTA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The Mont Blanc group of mountains hidden in clouds.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We have left ourselves little space to discuss the value of the high
+      pastures as an element in the mountain landscape, parts of the scene to be
+      looked at, not positions to gaze from. That their value in this respect
+      also is very great must be obvious enough, for in most mountain views the
+      grassy belt fills the largest part. Of course it is not the most
+      impressive. We look at the mountains, or at some mountain, some glacier,
+      waterfall, or cliff, and make it the centre of our observation. As a rule,
+      however, except when we stand in the midst of the snowy world, the
+      mountain that is centrally gazed at does not occupy so large a part of the
+      field of view as is filled by the grassy expanse at its foot. The grassy
+      alp, in fact, generally bears to a mountain the relation that the
+      background does to a Madonna in a picture. Or we may say that alp<a
+      id="Page_248"></a> <span class="pagenum">[248]</span> and sky are the
+      fabric on which the mountain is embroidered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In many parts of the world the grassy belt is absent from the ranges, and
+      its loss is greatly felt. Peaks rising out of slopes of d�bris and sand
+      have a grandeur of their own, but it is not the normal grandeur of the
+      Alps. In some other ranges the tree-level leads at once to rocks and snow.
+      It is the merit of the Alps that a broad belt of delicately modelled
+      grass-land almost invariably intervenes between forest and snow. This
+      grassy belt covers the wide substructure of the peaks. Above it is the
+      realm of frost, of split rock and jagged forms. But as soon as the
+      grass-level is reached suave outlines and rounded surfaces, broadening as
+      they descend, take the place of the accidented forms above. The value of
+      the contrast will be apparent to all. Small and very correct little models
+      of the Matterhorn in bronze are sold for letter-weights, in which the
+      culminating pyramid alone is given, planted on a rectangular stone plinth.
+      They are interesting mementoes. But compare one of them with a view of the
+      mountain as seen from the Riffelalp, rising above the long bulging
+      grass-covered slopes that descend almost to Zermatt, and you will at once
+      realise how important an element<a id="Page_249"></a> <span class="pagenum">[249]</span>
+      in the general impressiveness of the mountain are those lower slopes, and
+      that not merely for their form but for their rich coloration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The green of the alps is the true key-note of Swiss colour. To it all the
+      rest are subordinate. By contrast with it, rather than with the remote
+      transparence of the air-submerged rocks, the snows manifest their
+      whiteness and the sky its blue. From season to season of the year it
+      changes its tint, between the shrill green of opening spring and the amber
+      of autumn. It changes likewise from hour to hour beneath the varied
+      slanting of the sunshine. How velvet-dark seems the alpine belt at night
+      when the moon is high! Even in the twilight you cannot tell that these
+      slopes are grass-covered, till
+    </p>
+    <div class="poem">
+      <p>
+        "Under the opening eye-lids of the morn"
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p class="noindent">
+      "the high lawns appear." At first the sunshine lies upon them in patches,
+      like carpets of gold on a rich green floor. The sunlit area increases as
+      the gold itself changes into green, whilst the dominant note of colour
+      rises in the scale. Long before mid-day the broad belt attains its unity
+      of effect, and divides the dark forests and deep valleys from the radiant
+      heights. Most of us, who delight<a id="Page_250"></a> <span class="pagenum">[250]</span>
+      in mountain scenery, praise this peak or that, this broken glacier,
+      wide-spreading snow-field, or intricacy of splintered ridges, forgetting
+      that it is often the unobtrusive, tenderly modelled alps below, that endow
+      these high eminences with half their charm. The beauty of a scene depends
+      upon the harmony of all its parts. It is well sometimes to fix attention
+      on those that seldom insist upon it for themselves.<a id="Page_251"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[251]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER XI</span><br /> <span class="smaller">THE HUMAN INTEREST</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      I<span class="smcap lowercase">T</span> has often occurred to me, when
+      travelling over glaciers and among mountains, seldom or never before
+      visited by men, how much the impression they produce upon a first
+      spectator loses by lacking the human interest. Of course some stray
+      huntsman or dumb and forgotten native may have been there before, but if
+      the fact is unknown to us, it is as though he had not existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When climbing Illimani, the great Bolivian mountain, the human interest
+      accompanied us up the lower slopes. Here were old fields, old irrigation
+      channels, even ancient ruined huts. Higher up we still had the memory of
+      former adventurers to keep our hearts warm; but when we had forced the
+      great rock-cliff that guards the peak, and were upon the upper snow-field,
+      <a id="Page_252"></a> <span class="pagenum">[252]</span>we were, so far as
+      we knew, in an unvisited world. There did indeed exist an ancient
+      tradition that once, long long ago, an Aymara Indian had gone aloft,
+      seeking the abode of the gods, and that having found it, he was taken by
+      the gods to themselves and never returned to his people; but the tale was
+      too slender a thread to form a sensible connection between us and the
+      world of bygone humanity. The climb took us over one high peak, then
+      across a great snow-field and up the highest peak. We revisited and rested
+      on the lower peak in the descent. While there resting, I dropped my hand
+      on the rock beside me, and snatched it away, feeling something soft and
+      clammy, a kind of texture instinctively perceived to be strange at such a
+      place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Looking to see what the substance was, I found it to be a fragment of
+      goat-hair rope, such as the Indians of the Bolivian plateau have used from
+      time immemorial. Instantly the old legend was recalled to my remembrance.
+      It was true! The Indian had actually been here where I was sitting. Here
+      he rested. Hence he looked abroad over the country of his birth&mdash;probably
+      his last long look on any view in this world; for he never returned, and
+      must presently have<a id="Page_253"></a> <span class="pagenum">[253]</span>
+      lost his life in some hidden crevasse. The thought of that nameless one
+      animated the scene, and enriched the emotions we experienced with a new
+      interest. I thought now of how he had felt with this great prospect spread
+      abroad before him. I wondered whether his gods had appeared to him,
+      whether he had beheld visions and dreamed dreams, and what those visions
+      were like. There beneath him he had perhaps gazed for the last time on his
+      birthplace, and identified the little hut that was his home. Did he know
+      that he would never return? Did he think about his friends so far below
+      and wonder whether they were looking up towards him? Did he promise
+      himself great future fame in his tribe? Did he dream that they would
+      identify him with the very gods? For the remainder of our resting-time the
+      whole view was animated by thoughts of this man. It is the best instance I
+      can cite of the value of a human interest in giving sentiment to a
+      mountain scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same lesson was taught me by the Spitsbergen mountains, amongst which
+      I spent two long summer seasons. The coast of Spitsbergen is rich with the
+      tales and traditions of human achievement and suffering. Few places<a
+      id="Page_254"></a> <span class="pagenum">[254]</span> have been the scene
+      of tragedies so numerous and so long drawn out. In few have more dramatic
+      adventures occurred and more varied enterprises been undertaken. But the
+      interior of Spitsbergen, and especially its mountain ranges, had scarcely
+      been penetrated before. The mountains beyond reach of the shore were
+      unclimbed, with one exception. The landscapes were unknown to man. It was
+      necessary to spend some time in these solitary places to realise how much
+      they lost by this aloofness. No peak possessed name or history. None had
+      ever been the centre of any one's landscape. None had measured mid-day for
+      any toiler, or served as reckoning point for the close of his labour. No
+      villagers had ever imagined those Arctic glaciers as the home of any gods
+      or the paradise of any heroes. They had never found their way into ancient
+      tale or legend. They had never been worshipped or sung by man, historic or
+      pre-historic. They were just elemental lumps of the earth, with no more
+      human sentiment attached to them than to any dozen stones you may gather
+      off a heap and make mountains of in your imagination.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pick up any fragment of rock you please and place it upon your table. Look
+      closely at it<a id="Page_255"></a> <span class="pagenum">[255]</span> and
+      persuade yourself that it is not six inches but 20,000 feet high. On that
+      assumption search for routes up it. Examine its faces and its ridges, its
+      cracks and its gullies. You will be able to climb about it in a day-dream,
+      to have accidents upon it, to succeed or to fail in various ascents. But
+      who will care to "hear tell" of your proceedings? And yet, apart from
+      geographical and geological considerations, which are in fact historical,
+      any casual mountain is no more interesting in its essence than your stone.
+      There are hundreds of thousands of mountains in the world. What intrinsic
+      interest has one of them more than another, from a climber's point of
+      view, except in two respects, the difficulty of the climb and the human
+      interest? But the difficulty is of no account, for if that is what you
+      want you can find it on Scafell, and need not wander to seek it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No! it is above all the human interest that ennobles a peak and makes the
+      ascent of it desirable. It is to climb an elevation that men have seen; to
+      climb a peak that has been named, that has been looked at for centuries by
+      the inhabitants at its base, that travellers have passed by and observed,
+      that has a place in the knowledge and memory of men. If there <a
+      id="Page_256"></a> <span class="pagenum">[256]</span>were a great mountain
+      in full view of London or Rome, how much more interesting it would be to
+      climb than some nameless lump in Central Asia, like K2, that was never
+      within view of any abode of men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was one of the main attractions of the unclimbed Alps to early
+      explorers of the high levels. Mont Blanc was known of old. How many
+      generations of men had looked from Thun at the Oberland giants and told
+      stories about them. How much the famed devils and dragons added to the
+      fascination of the Matterhorn. The Alps had looked down upon the march of
+      armies and the flux of peoples for uncounted thousands of years. Their
+      solitudes were peopled by the dreams of all the generations that had
+      passed by them or dwelt amongst them. The subliminal consciousness that
+      this was so, counted for much in the strong attraction that drew the
+      pioneers aloft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The pioneers in their turn have richly endowed the Alps with a further
+      human interest. Why do so many people want to climb the Matterhorn? It is
+      not a better climb than the Dent Blanche. The reason is because of the
+      stronger human interest that the Matterhorn evokes. All who have any
+      knowledge of Alpine history have read the story of<a id="Page_257"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[257]</span> the long siege, the triumphant
+      conquest, and the dramatic tragedies of which the Matterhorn has been the
+      scene. It is the fascination of those memories that draws men to the peak,
+      and makes the climbing of it seem so desirable an adventure to so many
+      people.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus also is it, more or less, all over the Alps. Each peak now has its
+      story. Each ascent has been made before and described. Wherever we go now
+      we find and recognise the traces of our predecessors. Here is an old
+      tent-platform; we know who built it and when. This is the site of such an
+      accident; that crag turned back such a party on such an occasion. The
+      memory of bygone climbers is everywhere. It peoples the solitudes and
+      humanises the waste places. These memories will grow mellower as they
+      deepen into the past. The best stories will become classical, and the
+      scenes of them will be endowed with a prestige far beyond any that now
+      attaches to them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A very dull person looks interesting when beheld down a vista of several
+      centuries. The memory of the first climbers of the great Alpine peaks will
+      remain among the mountains to a far-distant future. I daresay my Illimani
+      Indian was a crack-brained semi-civilised person,<a id="Page_258"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[258]</span> but I would sooner see him than a
+      living Cabinet Minister. I can never think about his peak without
+      recalling him. So is it with the bays of Spitsbergen. The whale-fishers
+      were no doubt a coarse lot of quarrelsome seamen, who stank of blubber
+      most disgustingly; and yet if I could call Mr. William Heley from his
+      grave, and hear how he emptied out the Dutchmen on one occasion and they
+      emptied him out on another; if I could get him to show me his huts where
+      they stood, and could hear him yarn about the fishery, how entertaining
+      that would be, and how gladly would I exchange the morning newspaper for
+      such talk. We cannot in fact recall these men, but in fancy we can and do.
+      It is because we possess and exercise this power of fancy that the
+      mountains, which have been in past times the scene of human activity and
+      life, are so much more interesting to wander amongst, except from a purely
+      scientific and adventurous point of view, than those which have not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      What is true of bygone individuals is no less true of bygone peoples.
+      Valleys that have been long inhabited and the high pastures that have been
+      frequented of old are far more pleasant<a id="Page_259"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[259]</span> to visit than valleys that have scarcely
+      beheld the face of man. We were made conscious of this difference in the
+      Mustagh mountains of high Kashmir. There the secluded fastness of
+      Hunza-Nagar is the home of an ancient civilisation. The gently sloping
+      floor of the valley is divided into terraced fields, supported by
+      cyclopean walls that might be as old as Mycen� itself. The villages are
+      built upon their own ruins, who can say to how great a foundation depth?
+      The paths are worn deeply into the ground. The Raja's castle, dominating
+      his little capital, has a venerable aspect, and if not actually old,
+      incorporates an ancient type. There are little ruins by the roadside and
+      carvings upon the rocks. Where-ever you look, the marks of long
+      frequentation are to be traced. Moreover, the people themselves bear the
+      imprint of surrounding nature upon them. Their action in movement, their
+      way of life, their adaptation to their environment&mdash;all imply old
+      habit and deep-rooted tradition. The valley in which they are enclosed is
+      the world to them. Its every feature has entered into their habits of
+      thought. The surrounding mountains are a part of their existence, and
+      borrow from man in turn a reflected glow of traditional interest.<a
+      id="Page_260"></a> <span class="pagenum">[260]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From this man-impregnated valley we presently passed over the mountains to
+      the valley of Braldu, descending upon the highest village. Above that
+      poverty-stricken place the traces of man were few. There were faintly
+      marked tracks; there were even a few small ruined huts; but all that these
+      indicated was the occasional passage of hunters or the brief visits of
+      shepherds or gold-washers. Once the glacier was reached, the last of these
+      traces was left behind. It was impossible not to feel the contrast between
+      this region and peopled Hunza. The scenery was not less, was even more
+      stupendous, but the human interest was lacking. There were few named
+      spots, and hardly a remembered tradition. The scenery to the natives with
+      us was not the home of their fathers, but the elemental earth. It might
+      have been fetched from the other side of the moon, for all they had to
+      tell about it. Two recorded parties had preceded us for a certain distance
+      up this valley, and their ghosts alone peopled the solitude, but not a
+      trace had they left upon the surface of the ground discoverable by us. If
+      we had found even the remnants of one of their encampments, it would have
+      animated the surroundings with the memory of<a id="Page_261"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[261]</span> man; but we saw none. The lack was a vacuum,
+      an intellectual hunger, continuously felt.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image396.jpg" width="450" height="329" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        CH�TILLON, VAL D'AOSTA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Few mountain regions in the world, outside of the Arctic and Antarctic
+      solitudes, are thus denuded of human interest. The mountains of the Old
+      World and the New have been inhabited over a large part of their
+      valley-area; but often the inhabitants have been people about whom little
+      is known. It is one of the great charms of the Alps that they have long
+      been the home of a fine group of peoples. "Your country," I once remarked
+      to a citizen of a South American Republic, "ought to be the Switzerland of
+      South America." "I will make it so," he replied, "if you will fill it for
+      me with the Swiss."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Throughout the large Alpine area various races have dwelt and dwell at the
+      present time. The character of the population changes from valley to
+      valley, and there is no small variety, not merely in dialects, but even in
+      languages. There is a similar variety in habits, in domestic architecture,
+      in costume, and in bearing. Much of these differences in the character of
+      the inhabitants we are wont to impute in our thoughts to the mountain
+      districts themselves. When we talk of the charms of the Italian Alps, are
+      we not thinking of the attractiveness<a id="Page_262"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[262]</span> of the people, and the picturesqueness of
+      their abodes and places of worship, as much as of the luxuriance of the
+      valleys, the sparkling of the waters, and the mere beauty of the hills?
+      The spirit of the people seems to infuse itself into our memory of the
+      mountains about them, as much as the character of the mountains has
+      affected the nature and disposition of the people. Which, I wonder,
+      borrows most from the other&mdash;the Lake of Lucerne from the old Tell
+      legend, or the legends from the landscape of the lake?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An essential part of the human interest in the Alps grows out of the
+      length of time through which history has concerned herself with them. The
+      history of the Alpine valleys has only been written, or begun to be
+      written, in recent years. Early visitors to Zermatt no doubt were
+      conscious of the deep impress made by man upon the valley landscape, but
+      they could not interpret, as we now can, the meaning of much that they
+      saw. But when the local archives were searched and the traditions written
+      down, when it was realised that the life now being lived by the peasantry
+      was in all essentials the same life that had been lived by their ancestors
+      for hundreds of years, ancestors bearing the same names and owning the
+      same<a id="Page_263"></a> <span class="pagenum">[263]</span> properties
+      that are still borne and owned by their living descendants, what an
+      increase of interest that gave to a place.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image400.jpg" width="362" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        A CORNER OF THE TOWN OF ALTDORF
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        The traditional scene of William Tell's exploits. Here Gessler ruled and
+        the shooting of the apple took place. A place of patriotic pilgrimage of
+        the youthful Swiss.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The old tales about the village deep in Tiefenmatten, about the pilgrimage
+      that used to cross the Col d'H�rens, about the frequented routes over
+      Theodul and Weissthor&mdash;does it not add a new charm to the places
+      themselves to hear them told? Who is not interested to remember, when
+      standing on the Theodul pass, that Roman coins have been found there?
+      Climbers have taken fully as much interest in the question of where the
+      Old Weissthor route lay as in actually climbing the passes. I well
+      remember the keen delight that came to me when I discovered that a pass I
+      had crossed, as I supposed for the first time, between the Fillarkuppe and
+      the J�gerhorn, was in fact the real Old Weissthor itself, a well-known
+      mountain-route centuries ago. To rediscover an old track like that is far
+      more delightful than to invent and carry through some entirely new
+      expedition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Correspondingly with the future as with the past&mdash;to make an
+      expedition for the first time that others will often repeat is a lasting
+      source of pleasure; but to make one that no sane person ever repeats or is
+      likely to repeat is poor fun. I<a id="Page_264"></a> <span class="pagenum">[264]</span>
+      have had many opportunities of making new expeditions in the Alps and
+      elsewhere, and have availed myself of a few; but none ever gave me the
+      continuing satisfaction that I derive from the Wellenkuppe near Zermatt, a
+      mountain that I invented, climbed, and baptized, and that immediately
+      became and has since remained a most popular scramble.<a id="scramble4"></a><a
+      title="Go to footnote 4." href="#fn4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="footnote">
+      <a id="fn4"></a><a title="Return to text." href="#scramble4" class="label">[4]</a>
+      Its summit had previously been touched by some unrecorded route by Lord
+      Francis Douglas, in an attempt to climb the Gabelhorn; but for twenty
+      years no one had thought of the peak, which had no name.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some part of the popularity of the ascent of Mont Blanc from Chamonix is
+      due to the fact that the mountain is the highest in the Alps; part is due
+      to the fascinating beauty of the ice and snow scenery passed through; but
+      far the greatest attraction is the long and interesting history of the
+      climb. No one, I suppose, ascends Mont Blanc without a thought of Balmat
+      and De Saussure, and at least some dim consciousness of the number of
+      early climbers who mounted by the way he takes, and felt all the strange
+      emotions and high excitements they so naively recorded. What would the
+      T�di be if robbed of the memory of Placidus � Spescha? Even a Mont Ventoux
+      can attain dignity and importance by association with so great a man as
+      Petrarch.<a id="Page_265"></a> <span class="pagenum">[265]</span>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is, however, to the passes rather than to the peaks of the Alps that
+      history clings. Allusion has been made to the Weissthor and the Theodul,
+      and many other minor passes similarly recorded might be mentioned; but it
+      is the great passes, the deep depressions in the main range, that are
+      chiefly memorable from the historical standpoint. Modern climbers unwisely
+      neglect these great routes, or confine themselves to such as are
+      tunnelled. John Ball and his contemporaries made a point of knowing as
+      many main passes as they could. It was their pride to be able to say, not
+      that they had climbed so many peaks, but that they had traversed the
+      Alpine chain by so many great passes. Old literature is therefore fuller
+      of accounts of the historic passes than are most present-day volumes,
+      which regard them as a subject outworn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To mention the historic passes is to call up the name of Hannibal. Here is
+      no place to revive that old discussion as to the situation of Hannibal's
+      pass. Historians have not yet entirely convinced one another on the
+      matter. But if a general certainty had been arrived at, if we could feel
+      perfectly sure that Hannibal and his host had actually trod a particular
+      route, it cannot be denied<a id="Page_266"></a> <span class="pagenum">[266]</span>
+      that that route would be well worth following, book in hand, for its
+      historic interest alone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Some, perhaps many, of my readers will have traversed the Great St.
+      Bernard, the Summus Penninus of antiquity. Few who have done so will have
+      been oblivious, as they went, of the many great men in whose steps they
+      were treading. Celts, Romans, Saracens, medi�val warriors, statesmen,
+      saints, bishops, and monks streamed in their day across this col. Here
+      passed Charles the Great and other Holy Roman Emperors, Lanfranc too, and
+      the saintly Anselm in all the fervour of his young enthusiasm. The reader
+      will forgive me for quoting once again Bishop Stubbs' translation of the
+      letter of a Canterbury monk describing his passage of the pass in February
+      1188:&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p class="blockquot">
+      "Pardon me for not writing. I have been on the Mount of Jove; on the one
+      hand looking up to the heavens of the mountains, on the other shuddering
+      at the hell of the valleys, feeling myself so much nearer heaven that I
+      was more sure that my prayer would be heard. 'Lord,' I said, 'restore me
+      to my brethren, that I may tell them, that they come not into this place
+      of torment.' Place of torment indeed, where the marble pavement of the
+      stony ground is ice alone, and you cannot set your<a id="Page_267"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[267]</span> foot safely; where, strange to say,
+      although it is so slippery that you cannot stand, the death (into which
+      there is every facility for a fall) is certain death. I put my hand in my
+      scrip, that I might scratch out a syllable or two to your sincerity&mdash;lo,
+      I found my ink-bottle filled with a dry mass of ice; my fingers too
+      refused to write; my beard was stiff with frost, and my breath congealed
+      into a long icicle. I could not write the news I wished."
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image406.jpg" width="370" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        PONTE BROLLA
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Over the Maggia, near its junction with the Melezza, looking up the Val
+        Centavalli.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Coolidge, in that store of Alpine learning, his book entitled <i>Swiss
+      Travel and Swiss Guide-Books</i>, reminds us that the first known
+      guide-book was written for the crowd of pilgrims crossing this same pass,
+      by no less unlikely a person than the Abbot of Thing�r in Iceland, about
+      1154. There was a building on the pass before the year 812. A century
+      later the Little St. Bernard was similarly provided. The Simplon was thus
+      equipped before 1235, the St. Gotthard before 1331, and the Grimsel before
+      1479. Modern Swiss travellers may not be aware of these facts in detail,
+      but it is impossible for any intelligent man to frequent the Alps and not
+      become conscious of the antiquity of the relation between man and the
+      mountains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sometimes traces of visibly ancient ways are<a id="Page_268"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[268]</span> encountered, as on the Albrun pass, for
+      instance, or the Monte Moro. The sight of such a fragment of old paved way
+      instantly carries the mind back into the past, and animates the route as
+      with a ghostly procession. Thus, too, I found it in Bolivia and Chile,
+      where remnants of the old paved Inca road, that traversed a large part of
+      the continent from north to south, are often to be met with. The
+      sentimental value of such relics is incalculable. They, as it were,
+      hypnotise the mind and induce a mood in which we see the nature that
+      surrounds us in a new way. They remove from the traveller the sense of
+      isolation, and form a link between him and the countless generations that
+      have gone before. He shares with them the toil of the way, and looks
+      abroad on the scenes that they beheld.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still more interesting and rich in a historic sense are the Brenner and
+      other passes over the Eastern Alps, which are known to have been important
+      trade-routes in the age of bronze. Over them successive immigrant waves of
+      humanity poured into Italy. Over them at a later date passed emperors with
+      their armies. No route bears the evidence of its rich historical
+      associations more visibly than the Brenner. An aura of antiquity<a
+      id="Page_269"></a> <span class="pagenum">[269]</span> rests upon its
+      villages. Its many castles, its ancient churches, its noble village
+      streets, its countless monuments, all tell the same tale. I never can
+      cross the Brenner without having Albrecht D�rer by my side, who four times
+      made the transit, sketch-book in hand, and whose careful and beautiful
+      drawings of some of the views still exist in perfect preservation.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image410.jpg" width="317" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        IN THE VAL D'AOSTA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The presence of man, not as a traveller through the Alps, but as a
+      long-settled resident there, deriving his subsistence from the soil, is an
+      important scenic factor in yet another respect. The difference in aspect
+      between a well-peopled mountain region and one sparsely or not at all
+      inhabited is more striking to the eye than the inexperienced might be
+      prepared to expect. The amount of landscape modelling that one man can
+      effect in a lifetime is small, but a community of men, working generation
+      after generation for many centuries, can effect much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The trained eye can perceive the effect almost everywhere in the Alps; the
+      untrained must learn to look for it. Take, for example, such a well-known
+      large grassy area as the slope descending from the Matterhorn to the
+      Zermatt valley, between the Gorner glacier on one side and the<a
+      id="Page_270"></a> <span class="pagenum">[270]</span> Zmutt glacier on the
+      other. If man had not laboured for centuries on that slope, it would be
+      ragged with fallen and protruding stones. The grass upon it would be rough
+      and uneven, or entirely replaced by stunted rhododendron, juniper, or the
+      like bushes. Now it is all smoothed and tended. The loose stones are
+      gathered into walls, bordering the mule-paths or supporting the lower
+      edges of the fields. Earth has been carried on to bare patches. Little
+      hay-huts and other farm-buildings are planted about on suitably protected
+      places. The grass is mown to a velvety fineness of texture. Irrigation
+      channels are led in all suitable directions, and the glacier dust
+      deposited along their beds has raised long grassy mounds, which in process
+      of time have sometimes grown to a height of two or three feet. More
+      important still, in smoothing off asperities and giving a rounded
+      curvature to the general surface, is the continual deposit of the same
+      dust which this artificially distributed glacier-water lays down all over
+      the meadows. There results a suavity of outline, a delicacy of modelling,
+      and a fine quality of grassy surface, which change the aspect of the whole
+      slope, even when beheld from a great distance, so that it would be
+      impossible to mistake<a id="Page_271"></a> <span class="pagenum">[271]</span>
+      it for a slope correspondingly situated in any uninhabited or uncultivated
+      mountain region in the world.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image414.jpg" width="343" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        IN THE WOODS OF CHAMONIX
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      What is true of the middle pastures is likewise true of the forests.
+      Virgin hill-forests, such as one may see in the southern part of the
+      Argentine or Chile, are very different in appearance from an Alpine wood,
+      whether seen from far or near. Man, as we know only too well, has not
+      treated mountain-forests wisely, and he is suffering the consequence
+      to-day. But apart from cases of forest removal and the consequent changes
+      of scenery thereby caused, the alteration in appearance produced by good
+      forest management is very noticeable. Alpine woods have a gardened aspect.
+      The mere sight of them is eloquent of the presence and activity of man,
+      who here also has left unmistakable traces of his activity drawn broadly
+      over every Alpine landscape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the regulation of streams and rivers, again, the hand of man makes its
+      long, slowly acting presence felt in the Alps. Gaze from the Riffelhorn
+      down the St. Niklausthal, and notice how mainly of human determination are
+      all the minor forms of the valley-floor. It is easy to compare with a
+      photograph of that well-known view one, say, of<a id="Page_272"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[272]</span> the Bush Valley in British Columbia, which
+      has been revealed to us by the explorations of Professor Norman Collie and
+      his friends. Such a comparison manifests, as no words can, the great
+      effect upon valley scenery on a large scale produced by the activity of
+      man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is only high aloft, close to and all above the snow-line, that man's
+      energies have not availed to change the landscape. He has built a few huts
+      there, but they are insignificant. He cannot turn a glacier from its
+      course, nor can he dam it back in the event of its pleasing to advance.
+      The great cliffs and d�bris slopes, the reservoirs of snow, the rivers of
+      ice&mdash;these giant phenomena of the heights are beyond his governance,
+      even if any material advantage tempted him to try meddling with them. The
+      most he can do is to blast some small tunnel in ice or rock to control the
+      outflow of a gathering of water, that might otherwise discharge itself
+      with violence and work destruction far below.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image418.jpg" width="386" height="450" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        IN A GARDEN AT LOCARNO
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        Last gleam of the sunset on the hills above Lago Maggiore.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is the great good fortune of the Alps, beyond all other snowy ranges,
+      to possess both the region of utterly untamed nature above, and a larger
+      area of humanly modified land below. A normal Alpine view includes parts
+      of both regions. Looking up from beneath, you have the gardened world for<a
+      id="Page_273"></a> <span class="pagenum">[273]</span> foreground and the
+      wild world for distance. Looking down from above the reverse is the case.
+      The contrast is always charming. What more beautiful setting for a snow
+      mountain can be conceived than that which surrounds the Jungfrau as beheld
+      from near Interlaken? How pleasant it is, when resting at some fine
+      noontide hour on the summit of a lofty peak, to look abroad over the
+      peopled Italian plain, or down into some deep valley, dotted with farms
+      and villages, with here and there a white church standing in the midst of
+      ch�lets. It is only the works of modern man, his huge caravanserais, his
+      railway stations, and his accurately engineered roads, that are wholly
+      hateful&mdash;blots on the landscape defiling and degrading it. Let us
+      hope that these hideous intruders are not destined to a long existence. It
+      is not likely, much though we may desire it, that in our time the tide of
+      touristdom will abandon the Alps. It has come to stay. It will increase
+      rather than diminish. But with the advance of civilisation perhaps its
+      manners and tastes will improve, and it may, at some far distant time,
+      come to demand a kind of housing that will not utterly destroy the very
+      beauty which it blindly travels to seek.<a id="Page_274"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[274]</span>
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <h2>
+      <span>CHAPTER XII</span><br /> <span class="smaller">VOLCANOES</span>
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      T<span class="smcap lowercase">O</span> the purely Alpine traveller,
+      Volcanoes are not a matter of interest, because there does not exist a
+      single volcano in the Alps, nor, so far as I am aware, even the ruins of
+      one. Volcanic rocks there may be, but we are not concerned with rocks
+      except in so far as mountains are built out of them. To the
+      mountain-lover, however, in the broad sense&mdash;and it is for such I am
+      writing&mdash;volcanoes are as interesting as any other definite type of
+      peak, and I therefore propose to devote this chapter to a consideration of
+      them from the picturesque and climbing point of view. For the European
+      traveller there are volcanoes enough, both active and extinct, and that
+      without going to Iceland. Most people have seen Vesuvius. Etna and
+      Stromboli are frequently passed, and the former is not unfrequently
+      climbed. Auvergne is a good place for a holiday.<a id="Page_275"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[275]</span> If ordinary tourists knew how well the
+      volcanic Eifel repay a visit, they would oftener turn aside to them.
+      Teneriffe is on the list of mountains most people hope some day to see. In
+      my own mind, when volcanoes are mentioned, there always rises first the
+      reminiscence of the great mountains in South Bolivia and Northern Chile,
+      with their stately grandeur of scale and grace of outline.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every one who has climbed Vesuvius has some idea of the nature of volcano
+      climbing. It is by no means the best sort, and the Alps as a play-ground
+      are none the worse for lacking it. From a climber's rather than a
+      petrologist's point of view, volcanic rocks are liable to seem both very
+      hard and very brittle. They fracture with an astonishingly sharp edge,
+      which cuts, like a knife, the fingers and clothes of the climber.
+      Notwithstanding their apparent hardness, which seems to promise for them
+      an unusual durability, they crack up with great rapidity under the action
+      of frost or of blows, and rapidly subdivide into small angular debris. The
+      smoothness of the fractured surfaces, when fresh, reduces the friction
+      between the fragments much below that normal to the debris of ordinary
+      rocks, so that slopes of volcanic debris are very unstable. The foot sinks
+      into them, almost as into<a id="Page_276"></a> <span class="pagenum">[276]</span>
+      sand, and they cut the boots and gaiters to pieces. To run down such a
+      slope is pleasant enough, but to wade up it is the worst kind of
+      purgatory, provocative too of more sins of language than it can possibly
+      purge in the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The novice at volcano-climbing approaches his mountain with a light heart.
+      However big it may be, it looks easy, and he promises himself a rapid
+      ascent. The lower slopes of volcanoes are frequently most fertile, so that
+      the first stages of the ascent may be along umbrageous paths or through
+      vineyards and olive gardens. Ultimately the naked mountain has to be
+      tackled, and then troubles begin, and they are the same all the world
+      over. All that a volcano produces is toilsome for the foot of man. The
+      slope continuously steepens. The disintegrated lava or the volcanic ash
+      are alike disagreeable. The mountain is sure to be voted a fraud from the
+      climber's point of view. Even Aconcagua, greatest of all volcanoes, is as
+      rotten as the rest. There is hardly a firm crag on its mighty face.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image426.jpg" width="450" height="366" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        PILATUS AND LAKE OF LUCERNE FROM THE SLOPES OF THE RIGI
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It follows that volcanoes are peaks of an unstable character. They are
+      upstarts by nature, and they are easily pulled down. Among mountains they
+      are the most short-lived. In their decay they lack the dignity of a peak
+      of crystalline rock, that<a id="Page_277"></a> <span class="pagenum">[277]</span>
+      fights against disintegration and resists to the last, holding forth to
+      the sky its splintered crags like passionately protesting hands. There is
+      no protest in a volcano. It yields willingly to decay. The debris of its
+      upper rocks flow down its face almost like water. They grind together into
+      dust and are blown away by the winds. The old moraines of Aconcagua
+      ultimately turn into sand dunes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet these mushroom monsters are not without their compensations. When
+      active they enjoy a magnificence of public advertisement that no other
+      kind of peak, even when it is the scene of a particularly ghastly
+      accident, can ever hope to rival. They grow in height, or are blown to
+      perdition, amidst earthquakes and terrific thunders. Lightnings flicker
+      about them like the dartings of a serpent's tongue. The storm-clouds that
+      envelop snowy peaks are nothing to the monstrous piles of smoke and
+      darkness that wreathe the brows of an erupting volcano. Blasts of fire
+      shoot from them, and for glaciers, their sides are flooded with molten
+      lava. Few of us can hope to see such sights in the fulness of their glory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the mountain is full-grown, and its days of activity are done, for a
+      while it reigns, a figure of perfect grace, a very queen for elegance and
+      beauty<a id="Page_278"></a> <span class="pagenum">[278]</span> of form.
+      Who that has ever seen Vesuvius can deny this fact. Probably no snowy
+      peaks in the world are more absolutely perfect in form than the white-clad
+      giant volcanoes of Kamchatka, or, on a smaller scale, the peerless Fuji of
+      Japan. The outline of the cone, gently rising from the foot, and then
+      steepening in its incomparable logarithmic curve, is the gracefullest that
+      nature produces on a large scale. Even the effulgent domes of the greatest
+      cumulous clouds that, on a faultless summer afternoon, soar into the
+      clearest blue sky, are not to be compared with volcanoes at their best.
+      These have the aspect of works of art, made, as it were, expressly to
+      incorporate an idea of beauty. They possess the symmetry of a fine
+      crystal, but at the same time, a grace far beyond what is possible to any
+      crystalline form. And then, how they soar! How their beautiful heads seem
+      almost to float in the blue! How symmetrically the mists gather about
+      their summits! At one time the base will vanish in the bright opacity of
+      the lower air, and the top will be seen in sharp distinctness, like a
+      floating island in the sky. At another, the summit will fade away, and the
+      shadowed base will fill the vision with its purple solidity. And always
+      there hangs about a volcano the<a id="Page_279"></a> <span class="pagenum">[279]</span>
+      memory of its fire-begetting, and the suspicion that all may not yet be
+      over. It is, as it were, an inscribed finger-post, warning us of the
+      molten core within. It is at once a memorial and a monition to those that
+      dwell beneath it. It is the witness of past and the herald of future
+      convulsions; yet, being such, it is itself in form the peacefullest and
+      tenderest in nature. No woman's robe droops more delicately over her bosom
+      than droops the once molten drapery of a volcano. Its aspect bears a
+      double and opposed suggestiveness. Such are volcanoes in the day of their
+      perfection, before the denuding forces have made inroads on the symmetry
+      of their form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet even then it is not well to approach them too closely, unless you
+      would have the sense of their beauty supplanted by a different kind of
+      emotion. The nearer you approach a snow-mountain, such as Mont Blanc, and
+      the more intimately you penetrate its white recesses, and acquaint
+      yourself with its details of crevasse and s�rac, the more conscious are
+      you of the perfection of its finish and the loveliness of its details. It
+      is not so with a volcano at any time of its career. When it is newly
+      fashioned and the lava streams are still in movement and smoking upon its
+      sides,<a id="Page_280"></a> <span class="pagenum">[280]</span> and the
+      cinders and ashes of its recent ejection are piled upon it, to approach
+      them is to behold sights more provocative of horror than of admiration.
+      They appal, they create astonishment, but they do not attract. Cast your
+      eye over the remarkable series of photographs by Dr. Tempest Anderson,
+      published under the title "Volcanic Studies," and you will have ample
+      proof of this. Consider the Icelandic gorges, the outer crater of
+      Teneriffe, or the views of recent volcanic energies displayed in St.
+      Vincent&mdash;the mud-rivers, the sand-strewn valleys; here is enough to
+      interest and more than enough to appal, but the kind of beauty associated
+      with a distant view of a volcano is absent. There is no grace, no charm,
+      none of the sweet feminine outline which makes volcanoes the queens and
+      fair ladies among hills.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image430.jpg" width="450" height="372" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        MONTREUX, LAKE OF GENEVA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      But when all the dramatic stage of their existence is over, and the fires
+      are out and the earth around has ceased from quaking; when trees have
+      gathered over the lava torrents and rich vegetation has covered up cinders
+      and ash; when the sulphurous vents are become sapphire pools of clear
+      water overshadowed by foliage, and all the ghastly details of tragedy are
+      covered up by the splendid garments of tropical vegetation; then you<a
+      id="Page_281"></a> <span class="pagenum">[281]</span> may approach and
+      ascend if you please, but it will not be as a climber, for the climber is
+      one who seeks the naked places of the earth, and does not wander for
+      choice in grassy dells and tree-embosomed shades.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He, however, who should converse about volcanoes and say no more than
+      this, would leave a most false impression upon his hearers, for Nature
+      always provides compensations for her sincere and humble lovers, and even
+      in the barest volcano she has not failed. The very rapidity with which
+      they yield to destructive forces leads to results not discoverable in
+      stronger and more resolute peaks. Frost, winter, and snow breach their
+      sides with exceeding facility. Torrents dig gullies into them. The very
+      winds blow their substance away. Hence it comes that a volcano in active
+      process of destruction often provides detailed scenery of astonishing
+      grandeur and boldness. Its vertical-walled gullies, its cliffs, its
+      castellated ridges are like none other. There is no aspect of durability
+      about them, no signs of hoary antiquity, none of the dignity that belongs
+      to arch�an rocks. They are visibly in rapid decay, yet, for all that and
+      even because of it, they are strangely imposing with a sort of rococo
+      grandeur. If the Meije and<a id="Page_282"></a> <span class="pagenum">[282]</span>
+      Ushba are Romanesque, if the Matterhorn, Masherbrum, and Siniolkum are
+      Gothic, we may describe the world's shattered volcanoes as Flamboyant.
+      They boast a greater and more unusual variety of forms, a multiplicity of
+      details that bewilders. The spiry exuberance of Milan Cathedral can be
+      paralleled in the neighbourhood of Aconcagua. Nowhere are buttresses more
+      emphatic, points of rock in perilous precipitance of decay more plentiful,
+      cliffs more abrupt, the skeleton of the mountains more nakedly displayed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Yet better deserving of note is the brilliancy and variety of the
+      colouring by which volcanic rocks are often characterised. The local
+      colouring of Alpine rocks is seldom rich. The Dolomites indeed have a
+      reputation for the richness of their tints, but it is mainly derived from
+      the sunrise and sunset colouring which they reflect so brilliantly that it
+      almost seems to proceed from them. The general effect of Alpine rocks is
+      some variety of grey or brown, the tone of which is deepened by contrast
+      with the snows. Except in volcanic districts, it is only in Spitsbergen,
+      and at one or two spots in the Himalayas, that I have observed the local
+      colouring of the rocks to<a id="Page_283"></a> <span class="pagenum">[283]</span>
+      form a prominent factor in the beauty of a mountain view. There indeed the
+      red and yellow sandstones display their rich tints with great effect, so
+      that the colour, shining over the wide expanses of Arctic glacier and
+      snow-field, becomes a main element, and reduces the forms of the peaks to
+      a secondary consideration. Yet in Spitsbergen this only happens in a
+      relatively small area, within Kings Bay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In volcanic districts, however, the colouring of the rocks is almost
+      always remarkable. It seems as though Nature had emptied her whole palette
+      upon them. Hardly any tint, from white to black, is missing. Other
+      mountains depend for their colour upon the atmosphere. These are
+      independent of that source. Their own colour is predominant. All they ask
+      for is transparent air and bright sunshine to display them. Their
+      combination is so unusual, their chord so unlike any to which we are
+      accustomed in ordinary natural surroundings, that they cannot fail to be
+      the chief element in the view. That is why photographs of volcanic scenery
+      convey an impression so different from actual sight. The normal blues,
+      greens, and browns of the temperate habitable regions; the black, greys,
+      and whites of the<a id="Page_284"></a> <span class="pagenum">[284]</span>
+      snowy world; the blue sea, white sand, and red cliffs of a Devonian coast:
+      such chords of colour are usual; the eye expects them. Even a tropical
+      landscape, except for its occasional blazes of blossom, belongs to the
+      same category. Autumnal glories, first of golden harvest, later of
+      iridescent foliage, are an accustomed sight. But all these schemes of
+      colour belong to a wholly different category from that which volcanic
+      rock-masses display. They bring together, combine, and contrast a whole
+      series of unusual tints. Their purples are not the purples which we
+      elsewhere know. Their greens are not the greens of vegetation. Their
+      yellows are not the yellows of a blossoming field or a fading forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Were I to catalogue in a list the colours I have seen in a volcanic
+      panorama, it would little serve, for it is not the names that count but
+      the special significance of each, and that is not capable of brief
+      statement. Such a scene as I am recalling astonishes by the multitude and
+      close juxtaposition of an apparently countless number of coloured strata.
+      It looks as though Nature had kept changing her mind and staining each
+      successive ejection with a different tint. Sometimes there comes a
+      considerable thickness of a certain<a id="Page_285"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[285]</span> coloured rock, but above and below it thin
+      strata will succeed of all sorts of colours. If such a series of deposits
+      is intersected by a cliff, its face will be ruled across by a polychrome
+      multitude of bands. Oftenest, however, the whole mass will be riven into
+      gullies and weathered into pinnacles of all heights and varieties. Or
+      short cliffs and elbows will alternate with slopes of debris. In such
+      cases any sense of order in the succession of colours may be lost. A blue
+      pinnacle will stand before a yellow one, and that beside a red with a
+      green top. In one buttress purple may predominate, in another grey, in a
+      third orange.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The effect on slopes of debris is often most peculiar. Naturally they
+      derive their tint from that of the rocks above, out of whose fragments
+      they are formed. If those rocks are a mass of a single colour, such will
+      be the tint of the debris slope. But if they be fed by the splintered
+      fragments of two different beds, as for example one red, the other yellow,
+      the slope below will be a kind of orange, varying in tone according to the
+      supply of the two ingredients. Sometimes a slope will be, let us say,
+      purple throughout its upper portion till it comes down to a point where
+      white rocks<a id="Page_286"></a> <span class="pagenum">[286]</span>
+      emerge. Below them it will be streaked as by splashes of whitewash. In the
+      floor of a valley, where all these ingredients mix together in sandy
+      intimacy, the general tone will be of a light neutral tint, the colour
+      being destroyed by the intimacy of the mixture, the minuteness of the
+      fractures, and the multiplicity of the incidence and reflection of light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where there is snow aloft its melting will enforce the local colour of the
+      rocks or debris over which it flows. Similar will be the effect of a
+      spring bursting out of the hillside. These waters will themselves be
+      brilliantly stained, and if they chance to flow over a bed of snow, they
+      will stain it in their turn. I have seen a blood-red area of snow produced
+      in this fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader may not derive from the foregoing description an idea of any
+      effect produced by the reality save strangeness. One should be a
+      landscape-painter of remarkable skill to convey any other. But the actual
+      effect in nature, when the first shock of strangeness has worn off, is an
+      effect of remarkable beauty. The colours in their great variety and
+      multitude do in fact harmonise and agree together. Being fashioned in one
+      work-shop, the work-shop of Nature, the self-same that<a id="Page_287"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[287]</span> fashions the eyes and intelligences of
+      men and implants in them the idea of beauty as part of nature's law, they
+      do not appear chaotic or inharmonious to the natural man. On the contrary
+      they are bonded together and informed by the sense of a common origin, a
+      common purpose, and a common meaning. When this unity is felt and
+      perceived by the eye, not only do the forms, for all their jagged and
+      splintered multiplicity, harmonise into compositions of remarkable
+      grandeur, but their rich and varied colouring ennobles and distinguishes
+      those forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Views of this kind affect the imagination and impress themselves upon the
+      memory more than most. Amongst the many wide vistas or actual panoramas
+      which a mountain-climber of a few years' experience must have seen, he
+      will doubtless freely admit that there are few which he can recall to his
+      memory with any completeness. The first he ever saw overwhelmed him with
+      their intricate elaboration. Later on, when he knew better what to look
+      for, his susceptibility to impression was already lessened. The same is
+      likely to be true of valley views. How many of them can we conjure up in
+      any detail? The Matterhorn from Zermatt, Mont Blanc from<a id="Page_288"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[288]</span> Chamonix, and a few other similarly
+      well-known prospects we know by heart; but of how many valley views, that
+      we have only beheld once or during a short interval, can we form a visual
+      image in our minds. My own experience leads me to conclude, though without
+      making any allowance for a possibly large personal equation, that desert
+      views are more memorable than those in which fertility predominates.
+      Various views in the naked Indus valley are firmly fixed in my mind,
+      though none of them were more than briefly beheld. The same is true of the
+      scenery in the desert volcanic regions with which I am acquainted: the
+      neighbourhood of Arequipa in Peru, parts of the provinces of Oruro and
+      Potosi in Bolivia, the surroundings of the volcanoes of Ascotan in Chile,
+      and of Aconcagua in the Argentine. In all these districts the scenery I
+      beheld remains photographed in my memory with exceptional vividness, not
+      merely its strangeness but its beauty, and the element in the scenery most
+      vividly memorable is the element of colour.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact both colour and forms are strange to an eye accustomed to look
+      upon the fertile and normally habitable regions of the earth. This is true
+      not merely of the mountains themselves and their<a id="Page_289"></a>
+      <span class="pagenum">[289]</span> constituent parts but of all their
+      surroundings. I have never looked down upon the boiling interior of an
+      active volcano, such as travellers to Hawaii are privileged to behold on
+      the top of Mauna Loa. That must be a sight passing wonderful. Nor have I
+      ever beheld an erupting volcano from near at hand. But I have seen enough
+      in the volcanic districts of South America to realise the marvels and
+      fascinations they contain. Let me be forgiven for quoting one or two
+      passages from my book on the Bolivian Andes, which were written when the
+      impressions were fresh, though not a detail of them has yet escaped me.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Near Ollague, on the Chile-Bolivian frontier, is an active volcano. It was
+      puffing steam in white jets from its top when I passed. All the hills and
+      ground beneath, utterly bare of vegetation, were red or yellow in colour,
+      or of white ashes dotted over with black cinders. Proceeding southward for
+      some 200 kilometres, this kind of scenery continued. We wandered in and
+      out among volcanoes, lava-streams, and great level sheets of white saline
+      deposit, like frozen lakes covered with snow. Most of the volcanoes were
+      extinct, but some retained the perfection of their form&mdash;wide,
+      infinitely graceful cones outlined<a id="Page_290"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[290]</span> by a pure unbroken curve against the clear
+      sky. The surface of the hills was often coloured in the most brilliant
+      fashion imaginable. The combinations of the rich colours and strange forms
+      rising beyond, and apparently out of, the large, flat, greyish-white
+      surface of the saline deposits were most beautiful. One white imitation
+      lake was framed in a margin of black volcanic dust and cinders, merging
+      upward into grey sand. White dust-spouts were dancing on its white floor.
+      A riven hill near by revealed streaks of blood-red, chrome yellow, and I
+      know not what other bright colours.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Presently came the smoking volcano San Pedro, with a smaller cone at its
+      foot, from which there stretched to a distance of two or three miles a
+      flow of lava, long cold, but looking as it lies on the sandy desert as
+      though newly poured out. It resembled a glacier with steep sides and snout
+      much crevassed and all covered with black moraine. With this strange
+      product of volcanic convulsion for foreground, the sunburnt and silent
+      desert stretching around, and volcanoes great and small rising behind, San
+      Pedro's head smoking over all, I thought I had never beheld a more weird
+      and uncanny scene. Yet it was<a id="Page_291"></a> <span class="pagenum">[290]</span>
+      beautiful, beyond all question beautiful to a high degree. If a man could
+      be transported to the surface of the Moon, say somewhere near Aristarcus
+      or Gassendi, such, I imagine, might be the kind of landscape that would
+      salute his eyes.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image444.jpg" width="450" height="332" alt="" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="caption">
+        AFTER THE SUNSET
+      </p>
+      <p class="legend">
+        From the Sch�nzli, Bern.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Over against these mountains there rose on the other side of the valley a
+      polychrome hill, the Cerro Colorado, covered, they say, with magnetic
+      sand, which leaps into the air and flies about in sheets and masses when a
+      thunderstorm comes near&mdash;to the very natural horror of the local
+      Indians. At such times, amidst the roar of thunder and the electric
+      flashes, surrounded by a desert shaken by earthquakes and dotted over by
+      cinders, and with this dancing fiend of a hill close at hand, ignorant
+      people may be pardoned for imagining themselves possessed by a horde of
+      rioting devils.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not far away is the blood-red ca�on of the Rio Loa, 360 feet deep. I stood
+      at the edge of this profound meandering trench at an hour when the low
+      westering sun struck full on one face of it and a dark shadow fell from
+      the other. With this sanguinary hollow at my feet, I looked across a great
+      flat plain towards countless volcanic<a id="Page_292"></a> <span
+      class="pagenum">[292]</span> hills, many of them perfectly symmetrical in
+      form, shining in the mellow evening light. The sunset is the time to enjoy
+      to the fullest this clean lunar landscape, enriched by the world's fair
+      atmosphere, when the shadows are stealing across the flat and climbing the
+      opposite crimson hills, whence they seem to drive the colour up to the
+      soft still clouds, where it fades away in the purple pomp of oncoming
+      night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is it possible, I wonder, by any words to convey to the reader the least
+      notion of this sort of scenery? Picture to yourself a lake the size of
+      Zug, or Annecy, or Orta. It is not a lake for all its flatness and the
+      aspect of its shores, but a flat plain of salt, white as snow. Its banks
+      and surroundings are not green, but wide-spreading sand, that stretches
+      away and yet away till it vanishes perhaps into trembling mirage. Black
+      spots are dotted all about as though newly scattered from some enormous
+      pepper-pot. They are ashes. You can scarcely believe they are yet cold
+      from the fire, that ejected them, however, ages ago. Yellow, crimson,
+      green slopes rise nearer or farther away to form stately cones or ruined
+      lumps of the crude earth. Alas! the picture is not paintable by me.
+      Beheld, it smites the eye with a<a id="Page_293"></a> <span class="pagenum">[293]</span>
+      single indelible impression. Described, it is a mere succession of details
+      and fragments, and there is no verbal lightning-stroke that will avail to
+      smite them for an instant into simultaneous visibility.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strictly speaking, what has been written above has no place in an Alpine
+      book. Yet the interest of the Alps to me, or of any range of mountains,
+      lies in the fact that they are a specimen range, that they resemble more
+      or less other ranges from Arctics to Tropics, that they are examples of
+      one large category of mundane phenomena. To understand the position and
+      character of Alpine scenery in the scenery of mountains, we must consider
+      what the Alps lack as well as what they possess. Every range of mountains,
+      indeed, has its own special and purely local elements of character, but
+      outside of them it likewise possesses many more in common with other
+      ranges. The experienced Alpine climber will find himself, if not at home,
+      at all events not far from home in the mountains of Spitsbergen,
+      Greenland, or the Antarctic, in the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Canadian
+      Rockies; even in the snowy Cordillera of tropical Bolivia, or in the
+      African groups of Kenya and Ruwenzori. The only kind of mountains, so far
+      as I know,<a id="Page_294"></a> <span class="pagenum">[294]</span> that
+      will be wholly strange to him, and at first sight almost wholly
+      incomprehensible, are the desert volcanoes. It has been for the purpose of
+      bringing this fact clearly before his mind that I have felt myself
+      justified in devoting a brief space to the character of such volcanic
+      scenery.
+    </p>
+    <div class="box">
+      <p class="center larger">
+        THE END
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <hr />
+    <div class="box">
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        <i>Printed by R. &amp; R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.</i>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center">
+        <img src="images/image449.jpg" width="300" height="142"
+        alt="Advertisement: Black's Beautiful Books" />
+      </p>
+      <p class="center x-large">
+        BLACK'S BEAUTIFUL BOOKS
+      </p>
+      <p class="strong">
+        This series of books is chiefly distinguished by its exquisite
+        illustrations in colour. There is no volume that one cannot turn to
+        again and again with renewed interest and delight. No expense has been
+        spared in reproducing the exact colourings of the artists, and the books
+        are beautifully printed and bound. Whether one regards them merely as
+        beautiful things to be looked at and admired, or whether one goes to
+        them for information and entertainment, one cannot but be pleased with
+        these books, which are the outcome of the united efforts of artists,
+        authors, printers, and publishers to place the best work before the
+        public.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        THE <span class="strong">20s.</span> SERIES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
+      </p>
+      <p class="right strong">
+        Size 9X6-1/4 ins.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by<br /> FRANCES E. NESBITT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Algeria and Tunis</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Described by SIR MARTIN CONWAY<br /> Painted by A. D. M'CORMICK
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Alps</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By H. M. CUNDALL, I.S.O., F.S.A.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Birket Foster</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (OVER 70 IN COLOUR) AND MANY SKETCHES IN THE
+        TEXT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Text by MARCUS B. HUISH, LL.B.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">British<br /> Water-Colour Art, etc.</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        60 OF THE KING'S PICTURES IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by<br /> MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E. <br /> Described by DOROTHY
+        MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Brittany</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Burma</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WILLIAM MATTHISON<br /> Text by M. A. R. TUKER
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Cambridge</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by T. MOWER MARTIN, R.C.A. <br /> Described by WILFRED CAMPBELL
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Canada</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by HENRY B. WIMBUSH <br /> Described by EDITH F. CAREY
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Channel Islands</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WARWICK GOBLE <br /> Described by PROF. ALEXANDER VAN
+        MILLINGEN, D.D.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Constantinople</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        63 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Text by JOSEPH GREGO
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Cruikshank's Water-<br /> Colours</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        68 FULL-PAGE FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Durbar</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Egypt</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. <br /> Text by MARCUS B. HUISH
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Happy England</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        80 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">English Costume</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        73 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS SKETCHES IN THE TEXT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. HEATON COOPER<br /> Described by WILLIAM T. PALMER
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The English Lakes</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by COLONEL R. C. GOFF <br /> Described by MRS. GOFF
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Florence and some Tuscan Cities</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Described by REV. J. A.
+        M'CLYMONT, M.A., D.D.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Greece</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By M. H. SPIELMANN, F.S.A., <br /> and G. S. LAYARD
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Kate Greenaway</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (51 IN COLOUR) AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS IN
+        THE TEXT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By NICO JUNGMAN <br /> Text by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Holland</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Described by REV. JOHN KELMAN,
+        M.A.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Holy Land</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        92 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, MOSTLY IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by FLORA A. STEEL
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">India</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.H.A. <br /> Described by FRANK MATHEW
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Ireland</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by ELLA DU CANE <br /> Described by RICHARD BAGOT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Italian Lakes</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        69 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I.<br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Japan</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by ROSE BARTON, A.R.W.S.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Familiar London</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. <br /> Described by MARIAN AMY WYLLIE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">London to the Nore</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> PHILIP NORMAN, F.S.A.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">London Vanished and Vanishing</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by HERBERT M. MARSHALL, R.W.S. <br /> Described by G. E. MITTON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Scenery of London</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. S. FORREST <br /> Described by S. L. BENSUSAN
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Morocco</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By AUGUSTINE FITZGERALD <br /> Text by SYBIL FITZGERALD
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Naples</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        80 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by NICO JUNGMAN <br /> Described by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Norway</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Described by EDWARD THOMAS
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Oxford</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by ALBERTO PISA <br /> Text by M. A. R. TUKER AND HOPE MALLESON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Rome</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by SUTTON PALMER <br /> Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Bonnie Scotland</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by NORMAN H. HARDY <br /> Described by E. Way Elkington, F.R.G.S.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Savage South Seas</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        68 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and <br /> Described by Edgar T. A. Wigram
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Northern Spain</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by SUTTON PALMER <br /> Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Surrey</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WILFRID BALL, R.E.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Sussex</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by G. E. MITTON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Thames</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> A. HENRY SAVAGE LANDOR
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Tibet and Nepal</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Venice</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by ROBERT FOWLER, R.I. <br /> Described by EDWARD THOMAS
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Beautiful Wales</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">War Impressions</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        99 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By CAPTAIN S. E. ST. LEGER
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">War Sketches in Colour</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        165 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by FRED. WHITEHEAD, R.B.A. <br /> Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Warwickshire</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WALTER TYNDALE <br /> Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Wessex</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. S. FORREST <br /> Described by JOHN HENDERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The West Indies</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">World's Children</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I.<br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">World Pictures</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        500 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="noindent cap">
+        <i>A detailed prospectus, containing a specimen plate, of any volume in
+        this List will be sent on application to the Publishers.</i>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="xx-large">&#9755;</span> PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK �
+        SOHO SQUARE � LONDON � W. AND OBTAINABLE THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME
+        OR ABROAD
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        THE <span class="strong">10s.</span> SERIES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+      <p class="right strong">
+        Size 9 � 6-1/4 ins.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. <br /> Described by A. K. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Highlands and Islands of Scotland</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. FORESTIER <br /> Described by G. W. T. OMOND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Bruges And West Flanders</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        37 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by NICO JUNGMAN <br /> Described by G. E. MITTON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Normandy</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        THE <span class="strong">7s. 6d.</span> SERIES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+      <p class="right strong">
+        Size 9 � 6-1/4 ins.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. <br /> Described by REV. W. S. CROCKETT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Abbotsford</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By C. LEWIS HIND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Adventures among Pictures</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Beautiful Birthday Book</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR DECORATIVE BORDERS BY A. A.
+        TURBAYNE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. FORESTIER <br /> Described by G. W. T. OMOND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Brabant &amp; East Flanders</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Text by A. CROXTON SMITH <br /> Painted by G. VERNON STOKES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">British Dogs at Work</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Text by ROSALINE MASSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Edinburgh</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and <br /> Described by DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">English Costume</span>
+      </p>
+      <p>
+        In Four Sections, each containing 18 to 20 full-page Illustrations in
+        Colour, and many Illustrations in the text:
+      </p>
+      <div class="poem">
+        <p>
+          Section I. Early English
+        </p>
+        <p>
+          " II. Middle Ages
+        </p>
+        <p>
+          " III. Tudor and Stuart
+        </p>
+        <p>
+          " IV. Georgian, etc.
+        </p>
+      </div>
+      <p class="center">
+        Price 7s. 6d. net each.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by GEORGE S. ELGOOD, R.I. <br /> Text by ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet
+        Laureate
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Garden that I Love</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By LADY BUTLER <br /> Painter of "The Roll Call"
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Letters from the Holy Land</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY LADY BUTLER
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Middlesex</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> MRS. WILLINGHAM RAWNSLEY
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The New Forest</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by ARTHUR GEORGE BELL <br /> Described by NANCY E. BELL
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Nuremberg</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by H. J. DOBSON, R.S.W., A.R.C.A. <br /> Described by WILLIAM
+        SANDERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Scottish Life and Character</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. <br /> Described by ARTHUR H. PATERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Homes of Tennyson</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By C. LEWIS HIND
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Days with Velasquez</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By OLIVER GOLDSMITH
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Vicar of Wakefield</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        13 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ARTIST
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. <br /> Text by MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Westminster Abbey</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by GEORGE M. HENTON <br /> Described by Sir Richard Rivington
+        Holmes, K.C.V.O.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Windsor</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By GORDON HOME
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Yorkshire Coast and Moorland Scenes</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted and Described by <br /> GORDON HOME
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Yorkshire Dales and Fells</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        BOOKS FOR ANGLERS
+      </p>
+      <p class="center strong">
+        Price 7s. 6d. net each
+      </p>
+      <p class="right strong">
+        Size 8 � 5-1/3 ins.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Edited by F. G. AFLALO
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Fishermen's Weather</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        Opinions and Experiences by 100 well-known Anglers.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR FROM PICTURES BY CHARLES
+        WHYMPER, F.Z.S.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By W. EARL HODGSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Trout Fishing</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        CONTAINING FRONTISPIECE AND A MODEL BOOK OF FLIES IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By W. EARL HODGSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Salmon Fishing</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR, INCLUDING MODEL CASES OF
+        74 VARIETIES OF SALMON FLIES, AND 10 FULL-PAGE REPRODUCTIONS FROM
+        PHOTOGRAPHS
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        &#9758; PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK � SOHO SQUARE � LONDON � W. AND
+        OBTAINABLE THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME OR ABROAD
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        THE <span class="strong">6s.</span> SERIES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.H.A. <br /> Described by FRANK MATHEW
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Ireland</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. <br /> Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Paris</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS LINE ILLUSTRATIONS IN
+        THE TEXT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by A. S FORREST <br /> Described by JOHN HENDERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Jamaica</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Painted by J. HAMILTON HAY <br /> Described by WALTER SCOTT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Liverpool</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Described by F. J. SNELL
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">North Devon</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        26 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Whistler as I Knew Him</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        SQUARE IMPERIAL OCTAVO, CLOTH, GILT TOP (11x8-1/4 INCHES).
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">PRICE 40S. NET</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        125 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND TINT OF WHISTLER OIL-COLOURS,
+        WATER-COLOURS, PASTELS, AND ETCHINGS
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Rembrandt</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        With an Essay on the Life and Work of Rembrandt by C. LEWIS HIND DEMY
+        QUARTO, CLOTH, GILT TOP (11x8-1/4 INCHES).
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">PRICE 12s. 6d. NET</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 EXAMPLES OF THE MASTER'S WORK, REPRODUCED IN COLOUR FACSIMILE BY A
+        SPECIAL PROCESS
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By SIR WALTER SCOTT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Lady of the Lake</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        LARGE CROWN OCTAVO, CLOTH, GILT TOP
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">PRICE 5s. NET</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        50 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 OF THEM IN COLOUR, FROM PAINTINGS BY
+        SUTTON PALMER)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By W. C. STEWART
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Practical Angler</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong smaller">or, the Art of Trout Fishing, more
+        particularly applied to Clear Water</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12MO., CLOTH. <span class="strong smaller">PRICE 3s. 6d. NET</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        CONTAINING COLOURED FACSIMILES OF THE FLIES USED BY Mr. STEWART (6
+        PLATES)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <i>THE PORTRAIT BIOGRAPHIES SERIES</i>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        Size 6-1/4x4 ins.
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        By MORTIMER AND DOROTHY MENPES
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Sir Henry Irving</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        CONTAINING 8 PORTRAITS OF IRVING IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">PRICE 2s. NET</span>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="center xx-large">
+        BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
+      </p>
+      <p class="center smaller">
+        ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR PRICE <span class="strong">6s.</span>
+        EACH
+      </p>
+      <p class="right strong">
+        Size 8-1/4x6 ins.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By S. R. CROCKETT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Red Cap Tales</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong smaller">Stolen from the Treasure-Chest of the
+        Wizard of the North</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By SIMON HARMON VEDDER
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By ASCOTT R. HOPE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Adventures of Punch</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        <i>ANIMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES</i>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Black Bear.</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="right">
+        By H. PERRY ROBINSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Cat.</span> By VIOLET HUNT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Dog.</span> By G. E. MITTON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Fox.</span> By J. C. TREGARTHEN
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Rat.</span> By G. M. A HEWETT
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <i>Others in preparation.</i>
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        Translated and Abridged By Dominick Daly
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Adventures of <br /> Don Quixote</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Gulliver's Travels</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        BY JOHN BUNYAN
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Pilgrim's Progress</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        9 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By P. G. WODEHOUSE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">William Tell Told Again</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY PHILIP DADD
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By G. E. MITTON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Children's Book of London</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        17 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY JOHN WILLIAMSON
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Children's Book of Edinburgh</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY ALLAN STEWART
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Children's Tales from Scottish Ballads</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY ALLAN STEWART
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Story of Stories</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR)
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">The Kinsfolk and Friends of Jesus</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND SEPIA
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad1">
+      <p class="center">
+        By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        <span class="strong">Uncle Tom's Cabin</span>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND MANY OTHERS IN THE TEXT
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="boxad">
+      <p class="indh">
+        <i>Kindly apply to the Publishers,</i> ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, <i>Soho
+        Square, London, W., for a detailed Prospectus of any volume in this
+        list. The books themselves may be obtained through any Bookseller at
+        home or abroad.</i>
+      </p>
+      <p class="center">
+        PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK � SOHO SQUARE � LONDON � W.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+    <div class="tnbox">
+      <p class="center">
+        Transcriber's Note: Original spelling variations have not been
+        standardized.
+      </p>
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alps, by Martin Conway
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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@@ -0,0 +1,7273 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Alps, by Martin Conway
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Alps
+
+Author: Martin Conway
+
+Illustrator: A. D. McCormick
+
+Release Date: April 27, 2012 [EBook #39542]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ALPS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephanie Kovalchik and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was produced from images generously made
+available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+DESCRIBED BY W. MARTIN CONWAY
+
+PAINTED BY A. D. McCORMICK
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+
+
+
+AGENTS IN AMERICA
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
+
+[Illustration: 1. HAYMAKERS IN THE VAL MAGGIA. The loads carried by
+the women are enormous in size, what they are in weight I don't know;
+but many of them are larger than those shown in the picture. One load I
+measured was twice the height of the woman.]
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+DESCRIBED BY W. MARTIN CONWAY
+
+PAINTED BY A. D. McCORMICK
+
+LONDON
+
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+
+1904
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+                                        PAGE
+    CHAPTER I
+
+      THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW 1
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+      HOW TO SEE MOUNTAINS 22
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+      HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE 46
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+      ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF ALPS 72
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+      THE MOODS OF THE MOUNTAINS 101
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+      MOUNTAINS ALL THE YEAR ROUND 128
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+      TYPES OF ALPINE PEAKS 151
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+
+      PASSES 177
+
+    CHAPTER IX
+
+      GLACIERS 202
+
+    CHAPTER X
+
+      ALPINE PASTURES 226
+
+    CHAPTER XI
+
+      THE HUMAN INTEREST 251
+
+    CHAPTER XII
+
+      VOLCANOES 274
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+1. Haymakers in the Val Maggia _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                               FACING PAGE
+
+2. Bern from the Schaenzli 2
+
+3. View of the Bernese Alps from the Gurten, near Bern 4
+
+4. The Pier at Scherzligen, Lake of Thun--Evening 6
+
+5. Melchior Anderegg 8
+
+6. Storm coming up over Lake of Lucerne 10
+
+7. Looking up Valley towards Zermatt from near Randa 14
+
+8. Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau from Scherzligen, near Thun 16
+
+9. Lucerne and Lake from the Drei Linden 20
+
+10. The Jungfrau from Interlaken 24
+
+11. Fiescherhorn and Lower Grindelwald Glacier 30
+
+12. The Castle of Chillon 34
+
+13. The Corpus Christi Procession to the Hofkirche of St. Leodegar 38
+
+14. Cloud-burst over Lucerne 44
+
+15. At Meiringen 48
+
+16. Storm Clouds over the Lake of Thun 52
+
+17. Vitznau and Lake of Lucerne 54
+
+18. The Falls of Tosa, Val Formazza 60
+
+19. Looking over Lucerne from the Drei Linden 70
+
+20. Francois Devouassoud 72
+
+21. At Bignasco 76
+
+22. Looking down the Aletsch Glacier from Concordia Hut 82
+
+23. Asconia--on Lago Maggiore 84
+
+24. Locarno from the Banks of the Lake 88
+
+25. Pallanza--Evening 90
+
+26. The Madonna del Sasso, Locarno 92
+
+27. Locarno at Sunset, and North End of Lago Maggiore 100
+
+28. Moonlight in the Val Formazza from the Tosa Falls 104
+
+29. A Mountain Path, Grindelwald 108
+
+30. The Aletschhorn 112
+
+31. The Grosser Aletsch-Firn from Concordia Hut 116
+
+32. Thunderstorm breaking over Pallanza 124
+
+33. The Wetterhorn 130
+
+34. Maerjelen Alp 134
+
+35. Lower Glacier and Grindelwald Church 142
+
+36. Grindelwald looking towards the Wengen Alp 146
+
+37. Rimpfischorn and Strahlhorn from the Riffelberg 150
+
+38. The Matterhorn, Twilight 156
+
+39. Weisshorn and Matterhorn from Fiescheralp 160
+
+40. Aiguille Verte and Aiguille du Dru from the Chamonix Valley 164
+
+41. Boden and Gorner 166
+
+42. The Breithorn from Schwarz See 172
+
+43. The Lyskamm 174
+
+44. The Road from Vitznau to Gersau 180
+
+45. Amsteg in the Reussthal 188
+
+46. The Dent Blanche from the Riffelberg 192
+
+47. The Village of Soldimo, at the Entrance of the Val Maggia 198
+
+48. Flueelen at end of Lake of Uri, South Arm of Lake of Lucerne 200
+
+49. Furggen Glacier Icefall 206
+
+50. The Gletscherhorn from the Pavilion, Hotel Cathrein, close to Concordia
+  Hut 208
+
+51. The Trugberg 210
+
+52. Pallanza--Sunset 212
+
+53. Kranzberg--Rotthalhorn--and Jungfrau: Sunset 214
+
+54. Maerjelen See and Great Aletsch Glacier 220
+
+55. The Castle of Zaehringen-Kyburg, Thun 226
+
+56. Chalets and Church. Riederalp 234
+
+57. Evening in Zermatt 236
+
+58. Bern from the North-West 238
+
+59. Looking down the Val Formazza from Tosa 240
+
+60. In the Val Bavona 242
+
+61. In the Val d'Aosta 246
+
+62. Chatillon, Val d'Aosta 260
+
+63. A Corner of the Town of Altdorf 262
+
+64. Ponte Brolla 266
+
+65. In the Val d'Aosta 268
+
+66. In the Woods of Chamonix 270
+
+67. In a Garden at Locarno 272
+
+68. Pilatus and Lake of Lucerne from the Slopes of the Rigi 276
+
+69. Montreux, Lake of Geneva 280
+
+70. After the Sunset 290
+
+
+
+
+THE ALPS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE TREASURES OF THE SNOW
+
+
+John Ruskin, in a fine and famous passage, describes the effect of a
+first view of the Alps upon a young and sensitive mind. He was at
+Schaffhausen with his parents. "We must have spent some time in
+town-seeing," he writes, "for it was drawing towards sunset when we got
+up to some sort of garden promenade--west of the town, I believe; and
+high above the Rhine, so as to command the open country across it to the
+south and west. At which open country of low undulation, far into
+blue--gazing as at one of our own distances from Malvern of
+Worcestershire, or Dorking of Kent,--suddenly--behold--beyond! There was
+no thought in any of us for a moment of their being clouds. They were
+clear as crystal, sharp on the pure horizon sky, and already tinged with
+rose by the sinking sun. Infinitely beyond all that we had ever thought
+or dreamed,--the seen walls of lost Eden could not have been more
+beautiful to us; not more awful, round heaven, the walls of sacred
+Death. It is not possible to imagine, in any time of the world, a more
+blessed entrance into life, for a child of such a temperament as mine."
+
+Many a lad or man has felt a similar awakening when the snowy Alps
+first smote upon his vision, though none has ever so nobly expressed the
+emotion. It is a feeling not to be forgotten in after life. All who love
+mountains have begun to love them from some remembered moment. We may
+have known the hills from infancy, but to know is not necessarily to
+love. It is the day of awakening that counts. To me the hills were early
+friends. Malvern of Worcestershire was my childish delight. I climbed
+Snowdon at the age of seven, and felt the delight that arises from
+standing high and gazing far. But the mountains as beautiful things to
+look at came later. Well do I remember the year when I was at last going
+to the Alps. A vague feeling of expectation and suspense pervaded the
+summer term--the unknown was in the future and hovered there as
+something large and bright. What would the great snow mountains look
+like? That was the abiding question. One June day I was idly lying prone
+upon a grassy bank, watching piled masses of cumulous cloud tower in the
+east with the afternoon sun shining splendidly upon them. Could it be
+that any snow mountains were really as fine as clouds like these? I
+could not believe it.
+
+[Illustration 2: BERN FROM THE SCHAeNZLI. The seat of the Swiss
+Government. The Rathhaus, a modern "old Catholic church," in centre of
+picture. The Bernese Oberland Mountains in heat-haze at top.]
+
+At last the day came when the sea was crossed and the long railway
+journey (how long it seemed!) was accomplished. We approached Olten. The
+Oberland ought to have appeared, but only rain fell. We reached Bern,
+and drove up to the little country village of Zimmerwald, where my
+friends were staying; still there was no distant view--nothing but
+wooded and green hills around, that reminded me of other views, and
+revealed no such startling novelty as I was awaiting. One day passed and
+then another. On the third morning the sun rose in a sky perfectly
+clear. When I looked from my window across the green country, and over
+the deep-lying lake of Thun, I saw them--"suddenly--behold--beyond!"
+Jungfrau, Moench, Eiger, and the rest, not yet individuals for me, not
+for a long time yet, but all together, a great white wall, utterly
+unlike any dream of them that had visited me before, a new revelation,
+unimaginable, indescribable, there they stood, and from that moment I
+also entered into life.
+
+Returned to my school friends in due season, I thought to tell them of
+this new and splendid joy that had come to me, but a few attempts cured
+me of any such endeavour. It was impossible. My words fell upon deaf
+ears, or rather I had no words. What I said failed to raise a picture in
+their minds, as what had before been said to me had failed. I have never
+repeated the attempt; I shall not do so now. The prophet who saw the
+vision of the Almighty could speak only by aid of types and shadows. The
+great revelations of nature's majesty are not describable. Who that had
+never seen a thunderstorm could learn its majestic quality from
+description? Who can enter into the treasures of the snow by way of
+words? The glory of a great desert must be seen to be realised. The
+delicate magnificence of the Arctics none can translate into language.
+We may speak of that we do know, and testify that we have seen, but no
+one receives our testimony, because words cannot utter the essential
+facts.
+
+[Illustration: 3. VIEW OF THE BERNESE ALPS FROM THE GURTEN, NEAR BERN.]
+
+In writing about the Alps, therefore, we write and paint primarily to
+remind those who know; to suggest further visions of a like character to
+those they possess within themselves. Even the greatest master of
+descriptive writing can only manifest his mastership by knowing what to
+omit and where to stop. "Suddenly--behold--beyond!" That is enough for
+those who know. For those who do not know, no words can embody and
+transmit the unfelt emotion.
+
+Since the first day when I saw the snowy mountains, I have seen them
+again and again in all parts of the world, and have come to know them
+from above as well as from below. I have penetrated them in all
+directions and grown to understand the meaning of their smallest details
+of couloir, crevasse, ice-fall, cornice, arete, and bergschrund. It has
+not been all gain. Gladly would some of us be able to shed our knowledge
+of detail, if it were but for a moment, and once again behold the great
+wall of white as ignorantly as we first beheld it--a thing, vast,
+majestic, and above all mysterious--unapproachable as the clouds--a
+region not for men but fairies--the rose-clad tops of the mountains
+where dance the spirits of the dawn. Fairest of all is ever the first
+vision, not completest. Later we know more, we understand more, we may
+even come to love more, but the first vision of a young man's love is
+surpassed by no future splendour, and the first glory of a mountain view
+never comes again.
+
+Doubtless there may exist some people who, even if they had been smitten
+by the glory of the mountains in the age of their own most abounding
+youthful powers of body, would not have been attracted to climb them;
+yet such folks must be rare. Those who first see mountains in the years
+of their solid maturity naturally escape the attraction. But most young
+and healthy individuals as naturally desire to climb as they do to swim
+or to wander. The instinct of man is to believe that joy is somewhere
+else than where he stands. "Dort wo du nicht bist, dort ist das Glueck."
+It is not true, but life is not long enough to teach us that it is
+not--and fortunately, else were half our efforts quenched in the
+impulse.
+
+To see round, over, and beyond--that is the natural desire of all. We
+want to go everywhere, to behold everything. Who would not rush to visit
+the other side of the moon, were such journey possible? If Messrs. Cook
+were to advertise a trip to Mars, who would not be of the party? "To see
+round, over, and beyond"--that is a common human instinct, which
+accounts for the passion of historical and scientific investigation, for
+the eagerness of politicians, for the enthusiasm of explorers and
+excavators, for the inquisitiveness of psychical societies, for the
+prosperity of fortune-tellers, and for the energy of mountaineers. What!
+There is a height looking down on me and I cannot attain it? There is a
+mountain wall around me and I cannot look over it? Perish the thought!
+There is an historical limit behind which I know nothing about the human
+race? Give me a spade, that I may dig out some yet earlier ancestor and
+discover something about him. There is an unmapped region at the south
+pole? What is my Government made of that it does not send forth an
+expedition to describe it?
+
+[Illustration: 4. THE PIER AT SCHERZLIGEN, LAKE OF THUN--EVENING. The
+Niesen on the right.]
+
+In face of the unknown all men are of one mind. They cannot but
+endeavour to replace ignorance by knowledge. What is true of the mass is
+true to some extent of each individual. There exists in the unit the
+same tendency at all events as in the multitude. Each man wants to see
+what he has not seen, to stand where he has not stood, to learn more
+than he knows. In the presence of mountains this desire urges him
+upward. He does not start as a mountaineer intending to climb, and
+climb. He starts for a single expedition, just to see what high peaks
+and glaciers are like. The snowy regions beheld from a distance puzzle
+him. Evidently they are not like the places he is familiar with. He will
+for once go and take a nearer look. He will climb somewhither and get a
+sight all round. Little does he suspect what the outcome of his venture
+may be. A week ago he was perhaps laughing at the tattered-faced
+climbers he met, as mad fools, going up to mountain-tops just to come
+down again and say they had been there. Of such folly he at any rate
+will never be guilty. Climbing has no fascinations for him; he is merely
+going to have a look at the white world, so that he may know what it is
+that he hears people talking about--their corridors and their couloirs,
+crevasses, snow-bridges, seracs, and bergschrunds.
+
+So he hires a guide and sets forth for the Breithorn, perhaps, or some
+such high and safe-reputed peak. He hits upon a day when the weather
+turns bad. Winds buffet him; rain and snow drench him; he labours
+through soft snow; he is bewildered by fog. If the sun shines for a few
+moments, it is only long enough to scorch the skin off his face and
+ensure him a few days of great discomfort to follow. He has no view from
+the summit. He returns wearied out to his inn.
+
+[Illustration: 5. MELCHIOR ANDEREGG. Born 1828. A celebrated Alpine
+guide; with the late Sir Leslie Stephen made many first ascents,
+including the Rympfischhorn, Alphubel, Oberaarhorn. Also well known for
+his wood-carving.]
+
+Yes!--and thenceforward the alpine fever masters him. He is caught and
+makes no effort to escape. His keenest desire is to be off once more
+into those same high regions--once more to feel the ice beneath his
+feet--once more to scramble up clean crags fresh from nature's
+sculpturing and undefiled by soil or vegetation. With each new ascent he
+becomes eager for more. The summers are all too short for his
+satisfaction. He goes home to read about other people's climbs, to study
+maps and guide-books, to lay out schemes for future seasons. Dauphiny,
+the Graians, the Engadine and Tirol--he must give a season or seasons to
+each. Thus is the climber fashioned out of an ordinary man.
+
+Each new votary of the peaks in turn experiences the same sudden
+conversion, expects to be able to explain his new delight to his lowland
+friends, and in turn discovers the same impossibility. He learns, as we
+all have learned, that the delight is not translatable into words; that
+each must experience it for himself and each must win his own entrance
+into the secret alone. The most we can do is to awaken the inquisitive
+sense in another, who beholds the visible evidence of our enjoyment and
+wonders what its source may be. In that fashion the infection can be
+spread, and is spread with the extraordinary rapidity that the last
+half-century has witnessed.
+
+What climber does not recall the enthusiasm of his first seasons? the
+passionate expectation of the coming summer, the painful awaiting for
+the moment when his foot should once again crunch the ice-corn of the
+glacier beneath its hob-nailed sole? Gradually that enthusiasm passes
+and is replaced by a settled mood of calmer, but no less intense,
+satisfaction. But does the aesthetic delight in the beauty of the
+mountains remain through all these experiences undimmed? Not always. In
+the first view of them it is the beauty of the snowy peaks, of the great
+white walls, that appeals to the eye. Ignorant of the meaning of every
+detail, the details are almost unseen. It is the whole that is beheld in
+the glory of its whiteness. The wonder of the silver snow beyond the
+green and beneath the sky invades the mind of every new spectator. Small
+need be our surprise that unsophisticated, semi-civilised peoples have
+always believed the snowy regions to be part of the other world--the
+home of ghosts and fairies, or of demons and dragons. "Not more awful,
+round heaven, the walls of sacred Death," says Ruskin in the passage
+above quoted, thereby manifesting how close in its instincts is the
+sympathy between genius and the purely natural man. Almost universal is
+the feeling aroused by a first sight of a great snowy range that it is
+unearthly. Mystery gathers over it. Its shining majesty in full
+sunlight, its rosy splendours at dawn and eve, its pallid glimmer under
+the clear moon, its wreathed and ever-changing drapery of cloud, its
+terrific experiences in storm, all these elements and aspects strike the
+imagination and appeal broadly to the aesthetic sense. Nor are they ever
+quite forgotten even by the most callous of professional mountaineers.
+
+[Illustration: 6. STORM COMING UP OVER LAKE OF LUCERNE. Sketch made from
+Flueelen.]
+
+But with increase of experience on the mountains themselves come
+knowledge and a whole group of new associations. A man does not climb a
+mountain without bringing some of it away with him and leaving something
+of himself upon it. Returned to the level and looking back, he does not
+see his peak as before. Every feature of the road he traversed is
+remembered, and he instinctively tries to fit the features to the view.
+That velvet slope above the trees is the stony tract up which he toiled
+before dawn and where he stumbled in the fitful lantern-light. That grey
+band beside the glacier is the moraine, whose big rocks were unstable
+beneath his tread. That glacier--how slippery it was before the sun
+smote it! There are the crevasses that made his track so devious; and
+there began the snowfield so hard and pleasant under foot in the early
+hours, so toilsome to wade through as the day advanced. In the upper
+part of the mountain all the little features, that seemed unimportant
+from below, take on a new meaning. He finds it hard to identify
+different points. Can that tiny thread of snow be the broad gully up
+which so many steps had to be cut? He looks at it through a telescope,
+and the actual traces of his staircase become visible. The mountain
+judged by the scale of remembered toil grows wonderfully in height. The
+eye thus trained begins to realise and even to exaggerate the vast scale
+on which peaks are built. But along with this gain in the truthful sense
+of scale comes the loss of mystery. The peak which was in heaven is
+brought down to earth. It was a mere thing of beauty to be adored and
+wondered at; it has become something to be climbed. Its details have
+grown intelligible and interesting. The mind regards it from a new
+aspect, begins to analyse its forms and features, and to consider them
+mainly in their relation to man as a climber. As knowledge grows this
+attitude of mind develops. Each fresh peak ascended teaches something.
+The nature of the climbing on peaks not yet ascended can to some extent
+be estimated from below. The inquiry naturally arises, How shall that
+peak be climbed? Which is the way to attack it? The eye traces possible
+routes and foresees probable difficulties. It rejects or modifies
+proposed ways. It observes all kinds of structural details. It notes the
+path of avalanches and the signs of falling stones. It concentrates its
+attention upon ice-falls and endeavours to thread the maze of their
+seracs. Thus the intelligence replaces the aesthetic sense and the
+enjoyment of beauty becomes or is liable to become dimmed.
+
+The longer a climber gratifies his instincts and pursues his sport, the
+larger becomes his store of reminiscences and the greater his
+experience. If he confines his attention to a single range of mountains
+such as the Alps, he is almost always in sight of mountains he has
+climbed and glaciers he has traversed. Each view shows him some route he
+has once pursued, some glacier basin he has explored, some pass he has
+crossed. The labyrinth of valleys and the crests of successive ridges do
+not puzzle him. He knows how they are grouped and whither they lead.
+Beyond those mountains is the Zermatt valley; that peak looks down on
+Zinal; that col leads to Saas. Thus there grows in him the sense of the
+general shape and arrangement of the country. It is no longer a tangled
+chaos of heights and depths, but an ordered anatomy, formed by the
+action of definite and continuous forces. So far as his knowledge
+extends this orderliness is realised. He has developed a geographical
+sense. That in its turn poses problems for solution. He notes some
+corner of his map where a deep-lying valley is intricately fitted in
+amongst ridges which he has seen from without. He becomes desirous to
+visit it, so that he may complete the map in his own understanding.
+
+When he goes to a new district he cannot but be eager to obtain a
+geographical grasp of its form and arrangement. The instinct that
+desires to see round corners and over walls has now new food to grow on.
+In a fresh district the geographical problem is always fascinating, but
+in one that has been explored by no mountaineer before, its fascination
+is overwhelming, especially if the explorer be a surveyor and
+cartographer, as I can attest. To see the sketch-map of a previously
+unsurveyed country grow upon the paper is an intense satisfaction. The
+aspect of every peak gives rise to a twofold problem. Can it be climbed,
+and if so by what route? How should it be depicted on the map? These
+questions are ever present. The solution of them is the thought of every
+hour, the first point of interest in every view. As it is with the
+explorer, so to a less extent is it liable to be with every climber; for
+all climbers are to some extent explorers, even though they are but
+exploring previously described and mapped territory. It is new to them,
+at any rate, and that is the important fact. Climbers, when they begin
+to exhaust a district, move to another in hunger after the unknown.
+
+[Illustration: 7. LOOKING UP VALLEY TOWARDS ZERMATT FROM NEAR RANDA.
+Theodulhorn and Furggengrat in distance.]
+
+Hence, as the seasons go by, it happens that the aesthetic interest,
+which was at first the climber's main delight, begins to fade. If he be
+a man of scientific interests it is liable to an even quicker
+evanescence than if he be not, for problems of geological structure, or
+of botanical distribution, or of glaciology and the like, are a keen
+source of intellectual enjoyment. At length, perhaps, the day comes when
+the loss is felt. There is a gorgeous range of snow mountains with every
+effect of cloud and sunshine that the eye can desire, displayed about
+and upon them, yet the climber finds with dismay that his heart is cold.
+The old glory has vanished from the scene and the old thrill is an
+unfelt emotion. What is the matter? Have his eyes grown dim? Has he lost
+the faculty of delight? Is he growing old? Whatever the cause, the
+effect is painful in the extreme. It is one that many of us have felt,
+especially towards the close of a long and successful climbing season,
+or extensive journey of exploration. There is but one remedy--to quit
+the mountains for a while and attend to the common business of life.
+When winter months have gone by and summer is again at hand, the old
+enthusiasm is liable to return. Sooner or later the true mountain-lover
+will begin to starve for sight of the snows.
+
+When age comes upon him and his limbs grow stiff and his heart
+enfeebles, the desire to climb may slacken, but the love of mountains
+will not diminish. Rather will it take on again something of its first
+freshness. Then it was purely objective; now it becomes objective once
+more. The desire to obtain and to possess passes away. We know what it
+is like to be aloft. We foresee the toil with no less, perhaps with even
+greater clearness of prevision than we foresee the triumph and the
+delight. We have learnt the secret of the hills and entered into the
+treasures of the snow. Now we can afford to rest below and gaze aloft.
+If the mystery of our first views can never return, the glow of
+multitudinous memories replaces it not unworthily. The peaks have become
+inaccessible once more. They again belong to another world, the world of
+the past. The ghosts of our dead friends people them, and the ghosts of
+our dead selves. When the evening glow floods them at close of day it
+mingles with the mellow glories of the years that are gone. The old
+passionate hopes and strivings, the old disappointments and regrets, the
+old rivalries, and the old triumphs, vaguely mingling in a faint regret,
+beget in the retired mountaineer an attitude of peace and aloofness. He
+feels again the incommunicable and indescribable delight that thrilled
+him at the first; but now, though it is less passionate, less
+stimulating, less overwhelming than of yore, it is mellower and not a
+whit less beautiful and true.
+
+[Illustration: 8. EIGER, MOeNCH, AND JUNGFRAU, FROM SCHERZLIGEN, NEAR
+THUN.]
+
+One precious thing beside memory the retired mountaineer possesses,
+which he who has never climbed must lack: it is knowledge. The keenest
+mountain-lover who never climbed does not really know the nature of what
+he is looking at. Even Ruskin, the most gifted mountain-lover that never
+climbed, constantly reveals in his writings failures to understand. The
+true scale of things was never apparent to his eye. Like all beginners,
+at first underestimating, he presently came to overestimate the size of
+cliffs and ridges. Ability to see things truly is a great possession.
+None but an experienced mountaineer can ever so see mountains. He
+instinctively recognises the important features and distinguishes them
+from the unimportant. He is conscious of what is in front and what
+behind. He does not mistake foreshortened ridges for needle-pointed
+peaks. A range of mountains is not a wall to him but a deep extending
+mass. He feels the recesses and the projections. He has a sense of what
+is round the corner. The deep circuits of the hills are present in his
+imagination even when unbeheld. He knows their white loneliness. The
+seen end of a glacier-snout implies to him all the unseen upper course
+and expanse of its gathering ground. Thus every view to him is instinct
+with implications of the unseen and the beyond. Such knowledge well
+replaces the mystery of his youthful ignorance. If time has taken
+something away, it has amply repaid the theft. It is not his debtor. He
+may mingle now with the crowd who never quit the roads, and no external
+sign shall distinguish him from them, but the actual difference between
+them is fundamental. For the snows are beyond their ken and belong to
+the same region as the sky; but they are within his area; they form part
+of his intellectual estate; they hold his past life upon their crests.
+Where the lowlander looks and wonders, the mountaineer possesses and
+remembers, nor wonders less for being able to realise the immensity of
+the mass of beauteous detail that unites to form a mountain landscape.
+
+To attain such ripe fruition, however, does not come to every man,
+nor to any without taking thought. The most callous person will feel
+some thrill from a first view of a snowy range, but it may soon become a
+commonplace sight, its beauty soon be unperceived. Only by taking
+thought can this be avoided. Unless we can learn from year to year to
+see more, and more recondite, beauties in nature, we are yearly losing
+sensitiveness to nature's beauty. There is no standing still in this
+matter. We must advance or we must go back. A faculty must be used or it
+will atrophy. It is not enough to go to the mountains in order to grow
+in their grace. Sensitiveness to beauty increases in the man who looks
+for beauty and greatly desires to find it. Pure nature is always and
+everywhere beautiful to the eye that knows how to see. The perception of
+the beauty of a thing is, however, not the same as the mere sight of a
+thing. Many may behold a view, and of them all only one may see beauty
+in it. He does so because he brings with him the innate or trained
+capacity for seeing that kind of beauty. But how is that capacity to be
+acquired or emphasised by training? This question might be answered in a
+volume and even then the answer would be incomplete and would not compel
+assent from all. We can only afford a single phrase here for the
+reply--"by taking thought." If, when a sight produces on the spectator
+the thrill that comes from the recognition of beauty, he will
+concentrate his attention upon it and remember it (as a youth remembers
+the beautiful face of a girl he has merely passed in the street), and if
+he will be on the alert to find it again and yet again, he will
+assuredly obtain by degrees a completer understanding and a more
+sensitive recognition of that particular kind of beauty. He will find
+more sides and aspects of it than he at first suspected. It will lead
+him on to a larger knowledge and a wider sympathy. His aesthetic capacity
+will be increased and his powers of delight continuously developed. All
+this in the case of mountain-beauty will come to him, not merely because
+he wanders among or upon mountains, but because being there he retains
+towards them a definite attitude of mind,--an attitude, however, which
+is not that of the climber, and which mere climbing and exploration do
+not by themselves encourage. He that looks for structure will find
+structure; he that studies routes will find routes. To find beauty it is
+beauty that must be searched for as a prospector searches for gold. More
+priceless than gold, beauty abundantly rewards those who find her. With
+that guerdon in mind let the mountaineering reader ask himself, "Hast
+thou entered into the treasures of the snow?"
+
+[Illustration: 9. LUCERNE AND LAKE FROM THE DREI LINDEN. Pilatus with
+storm breaking over mountain and town.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+HOW TO SEE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+I have borrowed the title of this chapter from that of an excellent
+book, recently published, called _How to Look at Pictures_. The natural
+man might suppose that such were questions on which there is nothing to
+say. The picture is before you, and all you have to do is to open your
+eyes and let the image of it fall on your retina. What can be more
+simple? Yet that is not all, because the eye only sees that which it
+brings with it the power of seeing. How much more one sees in the face
+of a friend than in that of a stranger! It is similar with all objects.
+In order to see aright and to see fully, the power of seeing must be
+acquired. Some learn more easily than others, but all must learn. It is
+admittedly so with music. The most self-satisfied person cannot refuse
+to admit that even a short tune is better grasped, better _heard_, on a
+second hearing than the first time. What is true of a simple tune is
+more obviously true of a complicated work. The most accomplished
+musician does not grasp a Wagner opera at a first hearing. Man is a
+creature with faculties that need training. He is not born with
+faculties fully trained by instinct.
+
+To perceive beauty in a scene implies a power of selection. There is
+beauty in every view if you know how to find it, but the eye has to sift
+it out. Open your eyes at random. They are saluted by an infinite
+multitude of details. You can pass from one to another, but you cannot
+see them all at once. Looking at a tree, you can see a few leaves and
+twigs surrounded by a green spludge, which experience has taught you is
+made up of leaves or twigs, but you do not see all the leaves at once;
+so with blades of grass, flowers in a field, strata edges on a cliff, or
+crevasses in a glacier. In a broad effect of sunset you cannot be
+simultaneously conscious of more than a few forms and colours, and, of
+those you are simultaneously conscious of, one will be more important
+than the rest--one will give the key-note. Nor can you be equally
+conscious at one moment of forms and colours, or of colours and light
+and shade. If a view strikes you at all, it strikes you by some effect
+in it which you perceive, even though you may not be able to state in
+words what that effect is. It is clear, however, that any effect is the
+result of selection by the eye. The effect upon the eye would be
+unchanged if a quantity of details were blotted out, so long as none of
+those details formed part of the effect. Thus if you were attracted by
+the bright effulgence of a snow slope seen against a clear sky (to take
+a simple instance), and if your mind were concentrated upon that
+contrast, you would not notice the sudden obliteration of a crevasse in
+the slope. That detail would form no part of the effect.
+
+As you gaze at any scene you may be continually and rapidly changing
+the effects you are observing, and that without altering the direction
+of the eye. Such, in fact, is what every view-gazer is always doing. He
+is searching for a satisfying effect of beauty out of the multitude of
+possible effects that could be found, such possible effects being always
+practically infinite in number. Ultimately it is probable that some one
+effect will obtain the mastery within him, an effect that his eye is
+specially capable of seeing and his mind of comprehending. He passes on
+his way, and a day afterwards recalls yesterday's view. What rises in
+his memory is not the whole scene with all its details, but the special
+effect that ultimately impressed him, the result of a kind of survival
+of the fittest within him of a multitude of competing effects that he
+saw or almost saw.
+
+[Illustration: 10. THE JUNGFRAU FROM INTERLAKEN. First ascended 1811.]
+
+Take, for example, a very simple instance, the view of the Jungfrau
+from Interlaken on a clear day. What most people see is a roughly
+triangular white mass below a blue sky, and limited on either hand and
+below by green slopes and foreground. Suppose the looker to be a
+meteorologist whose special study is the atmosphere and its clouds.
+Probably the first thing he will notice will be the quality of the
+blueness of the sky and the tone of the lower atmosphere between him and
+the white mountain and green hills. He will, in fact, observe the
+air-tones, and consciously or unconsciously they will be the key-note of
+his impression. Next comes an East Londoner with a Toynbee Hall party,
+let us say. What strikes him is the novelty of the white mountain. Its
+whiteness is his main impression, the blue and the green being perceived
+as mere contrasts to that, and the forms of mountain and hills being
+unimportant shapes of the colour limits. The size of the mountain may be
+a subsidiary impression, but it will depend still upon the white colour,
+the wonder being that so large a natural object should be of snow. Anon
+comes a lover of woods and trees and of the green world. The white
+mountain for him will merely emphasise and dignify the pine woods and
+the grassy swards. He will note the draping of the hills by the
+pine-trees, and the character of the woods. The white peak will have
+value in the view to him, but only a value subordinate to that of the
+forest. After him comes a climber, trained, let us say, in the Canadian
+Rockies, and now for the first time visiting the classic land of
+climbers. When, on a clear day, the Jungfrau bursts upon his vision, he
+will give all his eyes to her and her only. He will not observe the
+greater or lesser blueness of the sky, nor the forms and features of the
+foreground hills--that is to say, they will not be the first object of
+his attention, the key-note of the effect he perceives. No! he will
+notice the form of the snow peak, the modelling of the glacier surface,
+the striping of the avalanche tracks, the character of the outlining
+ridges and minor buttresses. He will be subtly conscious of what is snow
+and what ice, of how and why rocks emerge from the snowy envelope. Where
+the ignorant will conceive the peak to be a great mound of snow, the
+newly-arrived climber will feel it to be a mass of rock draped in snow
+and ice, and his attention will be caught and held by that drapery, its
+forms and foldings.
+
+Finally there comes an artist, who knows nothing about mountains or
+forests and cares nothing, but who loves above all else (let us say)
+colour. What he will see will be some colour effect, some special
+harmony of tints in sky and snow and forest, some unifying effect that
+will make white, blue, and green all qualities of a single glory. If he
+paint the view, that is the effect he will strive to render, and in so
+doing he will care little about forms and details, little about
+modellings of glacier drapery and rocky skeleton. The colour-chord will
+be his aim, and all the power of his vision and the skill of his hand
+will be concentrated upon that. Or perhaps the artist will not come
+alone but in company with another of different character. This one cares
+less about colour than form. What will strike him will be the graceful
+architecture of the view, the delicate outlines, the intricate rareness
+of surface modelling in the snow, the strongly relieved emphasis of the
+limiting lines of the framing hills. Whether the sky be blue of a
+special tone and the foreground embellished with every shade and
+combination of greens will be immaterial to him for the time. He will
+feast his eyes upon form, and form will be the real subject of whatever
+representation of the scene he may endeavour to set down.
+
+Any one can multiply instances for himself and carry further to any
+extent the analysis of possible simultaneous varieties of effect in a
+single view. If to that he add the changes of effect that nature makes
+by variations of the weather, time of day, and season of the year, it
+will be evident enough how a single scene may be beheld with infinite
+variety by the eye of man; and the suspicion will arise that all
+conceptions, all appreciations, may not be equally fine or equally easy
+to grasp, and that, where one man may see little, another may be able to
+see an effect of singular beauty.
+
+It is the true and proper function of a landscape painter to find
+effects in views, but it does not follow that the effects he sees are
+those seen by any man in the street. "I never saw a sunset look like
+that," said a man to Turner when looking at one of his pictures. "No!"
+was the reply, "but don't you wish you could?" It should be the business
+of a painter to inspire such envy in those who see his works. If he
+merely shows us things as we see them for ourselves, he is of little
+service. At best he does but revive our memories. He should do more. He
+should stimulate our imaginations to a higher activity, or provide us
+with something to look for in the future even more than to revive in the
+past.
+
+To return to our two painters of a previous paragraph: if their
+drawings of the Jungfrau were shown to the meteorologist, he might be
+prompt to observe that the atmospheric effect was not rendered, and that
+the colour of the sky was incorrect. The Toynbee Hall excursionist would
+find the snow lacking in the radiance that had dazzled him. The
+forest-lover would declare that he could not identify the character of
+the trees and that the various greens of the foreground were untrue to
+nature. Whilst the climber would regard the colourist's Jungfrau as a
+daub in which all the character of the peak was missed. He would fail to
+recognise any possible route up its painted image or the signs of the
+difficulties and dangers of the way. Finally, each artist might regard
+the other's picture as a more or less mistaken effort.
+
+Yet if all these gentry were animated by a proper spirit they would
+recognise that their own view was not the only way of seeing the peak,
+but that any of the others was equally truthful, perhaps equally worthy,
+nay, that some other effect than those they respectively felt might be
+superior. Each might learn from the drawings another kind of effect to
+look for, and raising his eyes from the paper to the peak might then and
+there see the pictured effect for himself, and thenceforward be able to
+discover the like again in other places. It is difficult to estimate how
+far the effective sight of any man has been thus educated, either by
+pictured scenes, or by a word in season from some companion who shared
+with him this or the other splendid view. Each of us starts but poorly
+equipped; each may discover something for himself and to some extent
+develop his faculties by his own unaided efforts; but ultimately each,
+even the most naturally gifted, learns far more from others than he
+originates. The most efficient teachers of how to look are painters--of
+how to look at scenery, landscape painters. It is unfortunate that the
+snowy ranges have not been studied by a larger number of the great
+landscape artists. Turner handled them in their broader aspects and from
+relatively low and distant points of view; by so doing he greatly helped
+to spread and deepen a knowledge of mountain beauty. No inconsiderable
+number of later artists, mostly, however, admittedly of the second rank,
+have devoted at least a part of their time to mountain-landscape art,
+some pursuing it to the higher and inner recesses of the snowy region.
+Yet it must be admitted that the great mountain pictures are yet to be
+painted. Stott seemed on the verge of a higher success. Segantini almost
+touched the goal, and would doubtless have come nearer if he had lived
+longer. Such men amongst the dead, and many living artists, whose names
+I do not venture to set down lest by inadvertent omission I were to be
+unjust, have earned our thankfulness by the lessons they have taught;
+yet plenty more remains to be accomplished. The hills have not inspired
+landscape painters with all the fulness of their charm.
+
+[Illustration: 11. FIESCHERHORN AND LOWER GRINDELWALD GLACIER]
+
+It is often forgotten that mountains and even snowy mountains found
+their way into pictures at a very early date. Even the father of modern
+landscape painting, Hubert Van Eyck, introduced admirable renderings of
+lines of snowy peaks into the backgrounds of some of his pictures, as,
+for instance, in the "Three Maries at the Sepulchre," belonging to Sir
+Frederick Cook, where the effect of a distant range is beautifully
+suggested. Albrecht Duerer again, about a century later, made a series of
+the carefullest studies of mountain scenes in the neighbourhood of the
+Brenner road, and thenceforward he was fond of introducing
+excellently-drawn peaks into the backgrounds of his engravings and
+woodcuts. He possessed a remarkable knowledge of the essential facts of
+mountain form, so that even a modern mountaineer can learn from his
+works some of the elements of "how to see." Well-drawn mountains are of
+frequent occurrence in sixteenth century woodcuts and drawings by the
+prolific masters of sixteenth century south German and Venetian schools.
+The fact is one of many proofs of the vitality of that first modern
+outburst of mountain enthusiasm which gradually faded as the sixteenth
+century advanced.
+
+It is the commonplace of seventeenth and eighteenth century writers,
+who chance to refer to mountain scenery, to describe it as of monstrous,
+horrible, or even hideous character. Contemporary artists gave it
+corresponding expression. We are wrong to assume that their pictures and
+prints manifest any incapacity to draw, because we do not recognise in
+them the peaks and landscapes we know. The fact was that those artists
+gave quite truthful expression to the impression produced upon them by
+mountain scenery. Most Alpine lovers have seen prints professing to
+depict such objects as the Grindelwald glaciers and the surrounding
+heights, and have wondered how any one with the view before him can have
+so libelled it. But the artist intended no libel. All snowy peaks to him
+were inaccessible altitudes; in imagination he doubled their steepness.
+I myself, when a boy, approached the Matterhorn with a belief that it
+was built of precipices. I had always heard it so spoken of. With the
+thing itself before me I sat down to draw it, and quite unintentionally
+and unconsciously exaggerated its steepness and sharpness in a way that
+now seems difficult to account for. If such was the effect of
+preconception upon a modern lad who had already climbed several
+relatively high Alpine mountains, how easy it must have been for a
+seventeenth-century artist to be misled, who never thought of climbing
+at all, and to whose mind the notion of any individual interest
+attaching to a particular peak was altogether foreign. He merely felt a
+general awe, or horror, of his surroundings, and in depicting mountain
+scenery very properly made the rendering of either emotion his chief
+aim. Pictures painted at that time under those influences are not to be
+regarded as valueless and ridiculous. They are of great value as
+enabling us to see with our own eyes what mountain scenery actually
+looked like to the people of those days, and thus to account for the
+extraordinary language employed by travellers going _the grand tour_ who
+attempted to describe the scenery through which they passed when
+crossing the Alps.
+
+[Illustration: 12. THE CASTLE OF CHILLON
+
+      Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls:
+    A thousand feet in depth below
+    Its massy waters meet and flow.
+
+    BYRON.
+]
+
+I have thus far only spoken of the educative effect of mountain
+paintings in teaching us how to see mountain scenery, but there are
+other forms of art equally efficient. As a matter of history, it was the
+writers, and especially the poets, who induced the intelligent public to
+change their attitude towards mountains. I do not know who was the
+initiator of the movement or in what country it was first apparent.
+Rousseau deserves to be remembered in this connection. Sir Walter Scott
+and Byron carried on the work, and were supported by the poets of the
+Lake School. Goethe and Schiller were widely influential in the same
+direction. At first it was the vague romanticism of the hills and of the
+supposed simple life of mountain peasants that attracted sympathetic
+notice and description. Gradually mountains came to be looked at in
+greater detail and for their own sake. Finally, in our own day, Ruskin
+for the first time attempted to analyse mountain beauty, and not only
+produced in the fourth volume of _Modern Painters_ a most suggestive and
+illuminating work, but by the magic of his language and the charm and
+aptness of his illustrative drawings attracted to it the attention of
+all that was best in English society. Whether what followed was directly
+due to his initiative, I do not know. The next important step was the
+publication of Mr. Edward Whymper's _Scrambles amongst the Alps_, which
+rapidly attained popularity of the best kind. It is difficult nowadays
+to put one's self in the place of mountain lovers who met with that book
+when it first appeared. To us it is still full of freshness and charm,
+but to them it was far more significant. They compared its illustrations
+with those in _Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers_, published twelve years
+before, and they were smitten with admiration. "Look at the poor old
+chromo-lithographs," wrote Leslie Stephen, "which then professed to
+represent the mountains, and compare them with Mr. Whymper's admirable
+woodcuts. The difference is really remarkable. Though some of these old
+illustrations, copied from photographs, suggest the general outlines
+with tolerable fidelity, most of them utterly fail to represent a
+mountain at all to an educated eye.... The old daubs are mere random
+indications of certain obtrusive features which could not well be
+overlooked. Mr. Whymper's woodcuts seem to bring the genuine Alps before
+us in all their marvellous beauty and variety of architecture." Ruskin
+and Whymper, in fact, took up mountain-drawing where Duerer had left it
+three hundred and fifty years before. They looked at the mountains
+themselves with the humility that belongs to men who love the truth, and
+they taught others so to look. Alpine climbing taught men for the first
+time what mountains actually are. The power so to see them was
+simultaneously developed, and photography has helped.
+
+The question of mountain-photography is a thorny one, but it must be
+faced. The reader can scarcely deny that if mountains really looked like
+the ordinary run of commercial photographs of them, they would be ugly
+or at least unattractive objects. A volume of such photographs would
+scarcely lead a man, who had never left his home, eagerly to desire a
+close acquaintance with snowy peaks. That, however, was actually what
+Mr. Whymper's woodcuts did. Hundreds of readers of his book were thereby
+led to become mountaineers. Wherein does this different efficiency
+consist? A photograph, in theory, repeats every detail of the view it
+contains. Such details as drop out are either too small or too faint to
+be visible in the print. A camera does not select. It takes all. In this
+respect it differs altogether from the human eye. If you look fixedly in
+a definite direction and regard carefully what it is that you actually
+see, you will discover it to be a few central details only, and that
+they are surrounded not merely by vaguely defined objects but by objects
+duplicated. Thus the sight of the eye and the sight of a camera are not
+alike, either in what is beheld or what is selected. The sense of beauty
+depends upon what the eye selects. It would seem then that the beauty of
+a view could not possibly be reproduced by photography, and such was the
+crude conclusion once held by artists of the capacities of this modern
+process. Photographers, however, have proved that such is not
+necessarily the case.
+
+In the infinite effects, all of them beautiful, that a single
+landscape is capable of yielding, and yielding simultaneously, most are
+beyond the reach of photography; but the same is likewise true of any
+one art-process. Pen-and-ink drawing, for example, is as incapable of
+reproducing colour effects as photography. Each art has its own limited
+area of possible effect. Photography, in so far as it is an art, is
+subject to its own definite and rather narrow limitations. A
+photographer can choose his subject and determine its exact limitations.
+As he can deal only with forms and tones, he must choose a subject so
+arranged by nature that its forms are in themselves beautiful, and its
+tones a harmonious distribution of light and shade. But light and shade
+varies with the hour of the day and season of the year, and forms vary
+with the drift of clouds over the hills, so that the selection of moment
+becomes for the photographer as important as the choice of point of
+view, direction, and area of subject. Again, by choice of length of
+exposure and by methods of development, the photographer can alter the
+quality of light and shade in his negative and the amount of detail he
+renders. These three factors are entirely under the photographer's
+control, and in so far as he avails himself of them, not merely to
+reproduce a view but to reproduce the picturesque effect in a view, he
+becomes and deserves to be regarded as an artist.
+
+[Illustration: 13. THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION TO THE HOFKIRCHE OF ST.
+LEODEGAR. The Principal Catholic Church of Lucerne.]
+
+In our own days, as the photograph exhibitions of the Alpine Club have
+demonstrated, there are no inconsiderable number of mountain
+artist-photographers. It has been proved that snow mountains are a
+specially suitable subject for such art. Views in the high regions of
+ice and rock seldom depend for their chief beauty upon colour. He whose
+eye is sensitive to colour-effects can, indeed, find such in profusion
+in the regions of snow, but they are not the effects to which experience
+shows mountain lovers are as a rule most sensitive. What most of us love
+in mountains is primarily their form. Grand forms are profusely supplied
+by frost-riven rocks and cloven glaciers. In great snow-fields and
+slopes, the surface modelling is often of transcendent beauty, and that
+modelling can be rendered to perfection by photography, if the right
+moment be chosen. Photographers who have known what to look for and what
+to reject, have perhaps done more even than any other kind of artists in
+revealing the mountains. But the right moment comes comparatively seldom
+and has to be seized. A climber may pass for hours through gorgeous
+scenery, full of subjects for a painter, yet there may not be offered to
+him one photographable effect. He may expose plate after plate, and
+carry away with him the most interesting topographical and geographical
+records, but among them all there will not be a single picture that will
+render a picturesque effect and be worthy to rank as a work of art. The
+artist-photographer is a man who can snatch the right moment for the
+right effect. He must be able to recognise immediately and
+instinctively, when it comes before his vision, an effect of beauty that
+can be reproduced. He must see in the complexity of every view what the
+camera will make of it, knowing for a certainty what it can be made to
+reflect and what to exclude. In fact he must possess the same qualities
+as any other kind of landscape artist, the eye that recognises an effect
+suited to his art and the skill to render that effect in his resulting
+work of art.
+
+Such photographers, as I have said, there are and have been. Their works
+have opened the eyes of many a climber to effects of beauty in mountains
+of which they had before been unconscious. Returning to the regions of
+snow, they have been thus enabled to look for them and to find them.
+Their own sensibility to beauty has thus been enriched and their power
+of enjoyment correspondingly increased.
+
+In consequence of the work of poets, writers, painters, photographers,
+indeed all kinds of artists, and of the stimulus exerted by them upon
+mountain travellers of all sorts, men have learned in the last
+half-century to see mountains far better, more truly, and more
+beautifully than was possible before. We find in them complexities and
+refinements of beauty the very existence of which was previously
+unsuspected. We do not merely wonder at their size or shudder at their
+savagery. We can do that when the mood is on us, but the mood seldom
+comes. Our forefathers generally looked at them from a distance and
+thought of them as a whole, seldom doing more than to identify here and
+there a single individual from the mass. We, on the contrary, have
+learnt to know them from nearer at hand. We have made friends with them;
+we can call them all by their names. We know the aspect of each from
+many points of view, and their features are as familiar to us as were
+the features of woodside and stream to the mediaeval villager. This
+intimacy with the mountains has taught us that all the snowy ranges of
+the world are, as it were, of a single race, and that he who knows one
+knows something about all.
+
+The Alpine climber, who knows the Alps, can be interested in mere
+description of mountain ascents elsewhere. Knowing what Alpine peaks
+look like and how they appear in picture and photograph, he can, by aid
+of pictures and photographs, attain a tolerably complete idea of the
+aspect of other mountain ranges. Hence the explorers of such ranges, of
+the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the peaks of Central Africa, South America,
+and New Zealand, have been called upon to describe the peaks they have
+climbed, the valleys and glaciers they have traversed, and the scenery
+of the regions and ranges they have explored, in a way that would have
+been unintelligible two generations ago. What we now demand of a
+mountain explorer is not merely to tell us the adventures of his route,
+but to explain to us wherein the quality of the mountain scenery differs
+from that which is familiar nearer home. He must be prepared to answer
+many questions which would not have been asked till recently. Has he
+been to the Himalayas or the Andes? We want to know whether those great
+mountains look their size, and, if so, wherein the effect is manifested
+of a scale greater than the Alps. Is he returning from Sikhim? We shall
+ask him to tell us what the great peaks there look like when seen from
+the beautiful forest below. What are the atmospheric effects peculiar to
+the region? And, with yet more persistence, what is the quality of
+mountain form which distinguishes the great peaks there, so that, beheld
+merely through the medium of photographs, they so impress their
+individuality upon us?
+
+Knowing, as we do, the great variety of mountain scenery that can be
+found in the Alps, between the Dolomites of Tirol at one end and the
+crags of Dauphiny at the other, we expect to be told whether, in the
+case of the long Andes range, corresponding varieties are discoverable,
+and what and where they are. Such questions and multitudes more arise
+within us. It is much if a traveller can answer a few of them. At best
+he leaves us hungry. It is this hunger that impels us to travel afar
+ourselves, if fortune permit. Some indeed travel and explore for merely
+scientific reasons. They desire to add to knowledge and to diminish the
+area of the unknown. Some perhaps believe that they go merely in search
+of sport. The normal man is more complex. He has these ends in view to a
+greater or less extent perhaps; but, if he be a normal mountaineer, deep
+down within him there assuredly resides a true and hearty attachment to
+mountains and mountain scenery for the sake of their beauty. He may be
+too dumb to express it or too shy to admit, but we soon discover that
+the feeling is there, and that it is a dominant fact in his nature. He
+may not have analysed it. He may never speak of it, never perhaps even
+state it to himself, yet when we stand beside him on a mountain height,
+gazing abroad on the undefiled world of snow spread abroad at our feet,
+we find that we share with him a common feeling and embrace a common
+joy. After all, it is the beauty of the snows that takes us all back to
+them, and again back. Were that beauty blotted out, how many of us would
+be climbers? We are like anglers in this respect. We set an aim before
+us and pursue it with vigour and seem to be wholly intent upon it, but
+it is the beautiful, natural surroundings of our sport to which it owes
+its charm. Only the artist can make the realisation of that beauty his
+active aim, and activity is a necessity to most of us, so we employ
+ourselves actively in the world of beauty, and take her for the
+exceeding great reward of our seemingly needless and unprofitable toil.
+
+[Illustration: 14. CLOUD-BURST OVER LUCERNE.]
+
+     NOTE.--As to the historical question referred to at the foot of
+     page 34, see Coolidge's _Swiss Travel_, pp. 24 and 128, and the
+     references there given to A. von Haller's _Die Alpen_ of 1732.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HOW MOUNTAINS ARE MADE
+
+
+"Old as the hills" is not a comparison that would be considered apt if
+invented to-day, for we now know that, geologically speaking, the
+greatest mountain ranges are of recent elevation, and that even low
+hills are seldom of great antiquity. It was not till men became
+climbers, and so grew to have an intimate acquaintance with mountains in
+detail, that a recognition of the rapid degradation which all mountains
+are suffering was clearly obtained. To look at the Matterhorn from below
+is to behold an apparently everlasting tower, yet its base is strewn
+with ruins, and its flanks are continuously swept by falling masses of
+rock.
+
+The realisation of this different point of view, which we must
+presently discuss in more detail, forms a clear mark of division between
+the attitude towards mountains, of men in the pre-scientific age and
+to-day. Our forefathers naturally regarded the hills as eternal and
+everlasting. They defined the beginning of things in such phrases as
+"Before the mountains were brought forth." The tops of peaks, actually
+their newest feature, were hoary-headed to them. This was indeed partly
+due to their limited idea of the stretch of time into the past. Six
+thousand years, which to us seems but a day, was an eternity to them. Of
+course six thousand years is a brief period in the life of a mountain.
+Judged by such a standard it may be called eternal, and that was the
+kind of meaning they attached to the word. Mountains have grown young as
+our notions of time past have extended. If we could lengthen our
+time-span, the interval of time (about one-tenth of a second) of which
+we are simultaneously conscious, if we could extend it to years instead
+of a fraction of a second, we should actually see the mountains
+changing. In a sense that is what we have imaginatively accomplished.
+
+Pre-scientific man possessed no such power. Dwellers in mountain
+countries beheld the peaks apparently ever the same. Each summer, as it
+stripped away part of the winter accumulation of snow, revealed the same
+apparently unaltering features. They knew nothing of the movement of
+glaciers. They regarded snow-mountains as accumulations piled up
+continuously from the beginning of the world and destined to go on
+increasing till the end. I remember reading in the comparatively recent
+book of travel written by an Anglo-Indian, how he went up some Himalayan
+valley and came to the glacier at the head of it. He attempted to go no
+further. He conceived himself to have reached the limit of possible
+advance. He mounted some way up the hillside and looked along towards
+the head of the valley; all was ice--an accumulation fallen from the
+cliffs on either hand for thousands of years and some day destined to
+fill the trough to the brim--such was his notion of the thing he was
+looking at.
+
+Changeless, eternal, forbidding, still, silent, and horrible--thus
+the snowy ranges appeared to the pre-scientific gaze. To us they seem
+the very reverse. We know them to be ceaselessly changing, of relatively
+short persistence, the theatre of movements of all kinds both violent
+and slow--not places of death by any means, but the home of an active, a
+beneficent, and a formative life--not regions cut off and unrelated to
+the lowlands and habitable world, but the very parent of such, the
+laboratory where soil is made, and the head of water collected that
+distributes it below; the counterbalance of the denuding forces that
+would level the earth with the ocean; regions beneficent as they are
+beautiful, and as necessary to the well-being of the habitable world as
+is the richest and most fertile plain.
+
+[Illustration: 15. AT MEIRINGEN. Ridge above the Bruenig Pass in
+distance.]
+
+He that would know mountains and mountain regions aright must know them
+as the theatre of change, the domain of action. He must not merely look
+upon peaks as they are, but must conceive of them as they have been and
+will be. As this kind of knowledge grows and becomes instinctive within
+him, it will alter his attitude towards Alpine panoramas and broaden his
+grasp of the significance of mountain physiognomy.
+
+Let us briefly consider the stages of formation and decay of a single
+group of mountains, not volcanic. If we go back to the very start, we
+may imagine their future site occupied by a plain. The slow cooling and
+consequent shrinking of the world involves the wrinkling of its surface,
+and the position of the wrinkles is determined by a variety of forces,
+as yet little understood, with which we need not concern ourselves.
+Suffice it to assume that our plain occupies the position of the next
+coming group of wrinkles. A single range or line of mountains hardly
+exists in the world outside of the commonplace cartographer's mind.
+Old-fashioned maps used to represent mountains by a kind of caterpillar
+meandering about on them, and thus gave currency to the notion that
+mountains are generally arranged along a single line--a notion, by the
+by, that (in the minds of politicians negotiating boundary treaties) has
+been prolific in costly disputes and misunderstandings.[1] Mountains
+generally exist in rows of more or less parallel ranges intricately
+jointed together, and they do so because, when the wrinkling that caused
+them began, it did not begin with a single wrinkle, but with a row of
+wrinkles, such as a soft tablecloth makes on a smooth table when parts
+of it are moved toward one another.
+
+[Footnote 1: Witness the Argentine and Alaska boundary disputes.]
+
+Thus the first sign of a mountain range will be a series of
+undulations upon the surface of the supposed plain. These undulations
+will be roughly parallel to one another. We call the direction of their
+parallelism the strike of the ranges. From the moment the wrinkling
+movement begins, a set of forces is put in operation tending to level
+the wrinkles and fill up the hollows or valleys between them. These are
+the forces of denudation. People often vaguely speak as though mountains
+were first elevated to their full height and then only began to be
+pulled down; but of course the process of mountain sculpture is due to
+the simultaneous operation of the elevating and destructive forces.
+Every mountain is being pulled down in the very process of its
+elevation. It grows only because it is elevated faster than the
+destructive forces avail to level it. For all we yet know, some of the
+mountain ranges which seem most rapidly disintegrating may, in fact,
+still be growing. No one has yet divided the mountain ranges of the
+world into those which have not yet reached and those which have passed
+their maturity. When that has been done we shall doubtless find some
+clearly marked difference in aspect between them which now we do not
+know enough to recognise. The visible difference once discovered, the
+two groups will raise different kinds of emotion in the man who sees
+them. He will note the aspect of growth in one set and of decay in the
+other, and will be correspondingly affected, as we all now are by the
+young leaves and buds of spring and the fruits and faded foliage of
+autumn. Sad folk will love the fading and sanguine folk the growing
+hills. There will arise a new subject for poets and a new group of
+similes for preachers and moralists. In this way also science enlarges
+the material of art.
+
+But we must return to our nascent mountain group, as yet a mere series
+of parallel wrinklings, higher here, lower there, with lines of
+depression between them. Rain falling will need to drain away, and in
+doing so will form pools in hollows, and will run along the furrows till
+it reaches the open country and can turn away. Thus the first streams of
+a nascent group of mountains follow and do not flow across the strike.
+Only the rivulets that actually flow down the slopes will flow in a
+direction perpendicular to the strike, and will be tributaries to the
+main lines of drainage that flow along the strike.
+
+[Illustration: 16. STORM CLOUDS OVER THE LAKE OF THUN. Looking up the
+Kander Thal. The Niesen on the right.]
+
+The mountains are rising steadily as the millenniums of years pass
+on. The rain keeps falling on them, and as they grow higher the snows of
+winter first, and later of all the year, whiten their summits and
+gradually descend upon their slopes as the summits reach higher and
+higher aloft. If the rain always fell uniformly over the whole area, and
+if the ranges were of rock, homogeneous like a great lump of plaster,
+equally strong in every direction--if such were the case, each range
+would remain approximately symmetrical on both sides, and the crest of
+it would lie evenly between its two flanking troughs. But that is never
+the case. The rain-bringing winds are sure to come more frequently from
+one side of the mountain area than from the other. The wet quarter will
+be the east or the west or the south-west, as the case may be, and more
+moisture will be precipitated and consequently more denudation effected
+by it on one side of the ridges than on the other, with important
+sculpturing results as we shall presently observe.
+
+We may best regard the rising mountain area as a plateau with a
+wrinkled top, such a plateau as Tibet, for example. As time advances the
+plateau will present ever loftier walls to the outside world, but the
+undulations within will not greatly develop by any directly wrinkling
+process. It is not the wrinkling that splits the plateau up into ranges,
+but quite other forces. All that the wrinkling does is to give to those
+forces their first direction. The interior of Tibet shows us what, but
+for these other forces, a great mountain region would be like. It would
+be traversed from end to end by low and roughly parallel ridges,
+separated from one another by shallow valleys raised high aloft on the
+great plateau-pedestal. In the shallow valleys there would lie many
+lakes, some having no outlets, others drained by slow streams flowing
+along the strike of the ranges, and fed by driblets from the slopes of
+the flanking hills.
+
+But at the ends and around the periphery of the plateau generally a
+different condition of things will be found. Let us regard the ends
+first. The slow flowing rivers of the plateau as they reach its
+extremity will become swift, where they plunge down to the plain. In
+proportion to their swiftness is the speed with which they cut down
+their beds into the mass of the plateau-pedestal. If the end of the
+plateau were a cliff, the rivers would tumble over it in waterfalls, and
+these would cut their way back and thus dig out canyons in place of the
+shallow valleys of the original wrinkling. In any case a similar result
+will be arrived at, and the plateau will be more and more cut down into
+deep valleys with high ridges between. What were originally small
+wrinkles above the mean level of the plateau and slight depressions
+beneath it will be changed by denudation into high mountains and deep
+valleys, their scale being determined by the amount of general elevation
+of the plateau above the low-lying country. As the general elevating
+process goes on, so does the excavation. The deep valleys will be formed
+first at the edge of the plateau. They will work back into its heart in
+process of time. The original Tibetan plateau is now greatly reduced,
+and only the remaining middle part of it preserves any resemblance to
+its primary surface-form. As you go eastward or westward from that
+central portion you come into ever deepening valleys and ever relatively
+higher peaks, measured from the neighbouring valley floor.
+
+[Illustration: 17. VITZNAU AND LAKE OF LUCERNE. Vitznau is the terminus
+of the Rigi Railway. The two promontories on the right and left of the
+picture are the Nasen, Ober Nase and Untere Nase.]
+
+Thus far we have only spoken of the natural development of the strike
+rivers, those original lines of flow that follow the direction of the
+ranges. We must now observe how their course is affected by the
+development of the tributary streams that flow down the slopes of the
+ridges approximately at right angles to the strike. In the case of the
+Himalayas the rains come from southerly quarters. The damp air-current
+drifts against and over the plateau from that direction. Contact with
+the elevations against which it drifts causes the rains to fall. As the
+damp current flows further north it becomes continually dryer, so that
+less and less rain falls. Thus denudation is most energetic on the
+southern slopes. As the plateau rises its southern edge (to consider
+that alone for a moment) is most vigorously cut into by the water
+pouring down that face and forming gullies, which continuously tend to
+deepen and to cut back into the mass of the plateau. The process has
+only to go forward long enough, for the most energetic of these
+side-streams to eat its way back, right through the outermost wrinkle of
+the plateau, till it taps the first or southernmost of the strike
+rivers. From that moment the course of the strike river is changed, and
+instead of flowing away along its original valley, it turns at right
+angles and flows out through the gully cut by the side-stream, which
+thus becomes the main river. The next wrinkle is in turn attacked by the
+side-streams flowing down its south slope and in turn cut through, so
+that the second strike river becomes thus tributary to the first. And so
+the process continues.
+
+Such is the history of the formation of a great river like the Indus.
+It is filled by the robbed waters of countless smaller rivers, one by
+one drawn within its drainage area by the action of side-streams cutting
+through intervening ridges. All these rivers and their tributaries go on
+cutting their way back with ever-increasing vigour as the trunk outlet
+is lowered by their united volume. This is the process whereby an
+original plateau is sculptured into a maze of ridges and valleys. The
+towering heights we behold were never elevated in isolated magnificence.
+A different thrust did not send up the Matterhorn, the Weisshorn, and
+Monte Rosa, but all the neighbourhood was elevated by one great heaving.
+To begin with, some lines of elevation were a little higher than others,
+and they determined the position of principal peaks and ridges; but as
+the mass was elevated the hollows were engraved by the _burin_ of
+flowing water. The higher the mass was raised the deeper the hollows
+were impressed and the wider became their opening, for the self-same
+forces operate on every slope and continually eat it away and open
+side-valleys and subsidiary side-valleys into them. These forces
+operating on both sides of every ridge rapidly pull down its crest and
+ultimately round it off and reduce it lower and lower continually, so
+that it is only a question of time for the biggest mountain mass to be
+lowered to the level of the plains around it.
+
+Running water is not the only agent that has to be considered. Even
+more energetic agents act in the higher regions of frost. There the snow
+that is melted by the sun (whose dissolving power is as operative in the
+regions so-called of perpetual snow as it is below) percolates into the
+crevices of the rocks and finds out all their weak places. At night this
+water freezes, and in freezing expands, thus acting like a wedge and
+splitting the rock it has penetrated. Next time the sun shines the
+pieces thus split off may fall. Sooner or later, after repeated
+operations of the wedge, they must fall, and a new surface of rock will
+be uncovered to be split and shivered in its turn. The rocks that fall
+tumble ultimately on to the snow-fields that spread over the high open
+spaces, where they are taken charge of by the great carrying agents of
+the heights--the glaciers. The higher a peak is, relatively to its
+neighbours, the more rapidly will frost attack it, and the more
+energetic will be the destruction wrought upon it. I have heard it
+estimated, or perhaps only guessed, that 1000 tons of rock fall daily
+from the upper portion of the Matterhorn's rock-pyramid. The great peaks
+of the Himalaya are falling yet more rapidly to pieces.
+
+But what in this relation is the action of the glaciers? At one time
+they were regarded as a great abrading agency. It was thought that the
+high valleys were fashioned out by them. Later it was concluded that
+their hollowing action was a negligible quantity. The general belief now
+is that it is not considerable. Whatever may be the action of glaciers
+upon their beds, it is at all events a small matter compared with their
+action as transporting agents. Glaciers are not hoary accumulations of
+snow, collected in hollow places since the beginning of the world, as
+our forefathers supposed, but flowing streams of ice, whose rate of
+movement varies with the slope, the latitude, the mean temperature, and
+other factors of their situation. The snow that falls at high elevations
+lies in great masses where it finds lodgment, or falls to such places
+from the steep rocks which are unable to give it steady support. By
+these means it falls and drifts together into those great upper
+reservoirs we call the snow-fields--resplendent areas of purest white,
+so toilsome to cross when the sun shines hotly upon them, and so
+incomparably beautiful to look upon. Here by melting of the surface,
+percolation into the body of the snow-field, and freezing there, and by
+the pressure of the ever-increasing accumulation of snow, the substance
+is gradually changed into granulated ice, and the ice thus formed slowly
+moves down-hill. The various neighbouring streams of ice flow and unite
+together, and thus, reaching lower and lower levels and continually
+melting, they come to a line where the annual increment of snow is equal
+in amount to the depth of snow annually melted. This is called the
+snow-line. Still downward flows the mass, and now the amount melted
+becomes greater than the amount annually received. The thickness of the
+ice steadily diminishes till at last the total arrival melts and the
+glacier ends in a so-called snout.
+
+[Illustration: 18. THE FALLS OF TOSA, VAL FORMAZZA. Said to be the
+grandest in the Alps, 470 feet high. The Tosa falls in three cascades.
+The first only is shown in the picture.]
+
+The great importance of glaciers in mountain formation is the part
+they play as carrying agents. There is practically no limit to the
+weight of rock they will bear down with them in their steady
+uninterrupted flow. Whatever falls upon the glacier at any part of its
+course is carried down by it and ultimately dumped off its sides or end.
+A stone that falls on the highest rim of the snowfield will presently be
+covered up by newly-fallen snow and will be carried down at, or close
+to, the floor of the glacier, where it will either be ground to powder
+or will not emerge till it is melted out at the end of the glacier's
+snout. A stone that plunges in a crevasse to the bottom of the glacier
+will have similar experiences. Stones that tumble on to the glacier
+surface further down will not be so deeply covered by annual
+accumulations of snow, and will therefore sooner emerge again on to the
+surface by the melting away of the accumulation above them. Stones that
+fall on to the glacier below the snow-line will not be covered up at
+all, but will simply be carried down on the surface.
+
+The visible collections of stone rubbish carried by a glacier are
+called its moraines. As the surface of a glacier tends to become convex
+the moraine-stuff tends to be rolled off towards the sides, where it
+forms the right and left lateral moraines. Where two glaciers flow
+together and unite, the right lateral moraine of the one and the left of
+the other will join and be carried down as a medial moraine on the
+surface of the united glacier. Such medial moraines may be observed in
+considerable numbers flowing down, side by side, on glaciers formed by
+the union of a number of higher tributaries. First comers to the Alps,
+beholding them from a distance, or seeing them in photographs, sometimes
+have thought they were cart-ruts, thus showing how false a scale of size
+their unaccustomed vision applies to mountain views.
+
+A given kind of rock subjected to the action of frost and the other
+disintegrating forces operative at high levels, usually breaks up into
+debris of a roughly uniform average size. There will, of course, be some
+large masses and a lot of dust and gravel, but the average lump will be
+fairly uniform. A climber in a given district comes to know what to
+expect on a moraine, and he will immediately notice if the average size
+of the debris is much larger or smaller than usual. Thus, when he sees a
+debris-slope or a moraine from a distance, he is instinctively conscious
+that its granulated aspect represents great blocks of rock. That gives
+him a roughly correct scale for the view. The lowlander, who has never
+been in contact with a moraine, has no such sense, and can imagine that
+the brown streak he sees a few miles away is, as it looks to be, a mere
+line of dust. It was through the aspect of the moraines and
+debris-slopes that I first obtained an approach to a direct visual
+understanding of the vaster scale of the Himalayas than that of the
+Alps.
+
+A cliff below the snowy regions, if it does not rise out of the sea, is
+protected at its base by the debris fallen from it. What tumbles from
+above piles up below, and keeps the foot of the cliff from being eaten
+away. But a cliff or slope of rock rising out of a glacier or snow-field
+is deprived of such protection. All the stones that fall from it are
+carried away by the ice, so that the surface of the whole cliff keeps on
+peeling off, and that face of the mountain is gradually planed away.
+Where a great glacier bay reaches into the mountains this action may be
+very energetic. The whole surrounding cirque is constantly eaten at and
+continually extends its inner circumference. In some regions this action
+is more rapid than in others. Where, as in the tropics, the heat is
+great by day and the frost at high altitudes bitter by night,
+destruction goes quickly forward, and the mountains are vigorously
+reduced. Weak points in the rocky structure are soon found out. The
+range itself will be penetrated. A pass thus formed tends to be
+continuously lowered. In the neighbourhood of the greatest altitudes the
+destruction is of course most vigorous. This is the reason why, in so
+many places, alike in the Himalayas and the Andes, cross-cutting rivers
+find their way through a range by a gorge that passes quite near a
+culminating peak. The great Indus gorge below Nanga Parbat is the most
+notable instance I can recall.
+
+We have thus, in the briefest possible manner, sketched out how some of
+the chief sculpturing forces operate to form mountains. I have not
+attempted to go into detail or to explain the various corrections and
+modifications that have to be applied to make the simple outline
+correspond with facts. Some valleys are actual depressions formed by the
+caving in of the earth along a line of weakness. Every mountain region
+contains examples of such hollows. Now and again by some complication or
+intersection of the wrinkling process a small area may be forced up
+considerably higher than the surrounding elevation and thus the mass
+provided for an exceptionally high peak. Volcanic peaks also remain to
+be considered, and have been excluded from the foregoing brief survey.
+
+In the main, however, the statement is correct that the mountains of a
+region are produced by the sculpturing into ridges and subsidiary ridges
+of a great and slowly elevated mass. What begins as a growing plateau,
+passes through the stage of rocky and snowy ranges, becomes later on an
+area of undulating country, and if time sufficed would ultimately
+flatten out once more into a plain. Between the first stage and the last
+the sculpturing operations of nature pass through many phases. In the
+beginning, when the area has only just begun to rise from the level,
+those forces operate gently. Slopes are slight and streams flow easily
+down them. When the mountains have been roughly blocked out and the
+valleys precipitously deepened, the region enters into the dramatic
+stage of its history. The peaks are at their highest, the valleys at
+their deepest relatively to the heights. Cliffs are boldest, needles
+sharpest, torrents most voluminous and rapid. Now is the time when great
+mountain-falls most frequently occur. The rocks do not merely crumble
+away stone by stone, but huge masses are undermined and fall with
+gigantic crash and violence into the valleys, temporarily damming them
+across and forming lakes, which presently burst, and pour an incredible
+volume of water in destructive flood down the narrow and winding valley
+below. The flood transports and grinds up great quantities of rock and
+carries the material afar, for hundreds of miles perhaps, before the
+plain is reached and the mud deposited upon it.
+
+In the theatrical stage mud avalanches are likewise common. To produce
+them there must be a great supply of loose debris on steep rocks at a
+high level and much rapidly melting snow about them, whose water drains
+into gullies and unites in larger gullies, all with banks of rotten and
+crumbling rock. On a suitable day in early summer, when the sky is clear
+and the sun hot, the stones will fall in such numbers that they will
+plug some gully and dam back the water. It will collect and burst the
+dam, and a flow of stones, dust, and water will begin. At other
+neighbouring spots the same thing will happen, and the elements of the
+avalanche will flow together, block a larger gully, and presently burst
+that block also. So it will go on till a great mass of mud, water, and
+rocks collects somewhere and finally bursts loose in an avalanche which
+sweeps all before it.
+
+Such an avalanche I saw from close at hand on 8th July 1892, in the
+mountains of Nagar. We were walking up the right bank of a great glacier
+river, and were forced at intervals to cross its tributaries which came
+rushing down the hillside on our left. Approaching the mouth of one of
+these side gullies we heard a noise like thunder and beheld a vast black
+wave bulging down it. It passed before we arrived and there was silence
+for a few minutes. Presently the sounds of another were heard aloft, and
+it soon heaved into view--a terrific sight. The weight of the mud rolled
+masses of rock down the gully, turning them over and over like so many
+pebbles. They restrained the muddy torrent and kept it moving slowly
+with accumulating volume. Each big rock in the vanguard of the avalanche
+weighed many tons; some were about 10-foot cubes. The stuff behind them
+filled the gully some 15 feet deep by 40 wide. The thing travelled
+perhaps at the rate of seven miles an hour. Sometimes a bigger rock than
+usual barred the way till the mud, piling up behind it, swept it on. The
+avalanche ate into the sides of the gully and carried away huge
+undermined masses that fell into it. We saw three enormous avalanches of
+this sort pass down the same gully in rapid succession, and, after we
+had gone by, others followed. All the neighbouring similar gullies
+discharged such groups of mud avalanches during that period of the year.
+They are one of the chief agents used by nature to pull down mountains
+during this, the dramatic stage of their existence. The roaring
+torrential river below carries off the mud and receives the boulders in
+its bed, where they are rolled along and in time ground to powder.
+
+Mud avalanches are rare now in the Alps, and are only caused by some
+exceptional event, such as the bursting of a glacier lake. Once they
+were common. Mountain-falls of any great size are also much rarer in the
+Alps now than they were formerly or than they are in some Himalayan
+regions. Alps and Andes have passed beyond the culmination of their
+dramatic stage. The mountains of Hunza, Nagar, and North Kashmir
+generally, are in the midst of theirs.
+
+A mountaineer who has acquired a knowledge of how mountains are made,
+who has seen in action the forces I have briefly described, who has
+climbed among mountains in sunshine and storm, in heat and frost, who
+has spent nights on their cold crests, who knows how and where
+avalanches of snow, ice, and rock are likely to fall and has a realising
+sense of their force, their frequency, and their mass: a mountaineer who
+has attained by long experience a knowledge of the ways and action of
+glaciers, who can as it were feel their weight and momentum, in whose
+mind, when he looks at them, they are felt to be moving and vigorous
+agents, who sees the lines of motion upon them, their swing round
+corners, their energy in mid course, their feebleness at the
+snout:--such a man can look abroad over a mountain panorama with an
+understanding, a sense of the significance of what he beholds, which,
+far from detracting from its aspect of beauty, adds greatly to it.
+
+To him a mountain area is no confused labyrinth of valleys and tangle
+of ridges, but the orderly and logical expression of a number of forces,
+and of forces that are still operative. To him what he beholds is not a
+painting on the wall, finished and done once and for ever, but, as it
+were, a scene in a play--a scene to which others have led up, and after
+which others will follow, all linked together and arising one out of
+another in unavoidable and necessary sequence. He perceives the
+arrangement of the peaks to be as logical as that of the men in a
+regiment on parade. Each stands in its own proper place, buttressed, and
+founded upon a broad and sufficient base. Its drapery of snow is not a
+kind of fortuitous whitewashing, splashed on anyhow by the whim of a
+storm. It is a vital part of the peak to which it adheres, owing all its
+forms to the modelling of that peak--here lying in deep and almost level
+snow-fields where broad hollows exist beneath it; there breaking into a
+mass of towering seracs where it is forced to fall over a step in its
+bed; there again reuniting in a smoothly surfaced area where the bed is
+once more relatively smooth; yet again opening a system of crevasses
+where its substance is torn asunder by unequal rates of flow.
+
+[Illustration: 19. LOOKING OVER LUCERNE FROM THE DREI LINDEN. The Towers
+of the Musegg in the middle distance.]
+
+To the instructed eye it is not mysterious why one peak should be a
+tower of rock and the next a dome of snow. All the forms assumed are the
+result of a few simple causes. They express the past history of the
+action of natural forces, not difficult of comprehension. Be assured
+that the understanding eye is well rewarded for the power of
+comprehension it has slowly and perhaps laboriously acquired. Such
+understanding comes not merely by familiarity with mountain regions, and
+is not to be attained by climbing alone, no matter for how many seasons
+or with what refinement of gymnastic ability. It comes indeed only to
+the climber, to the man who makes himself familiar with the fastnesses
+of the hills by actually going amongst them; but it only comes to him if
+he avails himself of his opportunities to watch the action of Nature's
+forces when he comes in contact with them. It is not enough merely to
+see, it is necessary also to look, to examine, to remember, and to love.
+He that thus acquaints himself with the high places, will learn to know
+them as they can be known by no other. They will become to him a home,
+full of reminiscences, full of shared pleasures, full also of problems
+yet to be solved, and of hopes yet to be fulfilled. To such a
+mountain-lover weariness of mountains can never come. His climbing days
+may be ended, for whatever reason; he may cease to expect or even to
+desire to mount far aloft; but the mountains themselves, whencesoever
+seen, will remain to him a joy, permanent, indescribable, and of
+priceless worth, which he at least will hold to be superior to all other
+emotions aroused within him by the beauties of Nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF ALPS
+
+
+Relatively few Alpine climbers of the present generation know the
+Alps. They know a district or two, perhaps, though even that amount of
+knowledge is not so common as might be expected. It were truer to say
+that the normal present-day climber knows a special kind of climbing and
+only cares to go where that is to be found. The popular kind of climbing
+to-day is rock-climbing. The new mountaineer is a specialist
+rock-climber. Having once fallen in love with rock-climbing, he devotes
+himself to it, becomes more and more skilful, hunts out harder and
+harder climbs, and only cares to go where those are to be had. He has
+discovered that England is not ill-provided with such scrambles, if you
+know where to look for them; and he knows. He may be found at Easter and
+Whitsuntide in recondite gullies in Wales, the Lakes, Derbyshire, or
+Scotland. In the summer he is to be looked for among the Chamonix
+Aiguilles or in the Dolomites, or, if at other centres, then on the more
+difficult rock routes. Naturally a small area suffices him. It is not
+mountains he seeks but climbs. A single peak will afford him several, a
+small group might even occupy him for a lifetime of scrambling holidays.
+
+[Illustration: 20. FRANCOIS DEVOUASSOUD.]
+
+He does not care for easy ways. He hates snow-pounding. A glacier route
+does not attract him unless it be difficult. Hence his knowledge even of
+his own particular district or districts is likely to be incomplete. He
+is not drawn to travel far afield. A wanderer by nature he cannot be;
+nor is the wandering instinct likely to be developed in him. He does not
+care for all sorts and conditions of Alps, but for one sort. Only where
+that kind is to be found is he attracted to go. All present-day
+mountaineers, of course, are not of this type; but this is the type that
+present-day mountaineering tends to develop; and of this type the output
+is considerable.
+
+The old generation of climbers--the founders of the Alpine Club--men
+who were active in the sixties and seventies, were essentially
+wanderers. The craft of climbing was less an object of pursuit to them
+than the exploration of the Alps. Probably the reason was that they had
+the Alps to explore, and theirs was the pleasure of exploration which we
+have not. The Alps have all been explored before our coming. The old men
+had not even decent maps of the snowy regions to go by. No one knew what
+was round most upper corners, or whither passes led, or how you could
+get by high-level routes from place to place. It was a great delight to
+solve such problems, and it led climbers to become geographers and to
+interest themselves in the general structure and topography of the Alps.
+No such problems now remain to be solved. Admirable maps exist, solving
+them all. The game of exploration is played out in Central Europe. He
+that would take a hand in it now must wander further afield.
+
+Yet even now to know the Alps would be a life-work for any one. To know
+them, like the writer of a Climbers' Guide, is more than a life-work.
+For the Alps cover a much larger area than most people realise. Ordinary
+persons think of the Alps and Switzerland as almost identical, yet less
+than a third of the Alpine area is in Switzerland. By the Alps I mean
+the whole mountain area between the Mediterranean and the plains of
+North Italy, France, and Northern Europe, from where they begin at an
+arbitrary point of offshoot from the Apennines, called the Colle di
+Tenda, to where they fade out along a curved line, which may be vaguely
+described as joining Vienna to Fiume. They lie therefore in the five
+countries, Italy, France, Switzerland, Bavaria, and Austria.
+
+Very few people indeed have any considerable general knowledge of the
+whole of this great area, or indeed even any sense of the size of it and
+the main features of its chief divisions. I spent one summer in the
+attempt to traverse round along the curved middle line of it from the
+Col di Tenda at one end to the neighbourhood of Vienna at the other, and
+after walking approximately a thousand miles, including zigzags, I only
+reached the termination of the snowy ridges, but by no means that of the
+forest-covered eastern outliers. That journey, however, taught me how
+much there is to know, and enables me to realise how little I have
+actually learnt of the contents and character of the Alps as a whole.
+This one fact, however, it demonstrated to me: that the several
+divisions and subdivisions of the Alps contain varieties of scenery of
+the utmost diversity. Thus a man who knows only the great ranges of the
+Central Alps must still regard himself as ignorant of the Alps at large.
+Not only are there all sorts and conditions of peaks, but there are all
+sorts and conditions of types of scenery, and between these types there
+is as much divergence as there is between a Kentish landscape and a view
+from the Gorner Grat.
+
+In this chapter I by no means propose to describe all the regions and
+types of scenery that the Alps contain, but only to mention a few of
+them as specimens of far more numerous other types, which there is no
+space here to include or of which I am ignorant. A scientific writer
+would divide these types of scenery according to the geological nature
+of their upbuilding and substance. For instance, he would broadly
+contrast the limestone with the slaty-crystalline areas, and show how
+scenery and structure match. I propose to adopt no such rational method,
+but to roam at random through the region of old memories, and refer as
+chance directs to such types of scenery and such local varieties as
+happen to suggest themselves in turn for description or brief analysis.
+
+[Illustration: 21. AT BIGNASCO. Old Bridge over the Maggia. Shrine at
+end, looking up Val Bavona. Basodino in background.]
+
+Literally speaking, "alps" are high pastures where cattle go to graze in
+summer-time. We here use the name with no such meaning, but to designate
+the mountains in general. The Alps, _par excellence_, to the normal man
+are the great groups of snowy peaks in the heart of the Alpine area. Let
+us in the first place confine our attention to them. In popular
+estimation these groups are the following, the Dauphiny, Mont Blanc,
+Monte Rosa, Oberland, and Engadine masses. In the second rank come
+others we will refer to later.
+
+_Place au geant!_ First among all is Mont Blanc and its satellites,
+pre-eminent in size, pre-eminent also in dignity. For this group is
+really one buttressed mountain, and all its minor masses are supports to
+the central dome, like the semi-domes, vaulted porticoes and abutments
+of Hagia Sophia to the uplifted cupola. He who stands on the summit of
+the great mountain beholds that this is so. His position there is
+pre-eminent. No other neighbouring height rivals that which he occupies.
+The highest are many hundred feet below, and they are all obvious
+supporters and tributaries of Mont Blanc itself. It is only the yet
+smaller and remoter elevations that assert a claim to independence.
+
+This pre-eminence of the central mass is the key-note of Mont Blanc
+scenery. Moreover the mountain is not merely pre-eminent in altitude,
+but in volume and simplicity of form. Its upper part is a great white
+dome, whereas the buttress-peaks are for the most part rocky pinnacles.
+The contrast between these slender, jagged supports and the reposeful
+majesty of the Calotte is a most picturesque feature and a very rare
+one, not repeated, so far as I remember, in any other part of the Alps.
+It dominates the scenery of the whole district. No doubt within the
+district there are views of great beauty and considerable comprehension,
+where Mont Blanc forms no part--such, for example, as the Montenvers
+view up the Mer de Glace--but the characteristic prospects contain Mont
+Blanc as their central and most important object. This is specially true
+of all the views from summits, a quality that distinguishes them from
+summit-views in other districts. Whatever Aiguille you stand upon, and
+whatever may have been the character of the scenery passed through on
+the way up, the moment you arrive upon the top, Mont Blanc assumes the
+predominance and all else takes second rank. The ordinary summit-view,
+the wide world over, is a panorama, in which the uninterrupted roving of
+the vision round the whole circuit is the chief charm. From a minor
+summit in the Mont Blanc region, the great mountain shuts out a large
+fraction of the distant panorama and attracts chief attention to itself.
+Of the other conspicuous beauties of this district, its glorious ice
+scenery, its astonishingly precipitous crags and slender needle-peaks,
+we shall take occasion to speak hereafter. In this place it is only the
+dominant note of each locality that calls for brief description.
+
+From Mont Blanc we naturally pass to Monte Rosa and the Matterhorn.
+The fact that the two peaks call for co-ordinate attention, at once
+marks the dispersion of interest characteristic of the Pennine Alps.
+Indeed not two but nearly a dozen mountains in that group are of almost
+equal importance, each having votaries who prefer it to the rest. The
+Matterhorn, of course, is in its own way pre-eminent, if seen from
+certain points of view; but, when beheld from other summits around, it
+does not maintain an appearance of leadership. Monte Rosa from
+Macugnaga, the Dom and Taeschhorn from Saas, the Weisshorn from north or
+east, the Dent Blanche from the Triftjoch, are objects as imposing each
+in its own way as is the Matterhorn from Zermatt or the Riffelalp. That
+peak, as we shall hereafter take occasion to observe in more detail,
+surpasses them, and perhaps all the rock mountains in the world, in
+grace of outline from certain points of view. It likewise rejoices in a
+rare prestige, due to its tragic history and its geographical position.
+But to those who know it from all sides, and know its neighbours also,
+it is not the unique and dominating mountain of its district that it is
+popularly supposed to be. The Zermatt mountain area is probably best to
+be differentiated from the other great Alpine groups by the almost
+uniform magnificence and relative equality of its chief peaks. It
+resembles some splendid Venetian oligarchy as contrasted with
+monarchical Mont Blanc. The nobles of the Pennine Court with their
+satellites present greater variety, a more elaborate organisation, and a
+more varied historical record. Each seems worthy to be chief when beheld
+from a selected vantage point. Seen from elsewhere, each subordinates
+itself to some other. This is the region of large independent glaciers,
+of deep recesses, of noble passes from place to place. It is also
+specially rich in minor points of view about 10,000 feet high, and of
+good sites for hotels some 3,000 feet lower, where each possesses a
+specially fine outlook of its own, which it shares with no other. The
+dominant note of the district is grandeur; if it lacks anything, it is
+charm. This, in fact, is a stalwart group, which must be wandered over
+and inspected from many sides and along many routes. No "centre" reveals
+it. It is a place for walkers and climbers in the heyday of their
+vigour.
+
+Turn we next to the Bernese Oberland, the queen district, if Mont
+Blanc is the king. The Oberland has always seemed to me to be the most
+graceful and romantic of the great Alpine masses. The very names of its
+peaks enshrine the poetry that the peasant-dwellers on their flanks
+learned from them in days long gone by. The Maiden, the Monk, the Ogre,
+the peak of Terror, and what not. And then how richly they roll off the
+tongue--Finsteraarhorn, Lauteraarhorn, Bluemlisalp, Strahleck! No other
+part of Switzerland can rival the Oberland for names--certainly not
+Zermatt with its Meadow-peak, Red-peak, Broad-peak, Black-peak,
+White-tooth, and the like feeble designations. Easily first for beauty
+and prestige among Oberland mountains is the peerless Jungfrau--but you
+must only see her from the north. Thence she is beheld, a most effulgent
+beauty, fair among the fairest mountain visions upon earth. The elegance
+of her form, displayed and emphasised by the white samite of her
+drapery, and beheld from the lake at her foot, abides in the memory of
+all who are privileged to behold her. Only one rival does she possess in
+the district, and that is not a mountain but a glacier, the Great
+Aletsch, greatest of all in the Alps, beautiful exceedingly to look down
+upon, beautiful in its middle course, and fairest of all in the wide
+expanses of its ample gathering ground. It subordinates to itself all
+the high surrounding peaks and renders them the mere rim of its cup. To
+a less degree magnificent, yet far finer than the general run of Alpine
+glaciers, are the other chief ice-rivers of the Oberland district, which
+thus becomes _par excellence_ the home of long glacier-passes, leading
+through great varieties of mountain scenery, and connecting centres
+relatively remote. The longest and finest glacier-traverse in the Alps
+is that which leads from the Grimsel to the Loetschen valley right
+through the heart of the range.
+
+[Illustration: 22. LOOKING DOWN THE ALETSCH GLACIER FROM CONCORDIA
+HUT. Eggishorn peak dark.]
+
+Dauphiny, compared with the Pennines and the Oberland, presents to one
+sensitive to mountain character more contrasts than similarities. For
+this is an austere region, which gathers itself up together and stands
+apart, away from natural through routes and the ordinary courses of the
+human tide. Its valleys are deep, sombre, and stony; its alpine pastures
+meagre; its forests few and thin. Its peaks hide themselves behind their
+own knees. He that would know them must search them out. But they reward
+the search. It is because of the steepness of their bases that they are
+so recondite, and that very steepness gives them a dignified character
+all their own. The Meije is their typical representative, a mountain of
+strangely complex sky-line and irregular shape, that supports its own
+private glaciers cut-off upon cliffs, and presents the climber with
+surprises round every corner. Few are the regular pyramids, fewer still
+the domed snow caps in the tangled complexity of this region, where
+Nature has impressed her chisel deeply, and has hewn out the great rock
+masses with unusual ruggedness.
+
+Very different is the remote Engadine group, remarkable for the high
+level and broad expanse of the floor of its chief valley, where lake
+beyond lake reflects the summer sunshine and carries the white curtain
+of winter on its level frozen surface. A region, this, of fine forests
+and large expanses of rich grazing grounds, of picturesque torrents and
+smiling flower-strewn slopes. Its snowy group is little more than an
+appendage of minor importance to the general scenic attractions of the
+district. Two fine mountain cirques, defining the basins of two
+picturesque glaciers, are its dominant features, and in each cirque one
+peak shines forth pre-eminent. The scenery of these cirques, however, is
+not of any special character that calls for mention as distinguishing it
+from the scenery of the other great Alpine groups. The _note_ of the
+Engadine is not sounded there, but rather in the wide, lake-strewn
+valley itself, where the snow-crests count mainly as the silvery
+embellishment of its frame.
+
+[Illustration: 23. ASCONIA--ON LAGO MAGGIORE.]
+
+Climbers who have spent a season or two in each of these five groups
+may think that they know the Alps, but they will be greatly mistaken.
+Most of them, indeed, will admit that they cannot afford to neglect the
+Dolomites, and will at least intend to spend a season amongst them. From
+a scrambling point of view, if they are rock-climbers, they will be well
+rewarded, for Dolomite rock-climbing is a thing apart. Dolomite scenery
+is even more truly unique. Less grand than that of the great mountain
+groups, it has a distinction all its own. There is nothing forbidding
+about the precipitance of its cliffs and summits. Their relative
+lightness of tint and the warm suffusion of the sun-pervaded atmosphere
+that so frequently envelops them, makes their elevated parts seem almost
+to float in the sky. The visible traces of the horizontal bedding of the
+rocks that compose them render the effect of even their slenderest
+pinnacles less aspiring than that of the flaked and tilted
+slaty-crystalline spires of older and more rugged formations. Some of
+the sentiment of Italy hangs about the Dolomites. The airs that are
+drifted over them seem steeped in Italian colour, even as their names
+re-echo the music of the Italian tongue. The valleys between them soon
+dip into the level of chestnut and vine ere yet they forsake the
+mountains. The chalets are pregnant with suggestions of Italy, and the
+inhabitants possess more of Italian grace than of Swiss ruggedness. It
+is, however, colour, and especially atmospheric colour, that the mention
+of the Dolomites first calls to the mind of the votaries of those hills
+and valleys. Who that has beheld dawn or sunset on Cristallo or
+Rosengarten can forget the glorious display of rosy lights and purple
+shadows? The mountain forms are sometimes fine, oftener picturesque (as
+Titian knew). They have the rare merit of seeming to group into the
+happiest of combinations and contrasts as though by exceptional good
+luck; but the luck is of such frequent recurrence that instead of being
+an exception it must be counted the rule. In the presence of Mont Blanc
+or the Matterhorn it is natural to adore. The Dolomites men love.
+
+Such, then, are the six main groups of Alps that the ordinary run of
+tourists know. They include the most majestic scenery, but are far from
+including all the finest. There yet remain a bewildering multitude of
+minor groups and areas, each rich in its own charm. Such are the
+Maritime Alps, the Cottians around Monte Viso, the Graians led by Grand
+Paradis and Grivola, the limestone Alps of Savoy, the green hills of
+north Switzerland and Bavaria, the Lepontine Alps, the hills of the
+Italian Lakes, the Toedi, the Rhaetikon, the Adamello, Ortler, Oetzthal,
+Stubaithal, and Zillerthal snowy masses, the Hohe Tauern, the Carnic and
+Julian Alps, and various other mountain groups of Styria, Carinthia, and
+Carniola. How many of us know a tithe of all these? It is impossible
+here to do more than refer briefly to a few of them.
+
+Amongst the fairest of them all, the Maritimes should assuredly be
+reckoned, little visited though they be except by Italians. Their
+eastern and northern valleys, which alone are known to me, must be
+counted lovely, even judged by the high standard of loveliness that the
+Italian Alpine valleys set. Any one of them, transported to the midst of
+a Swiss group of mountains, would be the pearl of the district. What
+more enchanting resort can be imagined than the Baths of Valdieri,
+planted amidst umbrageous copses and beside laughing waters? Here all
+the elements of picturesque landscape group themselves together in the
+most perfect natural harmony. Nowhere in the opening season are the
+flowers more rich, the hillsides more verdant, the foliage of the trees
+more varied. Nowhere do woods climb slopes in more graceful procession.
+Nowhere are the rocks and lofty snow-peaks set in more fascinating
+frames of unexpected foreground. It is a valley of endless surprises and
+delights. Moreover, its waters are clear and glancing. They burst from
+the hillsides, tumble in crystalline brilliance over clifflets, dance
+through the meadows, and race-along beneath the shadow of beeches and
+chestnuts. No ogres, we may be sure, lurk in the fastnesses of these
+hills, but only the most delicate fairies, glittering with dew. And then
+the views from the peaks--how memorable they are, how unlike those of
+the Central Alps! For from these summits you behold always the sea, far
+stretching, and ever apparently calm. It looks indeed like any other
+sea, but you know that it is the Mediterranean with all Africa beyond
+it, away there in the sunny south. On the other side, far, far off to
+the north, is the great Alpine wall, and at your feet the sea-like
+Lombard plain. Those sweeps of flatness on either hand, how they tell in
+the midst of a mountain view! They bring into it a sense of repose.
+There Nature has finished her work of pulling down, and man can rest
+upon the fertile soil in peace. Sweet indeed is Valdieri, but it is no
+sweeter than its neighbouring glens. He that loves mountains in less
+savage mood than the great giants are wont to bear, let him fly to the
+Maritimes and he will not be disappointed.
+
+[Illustration: 24. LOCARNO FROM THE BANKS OF THE LAKE. Madonna del Sasso
+on the slope above.]
+
+Proceeding northward, the Cottians and the Tarentaise and Graians
+present loftier peaks and valleys beautiful, though lacking the richness
+and luxuriance of the Maritimes. In fact these groups stand between the
+Pennines and the Maritimes alike in position and in character. From the
+Pennines the fertile valleys are so far removed as scarcely to enter
+into the normal scenery of the region. In the Maritimes the chestnut
+woods are at the very foot of the peaks. They are further away in the
+Cottians, but not absolutely removed from the Alpine area. You may sleep
+near a vineyard one night and yet be on the snows next day. The great
+glory of the Cottians is the fine pyramid of Monte Viso, which so many
+climbers in the Swiss Alps know from afar off. It stands splendidly
+alone and commands one of the most superb panoramas in the Alps, wide
+ranging as Mont Blanc's, but seen as from the top of a tower instead of
+a slowly curving dome with a large white foreground that hides the depth
+beneath. From the Viso the sight plunges down and then flies away and
+yet away over the Lombard plain to peaks so remote as practically to
+defy identification by unaided skill of recognition.
+
+We cannot linger in the west, for our space is limited and more than
+half of it is spent. Flying eastward, then, we come next to the Italian
+valleys of the Monte Rosa group, to which indeed they belong, though I
+purposely omitted reference to them when writing of that, for in style
+of scenery they are widely different and frequented by travellers of
+another sort. Here are mountain centres indeed--Breuil, Gressoney,
+Alagna, and so forth--whence great climbs may be made. It is not in
+these centres, however, that the beauty of the valleys culminates, but
+further down. There are in fact three zones in each valley: the upper,
+which is purely Alpine though lacking the grandeur of the northern
+slope; the middle, where on either hand are found peaks that just reach
+the snow level and rise from luxuriantly afforested bases: and the
+lower, which in summer time is too hot and fly-infested to be an
+agreeable resort. The middle zone is the region of fine scenery, of
+beautiful low passes, and of superb points of view, whence the whole
+Pennine range to the north is gloriously beheld.
+
+At the lower limit of this zone stands Varallo, in the Sesia valley,
+a most beautiful resort for one jaded with the austere scenery of the
+snow and ice world. Here art and nature together claim the traveller's
+attention. The remarkable lifelike sculptures of the Sacro Monte and the
+frescoes of Gaudenzio Ferrari well deserve their wide repute, whilst the
+walk over the Col della Colma to the lake of Orta is one of the most
+charming known to me the wide world over. Once I beheld from the crest
+of the pass a cloudless sunrise on Monte Rosa, when the rosy glow of the
+snows was not more beautiful than the rich and rare violets and purples
+of the lower foreground hills.
+
+[Illustration: 25. PALLANZA--EVENING. South end of Lago Maggiore.
+Campanile of the Church of St. Leonardo, mountains of Saas in the
+background.]
+
+By this pass we may well enter the Italian Lake districts, whose fame
+is known to all. He would be a niggard indeed who should refuse to
+reckon as Alpine this gem of scenery. Many of us regard, and rightly, a
+drop down into the land of the lakes as a necessary part of a full
+Alpine holiday, the contrast between their luxuriance and high Alpine
+asceticism serving best to display the charms of each. It is indeed the
+distant prospects of the snowy range that give a finishing touch of
+utter perfection to the scenery of the lakes, the finest view-point of
+all for comprehension and perfect composition being, perhaps, the
+terrace of Santa Catarina del Sasso. The climber, however, will not
+really learn to know the lakes if he remains, as most do, idly on their
+shores. Here, if anywhere, he should ascend. Down below, save for the
+water, the scenery may be matched all round the Italian plain and in
+many a valley, but up aloft on Monte Mottarone, Monte Nudo, Monte
+Generoso, and hills of that size, you are in the presence of panoramas
+nowhere else to be matched. The Rigi, the Niesen, and their fellows
+offer corresponding but not equal prospects north of the main range; for
+though lakes and snows and wide stretches of landscape are visible from
+them, they lack vision of the Lombard plain and the magic opalescence of
+the Italian atmosphere. The mountaineer who has no experience, or if
+experienced, no joy in the grass-crowned foot-hills that flank the great
+ranges is no true mountain-lover. For such persons this book is not
+written. They have their own kinds of pleasure and reward, pleasures
+which are not low and rewards well worth the winning, but they are not
+those that I have sought after or can rightly estimate.
+
+[Illustration: 26. THE MADONNA DEL SASSO, LOCARNO. A Pilgrimage Church,
+picturesquely situated on a wooded rocky cliff high above the town and
+Lago Maggiore.]
+
+Some of the fair qualities of Italian lake scenery mingle with the
+bolder forms of the mountains of Ticino, and something of the softness
+of Maggiore's air tempers the fresh breezes falling from Ticino snows.
+Here lies the peerless Val Maggia, whose orchard-bearing floor sweeps up
+between mile after mile of noble cliffs. Here every village church and
+almost every cottage seems to have been designed and planted for
+picturesque effect. It is a valley of many gardens, trimly kept, of much
+emigrant-won prosperity, a home of the vine and the fig-tree, also of
+trout-streams and other bright-glancing waters. Comfortably habitable
+and home-suggesting is it; a place to fall in love with, which every
+visitor hopes to see again, and every native promises himself that he
+will return to for the evening of his days. Such as it is, such also are
+its neighbours. Its upper reaches are more splendid than I can suggest.
+There is a grace in their many waterfalls, a majesty in their great
+steps and verdant levels, a relative wealth in their vegetation, and a
+charm about their villages, that must be seen to be understood. Even the
+Maritimes can boast no more beautiful valley scenery.
+
+The Bergamasque Alps are, I believe, not dissimilar in character, but I
+know only the mere outskirts of them. What I have seen does not equal
+Ticino. These carry us by a natural transition to the Adamello group,
+which yields a remarkable long traverse over high-planted snows
+commanding a stupendous depth and comprehensiveness of outlook, which
+culminates in the extraordinary panorama visible from the highest point.
+
+We are thus brought back again to the dominantly snowy groups, whereof a
+number remain yet uncharacterised. First among these secondary masses
+the Ortler and its fellows call for mention--a group far better known by
+our German and Italian colleagues than by ourselves. The chief peaks,
+though built on a smaller scale, have much of the apparent bulk and
+grandeur of the greater masses of the Central Alps. Their ice-walls and
+their glacier scenery in general are of the grand type. Like the great
+peaks, too, they are withdrawn from southern luxury. When all is said,
+however, they remain second-rate, nor can I recall any special note of
+beauty by which this district is distinguished.
+
+The Oetzthal, Stubaithal, and Zillerthal groups, which follow one
+another to the eastward, are, I think, in better case; though they have
+lost in charm by the rapid shrinkage of their glaciers since I first
+knew them almost thirty years ago. The average height of the peaks is
+small when the large area of glacier they support is considered.
+Formerly the glaciers were much larger. Several that I knew have utterly
+vanished, and the largest are greatly reduced. The snow-fields, however,
+still retain their wide expanse. In consequence of the smallness of the
+peaks, a greater number of them exist in a given area than elsewhere in
+the snowy Alpine regions. This makes the foregrounds in the summit views
+more complex. As the scale does not obtrude itself, the eye magnifies
+it, and the result is an imposing effect. A similar effect of complexity
+struck me in Spitsbergen, where the peaks are very much smaller still,
+and group themselves so closely together that they seem to form a spiny
+tangle at once puzzling to the topographer and pleasing to the lover of
+mountain varieties. Owing to the smallness of scale of the Stubai peaks,
+for instance, you can climb two or three of them in a single day from a
+high-planted hut, and thus behold in the afternoon a peak you climbed in
+the morning. Such wandering about at high levels is a new and agreeable
+experience to mountaineers accustomed to the long scrambles that the
+greater ranges afford.
+
+The Hohe Tauern, which splits into the two groups, dominated
+respectively by the Gross Glockner and Gross Venediger, scarcely calls
+for other remark, from a scenic point of view, than what was said about
+the Ortler. The panoramas from the two chief peaks are unusually fine, a
+quality which they share with three or four of the main elevations of
+the three groups just referred to. The glacier scenery of the northern
+slope of the Venediger and the southern of the Glockner group is the
+finest in Tirol, whilst the Glockner itself is built on great lines, has
+the qualities of a true giant, and affords some climbing of a high
+order. If the reader, however, will consent to descend from these
+superior considerations to others of a more practical character, his
+attention may be called to the fact that, in this many-hutted district,
+facilities are afforded to a climber which he will not often find
+equalled elsewhere except in one or two minor Tirolese groups. So
+numerous and large are the huts, and so well provided with all the
+necessaries for life and reasonable comfort, that it is almost
+superfluous to carry food, or for a party of moderately experienced
+climbers to require the services of a guide. There are huts where you
+can breakfast, lunch, dine, and sleep at convenient intervals. If this
+tends to destroy the charm of solitude, which is one of the greatest
+that the regions of snow usually afford, it enables even the average
+climber to wander more freely than he can elsewhere, and less burdened
+with baggage or the often unsympathetic companionship of a guide. The
+gain more than compensates most men for the loss, and makes this
+district specially deserving of the guideless amateur's attention.
+
+Of regions further east and south I cannot write, knowing only from
+personal acquaintance the mountains near the Semmering pass, and the
+hills between them and Vienna. Here the forest scenery is the great
+charm. The forest-clad hills and deep hidden lakes of the Salzkammergut,
+North Tirol, and the Bavarian uplands must at least be mentioned. They
+belong to what we English may describe as the Scotland of the Alps. No
+lover of mountains will deny the potent charm of forests, especially in
+hilly country richly watered. Their sombre gloom matches many a human
+mood.
+
+Not all scenery is alike grateful to every one, or to any one at all
+times. It behoves a traveller to know his own mood and to choose a
+resort that matches it. If he wants solitude, he should not select
+Zermatt or Chamonix. If he abounds in energy, he should not look to
+lakes and mild climates for its satisfaction. If he loves variety, he
+should not plant himself in the midst of a mainly snow-clad region. One
+district will suit him best in one year, another in another. That will
+not delight him equally in maturity which enlists the strongest
+enthusiasm of his youth. But the variety that is in the Alps at large is
+infinite. There will always be discoverable the right thing for each who
+cares to search it out.
+
+The habit of constantly returning to the same spot may almost be
+regarded as a vice to be avoided.
+
+
+    "To give space for wandering is it
+    That the world was made so wide."
+
+
+Assuredly the wanderer has most rewards. The more he knows of other
+regions, the more is the significance increased of the view which he at
+any moment beholds, and so much the more capable does his eye become of
+recognising all sorts and varieties of beauty. But this is only true of
+one who travels with observant eyes and receptive understanding. It is
+possible to travel far and wide without ever really seeing anything.
+Such travel is the merest waste of energy. To travel should be to learn;
+but travelling is only learning when the traveller makes learning his
+purpose.
+
+Discrimination is the quality that distinguishes intelligence from
+brutal greed. It differentiates the _gourmet_ from the _gourmand_. It
+divides the mountain-lover from the common peak peak-hunter. It is the
+quality that continues growing longest, whose exercise is never
+wearisome, whose reward is always increasing. To be able to discriminate
+between the qualities of different Alpine regions and to appreciate all
+their varied merits is to know the Alps. All that it has been possible
+to do in the present chapter is to indicate in briefest terms some of
+the characteristic charms of the principal regions, known incompletely
+to the present writer, and by him but feebly grasped. He ventures to
+hope that even this sketch, slight and falteringly drawn as it is, may
+yet serve to suggest to some readers a whole world of delights, which,
+if they choose, they may immediately enter into and possess.
+
+By all means visit the famous centres. A true instinct has marked them
+out and made them widely known as specially calculated to awaken the
+imagination of the town-dwelling modern world. But do not regard them as
+the whole Alps; do not start with the assurance that there alone is
+Alpine beauty to be found in highest perfection. For you, perhaps, the
+highest Alpine beauty resides in less well advertised localities. Let
+each seek out for himself that which he can most keenly enjoy. It will
+be his possession and not another's. Let him take it to his soul. But
+let him also remember that there are other capacities, which he does not
+possess or has not yet developed, and that for them also the mountains
+great and small possess powers of satisfaction as rich and manifold as
+any he has himself experienced.
+
+[Illustration: 27. LOCARNO AT SUNSET, AND NORTH END OF LAGO MAGGIORE]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MOODS OF THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+Mountains do not merely vary from district to district, but from time
+to time. Were it not so, how soon should we tire of any single outlook
+or the neighbourhood of any one centre! They change from hour to hour
+with the incidence of sunlight, and from day to day with the passing
+season of the year. They change also, often from moment to moment, with
+the inconstancy of the weather. In fact they are never twice absolutely
+the same. In the heyday of our scrambling enthusiasm, we perhaps
+regarded this variability of the mountains with less satisfaction than
+it obtains from us later. We should have chosen an unbroken series of
+long and cloudless days, with the snow all melted from the rocks, and
+the summit views all complete in cloudless, transparent visibility. Yet
+even then we found a singular joy in snatching an ascent in some brief
+fine interval between two spells of bad weather. Whereas the details of
+many a featurelessly fine ascent have passed from our minds, which of us
+does not remember, and recall with a keen delight, climbs accomplished
+in the teeth of storms, when Nature seemed to stand forth as an
+antagonist whom we wrestled fiercely with, and joyously overcame?
+
+We may regard mountain moods from two points of view; as experienced by
+the climber, and as affecting the aspect of mountain scenery when beheld
+from a greater or less distance. The circumstances of his sport, though
+in most cases they restrict the climber to one season of the year,
+fortunately compel him to be on mountains at almost all hours of the
+twenty-four. Most sports are functions of daylight; the climber must
+travel by night as frequently as by day. None better than he, unless it
+be the astronomer, knows the full secrets of midnight beauty. What
+climber's memory is not stored with priceless recollections of the night
+and its myriad voices, its noble diapason. By day the eye is supreme; by
+night the ear. Then it is, when marching along upland valleys, that one
+hears the full chorus of the rushing torrent, now booming close at hand,
+accompanied by infinite ripplings and splashings of little waves, now
+fainter and more sibilant but no less musical in the distance. Then,
+too, it is that the breezes sing most sweetly among the trees; then that
+the glaciers are most melodious, the moulins most tuneful; then, too, on
+the highest levels, that the ultimate silences are most impressive. The
+hum of a falling stone, the rattle of a discharge of rocks, the boom of
+an avalanche, the crack of an opening crevasse, all these sounds should
+be heard framed in the silence of night, when the sense of hearing is
+most alert and the imagination most easily stirred.
+
+Who does not recall the velvety darkness of the sleeping valleys
+through which he passed near the midnight hour when just setting forth
+for some long ascent? How that contrasted with and set off the
+brilliancy of the star-spangled sky, where Orion, the Alpine climber's
+heavenly guide, shone over some col or darkly perceptible ridge, and
+bade him expect the coming of the day. Then, as the trees are left
+behind and the open alp is reached, while night still reigns in her
+darkest hour, how sweet are the airs, how uplifting the sense of
+widening space and enlarging sky, how stimulating the wonder of the
+vaguely felt glaciers and mountain-presences around!
+
+Oftenest perhaps it is moonlight when the climber starts earliest
+upon his way; then indeed he beholds glorious scenes and revels in the
+sight, nor envies his sleeping friends in the valley below. Ah! dearly
+remembered splendours of full moonshine upon the snow! how gladly we
+retain the images of you in the very treasury of our hearts! Yet who
+shall attempt to draw them forth for another, or write down even a faint
+suggestion of their beauty for those by whom they have never been
+beheld? Surely at no time are the great snows endowed with more dignity,
+more of the impressiveness of visible size, more aspect of aloofness, of
+belonging to another and a nobler world, than when the full moon shines
+perfectly upon them. And then, too, how the snow-fields glisten over all
+their wide expanse, yet with a pale effulgence that does not paralyse
+the eye! What velvet blackness embellishes the shadows! How the rocks
+are fretted against the snow! How clear are the foregrounds of glacier;
+how spiritual are the distant peaks; how softly lies the faint light in
+the deep hollows! Surely Night, the ancient Mother, speaks with a voice
+which all her children understand.
+
+[Illustration: 28. MOONLIGHT IN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM THE TOSA FALLS.]
+
+At such hours and amidst such scenes the mere onlooker oftenest shivers
+and suffers, so that half the beauty escapes him; but the active
+mountaineer, keenly awake, with the blood alive within him and a day of
+hopes ahead, misses no sight that he is capable of seeing, yet dreams,
+who shall say what visions of beauty that flit before his mind and
+vanish in swift succession. And then--suddenly--he turns his head and
+there in the east--always unexpected--is the bed of white that heralds
+the day. The night is dying. Her rich darks and whites grow pallid. Each
+moment a layer of darkness peels off. The sky turns blue before one
+knows it; the rocks grow brown; there is blue in the crevasses, and
+green upon the swards--all low-toned yet distinct. Faint puffs of warm
+air come, we know not whence, touch our faces, and are gone. The lantern
+has been extinguished; we stride out more freely; the day awakens within
+us also.
+
+Now is displayed in all its magnificence the daily drama of the dawn.
+While the mists yet lie cold and grey in the deep valleys, they glow
+against the eastern horizon, where all the spectrum is slowly uprolled,
+more and more fiery beneath, as it tends to red, and cut off below by
+the jagged outline of countless peaks, looking tiny, away off there on
+the margin of the world. Low floating cloudlets turn to molten gold. The
+horizon flames along all its fretted eastern edge, a narrow band of
+lambent light, a smokeless crimson fire. The belt of colour grows
+broader; it swamps and dyes the cloudlets crimson. Long pink streamers
+of soft light strike up from where the sun is presently to appear. The
+great moment is at hand. All eyes rove around the view. At last some
+near high peak salutes the day; its summit glowing like a live coal
+drawn from a furnace. Another catches the light and yet another. The
+glory spreads downwards, turning from pink to gold, and from gold to
+pure daylight, and then--lo! the sun himself upon the horizon! a point
+of blinding light, soon changing to the full round orb. The day has
+come, and the long shadows gather in their skirts and prepare to flee
+away.
+
+Now comes the climber's most perfect hour. He shares the strength and
+promise of the young day. The fresh crisp air seems to lift him from the
+earth. The sense of the very possibility of fatigue vanishes. He
+rejoices in his might. He looks forward with confidence to no matter
+what difficulties may lie ahead. The snow is hard and crisp beneath his
+feet. The ice-crystals merrily crepitate as they break up, when the
+bonds of frost are withdrawn. And now the patch of rocks, or other
+convenient resting place, where breakfast is to be taken, is soon
+attained. Packs are cast off. It is an hour of perfect delight. The
+heart of the upper regions has been reached. The fair world of snow
+opens on every side. The valleys and habitable places are all forgotten.
+The scenery is superb. At such a time and place who would exchange with
+folks below, be they never so prosperous?
+
+It is soon time to be on the way once more. The fulness of the day
+gradually comes on with all its pains and glories. The sun climbs
+triumphantly aloft and sheds its burning radiance all around. Foreground
+details vanish in excess of light, but the distances grow more distinct.
+What is nearer stands out before what is more remote. The eye ranges
+afar and feasts upon the widening panorama, which about noon, let us
+hope, suddenly becomes complete, for we are on the top. No daylight is
+now too brilliant to reveal all the multitudinous effect of what is
+spread abroad to be beheld. The burning snowfields are below. The mere
+foreground of our vision is miles away. We look down into sunlit valleys
+sprinkled with tiny dots of houses and narrow lines of roads. We gaze
+afar over ridge beyond ridge, it may be to some wide-stretching plain or
+ultimate crest of remotest ranges. All swims in light, and we triumph in
+its very exuberance.
+
+Then follows the afternoon of our descent. We plunge into
+ever-thickening air as we go down. It is penetrated with the dust and
+flurry of the day. As the hours advance it sheds an ever mellower tone
+upon the views. Fatigue seems to invade the earth itself as it does our
+own limbs. We gain the grassy places once more, as the sun begins to
+lose its towering eminence of place. The rope and all its strenuous
+suggestions has been discarded, and at length the most toilsome parts of
+the expedition are over. We can fling ourselves upon the grass by some
+babbling brook, with the clanging of cattle-bells not far away, and the
+haunts of men pleasantly adjacent. The peaks we have sought out are not
+yet very far away. We can still follow the traces of our own footsteps
+upon their flanks. Their spirit is in us. All that we have so recently
+seen and felt is still present in our minds, as we gaze with newly
+instructed eyes upon the places we have visited.
+
+[Illustration: 29. A MOUNTAIN PATH, GRINDELWALD]
+
+The last walk remains, down through the gathering trees, through
+new-mown hay-fields, past little farms clustering on the hillside--down
+and ever down into the embrace of the narrowing earth, which holds out
+arms of recognition to us, her children and the special votaries of her
+shrines. When at length the mellow evening light is warm upon the
+hillsides, and the rich shadows are creeping down upon it, we reach the
+village where we are to rest. There, as we sit before some hospitable
+inn, and gaze yet once again back to the heights whence we have come,
+the sunset fires are lit upon them when the shades of night already fill
+the valleys. For a moment the topmost summits facing west glow with the
+gold and fade to the rose that ushered in the day and now glorify its
+close. The colour is withdrawn. The warmth fades out of all the view.
+Pallor supervenes, and "layer on layer the night comes on."
+
+Such are the normal effects and sequences of a fine Alpine summer day;
+but days of that sort are rare. Usually what we call "weather"
+intervenes to break the normal sequence with surprises that should not
+be unwelcome. I have thus far referred mainly to the drama of the
+sunshine; but more varied, more fascinating, more adventurous is the
+drama of the clouds, those mist mountains that come and go, forming
+ranges loftier than the hills, whiter than the snows, but endowed with
+the two-fold gifts of inaccessibility and evanescence. Them we can
+neither climb nor map. Clouds we have with us everywhere, but it is
+among mountains that we learn to know them, how they form and fade,
+mount aloft or drift asunder. The mountain clouds have a plainlier
+realised individuality than those that pass over cities and plains.
+Their positions and relative altitudes are more easy to fix, their
+changes more readily perceived.
+
+It is not my intention here to analyse at length the characters and
+forms of clouds from the picturesque point of view. That has been most
+suggestively and eloquently attempted by Ruskin in various chapters of
+_Modern Painters_, which every mountain-lover should have read. One
+correction only of that fine description of mountain-clouds will I
+venture to make, the point being of some importance. "I believe," wrote
+Ruskin, "the true cumulus is never seen in a great mountain region, at
+least never associated with hills. It is always broken up and modified
+by them.... The quiet, thoroughly defined, infinitely divided and
+modelled pyramid never develops itself. It would be very grand if one
+ever saw a great mountain peak breaking through the domed shoulders of a
+true cumulus; but this I have never seen."
+
+Whether it be true that cumulus cloud is never formed in the Alps I
+cannot say, my own notes not being accessible to me at this moment and
+my memory at fault; but this I can assert, that, in the heart of the
+great ranges, Himalayas and Andes, they frequently and magnificently
+occur. Never shall I forget the piled splendours, the divided and
+involved intricacies of rounded forms, the stupendous mass of the great
+towers of white cloud which I have often seen, with their level bases
+just upon or just above the summits of mountains more than 20,000 feet
+high, and their sharply outlined crests 15,000 or even 20,000 feet
+higher. Such clouds are only formed in warm uniformly ascending air
+currents, undisturbed by variable winds. They never form about peaks,
+but they form beside or above them. Often in Bolivia have I seen these
+great towers of mist rise with majestic deliberation behind the long
+white crest of the Cordillera Real, till they reduced the snowy peaks to
+mere pigmies at their feet. Then the afternoon wind would take them and
+bend them over the range like waves about to break. White island masses
+would sever themselves one by one and, passing the crest of the
+watershed, would drift away over the high plateau. If cumulus is formed
+in the Alpine region, its base would doubtless there also lie above the
+level of the snows, and the form of the clouds would not be realised by
+an observer in the mountain region. From Turin or Milan, gazing
+northward, immense masses of cumulus are often seen, but I have never
+yet been able to discover whether their bases rest on the snows or
+whether they merely lie above the foothills and lake-district.
+
+The clouds that belong to mountains, that arise upon their slopes and
+crests, and are the vestments they wear in the great ceremonies of
+Nature, these are of another sort. The climber knows them from within
+and has a very different sense of their meaning from his who merely
+watches them from afar off. Mr. Whymper in a well-known passage
+describes how he spent the best part of two days on the Matterhorn,
+wrestling with a violent storm. On his arrival at Zermatt, he learned
+from the inn-keeper that the weather had been fine but for "that small
+cloud" on the Matterhorn's flank. Such is the difference between being
+in some clouds and seeing them from below.
+
+[Illustration: 30. THE ALETSCHHORN. Clouds gathering at sunset.]
+
+Climbers, as a rule, begin their ascents by night, in weather which
+they at least hope will prove fine. In doubtful weather nights are
+relatively cloudless, unless it be in valleys. Not infrequently, indeed,
+a bed of cloud will lie in a valley when all the upper regions are
+clear. I well remember once starting from Zermatt for an ascent of one
+of Monte Rosa's peaks at as black a midnight as can be conceived. Not a
+star shone in the heavy sky. An hour's walking brought us into a thick
+fog, but we pushed on and up. It lay quite still. Just before dawn we
+rose above it and could almost feel our passing out through its clearly
+defined upper surface. We looked abroad over its level surface as a
+leaping fish may be imagined to see around it the surface of a lake. All
+above was absolutely clear. The day that followed was radiantly fine and
+the mist lake presently faded away. Such views of mountains rising out
+of a level sea of cloud are always felt to be wonderful. Sella's
+photograph of the Caucasus range thus islanded is the best-known example
+of that kind of view. It is not uncommon in mountain regions. I have
+described examples of it in Spitsbergen and the Andes which need not be
+quoted here.
+
+Oftener the climber starts beneath the stars. His first attention is
+paid to their aspect. If they seem unusually bright and twinkling, he
+augurs ill of his prospects, but holds on, hoping for the best. Dark
+sky-islands indicate the presence of clouds here and there. He trusts
+that the rising sun may clear them away. In due season the dawn breaks,
+perhaps in unusual and threatening grandeur, the light pouring along
+"wreathed avenues" of advancing clouds and illuminating with its rich
+tints the cloud-banners flying from precipitous peaks. Worst of all is
+it if umbrella clouds seem to float stationary above the tops of rounded
+snowy summits. Then indeed there is little ground left for hope. These
+cloud-caps, just lifted off the heads of the mountains to which they
+belong, consist of vapour in rapid movement and always imply a strong
+wind. The mist condenses to windward of the summit, blows over it, and
+dissolves to leeward, thus making the cloud-cap appear stationary,
+though every particle composing it is in rapid motion. Similar is the
+internal composition of a cloud-banner, though the movement of its parts
+is more easily perceived.
+
+Oftenest, however, at the hour of dawn there is little wind, and the
+mists condense lazily, forming, fading, forming again in the most
+whimsical fashion. Or they eddy in hollow places, and reach forth over
+depressions uncanny arms, which grasp and wither away and return again
+as though in doubt what to attack. An hour may pass in this weird
+performance, and then after all the sun may conquer and the misty
+battalions be swallowed up. But that is unusual. Generally, after some
+preliminary skirmishing, the moment comes when they gather themselves
+together, as by word of command, and, coming on in united force, swallow
+up the mountain world.
+
+This final onrush is often a most magnificent and solemn sight. The
+gathering squadrons of the sky grow dark and seem to hold the just
+departed night in their bosoms. Their crests impend. They assume
+terrific shapes. They acquire an aspect of solidity. They do not so much
+seem to blot out as to destroy the mountains. Their motion suggests a
+great momentum. At first too they act in almost perfect silence. There
+is little movement in the oppressively warm air, and yet the clouds boil
+and surge as though violently agitated. They join together, neighbour to
+neighbour, and every moment they grow more dense and climb higher. To
+left and right, one sees them, behind also and before. The moments now
+are precious. We take a last view of our surroundings, note the
+direction we should follow, and try to fix details in our memories, for
+sight will soon be impossible. Then the clouds themselves are upon us--a
+puff of mist first, followed by the dense fog. A crepitating sound
+arises around us; it is the pattering of hard particles of snow on the
+ground. Presently the flakes grow bigger and fall more softly, feeling
+clammy on the face. And now probably the wind rises and the temperature
+is lowered. Each member of our party is whitened over; icicles form on
+hair and moustache, and the very aspect of men is changed to match the
+wild surroundings. Under such circumstances the high regions of snow are
+more impressive than under any other, but climbers must be
+well-nourished, in good hard condition, and not too fatigued, or they
+will not appreciate the scene. No one can really know the high Alps who
+has not been out in a storm at some great elevation. The experience may
+not be, in fact is not, physically pleasant, but it is morally
+stimulating in a high degree, and aesthetically grand. Now must a
+climber call up all his reserves of pluck and determination. He may have
+literally to fight his way down to a place of shelter. There can be no
+rest, neither can there be any undue haste. The right way must be found
+and followed. All that can be seen is close at hand and that small
+circle must serve for guidance. All must keep moving on with grim
+persistence, hour after hour. Stimulants are unavailing and food is
+probably inaccessible. All depends upon reserve stores of health and
+vigour, and upon moral courage. To give in is treason. Each determines
+that he for his part will not fail his companions. Mutual reliance must
+be preserved.
+
+[Illustration: 31. THE GROSSER ALETSCH-FIRN FROM CONCORDIA HUT. The
+Loetschenluecke on the extreme left.]
+
+At first the disagreeable details are most keenly felt by contrast,
+but, when an hour has passed and the conflict is well entered upon, they
+are forgotten. We become accustomed to our surroundings and can, if we
+will, observe them with a deliberate interest. How the winds tear the
+mists about! There is no constant blast of air, but a series of eddying
+rushes, which come and pass like the units of an army. Each seems to
+possess an individuality of its own. Each makes its attack and is gone.
+One smites you in the face; another in the back. Some seem not devoid of
+humour; they sport with the traveller in a grim way. Others are filled
+with rage. Others come on as it were reluctantly.
+
+The aspect of the foreground rapidly changes. Rocks and stones
+disappear under a thickening blanket of snow. What was a staircase on
+the way up is found to be a powdery snow-slope in the forced descent.
+The new snow is soft like a liquid. It flows into the footprints and
+blots them out. Can it be that there are places somewhere where it is
+warm and dry--places with roofs over them and snug chimney corners and
+hot things to eat and drink? How strange the idea already seems! We
+belong to another world and feel as though we had always belonged to it.
+Civilised life is like some dream of a bygone night, and this that we
+are in is the only reality. It, in its turn, we know, will hereafter
+seem to have been a dream, but now it is the only fact. Here is the
+world of ice in the making. This is what snow-fields and glaciers come
+from. Unpleasant is it? Well perhaps! but it is good to have had such
+experiences. They develop a man's confidence, employ his powers, and
+enrich his memory.
+
+After all it is the snow regions in their days of storm that I remember
+best. One tempest that overwhelmed us on the flanks of Mount Sarmiento
+in Tierra del Fuego--how clearly even its details arise upon the
+lantern-screen of recollection! We were looking back northward over the
+Magellan channels towards the southern extremity of the South American
+continent, and a storm was pouring down thence upon us. "The darkness in
+the north was truly appalling. It seemed not merely to cover, but to
+devour the wintry world. The heavens appeared to be falling in solid
+masses, so dense were the skirts of snow and hail that the advancing
+cloud-phalanx trailed beneath it. Black islands, leaden waters, pallid
+snows, and splintered peaks disappeared in a night of tempest, which
+enveloped us also almost before we had realised that it was at hand. A
+sudden wind shrieked and whirled around us; hail was flung against our
+faces, and all the elements raged and rioted together. All landmarks
+vanished; the snow beneath was no longer distinguishable by the eye from
+the snow-filled air."
+
+Sometimes the wind blows with a fury that is almost irresistible. I have
+this note of such an experience. "The wind struck us like a solid thing,
+and we had to lean against it or be overthrown. It lulled for an
+instant, and we advanced a few yards; then it struck us again, and we
+gripped the mountain and doubted whether we could hold on. A far milder
+gale than this would suffice to sweep men from a narrow arete. It was
+not only strong, but freezing. It dissolved the heat out of us so
+rapidly that we could almost feel ourselves crystallising like so many
+Lot's wives. We stood up to it for a minute or two, then rushed back
+into shelter and took stock of our extremities. My finger-tips had lost
+all sensation. It was enough."
+
+Such raging tumults of the air are not a very common alpine
+experience, though most climbers have had to encounter them. Sometimes
+the air is still, or only gently in motion, while dense clouds envelop
+peak and glacier. Then a great silence reigns, which yet is not like the
+silence of night. It seems of a denser, more positive sort. Strange
+sounds punctuate it in times of heavy snow-fall. There are slidings from
+rocks, dull sunderings of snow-drifts grown too heavy to retain their
+unstable positions. There are crackings in deep beds of snow, newly
+formed. Small avalanches of snow fall with a cat-like, velvety movement,
+more of a flowing than a fall. Stones plunge with a dim thud into
+snow-drifts. All these sounds are heard, but the moving objects, though
+perhaps quite near at hand, remain invisible. We feel ourselves to be in
+the midst of unseen presences and activities, and instinctively picture
+them as hostile.
+
+In the midst of such a silence the first boom of thunder breaking on
+the ear sounds solemn indeed. It may be a distant discharge, and the
+next will be nearer. But often the very cloud that envelops us is the
+thunderer, and the first clap is quite close at hand. If so, it will not
+so much boom as rattle, re-echoing from the rocks amongst or near which
+it strikes. It has not come unforeseen. The air has been electrical for
+some time. We have felt cobwebs upon our faces. Perhaps our ice-axes are
+hissing, and we may have felt a shock or two from them. With the
+breaking of the storm comes hail that spatters the rocks and pricks over
+the snow. The discharges multiply in frequency, and if we are in the
+heart of the storm we hear them now on one side, now on the
+other--rattling like the volley-firing of scattered companies. Seldom,
+at high altitudes, are the individual discharges very violent, though
+being near at hand they sound loud enough. The mountain is exchanging
+electricity with the clouds over all its surface at a number of suitable
+points. Many climbers have been struck by lightning, but few are known
+to have been killed, though lightning-stroke may have been the cause of
+mysterious accidents never accounted for. As a rule there is noise
+enough to produce a great impression; there is a sense of the power and
+activity of nature's forces; but there is little absolute danger.
+
+Very different is the sensation of being in the midst of fine weather
+clouds, such as are often encountered before sunrise, but dissolve and
+disappear as the power of the sun increases. I well remember a beautiful
+experience of the kind upon the Rutor. The night had been overcast; when
+dawn appeared, the mists only seemed to thicken. We reached the summit
+crest and felt our way over the other side and down. We knew from the
+map that a great snow-field was sloping away before us in gentle
+undulations.
+
+"We could not see it, nor indeed could we see anything except a small
+area of flat ripple-surfaced snow, losing itself in all directions in
+the delicate sparkling mist, through which the circle of the soaring sun
+now began to be faintly discerned. With compass and map we determined
+the direction to be followed, and down we went over admirably firm snow.
+Seldom have I been in lovelier surroundings than those afforded by the
+rippled _neve_ and the glittering mist. The air was soft. A perfect
+silence reigned. Nothing in sight had aspect of solidity; we seemed to
+be in a world of gossamer and fairy webs. Presently there came an
+indescribable movement and flickering above us, as though our bright
+chaos were taking form. Vague and changeful shapes trembled into view
+and disappeared. Low, flowing light-bands striped the white floor. Wisps
+of mist danced and eddied around. A faint veil was all that remained,
+and through it we beheld with bewildered delight all the glory of the
+Mont Blanc range, from end to end and from base to summit, a vision of
+bridal beauty. Last of all, the veil was withdrawn and utter clearness
+reigned all around."
+
+Such sudden and unexpected withdrawals of the cloud curtains, such
+revelations and surprises are amongst the most transcendently beautiful
+effects that the mountain-climber is privileged to behold. They amply
+repay hours of fog, and compensate for days of bad weather. But even if
+the fog remain, blotting out all distant views, it often provides a
+setting for near objects, which gives them an emphasis amounting to a
+revelation. Many of my readers must have beheld great serac towers of
+ice looming out of mist, and magnified by it into excess of grandeur.
+Never is an ice-fall so imposing as when traversed in not too dense a
+fog. What a sense of poise between heaven and earth is received when one
+is in a steep couloir which vanishes into mist above and below.
+
+[Illustration: 32. THUNDERSTORM BREAKING OVER PALLANZA. Sketch made out
+of window. Dust of the streets swept before it in clouds.]
+
+I look back with special pleasure to several days of wandering over a
+series of snow passes, which had never been traversed before by any
+member of our party, when we had to feel our way over, through
+snow-storms and clouds by help only of map and compass. They were easy
+Tirolese passes, which might have proved monotonous in fine weather, but
+the prevailing conditions made them intensely interesting and even
+exciting, for the easiest pass may prove difficult if you miss the
+actual col. How closely we watched the undulations of the glacier, and
+how keenly we analysed the formation of the rocks. Every hint of
+structure was important. None could be neglected. No step could be taken
+without thought. An ordinary crevassed glacier required careful
+negotiation. Those occasional rifts in the clouds that made manifest now
+some isolated point of rock, now some icy wall, now some corniced crest
+of snow, were a series of framed pictures passed in review. We enjoyed
+no panoramas, but the mountain detail that was forced upon our close
+attention was no whit less beautiful.
+
+As for the low-level bad weather views, it is seldom that a traveller
+can bring himself into a mood to regard them sympathetically. We are not
+seals, and water is not our element. The oncoming of bad weather, beheld
+from below, is a grievance to the holiday-maker. He may admit that it is
+accompanied by impressive appearances, but he cannot pretend to
+appreciate them. It is not till days of rain have followed one another,
+and disgust has given place to resignation, that he is driven to face
+the elements and seek for consolation in activity. Clouds lie low and
+rain is pouring from them, but he must sally forth. Before long he loses
+sense of discomfort and finds himself entering into the spirit of the
+day. The pouring clouds are a low roof over his head; their margins rest
+on the pines, defining the tops of some and half-burying others. Every
+outline is softened, every form vague. Perhaps a glacier snout looms
+dimly forth, with all the stones upon it glistening with wet. Everything
+is wet and all local colours are enhanced. The grass glistens in every
+blade; so do the flowers, and the pebbles on the foot-path. How sweetly
+everything smells. All has been washed clean. There are no dusty bushes.
+Water drips and tinkles everywhere. Little springs arise every few
+yards; runlets fall down every bank. An infinite number of little treble
+voices unite in the chorus, and can be heard near at hand alone. Further
+off they are lost in the great "whish" that fills the air. Surely the
+clouds must be draining themselves dry! But, no! They form as fast as
+they fall. One sees them gathering at the edge by the trees. Long
+stretches of mist lie on the hills below the general level, or move
+slowly along,
+
+
+    "Reach out an arm and creep from pine to pine."
+
+
+Soon he is up amongst them. There it is not so much rain that falls, it
+is a general dissolution.
+
+From such a walk one returns a happier creature. Next day, perhaps, the
+weather will clear. The sun will shine on a glistening world and the
+clouds will melt away. Then we see the low-lying fresh snow shining on
+the green alps, and all the great rock-peaks glittering aloft in a
+new-shed glory. The sky is unwontedly clear and so definitely blue; the
+trees and grass so green; the snow so white. The early morning moments
+of such a day are precious indeed. Diamond rain-drops deck grass and
+pine-needles. There is radiance upon all the earth and freshness in the
+air. The discomforts of the past are forgotten. We are rested and eager
+for movement, and the world summons us forth. Nature, after all, knows
+best, and he is happiest who yields himself, whether in the mountains or
+elsewhere, to perfect sympathy with her many moods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+MOUNTAINS ALL THE YEAR ROUND
+
+
+In the chequer-boards of most men's lives, the squares they can allot
+to the joys of mountain travel are coincident with summer seasons. Thus
+most of us cannot know the snow mountains all the year round, but only
+in their warm-weather garb. It may be claimed that then they are at
+their best, but such claims, in the case of Nature, are untenable.
+Nature is never or always at her best. One star may differ from another
+star in glory, but not in beauty; for beauty is in the eye that beholds,
+rather than in the thing that is beheld. A particular effect in nature
+may be more attractive than another to a particular man, but that is not
+really a measure of the beauty of the effect, but of the capacity of the
+man. None of us can discover all beauty; none of us can always behold
+beauty in everything; but all of us together can find beauty everywhere
+and always in what Nature makes. He that can oftenest discover beauty,
+and is most continuously conscious of it, is most richly endowed and
+most to be envied. How often do we hear people say that in their opinion
+Niagara, or the view from the Gorner Grat, or Mont Blanc, or some other
+great sight, is disappointing, that it failed to come up to their
+expectations, that its reputation is ill-deserved, and so forth. Such
+persons seem to imagine that their opinions are worth something, and
+that they, or any one, has a say in the matter; whereas the fact is,
+that the sights of nature may measure men, but that individual men
+cannot measure them. If a man thinks little of Niagara, that opinion
+measures him, but not Niagara. All sights of nature are beautiful. All
+great natural phenomena are greatly beautiful. That is a fundamental
+fact. Our business is not to question it, but to see the beauty if and
+when we can.
+
+The great mountains therefore are not beautiful at one time, or more
+beautiful at one time than another. They are beautiful always, and all
+the year round. They may be more comfortable to live or scramble amongst
+at some seasons, but he that can render his sense of beauty independent
+of his sense of comfort may be able to grow equally conscious of
+mountain beauty at all seasons. It is the opportunity that most of us
+lack, not the power. The fact that the high Alps are beautiful in winter
+also was not popularly realised till recently. A few men had faith that
+such would be the case, and they went to see. They brought back lively
+accounts of the wonders and glories they had beheld, and so incited
+others to follow in their steps.
+
+The classical first account in English of the high Alps in winter was
+A. W. Moore's paper in the fourth volume of the _Alpine Journal_,
+describing a visit to Grindelwald in December 1866, and the passage of
+the Strahleck and Finsteraarjoch by full mid-winter moonlight.
+Mid-winter moonlight is doubtless one of the great glories that the
+summer traveller misses. So bright was it "that the faintest pencil
+memoranda were legible with ease." The landscape beneath it is not the
+monochrome picture most of us associate with moonlight. It is rich with
+subdued colour, most beautiful to see. The full winter moon in the Alps
+bears to the summer moon, for brightness, the same relation that the
+equatorial sun does to the sun of our temperate regions. High planted
+near the zenith, the winter moon floods mountain and valley with a white
+light that turns snow to silver and hangs a curtain of velvet on every
+rock-face.
+
+[Illustration: 33. THE WETTERHORN. Grindelwald Chalets, flower-clad
+slopes and sunlit trees.]
+
+Who that has been to St. Moritz or Davos in winter does not come home
+with a new conception of what the clearness of the atmosphere can be?
+The summer air is like poor glass beside the crystal transparency of
+winter. Perhaps the effect is to bring distances nearer and thus
+decrease apparent scale--an effect which the whitening of the
+foundations of the hills tends to increase; but in return, by what
+delicacy of detail, what crispness of form, what glitter and brilliancy
+we are repaid. In course of time we learn to read scale truthfully anew.
+
+Another winter glory is the snow drapery of the lower slopes and
+glaciers below the snow-line. All minor asperities of surface are
+smoothed away. Flowing lines take the place of broken ones, and large
+surfaces most delicately modelled predominate. In summer you must climb
+to the high snow-fields to behold the delicate modelling of which snow
+is capable on a large scale, but in winter such sights are all around
+you. To watch the play of sunshine upon them from dawn to dusk, and the
+even more fascinating appearance they assume under brilliant moonlight,
+is joy enough for the hungriest eye.
+
+Then there are the frozen cascades by every roadside, glittering
+clustered columns of ice fit for fairies' palaces. One beholds them at
+almost every turn, for the veriest trickle of water, so it be
+persistent, suffices to build them up. Nor must we forget to catalogue
+amongst the greater glories of Alpine winter the snow-laden forests. One
+day the trees will be burdened down by loads of snow. Another, every
+sprig and pine-needle will be frosted over by the most delicate
+incrustation of tiny ice-crystals--a natural lacework of surpassing
+fascination. When the early sun first shines upon such a scene, which
+night has prepared to be a revelation to the day, so magnificent a
+vision is provided that even the dullest perceive something of its
+beauty, and for a moment forget the trifles of their life.
+
+Akin to this glorification of the trees by frost are the glittering
+"snow-flowers," those charming little groups of crystals that form on
+the ground in suitable spots under the influence of wind-eddies and
+other vagaries of the air. They are as pretty as they are short-lived,
+and possess a quality of rareness that makes them additionally precious.
+If in winter we lose the blueness of the lakes and the greenness of the
+hills, are we not more than repaid? What in its way can be more fair
+than the absolute flatness and unspotted purity of a frozen lake-surface
+covered thickly by new-fallen snow? It is no joy to skaters and curlers
+indeed, but for those who have eyes and have taught themselves how to
+see with them, little time is left for the distractions of mere games.
+The snow-shoe is the true winter implement, and especially the Norwegian
+_ski_, which provides the most glorious exercise and makes accessible
+the most delightful spots. An occasional run down-hill is the by-reward
+of the skilful, but his main prize is the sights he is privileged to
+behold. He can enter the heart of forests or ascend large slopes without
+the toil of sinking into the soft snow, to whose presence they owe the
+quality of their winter charm. Ski, moreover, grant access with relative
+comfort to the higher regions, and enable them to be crossed in suitable
+places at a time when the crevasses of the glaciers are deeply buried or
+soundly bridged, and when the snowy world sweeps in larger and simpler
+surfaces away. Some climbers have found pleasure in attaining in winter
+the summits of high peaks, whence they have beheld great panoramas with
+a distinctness of distant vision that the summer climber seldom attains.
+They tell us that the white filling of the valleys and covering of the
+lower slopes tends to flatten the effect of a mountain scene beheld from
+above. Whatever the special charm of such expeditions, they cannot be
+made with frequency. Weather conditions are usually adverse. Short days
+are a hint to make short expeditions. Thus in winter Nature herself
+calls attention rather to her own details. She endows with unusual
+attraction what is near at hand. She sculptures her ornaments on a tiny
+scale and finishes them with a marvellous elaboration. The wise follow
+her mood and adapt their eyes to her intentions. The winter months are
+none too long for them. Indeed they are gone all too soon, and one day,
+lo! the spring is there and the winter votaries turn and flee.
+
+[Illustration: 34. MAeRJELEN ALP. Winter snow on ground. Foot of
+Eggishorn on left, ridges of Strahlhorner on right.]
+
+I have only once spent a portion of the spring in an Alpine region.
+It is not a comfortable season, but it has its own beauties as great in
+their kind as those of summer and winter. Now the snow begins to melt,
+and all the hillsides trickle and run with water. The great silence of
+winter is past. Nature whispers with a thousand tiny voices, and sings
+aloud along the valleys and gorges. The hillsides emerge brown from
+their snowy blanket, but the fresh green soon shoots through and early
+flowers are swift to put forth. The sense of young life is felt among
+the mountains as in the plains, for the awakening of the vegetable world
+is everywhere the same. But the mountains possess spring-time splendours
+of their own, depending upon the dissolution of the snow. Spring is the
+great time for avalanches. They fall indeed all the year round, chiefly
+at high levels, but it is only in the spring that the great avalanches
+get adrift. Certain great spring avalanches come down with remarkable
+regularity in particular places, one every year. An avalanche falls at a
+recognised spot in the neighbourhood of almost every village, which
+dates from its advent the opening of the spring. Any one who has beheld
+the descent of one of these giants will not forget the experience, nor
+will it occur to him to compare such an avalanche with the relatively
+small ones that tumble among the highest _neve_ regions in the summer.
+These are the veriest snow-balls compared with those vast discharges.
+
+A great spring avalanche is no sudden freak of Nature, but an
+inevitable occurrence, slowly engendered. The snow that piles up, flake
+by flake, during the winter months, on what in summer are the grass
+slopes below the snow-line, gradually becomes unstable as spring melting
+advances. The mass loses its cohesion, ceases to bind firmly together,
+and tends to flow downwards. The conformation of the ground decides how
+it shall fall. If the slopes upon which it lies are narrow, and lead
+straight to a suitable resting-ground, or if they are of gentle
+declivity, it may fall in small masses and early come to rest; for the
+distance to which it is projected depends upon the momentum of a fall,
+and the momentum depends upon the volume and the slope. But if the snow
+lies upon large concave slopes, or upon a cirque, then, when the
+discharge begins, all the snow within the cirque may flow together, and
+pouring down the bottom like a fluid, may form a great cataract; then
+tumbling over cliffs and rushing down hollows and through gorges, it
+will continue its descent till it reaches a valley bottom, flat enough
+to hold it. There it will pile up into a great cone or "fan,"
+solidifying as it comes to rest, and strongly bridging over the valley
+torrent.
+
+An avalanche of this kind does not fall in a few moments, but may
+occupy hours in its discharge. I saw several of them falling, in the
+first days of May 1882, in the neighbourhood of the Simplon road. Near
+Berisal I crossed one which had recently come to rest, traversing the
+road. By its rugged white surface, broken into great protuberances, its
+solidity, and its general form, it resembled a small glacier. To climb
+on to it one had to cut steps, so steep were the sides. Higher up I
+crossed several more such fallen masses, through which gangs of workmen
+were cutting out the road. Towards the top of the pass the snow was
+tumbling in smaller masses. Over a hundred little avalanches crossed the
+road within a couple of hours. Then they stopped. On the Italian side
+similar conditions obtained, but it was not till I reached Isella that
+the greatest fall took place, or rather was taking place, for it had
+begun before I arrived, and it continued after I had passed. There, a
+narrow gorge, with vertical cliff-sides facing one another, debouches on
+the main valley. It leads upwards to a great cirque in the hills, a
+cirque that is a grass-covered alpine pasture in the summer. The
+avalanche was pouring out through this gorge and piling itself up upon
+the main valley-floor. How the mass of it was being renewed from behind
+I could not see. Doubtless all the hill-sides above were shedding their
+snow, and it was flowing down and crowding into and through the gorge
+with a continuous flow. As the pressure was relieved below by the
+outpouring of the avalanche on to the valley floor, more snow came
+down--snow mixed with slush, and semi-liquid under the great pressure
+that must have been developed. As the fan was built up, the snow,
+relieved of strain, hardened into ice-like consistency.
+
+It is easy to describe the process that was going forward, but it is
+not easy to suggest to the reader the grandeur of effect that was
+produced. The volume of noise was terrific--a noise more massive and
+continuous than thunder, and no less deep-toned. A low grey cloud roofed
+in the view and cast over everything a solemn tone. The avalanche,
+pouring through the massive gateway of the hills and polishing its
+sides, came forth with an aspect of weight and resistless force that was
+extraordinarily impressive. Yet Nature did not seem to be acting
+violently, though her might was plain to see. She appeared to proceed
+with deliberation. One looked for an end of the snow-stream to come, but
+it flowed on and on, pulsating but not failing. The pressures that must
+be developed were easily conceived; correspondingly evident became the
+strength of the hills that could sustain them as if they had been but
+the stroking of a hand.
+
+Later in the season the traveller often encounters, in deep-lying
+valleys, the black and shrunken remnants of these mighty avalanches,
+melted down by summer heats. Little idea can they give him of the
+splendour of their birth and the white curdled beauty of their surface
+when they first come to rest. In the nature of things they travel far
+and fall low, well into the tree-belt, and even down to the
+chestnut-level on the Italian side. It is a strange sight to see these
+vast, new-fallen masses lying in their accustomed beds, but surrounded
+by trees all freshly verdant with the gifts of spring. Yearly each one
+falls in the same place, falls harmlessly and duly expected. Its coming
+is welcomed. Its voice is the triumphant shout of the coming season of
+summer exuberance and fertility. Nature, newly awakened, cries aloud
+with a great and solemnly joyous cry, and the people dwelling around
+hear her and arise to their work upon the land. It is not well for a
+mountain-lover never to have beheld this characteristic awakening, for
+it is one of the great events of the mountains' year.
+
+For the rest, spring in the Alps has many of the qualities of spring
+everywhere else, which need not detain us, for to say that is to say
+enough. Characteristically Alpine alone are the passing away of the snow
+and the phenomena that accompany it. After the avalanches have fallen,
+steady melting does the rest. Each warm day withdraws the winter blanket
+somewhat and reveals the earth to the sunshine. Convex slopes melt
+sooner than concave, steep slopes sooner than flats or gentle inclines.
+Thus the large uniform winter covering breaks up into islands and
+stripes of white. Gullies are defined against slopes, which previously
+were lost in them. The detailed anatomy of the hills is manifested more
+clearly from day to day.
+
+It may be claimed that the effect produced is patchy, and so, judged by
+spring-time photographs, it appears indeed to be. Never, for
+photography, are mountains less suitable than in the spring; by some
+ill-luck the camera seizes upon and magnifies the patchiness of the
+receding snow. In actual vision the margin of the snow bears a less
+piebald aspect. Indeed patchiness is not the effect that the eye
+receives from it. The edge is at once perceived to be melting. The white
+garb is being withdrawn. That fact is apparent. If one watches the
+changes from day to day, they will be found most entertaining from the
+manifestations of form they yield. Moreover, the daily alteration of the
+colouring of the ground from which snow has recently melted is most
+remarkable. The transition is from brown to green. Hence the edge of the
+snow is margined with brown, and that in turn by green--a kind of iris
+effect which ascends the hillside as the snow withdraws.
+
+Finally, spring is the time of spilling waters, of torrents brimful and
+overflowing, of voluminous cascades, of gurgling brooks everywhere--a
+time, too, when the waters are bright and crystalline, and when the
+valleys and lower slopes are as vocal with their song as the upper
+regions are with the deeper diapason of falling snow. If, amongst all
+these voices, the winds blow shrilly and the storms not infrequently
+rage, the effects produced, however uncomfortable they may be to the
+touch of the comfort-loving body, are essentially harmonious in a grand
+and glorious fashion.
+
+From spring to summer there is no step in Alpine regions. It is
+merely that as the year advances the level of spring rises. At the edge
+of the ever-retreating snow it is always spring. Even in August you have
+but to climb to find it, but it reigns then over a narrow belt and is
+not a land-encompassing mood. What turns spring into summer for the eye
+is not easy to indicate. Shall we be far wrong if we say that, in the
+first instance, it is the flowers? The little venturesome plants of
+spring, that blossom at the very edge of the withdrawing snow,
+themselves withdraw when they have smiled upon the world. They are
+followed by the bright carpet of early summer--the June carpet, which
+few mountaineers ever behold. It is lovely everywhere--loveliest perhaps
+in the Maritime Alps, or along the sunny Italian face of the Alpine
+wall. You must see it before the scythes get to work on the first hay
+crop, and even before the grass is full grown--a sheet of many
+colours--not, however, a mere chaos of all kinds of blossoms, but
+something far more orderly than that. For there is generally some
+predominant plant at a given spot, luxuriantly blossoming at a
+particular time, and all the rest do but serve to embroider it. Here
+indeed may be a sheet of one kind of blossom, there of another. It is as
+though some one had passed by and tossed fair Persian carpets down in
+different places, carpets of different design, but all in the same
+general style.
+
+[Illustration: 35. LOWER GLACIER AND GRINDELWALD CHURCH. June 3, 1903,
+the valley thickly covered with flowers; for four days heavy clouds hung
+low over peaks and ridges. Only a glimpse such as this to be seen at
+intervals in the slow swaying fringe of the cloud-curtain.]
+
+Even at this period greens are predominant, for the flowers are not to
+be discovered from a distance. And what greens they are--these shrill
+verdancies of early summer--the despair of artists, the joy of Nature's
+friends! Later on they will tone down to a more paintable key, but at
+first they transcend the powers of paint, having in them something
+almost of the shine of flame. Their coming is sudden. They descend upon
+the broad bosom of fertile valleys and the wide skirts of gentle slopes,
+as the daylight descends when the sun grows high. Yesterday all was
+brown; to-day the greens have come, exultant, exuberant, with the
+star-flowers spangled amongst them. Then indeed it is good to be alive.
+The voice has gone out to the valley--"Arise, shine, for thy light has
+come"--and the valley responds to the call.
+
+With July the full summer is there, and the summer crowd at hand. The
+longest days are passing. The freshness is wearing off from the valleys.
+Now heat, dust, and flies drive men aloft. It is the reception period of
+the high peaks, when they differentiate themselves plainly from the
+region below, and alone retain the perfect purity of the winter world.
+In winter the great mountains stretch themselves visibly down to the
+valleys. Then Mont Blanc begins at Chamonix, the Matterhorn at Zermatt.
+But in summer the high peaks seem to be planted aloft on the green
+world. The Matterhorn is reduced to a pyramid standing on the Schwarzsee
+Alp. Thus in summer, though the actual peaks themselves look larger,
+they are more removed out of the way. You must mount afar before you
+come to their apparent foot. You thus acquire the sense of their
+belonging to a world of their own. In winter snow glories are at your
+door. In summer you must labour to behold them, and when beheld they are
+emphasised by contrast with the fertile world you have left. That is why
+(apart from all questions of comfort and safety) summer climbing is more
+impressive than winter. It presents more stages, more variety. In
+winter-time all is winter; but in summer it is summer in the valleys,
+spring on the alps, and winter above the snow-line; only autumn is not
+there.
+
+Autumn, in fact, is the rarest of the seasons. Its effects are the most
+evanescent. That is one of its special charms--that, and the tender
+sadness that pertains to the passing away of things which have
+flourished and had their day in glory. October in the Alps is a season
+perhaps more generally delightful in these days than any other period of
+the year. Then the great summer crowd has gone, and there is room in the
+caravanserais and on the footpaths. The country-folks have leisure for a
+word with the wayfarer, and the painful sense of over-pressure is gone.
+In October the Alps are almost as they used to be in the sixties--a
+spacious region where a man may find himself alone, or almost alone, in
+the face of Nature. He cannot now, indeed, heal the scars that the crowd
+have furrowed upon the face of the earth, nor remove the ugly buildings
+and defacing embankments that have been raised to dam and form
+reservoirs or canals for the human flood, but with that exception he can
+possess the landscape in peace.
+
+October, again, is sometimes a month of much fine weather and of skies
+marvellously clear. If the days are short, they are yet long enough for
+early risers. Evening and morning are brought within the limits of a
+normal man's possible activity, so that he may enjoy both the splendour
+of sunrise and sunset without transgressing the daily hours of healthy
+wakefulness. The October sun does not climb so far aloft as does the
+royal monarch of the midsummer sky. If the effulgence of day is thus
+rendered less overpowering, in return the shadows spread wider and
+retain a richer colouring in their depths. More modelling is visible
+upon the hillsides and the snow-fields in the bright hours; there are
+bluer noontide shadows and perhaps even a bluer sky also.
+
+[Illustration: 36. GRINDELWALD LOOKING TOWARDS THE WENGEN ALP. Winter
+snow on the slopes.]
+
+All this is true and characteristic of Alpine autumn, but the most
+characteristic feature, there as elsewhere, is the fading of vegetation
+and the flaming colours that accompany it. Not only does the foliage of
+the trees disclose the change, but the very hillsides blend in harmony
+with the forests. Berries shine bright on small shrubs and even lurk
+amongst russet or crimson foliage upon the ground. Plants of all lowly
+sorts put on a new bright livery, and thus change the character of the
+foreground. The bright greens vanish; in their place large slopes grow
+orange and brown. But it is beneath, at lower levels, that the changes
+are greatest and the autumnal effects most striking. Seek for them in
+the Rhone valley or round the shores of Thun. There you will find the
+woods absolutely golden or crimson according to their kind--a colouring
+at once so rich and so brilliant as to seem almost incredible even to
+him who, having seen it once, and believing that he remembers it,
+beholds it again and finds it so far surpassing the wealth of his memory
+and expectation. To behold the snowy peaks rising into the clear
+autumnal sky, far away beyond a foreground such as this, is a sight well
+worth an effort. Would not some of our holiday-makers of the better sort
+find it pleasant sometimes to change the date of their outing, so as not
+always to herd with their fellows nor every year to behold Nature under
+a similar illumination?
+
+Just as spring definitely opens with the great avalanches, so winter
+opens as definitely with the great snow-falls. One day all is clear and
+bright. The snow-line has retreated to its very highest level. The hard
+ice of the glacier is revealed far up from the snout. The maximum number
+of crevasses are open, and the wide-yawning bergschrunds form moats at
+the foot of all the final snow slopes that lean against the great faces
+of the peaks. Next morning all is grey and wet and cold. Clouds cover
+everything; winds rage; large snow-flakes in countless millions fill the
+air and drive across the ground. The drifts pile up and up, and all the
+ground is covered, white to the very depths of the valleys. For two or
+three days or longer the storm rages, and when at last the sun bursts
+forth again and the clouds withdraw their curtains, lo! the visible
+world is deeply buried in the white winter garment that will not be
+withdrawn till spring once more arrives. As a rule the first great
+snow-fall of winter comes thus definitely upon the Alpine world. Others
+that follow may be as great or greater in volume, but they only
+emphasise existing conditions; they do not, as this one does, change the
+face of Nature.
+
+Thus the annual drama of the mountain world is played in its four acts,
+year after year, with infinite variety in detail and great uniformity in
+the large features. We talk of the seasons as definite divisions, but we
+must remember that their progress and succession is an affair not merely
+of day following day but of moment following moment. It is the steady
+progress, the gradual, imperceptible advance, that the close observer of
+natural beauty loves to watch. To-day is not absolutely like yesterday,
+and will not absolutely resemble to-morrow even though all three prove
+faultlessly fine. The superficial observer may note no change, but that
+is because he is superficial. There is always change, and in change the
+life of things consists.
+
+To know mountains truly, means to recognise the changes which pass
+over them and happen amongst them. A mountain-lover may be compelled to
+live in some city of the plains, but, if he could, and in so far as
+mountains are his chief delight, he would live amongst them, not merely
+in one season but in all. No man, however, is or can be entirely
+single-minded. We cannot confine our affections to a single category of
+natural beauty, nor even to Nature alone. We are folk of many interests.
+Even the most enthusiastic lover of mountains is something more, and
+fails from the ideal. Mountains must take their share with other
+interests in the life of any one who cares for them at all. In so far,
+however, as they are an interest for any of us, it behoves us to make
+that interest wide and comprehensive, not restricting it to mountains as
+mere things to climb, nor to mountains of a particular character or at a
+particular time of year, but allowing it to embrace mountain scenery as
+a whole and at all seasons. Those of us who can do this, will find that
+the wider and more varied our experience of and sensitiveness to all
+varieties of mountain scenery becomes, the more intense will it likewise
+grow to be at any special moment, and the more keenly will any
+particular effect of beauty affect our hearts. In mountains, as
+elsewhere, all seasons of the year are marked by beauties that belong
+specially to them. Each season prepares for that which is to follow, and
+every day that passes is a transitional step from the one to the other.
+Let me commend my fellows of the mountain brotherhood to bear this fact
+in mind when they are wandering amongst the hills. If they attend not
+merely to the spectacle of the moment, but to the changes that are daily
+wrought out before their eyes, they will find their pleasures enlarged
+and their capacity for enjoyment increased. They will obtain a greater
+consequent understanding not merely of the aspects and moods of the
+mountains, but of what I may call their settled character as manifested
+by the larger mutations of aspect which they undergo in passing through
+the vicissitudes of the seasons of the year.
+
+[Illustration: 37. RIMPFISCHORN AND STRAHLHORN FROM THE RIFFELBERG]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TYPES OF ALPINE PEAKS
+
+
+In a previous chapter reference has been made to the varied types of
+scenery which belong to different divisions of the Alpine chain, and the
+briefest kind of characterisation of those varieties was attempted. But
+the Alps, and indeed almost all the great snow ranges of the world,
+possess side by side within a single neighbourhood varieties of peaks
+sufficiently divergent to be capable of grouping and classification. For
+example, in the Mont Blanc group, there are domes of snow, needle-points
+of rock, areted pyramids, serrated ridges, peaks twinned together, peaks
+closely grouped in larger number, and other varieties of mountains. In
+fact, just as whole districts of mountains possess, each one, an
+individual character due to their geographical position, their local
+history of uplift and denudation, the materials of which they are
+formed, and other such factors, so individual peaks for like reasons
+possess individual character, and conform more or less evidently to one
+or another well-marked type. That such is the case will be readily
+admitted. In common talk, indeed, we are accustomed to attribute
+fancifully to this mountain masculine ruggedness, to that feminine
+grace, to another qualities of terror. Some mountains attract to
+themselves a kind of human affection; others repel; yet others bore, or,
+on the contrary, interest without charming. In the present chapter,
+therefore, I intend to discuss the characters of mountains, especially
+of the great Alpine peaks, from this point of view, considering so far
+as space permits the characters and dispositions of all sorts and
+conditions of Alps.
+
+It will be perceived at once that the treatment of our subject will
+entirely depend on the point of view from which we regard it. Mountains
+are not beasts and possess no real characters. It is only we who, with
+our anthropomorphic tendency, endow them with imaginary qualities
+belonging actually to ourselves and projected forth from us on to the
+so-called external world. If mountains are primarily thought of as
+things to be climbed, we shall characterise them as they react upon the
+climber. If they are regarded as sights to be beheld, we shall
+characterise them as they affect our sense of vision. A climber may
+fancifully figure one mountain as friendly though severe, another as
+hostile, a third as mean, a fourth as recondite, a fifth as deceitful.
+Climbers, however, though I hope I may number some of them amongst my
+readers, are not primarily those for whom this book is written. It is
+aimed more broadly to interest the mountain-lover of whatever age or sex
+and whatever agility or endurance. I testify here, not so much of what I
+know, but of what I have seen and found delightful in the seeing, in
+hopes to revive recollections of pleasure in others and to suggest the
+possibility of further joys to the mountain traveller.
+
+Pre-eminent, then, to look at, pre-eminent as a mountain vision, one
+must, I assert, rank the great domes of snow, such as Mont Blanc. The
+two greatest Alpine mountains assume that form when beheld from
+characteristic points of view, sufficiently remote, and, of course, it
+is the apparent form only that here concerns us. A peak may actually be
+a blade of rock, snow-whitened, and yet may appear to be a dome, as the
+Lyskamm appears from north and south. It must be ranked amongst domes
+when so beheld. On these giant masses Nature frequently bestows a
+measurable pre-eminence, for it is not only in the Alps that they attain
+loftiest altitudes among their neighbours. Elburz which reigns over the
+Caucasus is a dome, so is Chimborazo, so likewise Nanga Parbat. But even
+if they were not actually piled higher than their satellites they would
+look bigger.
+
+A notable instance of the great dignity of effect of a snow dome beheld
+amongst more rugged and precipitous peaks--peaks, moreover, much loftier
+than the dome--was forced upon my notice in the Baltoro region of the
+Mustagh mountains of Kashmir. The Baltoro glacier, most wonderfully
+situated of all glaciers in the world, is surrounded by the greatest
+group of high peaks known to exist. A number of them exceed 25,000 feet
+in altitude, and several are over 27,000 feet. Moreover, most of these
+great mountains are of bold outline and precipitous structure. There is
+no deceit about them. They look their height. Some of them are
+needle-pointed and buttressed by the narrowest rock ridges, set with
+needle-pointed teeth. It would be imagined that no mountain forms could
+be more impressive than theirs, as one after another they come within
+range of the traveller's vision and grow familiar to him during the long
+days of his creeping advance along their feet. Impressive indeed they
+are, splendid beyond words, majestic surpassingly.
+
+It happens, however, that, amongst them all a solitary exception, there
+stands a single dome of snow, named by me the Golden Throne. I first
+beheld it somewhat dramatically, when, after climbing to a high
+elevation by night, the sun rose behind it, and it was revealed in all
+its width, flanked on either hand by a long line of jagged and aspiring
+peaks. They were higher than it--most of them considerably higher, yet
+beyond all question the dome was the most dignified of them all. It owed
+something of its dignity and distinction, no doubt, to contrast, to the
+rarity of its form in that region of splintered aiguilles; but that was
+not alone the cause. The suavity and continuous curvature of its
+outline, and the grace of it, as well as its greater breadth and
+apparent relative volume, made the Golden Throne absolutely, as well as
+by contrast, more dignified than its bolder neighbours. Had it differed
+from them only in form it would have prevailed, but it differed more
+noticeably from them in drapery and colour. Whereas they were of naked
+rock, it was enveloped in a mantle of purest snow, and the broad white
+mass (especially later when it shone in the advancing daylight) attained
+a pre-eminence in brightness and purity for which no ruggedness or
+precipitancy in the others could compensate.
+
+It is a far cry to the Golden Throne, but Mont Blanc is near at hand,
+and its aspect is familiar to countless people. None will deny that its
+reputation is pre-eminent among Alps. I claim that that pre-eminence is
+not solely due to its culminating position in point of size, but that
+its broad white mass and shining amplitude go a long way towards
+accounting for it. It would scarcely occur to any one but a climber to
+depose Mont Blanc from the first place--Mont Blanc, the "monarch of
+mountains," diademed with snow. As in human architecture the dome is the
+most dignified and impressive form, so also it is in nature. In Mont
+Blanc it attains perfection by the noble breadth of its base and
+adjustment of its buttresses. Whencesoever beheld, from north or south,
+from far or near, it always appears poised aloft in a dignity as
+impressive as it is reposeful, the white sheen of its spotless snows
+pure as the bosom of a summer cloud, but unlike that, gifted with an
+aspect of adamantine permanence.
+
+[Illustration: 38. THE MATTERHORN, TWILIGHT.
+
+
+    "The time may come when the Matterhorn shall
+    have passed away, and nothing save a heap of shapeless
+    fragments will mark the spot where the great
+    mountain stood; for, atom by atom, inch by inch,
+    and yard by yard, it yields to forces which nothing can
+    withstand. That time is far distant; and ages hence,
+    generations unborn will gaze upon its awful precipices,
+    and wonder at its unique form. However
+    exalted may be their ideas, and however exaggerated
+    their expectations, none will come to return disappointed!"--WHYMPER.
+]
+
+Next to Mont Blanc in abiding reputation, the Matterhorn takes rank
+among Alps by universal consent. We may regard it as the best example of
+pyramidal mountains. Four-square it stands upon its mighty base,
+fronting the four cardinal points of the compass, each face divided from
+its neighbour by a clearly-defined ridge or rock arete. As Mont Blanc
+the dome, so the Matterhorn in turn displays a form adopted by man for
+some of his grandest architectural efforts, the pyramids of Egypt. If
+the dome best expresses the idea of soaring aloft, when seen from
+without, the pyramid best expresses the idea of eternal repose and
+endurance without end. Geologists may tell us that even the Matterhorn
+is a passing phenomenon, that the frosts are daily causing it to
+disintegrate, and that thousands of tons of rock fall at frequent
+intervals down its sides. Climbers may describe its near aspect as
+ruinous, and we may know these statements to be true. None the less the
+mountain beheld as a whole, from even a moderate distance, seems to
+belie them. It appears to be from everlasting and to everlasting. It
+incorporates the ideal of permanence. We conceive it as belonging not to
+an age but to all time. Were it mathematically four-square, and its
+faces true planes of even slope, that would be its chief effect, that
+and the sense of mass and grandeur inseparable from an object of such
+visibly huge dimensions. But Nature has fashioned it subtly and endowed
+its faces and ridges with curves most delicate and refined. To its
+appearance of mass and endurance it adds a grace so exquisite, an uplift
+so imposing, that these qualities almost take the first place in the
+impression produced upon the beholder. Seen from the north-east it
+appears to best advantage. Towards Breuil it shows a more massive front.
+Its recondite western face, only visible from high snow-fields, displays
+precipices more appalling and a general aspect of more savage grandeur.
+But with singular good fortune for the unathletic traveller, it
+manifests its incomparable grace to perfection towards the easily
+accessible north-east, and 50,000 people go there annually to worship at
+its Riffel shrines. They may approach with no more devotional feeling
+than the average pilgrim manifests at Lourdes, but the fact that they go
+is homage to the reality of the emotion which many have actually felt in
+that glorious presence. The poetic brain has exhausted itself in efforts
+to find comparisons with living creatures whereby to describe it. Best
+is Ruskin's choice of a rearing horse. Traces of the neck clothed with
+thunder, of the mane-fringed crest with cloud streamers for hair, even
+of the sharp contrasting angle of the folded fore-leg, can be traced in
+the natural composition; but it is rather the might and spirit of the
+thing--its combination of wildness, force, and grace--that give aptness
+to this fetch of similitude.
+
+In writing of the Matterhorn one can make an assumption that would be
+impossible with any other mountain:--that most readers can recall a
+vision of its form to their minds. Let me make that demand upon the
+present reader. Observe then how beautifully the double curve of the
+left hand or Theodule ridge, first convex, then concave, is terminated
+and contrasted with the sudden jags of the shoulder, and then taken up
+and continued again convex to the summit. How the right-hand or Stockje
+ridge, convex above, drops with a larger sweep and a more astounding
+ultimate steepness, to be again interrupted by a lower and more jagged
+shoulder, and again continued downward by the magnificent white convex
+curve, which, in its turn drooping into concave, leads the eye away to
+the broad foundation. No less essential than the outline to the total
+effect are the two white _neve_ basins that lie below the faces and
+steepen upwards to ice-slopes leading to crags that have all the
+appearance of cliffs. The importance to the composition of the third or
+middle shoulder--_the_ Shoulder _par excellence_ of climbers--should
+also be insisted on, but space does not here admit a lengthier analysis.
+The reader will find no difficulty in pursuing the investigation for
+himself.
+
+[Illustration: 39. WEISSHORN AND MATTERHORN FROM FIESCHERALP.]
+
+The four-sided pyramid, of which we have chosen the Matterhorn for
+type, is a rarer form than the three-sided, perhaps the commonest class
+of fully developed peak. Here again there cannot be a moment's
+hesitation in the choice of a representative mountain, for of such the
+Weisshorn is beyond question the finest and most famous in the Alps.
+What mountain-lover has not beheld it, towering gracefully and superbly
+aloft before him as he descended the upper reaches of the Rhone valley
+on some bright August day? Westward it opposes a face of rock and is a
+less gorgeous object to look upon. But its other two faces with their
+glacial robe are brilliant under all illuminations. What gives it
+distinction among the multitude of mountains similarly formed is the
+grace of its slender and long drawn-out ridges. Each of these sharp
+aretes, beheld from most points of view, drops very steeply from the
+spear-tipped summit; then gradually levels off to a shoulder, and so
+leads the eye down to the massive foundation that supports the whole.
+Slenderness above, massive strength below--such is the effective
+contrast that Nature provides.
+
+Another famous peak, the Jungfrau, appears from Interlaken almost as
+graceful as the Weisshorn; but its beauty is really of another order,
+and depends far more upon the brilliancy of the curdled surface of the
+snow, and its division between ice-falls, rocks, and ice-slopes, than
+upon the outline of the peak itself or the form of its ridges. For pure
+grace of pyramidal form the Aletschhorn surpasses the Jungfrau, but the
+better-known peak has advantages of position and of grouping to which we
+shall presently refer.
+
+Pyramidal peaks lend themselves kindly to embellishment by banners of
+cloud. Often we behold great sheets of white mist waving away from their
+ridges. The sharp definition and marble-like permanence of the mountain
+forms an admirable offset to the softness and inconstancy of the cloud,
+which is not merely ever varying the form of its outlines, but is
+throughout in constant and often swift motion under the dominion of a
+furious gale. The sense of violent agitation high aloft thus impressed
+upon the eye, well associates itself with an idea of rugged resistance
+proper to high peaks and splintered ridges. The slenderer the pyramid
+and the sharper its aretes, so much the better does it serve as
+flagstaff for a flying cloud.
+
+Best of all, however, for this purpose are the rock aiguilles, which
+never seem quite complete, never fully manifest the astonishing boldness
+of their structure, except when they are in turn concealed and revealed
+by mists that form and fade and form again--now cutting them off from
+all visible connection with the earth and almost seeming to lift them
+into the heavens, now half-hiding them and half-revealing, now as it
+were smoking away from their summits like steam from a volcano, now
+offering a white background to their rugged mass, now overshrouding and
+empurpling them with shadows stolen from the wardrobe of Night. They
+lack the dignity of the broader peaks, these needle rocks, and few of
+them really deserve (save from a climber's standpoint) to be called
+peaks at all. Generally they are only buttress pinnacles of greater
+mountain masses. Yet a tall and well-planted aiguille always possesses
+marked individuality of its own, which more than compensates for lack of
+volume and altitude. By its form it attracts the attention of the eye
+away from large but less wonder-evoking mountains. Thus it makes itself
+the centre of a view and is remembered when its larger neighbours are
+forgotten. More than any other kind of peak an aiguille depends for
+effect upon the character of its foundation and the place where it is
+planted. The Aiguille du Geant is, perhaps, the most remarkable monolith
+shaft in the Alps, and has attained no little fame. But its fame is due
+to the difficulty of scrambling up it. For sheer impressiveness of
+effect from a distance it cannot enter into serious competition with the
+Aiguille du Dru. The actual summit-shaft of the Dru is not really
+remarkable for slenderness. Its sides are not the plumb vertical cliffs
+that the Geant can show. But the foundations of the Dru carry its lines
+down, and the supporting masses seem expressly piled together for no
+other purpose than to lift the slender-seeming peak as far aloft as
+possible. The Dru, moreover, though actually an appanage of the Verte,
+is so situated as to be seen alone and admirably set off by glacier or
+wooded foregrounds from several easily accessible and convenient
+positions. Instead of standing aloof like the Geant, it peers down into
+the valley and takes an interest in human affairs. It is there to signal
+the sunset with its flaming beacon, and to glow like a brand from the
+furnace in the presence of the dawn. The departing traveller turns back
+to it for a last look, and the returning votary of the Alps is impatient
+to pass the corner beyond which he well knows that it will come into
+view. It is one of a class, the aiguilles of Chamonix, but it possesses
+a marked individuality of aspect and it transcends all its neighbours
+and rivals. They may be harder to climb, but it _looks_ as precipitous
+and inaccessible as any, and, after all, the appearance is the essential
+element for a lover of the picturesque. There is much more that might be
+said about aiguilles, their value for contrast with other forms, their
+essentially subordinate, almost parasitic, character, and so forth, but
+our space has narrow limits and we must pass on.
+
+[Illustration: 40. AIGUILLE VERTE AND AIGUILLE DU DRU FROM THE
+CHAMONIX VALLEY. A well-known group, typical of the Aiguilles of the
+Mont Blanc chain.]
+
+We have considered domes and pyramids in special reference to their
+outline. But they and all sorts of other mountains have faces as well as
+bounding ridges, and these faces sometimes take the form of tremendous
+walls. We may therefore devote a moment's attention to mountain walls,
+or rather to what we may briefly describe as wall-faced mountains. These
+great walls are not necessarily, nor indeed often, truly precipitous,
+but the important point about them is that they look precipitous. They
+are not walls, but the eye is deceived into believing that they are. The
+Alps are rich in noble examples of this type. To name only the most
+famous: there are the Italian fronts of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa, the
+Saas front of the Mischabelhoerner, and the north face of the Jungfrau.
+If you stand in a suitable position, facing rather than enfilading any
+of these great walls, their slope seems practically vertical. Climbers
+know that they can all be climbed; their instructed eyes can even trace
+the routes without difficulty. In so far as that knowledge interferes
+with the imposing impression which ordinary persons derive from the mere
+look of the thing, it is a misfortune. Yet even the climber can
+sometimes forget his _metier_, and lose himself in pure contemplation of
+Nature's splendour. It is nowhere easier so to do than in face of these
+gigantic walls. Pre-eminent amongst them is, of course, the Macugnaga
+face of Monte Rosa. Not merely does it excel in unbroken width and
+continuity of plunge, but its striping by buttress and couloir, its
+impending masses of serac, its huge piles of avalanche ruins below, and
+the frequency of the falls that take place, whose fresh traces are
+obvious even when they are not beheld in actual descent, all serve to
+increase the observer's sense of the actual steepness of the face. First
+beheld from near at hand, the vast size of the thing overwhelms the
+beholder, and yet this first impression is small compared with the
+ultimate sense of size which slowly grows within him as he gazes and
+learns the meaning of the details. His attention will soon be called to
+the fact that the whole face is ruled with lines. They seem fine, almost
+like the meshes of a spider's web, but a brief consideration proves that
+they are the tracks of falling masses--some of avalanches, others of
+falling stones. They are not fine lines at all, but deep grooves,
+perhaps ten feet wide and as deep as the height of a man. Realise that
+fact, as the climber does (in so doing he in his turn has the
+advantage), and you at once magnify, and may even overmagnify, the scale
+of the view.
+
+[Illustration: 41. BODEN AND GORNER GLACIERS. Monte Rosa from the
+Schwarzsee. The last gleam of the daylight. The foot of the Riffelhorn
+on the left.]
+
+It is a commonplace to proclaim the exhaustless prodigality of
+Nature's inventions, which every field of grass sufficiently proves, and
+yet it always seems to me that these great faces specially exemplify it.
+How easy, one might imagine, to invent detail for a precipice of ice and
+rock--but take a blank sheet of paper and try; you will find the task
+almost hopeless. Then turn to any view of Monte Rosa from Macugnaga and
+observe how it has been done, and how much, indeed how entirely, the
+effect of the view depends upon the structure and variety of the wall.
+The classical point whence the face is seen at its best is the Pizzo
+Bianco. There is a photograph from it in the eleventh volume of the
+_Alpine Journal_. Note how essential every detail is to the effect of
+the whole, and how impossible it would be to invent such a consistent
+multitude of details. The sky-line is of minor importance; it does not
+hold the eye. What first attracts it is the great sweeping buttresses
+that emerge through the snow and carry the attention down by their
+parallelism. As we look more closely at them we find that they in turn
+break up into minor groups of parallels, and these again into similar
+elements; yet with all this general repetition no two details are the
+same. The aspect of the general structure may be compared to that of a
+leaf with a number of ribs all obedient to a single law of form. The
+snow that fills the spaces between the buttresses and overflows them
+where it can, is no dead covering, but alive like a river. We obtain at
+first glance, now that we know how to look for it, a sense of its weight
+and movement. How strange it seems that that movement should not have
+been observed centuries ago! The flowing of the snow is expressed by all
+sorts of signs. Here it breaks into cliffs and tumbles; there it pours
+down in a continuous stream interrupted only by crevasses, which
+indicate its relative speed at adjacent points; there again, on some
+small ledge or gentler slope, it lags and piles up. But as a rule it is
+evidently in haste to get down, and the signs of this haste are a
+measure of the steepness of the slope. High aloft the plunge seems
+vertical, and one wonders how any snow can adhere to such uncompromising
+crags. When the mists are drawn across it, or a bed of clouds lies at
+its foot, filling the Macugnaga valley as with a white lake, the wall
+seems yet more cliff-like. It is only when low sunlight strikes it
+aslant and makes manifest its modelling that a suggestion is given of
+the actual angle of the slope leading up from the glacier floor below to
+the giddy crest.
+
+Another kind of mountain front, akin to these yet belonging to a class
+of its own, is the true rock-face. Such may have their ledges and
+gullies picked out with snow, or even (as in the case of the Meije) a
+small glacier caught on a shelf, but snow must not predominate, must not
+even cover a considerable fraction of their surface. Mountains with
+rock-faces of this kind are, of course, commonest among the secondary
+groups. Thus there are many in Canton Glarus and thereabouts, yet more
+among the Dolomites and in all the limestone districts. The west face of
+the Weisshorn may perhaps be counted a rock-wall, but, if that is
+excluded, the Grivola is, I think, the biggest example. The Bluemlisalp
+and Breithorn, Altels and the Balmhorn, are other examples. If, however,
+I were to be compelled to select one such peak as type, I should choose
+Pelmo or Schlern in the Dolomites, and be content, even though some
+vaster example were quoted against me. For, after all, it is not the
+actual scale that matters, but the appearance of scale. I have heard it
+said that the north-east face of the Zinal Rothhorn is the biggest true
+cliff in the Alps. It may be, but it does not so appear from any
+ordinary point of view--the Rothhorn, in fact, seeming insignificant
+from almost everywhere.
+
+These rock fronts must not be looked at from too far away. Unless they
+subtend a high vertical angle to the vision they produce little effect.
+But stand beneath them, and what pomp and power they display! You must
+be near enough to see the details of their structure, and to trace the
+joints of their masonry, for it is in the recognition of their
+upbuilding, stone by stone, that their impressiveness consists. That is
+why a snow-slope drawn down across the edges of their strata is so
+little to be desired. If by good-luck the successive strata vary
+somewhat in colour, the cliff will be magnified thereby. To the
+perception of multiplicity recurrent detail is essential, and that
+perception involves relative proximity and is helped by familiarity. The
+oftener you stand beneath such a wall the bigger it appears to grow.
+
+It is not a thing that can be painted, still less photographed; for no
+painter could set down details enough, and the camera will not select
+the right ones. It is the horizontal details that we want. If the reader
+will observe how a high tower or other lofty building impresses its
+scale upon him, he will find it to be by the joints of its masonry,
+unless indeed he be standing far off and the tower is seen to rise high
+above the houses of a town whose size is instinctively perceived. Here
+again the accomplished climber who has actually scrambled up the sheer
+face of such a cliff and so measured it against his own slow progress
+and his accumulated fatigue, has an advantage over any mere spectator.
+This advantage is increased by the fact that he will recognise and know
+the size of many details of ledge and pitch which he has actually
+handled and surmounted. Such personal knowledge is the best of all
+measuring scales. A traveller who cannot attain it must be content with
+the lesser insight that can be attained by slow examination. In no case
+is the full effect to be perceived at once. Nature sometimes, as it
+were, flings herself upon our imaginations and suddenly overpowers us by
+her excessive grandeur. At other times she seems to say, "It is
+nothing"; so as to let superficial persons pass by; but just then
+perhaps we are in the presence of some superlatively great exhibition of
+her majesty which it requires experience, time, and attention to
+discover.
+
+It should remove any tendency to conceit in those who have travelled
+far and seen much to remember that, however often they may have beheld
+and delighted in glorious sights, the best-visioned of them and the most
+sensitive has missed far more than he has seen. What opportunities he
+must have had, and how relatively few of them has he utilised! At best
+he has been but like a traveller in a motor-car, whisking across
+historic lands, and passing here by an abbey, there through some old
+town, there again over some historic battle-field, and not suspecting
+their existence, or not knowing enough to thrill with the rich emotions
+they would excite in a better-informed mind. It is not the eyes that are
+lacking, but the knowledge and the time to acquire it. You may scurry
+along below the cliff of Pelmo without a flutter of the heart. But
+wander half a day beneath it, examine its details, watch the sunlight
+playing on its ledges, and the shadows in the gullies that cut them, a
+sense of its grandeur will invade your consciousness, and the memory of
+that will remain with you till you turn childish with old age and others
+know that you have lived too long.
+
+[Illustration: 42. THE BREITHORN FROM SCHWARZ SEE.]
+
+Whatever the dignity of these great walls, when suitably beheld, the
+peaks they belong to, if their summit crests are long and flat, are not
+comparable for individual beauty of form with the snow domes or the
+ridged pyramids. They have, however, an importance and perform a
+function of their own in any large mountain panorama of which they form
+a part. Before me as I write there chances to lie Donkin's photograph of
+the view from the New Weissthor, looking down the Gorner glacier. The
+pyramid of the Matterhorn is on the right; the wall of the Breithorn is
+in the midst; the curdled snow-face of the Lyskamm is near at hand on
+the left. It is not by any means a perfect natural composition, yet it
+does fix the attention, and a moment's thought shows that it does so by
+the marked contrast between the forms of the Breithorn and the Cervin.
+Blot either of them out and the character of the view is changed.
+
+I well remember standing, one very clear day, on the summit of a
+relatively high peak in the icy heart of Spitsbergen and surveying a
+vast panorama. The peaks in it being all actually small (though not
+appearing so) and the area of the panorama very large, the multitude of
+peaks in sight was numerically much greater than in any Alpine panorama,
+not excluding even that from Mont Blanc. In one direction the mountains
+happened to be all of one character. Each was similar in form to its
+neighbour. Some distance further round was another group formed of peaks
+as various as are the Alps. It was at once obvious how much the variety
+added to the picturesqueness. The same lesson can be learnt from the top
+of Monte Viso. Look southward and you will behold, ridge behind similar
+ridge, a remarkable uniformity. Face northward and round to the east,
+the effect is one of infinite variety. Such variety, contrast of walled
+peak with pyramid, of pyramid with dome, here thronged together, there
+sundered by some wide stretch of lower elevation, entertains and
+stimulates the observer's mind.
+
+Sometimes the repetition of a form with only slight change has the
+value of emphasis, or, as in the case of minor ridges dividing couloirs
+or side glaciers, it binds the composition together and forms a kind of
+warp and woof for Nature's detailed embroidery. The value of repetition
+is instinctively felt by most in the case of a pair of peaks, standing
+side by side and visibly linked together by some high connecting ridge,
+or apparently linked by what seems to be a ridge but is really produced
+by foreshortening. They are frequently named "the Twins." A notable
+instance of such a pair is the Dom and Taeschhorn. Stand anywhere
+commanding a view down the Zermatt valley, where you can see this pair
+of peaks defining it on the right, and the Weisshorn's delicate and
+single pyramid opposed to them on the left, and you will at once
+recognise how much the great pair and the single peak gain by contrast
+with one another. Or climb (I should now say take the train) to the
+Gorner Grat and look abroad to the south. How much less effective would
+be the panorama if the two long walls of the Breithorn and Lyskamm had a
+third similar wall between them instead of the coupled domes named
+Castor and Pollux.
+
+[Illustration: 43. THE LYSKAMM. From the Riffelberg. Gorner glacier
+below.]
+
+It would be easy to continue this fanciful classification of Alps and
+discussion of types for another fifty pages, but it would serve no
+useful purpose. Long before this the reader has probably been objecting
+that it is an unscientific and incomplete classification, and that most
+peaks could be made to enter all the categories if regarded from
+suitable standpoints. Such, in fact, may be the case. My object in thus
+writing has merely been to suggest cross-routes and byways for the
+memories, fancies, and future observations of my readers. The mountains
+for us who love them are the playthings of our fancy. We may do with
+them what we please. They excite in us the sense of beauty, and we try
+to tell of the emotions we have felt in their presence. Those emotions
+quickened by them, how we know not, in fact arise in us. We are free to
+make of them what we please, to give them any kind of play. They are
+then bound by no scientific laws. A mountain may be a chunk of granite
+heaved up by I know not what play of forces and carved out by a
+perfectly orderly denudation; but to me, if I please, it is a Maiden, an
+Ogre, a Golden Throne. I can endow it with a character, and reckon up
+friends and foes to it amongst its neighbours. Or I can call it a fairy
+palace, and people it with sprites and dancing creatures of gossamer
+clothed in the dawn. No one can say me nay. Now and again, perhaps, I
+may whisper my dream to a sympathetic friend--but not often. For the
+most part we keep such heart-frolics of a happy hour in the inaccessible
+places of their origin.
+
+Brother climber! we have secrets of our own, you and I--secrets that we
+never told to one another, even when we stood side by side together on
+the mountain-top. But there was a thrill within each of us, was there
+not? and each knew that with the other it was well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+PASSES
+
+
+A peak is primarily a thing to be looked at. It was only after the
+aspect of peaks had smitten the imagination of men that the desire to
+climb them arose. The climbing impulse is subordinate to the eye's
+delight. A pass, on the other hand, is a thing to be climbed and looked
+from, but only in a minor degree to be looked at. It is an experience
+rather than a sight. Few passes indeed are striking objects in a view.
+The Col Dolent, the Guessfeldtsattel, the Col du Lion, and a few more are
+imposing when you approach the foot of their final slopes, but it would
+be difficult to distinguish between such slopes and a similar mountain
+face. The fact that the slope leads to a notch or saddle in the sky-line
+does not give it dignity; that comes to it from its own character as a
+slope, and would be the same if it led to any other kind of sky-line.
+Passes, therefore, in and for themselves, are not conspicuously striking
+and beautiful elements in any great mountain panorama, and do not call
+for discussion by us from that point of view.
+
+As experiences, however, they take another rank. I have long been
+prepared to maintain their general superiority to peaks in that respect.
+Passes generally lead through finer scenery than is commanded from the
+flank of a peak. A peak climbed rewards you with a panorama which no
+pass can offer; but, that excepted, the average pass is superior to the
+average peak for the scenery it reveals, and in the nature of things it
+must be. In climbing a peak, unless you are going up an arete, you
+normally have a steep slope rising straight in front of you. A few
+square yards of rocks or snow fill most of your vision as you look
+ahead. If you raise your eyes up the slope, you see it in its least
+impressive form, foreshortened into a mere belt. The real view is behind
+you, and you must turn round to behold it. That involves standing still
+and may mean delay. But in traversing a pass you normally ascend the
+bottom of a glacier valley, and the fine views are ahead and on both
+hands. The valley is not likely to be so narrow that you are not far
+enough away from its two sides, or at least one of them, to be able to
+behold the slope as a whole, from bottom to top, and not unduly
+foreshortened. Of course this general character of pass-routes is
+subject to infinite variation. The final slope is often steep, and the
+ascent of it will then be like the ascent of a mountain face; but,
+broadly speaking, it must be obvious that passes offer better chances
+for enjoying continuous fine scenery than peaks, and experience proves
+it.
+
+Pass-traversing, to me, however, and doubtless to many others, seems to
+possess more elements of romance than peak-climbing; for this reason--to
+climb a peak is to make an expedition, but to cross a pass is to travel.
+In the one case you normally return to the spot whence you set out; in
+the other you go from the known to the unknown, from the visible to what
+is beyond. The peak, which is before you when you set out to climb it,
+is only explained, not revealed, as you ascend; but every pass is a
+revelation: it takes you over into another region. You leave one area
+behind and you enter another; you come down amongst new people and into
+fresh surroundings. You shut out all that was familiar yesterday and
+open up another world.
+
+This is true of all passing over; it is of course especially true
+when you are making a new pass for the first time. Then you have to find
+the way down as well as the way up, and the interest is sustained to the
+last moment. It has been my good-fortune to have had opportunities of
+climbing many new peaks and crossing several new passes--one of them the
+longest mountain-glacier pass in the world. Beyond all question the
+passes have been more interesting and exciting than the peaks. When you
+reach the summit of your peak the excitement suddenly ends; on the top
+of a pass it only culminates. The long pass to which I have above
+referred took about a fortnight to reach from the highest habitations.
+We could see the saddle ahead all the time, and we slowly drew nearer to
+it. The wonder increased as to what we should find on the other side.
+Whither should we be led on? Where should we come out? What difficulties
+might bar our progress? Not till the very moment when we topped the
+ascent and stood upon the col could any of these questions begin to be
+answered. Nor could any of them be fully answered till the week of
+descent had been actually accomplished. But the first sight over, the
+first glimpse into the new world, that was worth toiling for--that, and
+the last long regretful look back down the valley up which we had come,
+whose details had fastened themselves durably upon our memories.
+
+[Illustration: 44. THE ROAD FROM VITZNAU TO GERSAU. The _Obere nase_
+corner. Pilatus group in the distance.]
+
+What the travelling explorer in previously untraversed places feels so
+keenly is, after all, only a slightly stronger form of the emotion that
+every pass affords to every climber who traverses it for the first time.
+He awaits the arrival at the summit for the moment of supreme
+revelation. He has the same slow development of desire to see over; the
+same sudden burst of illumination at the top; the same regretful look
+back; the same pleasurable anticipation of novel experiences awaiting
+him on the descent. He too leaves one world and comes into another;
+leaves if it be but the home of a night in exchange for untried
+quarters. It is this similarity between ordinary Alpine climbing and new
+exploration that gives to the former one of its greatest charms. The
+fact that a thing is new to us suffices. It is almost, perhaps quite, as
+good to behold for the first time what we have heard speech of, as to
+behold what no one has ever beheld before. We shall find friends to
+converse and share memories with about the one; we are liable to be
+considered bores if we talk too much about the other. The explorer
+writes his book and then dwells with his memories alone, but the Alpine
+traveller lays up a store of experiences and reminiscences, the pleasure
+of which he can share with a goodly number of friends, old and young.
+
+Passes, like peaks, admit of classification. The first and most
+beautiful is the long snow pass, the kind of pass which is reached by
+ascending one long glacier, and from which the descent leads down
+another long glacier, so that the point of departure is as widely
+separated as possible from the point of arrival, and the divergence of
+scenery between the two extremities most pronounced. These may be called
+the great snow highways.
+
+The longest snow highway-pass, and to my thinking one of the finest in
+the Alps, leads right through the heart of the Bernese Oberland from the
+Loetschen valley at one end to the Grimsel at the other. It is really not
+one pass but a succession of three, for three ridges have to be
+crossed--which, however, only increases its interest. It leads through
+snow scenery of superlative pomp and extent, and reveals that scenery in
+the most fascinating manner, continually opening out and presently again
+closing up the wildest vistas, and always providing new interests and
+fresh culminations. Bietschhorn, Aletschhorn, Jungfrau, Finsteraarhorn,
+not to mention other less important peaks, in turn dominate the view,
+and one glacier after another opens out a vision of remote blue valleys
+and lower ranges. I am aware that this long traverse does not oppose to
+the climber the smallest real difficulty from end to end, and that it is
+what is commonly described as "a mere snow pound." It calls for
+endurance and that is all. Unless the climber counts scenery first among
+the attractions of the way, he will be well advised to select some other
+expedition. He who does so count it will agree with me that this is _par
+excellence_ "the" pass of the Central Alps. It lacks only one element of
+charm: it brings the traveller down into the same kind of scenery as
+that from which he started. A similar remark may be made on the
+Strahleck, which is likewise a glorious snow highway. Both passes, it
+may be observed, are eminently suited for ski experts to traverse in
+winter, under suitable conditions of weather and equipment.
+
+To find the long snow pass in its most romantic form one must look for
+it in a region where a great mountain range divides districts of
+strongly contrasted scenic character. There can be no doubt whither we
+should turn. The great range that gazes southward over Italy and
+northward into Switzerland perfectly fulfils the conditions. This
+culminates along the watershed south of Zermatt, which place is
+therefore indicated as the starting-point at one end. Of the long snow
+passes leading southward from Zermatt, the Lysjoch undoubtedly takes
+first place for magnificence of scenery throughout the whole length of
+its route. Gymnastic climbers may ask, Why not the Sesiajoch? On the
+north its route coincides with that of the Lysjoch, but on the south
+they diverge, and the easier route lies through finer if less
+catastrophic scenery. The Sesiajoch plunges down a great wall, and the
+view does not vary for a long time. The Lysjoch leads down one of the
+loveliest glacier valleys in Europe and affords endless variety. There
+is really no comparison between the two.
+
+We may therefore select the Lysjoch as type of the noblest kind of
+Alpine pass. Consider what wealth of interest it supplies to those who
+traverse it from Zermatt at one end to Gressoney at the other; for to
+enjoy a pass properly it should be followed from village to village
+throughout its full length, and not merely from hut to hut. The modern
+method of zigzagging across the crest of a chain without descending far
+below the snow-line, taking one pass one day and another the next, is, I
+am aware, not without fascinations, to which who has not succumbed? but
+it is not the best way to enjoy scenery, for it lacks the enforcing
+emphasis which the exchange of levels yields.
+
+It is of the essence of such a pass as the Lysjoch that it leads you
+from the foot of a great glacier, up through its whole length to its
+head, and then from the head of another glacier down to its foot. It
+thus traces a definite and natural succession of the features of a
+glacier. It is like following the course of a river from mouth to
+source, or passing through the progress of the seasons of a year. From
+step to step there is a succession of related features, each being
+another stage of the one before and of the one next to follow. Thus
+there is a growth of interest. What you behold is not a mere succession
+of unrelated vistas. Each foreground in turn implies all that has been
+passed and all that is yet to come on the upward way. True, convenience
+generally dictates that you shall not actually enter upon a glacier at
+its extreme foot, and mount right up it to its head. There is probably
+better going for part of the way along the bank. But the glacier is
+commonly close at hand and in full view most of the time, so that you
+become familiar with it at all points of its course. To ascend it is to
+advance through stages of increasing glory and purity. First you have
+its shabby moraine-strewn extremity; then its cleaner surface and open
+white crevasses. Higher up they turn continually bluer and the ice grows
+still whiter. The glacier widens; the slopes that border it become less
+grassy. You are leaving the habitable, profitable world behind, and
+approaching the clean undevelopable lands, which man may visit but where
+he must not dwell. The naked crags stand forth on either hand, furrowed
+with snow couloirs, and clothed with white raiment. Now you come to the
+snow-covered surface of the glacier itself. Blue-looking pools of water
+may be seen here and there. The snow becomes purer as you advance. There
+are no more dust-patches or groups of rocks interrupting the clean
+surface. Higher up, the glacier breaks into bolder forms as it pours
+down over steeper and more rugged slopes. The seracs tower aloft,
+fantastic in form and unstable in position. Great crevasses marvellously
+coloured in their depths yawn all about. You wind your way amongst them,
+creeping over snow-bridges and under impending walls and pinnacles of
+ice, all decked with sparkling icicles. Finally, you emerge on to some
+gentler-sloping, wide-expanding field of spotless snow, that only a
+gentle undulation diversifies with the most delicately displayed
+modelling. All around are steep slopes of snow or ice, cliffs of
+newly-riven rock, avalanche tracks and heaps of ruin. The details of the
+high peaks can be distinguished, their overhanging cornices, their
+furrowed sides. Ahead, and not so far away, is now the pass--a broad
+opening between great heaped-up domes of snow, perhaps with crests of
+rock cutting through. The slope grows easier. At last the ground is
+level, and a distant view opens before you as behind. You are on the
+top.
+
+The ascent has been marked, as a morning's work should be, by steady
+growth of interest. The descent, though it merely reverses the order of
+events and succession of interests, is not a simple inversion of the
+experiences of the ascent. It would be if you descended backwards,
+facing the pass, but such is not the human method of going. You now face
+downwards, and have before you the blue valley, the distant lower
+ranges, and perhaps some fragment of the broad lowlands in view, whereas
+in going up you look at the heights. The valleys promise rest and
+refreshment to your growing fatigue. The way becomes less laborious as
+you descend. You leave the snow behind gladly. The first flowers welcome
+you. And now as you quit the ice and traverse the high meadows the
+steady increase of fertility is delightful to observe. You enter the
+tree-level through a fringe of skimpy and wind-beaten scouts. The timber
+becomes finer as you advance. After all, this fertile earth is the place
+for man. Down you go into a new valley, the torrent hurrying and
+tumbling beside you. You come to a poor village and then to one more
+thriving. Fruit-trees begin to find place, and then chestnuts. How
+delightful it is to come down to the chestnut-level! It is then no far
+cry to the figs and the Italian lakes, and all the luxury of north
+Italian nature--its rich atmosphere, its colour, its suave forms, and
+picturesque surprises.
+
+[Illustration: 45. AMSTEG IN THE REUSSTHAL. On the St. Gotthard Railway.
+Entrance to the Windgelle Tunnel above the last house on right of
+picture.]
+
+To cross thus and through such stages from the austere Swiss valleys to
+Italian frolic and ease, is to enjoy one of the greatest pleasures. You
+can do it by going over a peak, but clearly peaks are not natural
+passage-ways. They do not suggest themselves for traverse, whereas
+passes do. The whole idea of a peak is a provocation to the climber to
+get to the top. A pass invites him to come over; it calls from valley to
+valley. Who would ever think of going to a col and then returning in his
+tracks to the starting-point unless misfortune compelled him? The
+suggestion is absurd. Passes are the natural gateways of the hills--at
+first the easiest and lowest gaps; next the best gaps that could be
+found from valley to valley; lastly, any notch between two peaks, even
+if they are twin-culminating summits of a single mountain. Indeed,
+provided the point of crossing is a notch, so that, when you stand in
+it, you see a peak rising on either hand of you, you have the feeling
+that you are going over a pass--that the wall Nature has erected in your
+way has been overcome; and that feeling is the thing.
+
+The broad portals of the great mountain highways offer, as I have said,
+and obviously must offer, scenery of the grandest and most logically
+consistent type along all the way; but there are passes of other kinds
+richly endowed with power to please. I would choose next, as a
+delightful type, the most opposed in character to the broad snow col,--I
+refer to those range-traversing routes which lead over steep
+mountain-walls. Such on a great scale for the Alps are the Col du Lion,
+the Domjoch, and the Col de Miage. I think, however, that the classical
+pass of this kind is the Triftjoch. It will at all events perfectly
+serve as an example of the rest. Seeing that, by definition, the final
+slope of all such passes is a steep wall, that wall, dropping from the
+watershed, must be at the end of some deep glacial recess. Herein lies
+the distinguishing feature of the way. The lower part of the route will
+resemble the lower part of any other pass, but ultimately somewhere in
+the _neve_ region the traveller is led into a deeply embayed cirque.
+
+The snow-field may and often does lie almost level at the foot of the
+wall, perhaps above some final ice-fall which it has been difficult to
+surmount. These high _neve_ basins that look so lake-like and restful in
+the heart of the hills are always lovely. Imposing precipices rise
+around them, and in fact feed them with showers of avalanches on active
+days. But in fine summer weather the avalanches have all fallen. The
+surrounding walls are like a defensive fortress, towering so high and
+steeply, and excluding the world and all its vicissitudes and violences.
+It is only a seeming, for nowhere, in fact, do storms eddy and surge
+with more violence than in these theatres of the mountains. But seeming
+is the very substance of beauty, and all the fine-weather aspect of
+these places is suggestive of peace. The further you advance the more
+completely are you enclosed. Sometimes a bend in the hollow may actually
+so shut you in, that no glimpse of the lower regions is to be seen in
+any direction. Such isolation is delightful for a while. Besides
+yourselves there is no other trace to be found of the existence of the
+human race, or of its ever having existed; you might be on the surface
+of the moon and discover nothing more indifferent to mankind and their
+motions. A few hours of sunshine will blot out every sign of your
+passing. This entire cleanness and invulnerability is specially
+delightful to men who have grown up in crowded cities, where, save
+sometimes in the sky, the very reverse is the case, and nothing is
+visible that does not imply the handiwork of man.
+
+The final climb is like all wall-climbing, and commands no view
+unless you can turn round; but so much the more does the last step tell,
+the step that lifts your eyes above the crest and suddenly displays to
+you the great vista on the other side. In peak-climbing, the views to
+right and left rapidly develop and approach as you near the top; it is
+only in the ascent of these wall-ended passes that the view is kept back
+to the last, and then suddenly revealed. In the case of the Triftjoch,
+as you climb to it from Zermatt, the result is even more than usually
+impressive; for what bursts upon your vision, right opposite to you, on
+the far side of a splendid and vast circle of snow-field, is the whole
+pyramid of the Dent Blanche, from base to summit, with its finest side
+turned towards you. For the view thus to burst upon the traveller with
+overwhelming suddenness, the steepness of the wall of ascent must be
+continued to the very top. If it rounds off for the last few feet, as
+sometimes happens, the effect is spoiled. The Triftjoch view is one of
+the best arranged, because the gap you pass through is so narrow, and
+the distance is beheld as it were in a frame of rocks, which form a
+foreground. Most saddles of the kind are wider. Then the view lacks
+foreground and is no better than part of a mountain-top panorama. The
+narrow gaps are the ones to look for. They can be found all over the
+Alps, but not usually along the crest of the main ranges.
+
+[Illustration: 46. THE DENT BLANCHE FROM THE RIFFELBERG. July 22, 1903.
+The Dent Blanche and all the other peaks mostly engaged in powdering
+their heads behind a curtain of cloud. The water in foreground is not a
+lake, merely a pond of rain-water.]
+
+There is, however, a great charm attached to many passes across minor
+ridges. They enable an expedition to be made, out and back, from a
+single centre, with variety of scenery all the way--up one side valley
+and down another. The side valleys often deserve more attention than
+they get. A climber's natural tendency is to go for the big
+expeditions--the highest mountains and the greatest passes. It is worth
+observing that the greater the scale on which mountains are built, the
+more widely are the main features separated. Minor peaks and lower
+ridges have their different members nearer together. Juxtaposition often
+produces admirable results, and may educate the eye to look for effects
+on a great scale which have once been observed in little. After all,
+variety is the great thing,--variety and the emphasis that contrast
+gives to beauty of different kinds. It is so easy to grow accustomed, so
+easy to become dull to an effect that is constantly before the eyes. How
+tired of ourselves, and one of another, we should become, if we were not
+always growing older! In the mountains, if we would have our sense of
+their beauty ever fresh, our appreciation of it ever keener and keener,
+we should alter our point of view: exchanging great for small, arid
+magnificence for fertile attractiveness, snow for rock, peak for pass,
+alp for valley. We should beware of specialisation. Why climb only
+aiguilles? Why scramble up nothing but rock-faces? There may be breadth
+or narrowness even in our play. We are likely to manifest in life as a
+whole the qualities that we show in sport. Why not make play react on
+life?
+
+A highway-pass penetrates a range by help of a corridor, a wall-pass
+leads right over a cliff. These are the two most definitely marked types
+of col. We might feel ourselves compelled to assign most cols to one
+type or the other, if we allowed our freedom to be restrained by the
+bondage of scientific definition. There is, however, a kind of pass
+which I prefer to capture for a group by itself, though no descriptive
+name for it occurs to me,--I mean passes like the Weissthor or the Col
+du Geant, which are approached by regular snow highways on one side, and
+fall very rapidly on the other. They and their like are always popular,
+and there are many of them. Their chief general characteristic is the
+contrast that must strike every one between the ascent and the descent,
+on one side and on the other, and between the views in opposite
+directions from the col. This side, you look down a glacier valley with
+a broad white foreground limited by a mountain avenue, along which some
+great glacier flows, winding away. That side, a cliff plunges from your
+feet, and such foreground as there may be consists of the nearest
+mountains before you. Thus the near view fixes your attention in one
+direction, the remote distance in the other. One is essentially a view
+among mountains, the other an outlook over the wide earth. One impresses
+by its wildness, the other by its extent. You keep facing about, and,
+each time you turn, the contrast of scenery enforces the charm of either
+outlook.
+
+Obviously the right way to enjoy such a pass to most advantage is to
+ascend by the gentler slope and to go down the cliff. It is not the
+easiest way for the climber, who is likely to prefer to mount the cliff
+and descend the slope. The technically and aesthetically best are here at
+variance. In ascending by the highway side the fine view is always
+before you, but if you go up the cliff nothing faces you but a few acres
+of snow and rock. On the contrary, when you descend the cliff, the
+uninteresting outlook is at your back and the fine view in front all the
+way.
+
+The crest of some passes of this sort, notably of the Weissthor, is a
+point of vantage for enfilading a great mountain face. Usually one looks
+up or down such faces, or, being actually upon them, can only look a
+short distance to right or left. But from the crest of a suitable pass
+you may see the great curtain of ice and rocks edgewise, and the view
+has an impressiveness of its own. Those who have seen Niagara, or any
+wide waterfall of considerable height, will remember how fine it is to
+stand and look along the edge of it. Fronting it, you obtain a sense of
+its width; below it, you feel its force and volume; but in profile its
+grace is its leading quality. So is it with a wide mountain-wall. It is
+not enough to see it from below, or from over against. It must also be
+looked along. Then its surface modelling, its outsets and insets, its
+ribs and gullies, the meandering as well as the slope of its front
+become apparent. Few great walls of this kind do not grandly curve
+round. They are most impressive when that curvature is apparent. Once
+thus beheld, a wall takes on a new meaning when seen again from some
+more common standpoint. It no longer looks flat. Its bays and buttresses
+become perceptible to the trained eye, which is thus better enabled to
+appreciate the complexities of form and the true architecture of any
+other mountain-wall afterwards encountered.
+
+There remains but one more type of pass that appeals for special
+mention before our space is exhausted. It is the Couloir Pass, a col led
+up to by a narrow snow-or ice-filled gully. The Col du Mont Dolent and
+the Col du Lion are the grandest examples of the type, which however is
+not an uncommon one. For me these passes always possess singular charm.
+They are really a subdivision of the wall-pass group, but they arouse
+emotions altogether their own. Once in the couloir you are completely
+isolated, almost as though perched in the air. A wall of rocks close at
+hand shuts you in on either side. The steep slope rises in front.
+Behind, you look straight away to some far distance with nothing to
+interrupt the vision. So indeed you do from the face of a wall or cliff,
+but the effect is greatly enhanced by your enclosure on either hand. The
+contrast between those near rocks to left and right and the absolute
+openness behind makes the steep drop of the slope appear much steeper
+than it is. Perhaps you may be compelled to remain for hours in the
+narrow gully. So much the more striking becomes the view revealed at the
+top and the sudden sense of being in the open. It has been implied that
+the couloir has to be ascended, for such is usually the choice, and
+sometimes the only wise choice; but it is far more delightful to descend
+one, with the view in front all the way and the valley bottom slowly
+approaching. Never is the depth beneath better appreciated than under
+such circumstances.
+
+[Illustration: 47. THE VILLAGE OF SOLDIMO, AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE VAL
+MAGGIA.]
+
+I have thus far been referring to passes from the climber's point
+of view, as leading from one mountain centre to another. Truly, however,
+the whole of a pass is the route through a mountain region from plain to
+plain. Few mountaineers nowadays ever cross a range in that way except
+by train, and yet it is one of the most delightful experiences.
+Motor-cars will enable us to enjoy such traverses by road, when the
+Swiss have learnt the wisdom of granting free passage across the Alps to
+any kind of vehicle. It is only when a range of mountains is approached
+from the plain that its mass and geographical value as a dividing wall
+can be felt. Arriving by train among mountains is a very different
+thing, for you can see nothing from a train unless you are the
+engine-driver--all revealing views being necessarily ahead. Afoot there
+is usually some definite point, immediately perceptible, where you first
+come in contact with the slope. You enter the mouth of a valley; the
+hills reach forth their arms to embrace you, and you consciously enter a
+new world. Beside you is now a riotous river on the one hand and a
+steepening slope on the other. It is not long before you know that you
+have begun to ascend. The flatness of the valley's mouth presently
+changes into a gentle slope. At first the fertility of the plain
+accompanies you into the hills, but the fields grow smaller, the
+villages may be cramped for space and forced to adapt themselves to
+difficult ground, attaining a new picturesqueness in the process. Thus
+for long miles, hour after hour, and, in large mountain regions, day
+after day, the character of the scenery slowly changes. The mountains
+grow bigger; vegetation varies with level and aspect; Nature grows more
+austere, and therewith more magnificent. You traverse some vast defile,
+like the gorge of Gondo perhaps, where road and river find passage
+beneath opposite cliffs, water-worn and of imposing height. You enter
+secluded basins, where the valley widens to close again; you pass round
+the margin of lakes that hold the hill-tops, as it were, in their
+depths. And always the flanking heights grow greater, and their tops,
+when visible, further and further away. Side valleys radiate, leading
+around romantic corners to invisible fastnesses. The slope of the main
+valley steepens again. You reach the foot of the forest region, the
+snouts of glaciers begin to appear, and high aloft the snows look down
+upon you. Now you traverse the last village and approach the foot of the
+glacier that fills your valley's head. You mount beside it through the
+tree-belt and out on to the grassy alp, then up that to the region of
+broken rocks and stones, and so to the margin of the snow. It is only
+the last stage of your traverse which now arrives, but that last stage
+is the beginning and end of the mere climber's pass. To you it means
+much more--it is the crest of the great range that you have been so long
+penetrating to these its uttermost recesses. The final wall is before
+you, the great white wall that looked so ethereal, so cloud-like, when
+first beheld from afar. You toil up it, stand on the crest, and look
+abroad over the world of mountains. Then down to the stones, to the
+grass, to the trees, the high village, and the valley road. So onward
+again by the roaring torrent, down the ever more fertile, more luxuriant
+valley, till you come to the low hills and the wide flat stretches that
+at last lead you out on to the plain once more.
+
+[Illustration: 48. FLUeELEN AT END OF LAKE OF URI, SOUTH ARM OF LAKE OF
+LUCERNE. The pyramid of the Bristenstock in the background. Foehn wind
+blowing.]
+
+A long traverse of that kind is a real pass, a whole pass; nothing else
+is more than a fragment--a choice fragment it may be, but still a part
+and not the whole. The old mountaineers, such as John Ball, used to take
+their passes in this complete form. So did the old coach-travellers like
+John Ruskin in his early days. Now mountaineers scorn to waste time on
+so lengthy an experience and to remain for so long at low levels. It is
+not their way. They have continual business aloft. They leave to
+motorists that kind of expedition. What good-fortune, then, that
+motor-cars should have been invented in time to provide such possible
+delights for climbers when their days of activity are done.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+GLACIERS
+
+
+Incidentally, in the course of the preceding chapters, glaciers have
+been frequently referred to, but they form so prominent a feature in
+Alpine scenery as to demand a chapter alone. For, in fact, it is the
+glaciers that most of us think about when we turn our minds to the Alps.
+Minor ranges have walls of rock as precipitous and grand, gullies as
+difficult to climb, valleys as beautiful and even as profound as the
+Alps. Other European ranges are for a longer or shorter part of the year
+snow-covered, and often deeply snow-covered, so as to present
+snow-aretes, cornices, couloirs, and snow-slopes that might almost have
+been stolen from the highest regions of so-called eternal snow. The
+Pyrenees, if exception be made of one or two small glaciers of no
+importance, are practically a range of this sort. They possess
+fascinations, and great fascinations, but lacking glaciers they lack
+what every traveller amongst them must feel to be the essential element
+of greatness. Where glaciers exist the mountains are of the grand style.
+A small Spitsbergen peak draped and surrounded by glaciers has a more
+imposing effect than a great tropical hill, three times as big, which
+lacks glaciers.
+
+Snow that vanishes away before it is a year old is generally
+feeble-looking stuff. It is only snow with a history, snow that has
+weathered twenty hot summers, that really tells in a view. The first is
+a mere inert covering of the ground; the second is a mighty and moving
+agent. In short, the one is dead; the other is alive. A sheet of snow,
+lying where it fell, is amorphous. It might be twice the size or half
+the size and any single square yard of it would be the same. But a
+glacier, the moving accumulation of a score or scores of winter
+snow-falls, is a unit, and all its parts imply the rest. Increase or
+diminish the area and you must needs change every detail, just as the
+whole body of a man is modified when he begins to grow stout or to waste
+away.
+
+It is not often that you can see the whole of a glacier in a single
+view, unless it be a very small glacier. Generally you see only a part;
+but, to one who knows, that part implies the whole. When you see a man's
+leg you know that there is the rest of him round the corner; from the
+attitude of what is visible it is often possible to infer much about
+what is hidden. So, too, is it with a glacier. The more familiar a man
+is with glacier phenomena, the more certainly can he infer from the
+known to the unknown. How easy it is with a little practice to tell at a
+glance whether a bit of white beheld aloft is part of a glacier or
+merely a bed of winter snow that will presently disappear. The one is
+modelled by its own motion; the other merely borrows its modelling from
+the ground on which it lies inertly.
+
+The sense of motion, unity, and life--it is when these are
+instinctively perceived in glaciers that a view of snow-mountains begins
+to possess its true significance. Before it had been discovered that
+glaciers move, people used to call them frightful, terrible, and so
+forth. Ignorance blinded men's eyes to the beauty that was actually in
+sight. Not knowing how to look, they could not see it. What forests,
+grass, and flowers are to the lower regions, that glaciers are to the
+higher--they are the vitalising element. Hence the importance to the
+mountain-lover of learning to know glaciers and familiarising himself
+with their structure, their ways, and their moods. It is easy enough to
+declare that every form and movement of a glacier is determined by the
+action of definite forces--so perhaps are all the ways and doings of
+men. But we pretend that they are not, and talk of our whims and moods,
+and may take the same liberty of speech about glaciers.
+
+Every climber knows that there are glaciers of all sorts and
+characters, and every mountain traveller knows that they behave
+differently in different climates and latitudes. In the Arctic regions
+they flow faster and spread more widely. They have a more viscous
+appearance to the eye. They bulge and swell at the lower end, so that no
+one would ever have invented the name "snout" for the termination of an
+Arctic ice-stream. Moreover they break very readily into crevasses, even
+upon gentlest inclines in their lower course, whilst high up they seem
+less ready to form ice-falls than in the Alps. Glaciers in Norway vary
+from the Arctic to the temperate character as you go from north to
+south. The glaciers of Lyngen resemble those of Greenland. The glaciers
+of Jotunheim are almost Alpine--more than Alpine, indeed, in the
+development of their glorious ice-cascades, but less than Arctic in the
+outreach of their lower extremities. The glaciers of the Tropics, again,
+present peculiarities of their own, due to the fact that the ice
+evaporates rather than melts. Thus their surfaces are dry and almost
+granitic in aspect. Their towering seracs seldom fall. Avalanches are
+much rarer than one would expect. Glacier streams are insignificant.
+Thus it is in the Bolivian Andes and thus also in the regions of Kenya
+and Ruwenzori. In the great Asiatic mountain territory there are
+glaciers of many types, corresponding to the great variety of climates.
+Those of Sikkim seem to be almost of the tropical character. Those of
+the Mustagh are of the temperate sort; and there are many intermediate
+varieties.
+
+[Illustration: 49. FURGGEN GLACIER ICEFALL. Furggjoch at top of
+picture.]
+
+Alpine glaciers are of the medium type, lying as they do half-way
+between the Arctic and tropical extremes. They have not the rapid flow
+of the Arctic nor the dry rigidity of the tropical sort. Their walls are
+not silent as in the Central Andes, nor thundered over by continual
+avalanches like those of the upper Baltoro. They are of medium size
+also. In a single day almost any of them may be ascended from snout to
+snow-field, and descended again. To explore their remotest recesses no
+elaborately equipped expedition is required. Yet they are large enough
+to be imposing, and penetrate deep enough into the heart of the hills to
+isolate their votaries completely from the world of human habitation. It
+is to this medium quality that the Alps owe much of their charm. This,
+too, it is that makes them an almost perfect mountain play-ground. Were
+they but a little smaller, how much they would lose that is most
+precious! Were they larger, how many persons that now can afford the
+cost and the strength to explore them would have to linger at their
+gates wistfully looking in. In area, too, they are large enough for
+grandeur and yet small enough for easy access. No part of them is beyond
+the range of a summer holiday, yet a commanding view of them is as
+apparently limitless as is the view from the greatest Asiatic peaks
+which, thus far, have been climbed. They are the only range of
+snow-mountains in the world thus blessed with moderation.
+
+It is for this reason that the Alpine climber so soon acquires an
+understanding of glaciers as units. A novice, after a single year's
+Alpine experience, can talk easily and with understanding of all the
+parts of a glacier. It takes twenty seasons to know them well, but the
+foundations of knowledge can be laid in one. The modern tendency amongst
+climbers is to devote their main attention to rock-scrambling; but those
+who have spent the best years of their life amongst mountains, generally
+end by giving their hearts to glaciers and the high regions of snow. The
+best advice that can be given to a young climber is, "Learn to know
+glaciers." They offer the strongest contrast to the ordinary
+surroundings of life. They present the most varied phenomena. They most
+readily impress the imagination. They are the vital element, the living
+inhabitants of the high world.
+
+[Illustration: 50. THE GLETSCHERHORN FROM THE PAVILION, HOTEL CATHREIN,
+CLOSE TO CONCORDIA HUT. One of the finest situations for views of the
+ice-world where no climbing is required.]
+
+If elsewhere I have praised the charms of contrast, of passing from
+low to high, from fertile to barren, let me here exalt another method.
+Who that has tried it will not agree that it is likewise well,
+sometimes, to hide oneself in the very heart of the upper snows, and
+there dwell for a while apart from the haunts of men? Formerly this was
+difficult to accomplish, but now, in the Alps at any rate, it is easy;
+for well-found high-level huts are many. Such, for instance, is the
+Becher Refuge, planted in the midst of the Tirolese Uebelthal glacier, or
+the Kuersinger Hut, on the north slope of the Gross Venediger. Settled in
+either of these, you are in the midst of the high snowy world. The
+_neves_ are within a stone's throw, and the final peaks may be gained by
+a morning's walk. The Concordia Hut (now Hotel, I believe) is similarly
+situated; whilst the hut on the top of the Signal Kuppe of Monte Rosa is
+yet more highly elevated. It is easy to spend a day or two in any of
+these huts, and so to pass before the eyes the whole daily drama as it
+is played upon the heights. So easy is it, that one wonders why more
+mountain-lovers do not avail themselves of the opportunity. The
+drawback, of course, is that such a hut is a centre of human activity.
+You forsake the hordes of men below, only to join a colony above.
+Solitude in these places is not to be had except in bad weather.
+
+There is one way, and one only, by which fully to experience the long
+emotion of a dweller in the heights: it is to camp out. Few, indeed, are
+they who have tried it in the Alps. Some have slept in a tent on the
+mountain-side before a great climb; but they are fewer now than a score
+of years ago. It is not, however, to such brief lodging I refer; but to
+a settlement made and victualled for several days. Mr. Whymper, I
+believe, is one of the few English climbers who has spent many days
+together with a tent at high altitudes in the Alps, and he has not
+published any notice of his experiences. It is a thing I have long
+wished to do, knowing so well the charms of such life in other mountain
+regions.
+
+From a high-planted camp you can climb if you must, but you can also
+enjoy yourself without climbing. To awake on a fine morning in the midst
+of the snow-fields and see the coming of day at leisure, with no
+preparations to be made for immediate departure; then to watch the sun
+climb aloft and flood the depths of the valleys with its glory; to spend
+the whole day at leisure in the vicinity of your tent, strolling now to
+look into some bergschrund, now to scramble on to some neighbouring
+point of rock, returning at intervals to dine, or read some pleasant
+book, or to sketch in the shadow of the tent;--that is the way to let
+the mountain-glory sink in. My climbing days on the heights have left me
+pleasant memories enough, but the high-level days of idleness have been
+more delightful, even when they were days of storm and driving snow.
+
+[Illustration: 51. THE TRUGBERG. Looking up the Aletsch glacier from
+corner of Maerjelen See.]
+
+To be in the midst of a storm at a high altitude is a wonderful
+experience, which all climbers pass through sooner or later; but it is
+an uncomfortable experience. When you are camping-out high up you can
+enjoy a storm far more easily. I have sat warmly in my sleeping-bag and
+looked out for hours through a chink of the tent-door, fascinated to
+watch the whirling of the snow and to listen to the wild music of the
+gale. It is not the fine weather alone that is fair. There is a yet
+grander glory in the storms. What can be more superb than to watch the
+oncoming of such a visitant, to see the white valleys and dark
+precipices swallowed up in the night of its embrace, to feel the power
+of its might and the volume of its onrush, and to see and feel all this
+with the sense of security such as a limpet may be conceived to feel in
+the presence of waves breaking upon it? Who would not wish to spend a
+few hours in the Eddystone Lighthouse in the midst of a December gale?
+That would surely be worth while; like standing beneath the Falls of
+Niagara.
+
+Equally wonderful is it when the winds are still and a white fog
+envelops your little camp. Then you know what it is like to be alone.
+Above, around, and below all is impalpable whiteness. You might be
+floating in the air on a bit of snow-carpet for all the eye can tell you
+to the contrary. Never is silence more emphatic, not even in the darkest
+hour of the night. The ear strains with listening and hears only the
+pulsations of the heart, till some distant falling stone or rumbling
+avalanche, some crack of a new-forming crevasse, some slight shifting of
+a near snow-bed, sends a shiver through the air. And then, perhaps,
+there is a writhing in the mist and shortly forms emerge. You cannot
+tell at first whether they are tiny objects near at hand or remote
+masses. Under such circumstances I have mistaken a little fragment of
+paper drifting along the snow for a polar bear! Presently avenues of
+clearness open up to close again. Finally, the mist grows thin and
+glittering, the sunshine penetrates it, there is a moment of scorching
+heat, and lo! all is clear, and the great world around is perfectly
+revealed.
+
+[Illustration: 52. PALLANZA--SUNSET.]
+
+What beauty there is in the great snow-fields that wearied waders
+through their soft envelope are in no condition to appreciate! For to be
+seen at their grandest they must be seen in the full glare of
+mid-daylight, when details are swallowed up in radiant, all-enveloping
+splendour. Every one knows the glory of overpowering sound. For that
+orchestras are enlarged and choruses increased in number. Who that has
+heard the full-throated music of ten thousand men, singing as one, will
+forget the majesty of that voluminous sonorance? The thunder of great
+guns is used, by common consent, to express the salutations of a people.
+What is true of sound is also true of light. Great views are ennobled by
+the splendour of full sunshine. There is an indescribable charm about
+desert sunrises and sunsets, but the glory of the desert is greatest at
+noon when the sunshine seems to swallow up the world and almost to hide
+it in excess of brightness. As with the deserts so is it with the
+snow-fields. When the eye can barely suffer to rest on them, they are
+most impressive. If there be specks of dust upon the snow, they
+disappear then from vision. With the brightness comes perfect purity,
+and the very idea of possible contamination vanishes away.
+
+Reference has been made above to the beauty of linear form presented by
+many mountains projected against the sky. The great snow-fields have a
+beauty of surface form, a delicacy and perfection of modelling, far more
+remarkable. The graceful outline of a rock-peak, such as the Matterhorn,
+is, after all, a conception based upon a fact. The actual outline is a
+line elaborately jagged, which the eye converts into a continuous curve
+by purposely neglecting to observe the small indentations. But the
+curvature of a _neve_ is often apparently perfect. Its slight
+imperfections are too small for the eye to see even when they are looked
+for. Where it curves over, the outline of its edge is as delicate as any
+line that can be fashioned by the most elaborate artifice. No razor's
+edge is apparently more true. So also are the surfaces, in the
+perfection of their rise and fall. Not more perfect are the heavings of
+the last dying swell on a calming tropical ocean. But the swelling of
+the snows is still, and can be watched from dawn to eve with the
+incredibly delicate shades upon it that change with the hours yet never
+grow coarse, only towards the day's end they become blue and bluer, till
+the pink lights of sunset melt against them before the pallor of night
+comes on.
+
+[Illustration: 53. KRANZBERG--ROTTHALHORN--AND JUNGFRAU: SUNSET.]
+
+The details of the snow-fields are few, except when the surface is
+forced to break up by submerged inequalities of the glacier's bed. Then
+_neve_ ice-falls are formed, which are far more majestic than the
+ice-falls of the middle region (such as that of the Col du Geant). The
+high ice-falls are always deeply covered with recent snow, and the
+broken white mantle upon the tumbled chaos produces mysterious hollows
+and gives rise to long fringes of glittering icicles not elsewhere in
+summer to be seen. To gaze into a crevasse in such a situation is to
+look into a veritable fairy's grotto, where the recesses are bluer and
+the walls more white than the memory ever avails to recall, and where
+the icicles seem to be hung for the very purpose of sublime decoration.
+Glimpses of such sights are often granted to the mere climber as he
+hastily scrambles over a bergschrund by an insecure snow-bridge; but he
+has no time to stop for half an hour and let his fancy play truant in
+the depths. To do that, one must be living aloft, with all the day to
+spend as one pleases, no peak to attain and return from, within short
+time-limits, and no companions to say "Hurry up."
+
+Perhaps these pages may have the good fortune to inspire some
+mountain-lover with the wish to camp out aloft. A suggestion may,
+therefore, not be out of place. Let the intending high-level resident
+choose the situation of his camp with care. It must be out of the way of
+excursionists, or he will be invaded by continual visitors, who will
+expect entertainment and will thus deplete his stores and spoil his
+solitude. It ought not, however, to be difficult of access, or the
+problem of revictualling will be complicated and expensive. Such a camp
+should consist of two tents--one of them for guides or porters. The
+traveller's tent should be solid, and should possess a double roof or
+fly, so that it may be occupied with comfort in the hot hours of the
+day. It should be so firmly planted that no gale can overthrow it. Its
+furniture should be sufficient for comfort. Do not plan to move on from
+day to day, but settle down for a week or more at one spot, where there
+are rocks for a tent platform, and short scrambles that can be safely
+undertaken alone. Let the snow-field be near also, a snow-field that can
+be traversed on _ski_, and do not forget to take the _ski_ with you, nor
+fear that you will not be able to use them on fairly level ground
+without previous practice. Keep a man with you to fetch water and do the
+rough cooking, so that all your time may be your own to enjoy to the
+full a rare opportunity which may not come again.
+
+The middle region of the glaciers is the region best known to the
+votaries of the Alps, because it is the most accessible from the popular
+hotels. This middle region may be defined as limited by the snow-line
+above and the tree-level below. It is therefore larger towards the end
+of the season as the snow-line is pushed up by the melting of the winter
+snows. On the Aletsch glacier it roughly corresponds with the stretch
+between the Belalp and the Concordia; on the Gorner glacier with the
+corresponding stretch between the Riffelhorn and the foot of Monte Rosa.
+Its characteristic features are the open crevasses and the flowing or
+standing water on the surface of the ice. This is the place to come to
+for glacier picnics. It is the paradise of the moderate walker or the
+superannuated mountaineer. It is a safe region for the experienced to
+wander over alone, and for the inexperienced to visit with experts. You
+can start late and be back early. You need not venture forth before the
+weather has declared its intentions. Hence it is the popular glacier
+belt, and its beauties are best known and most widely appreciated.
+
+If it lacks the aloofness and romance of the _neves_, it possesses
+ample charms of its own. The impressive silence of the heights is here
+replaced by a chorus of the voices of many waters. The large simplicity
+and sweeping forms of the snow-fields give way here to a multiplicity of
+detailed forms that require time to appreciate and understand. Every
+step in this area yields a new wonder, a fresh incident, another
+surprise. All around is continual change as you go along. There is no
+end to the features that demand and reward your attention. No wonder
+that glacier wandering at this level should be so popular an amusement.
+
+What is its principal and characteristic charm? Undoubtedly the water,
+and the phenomena to which it gives rise. To begin with, there are the
+streams, small and great. The little trickles, that creep between the
+lumps of the uneven surface and deepen the furrow dividing them. They
+flow and unite together like the veins of a leaf, thus giving rise to
+larger arteries, and these by their union to yet larger. Thus the main
+drainage torrents are formed, which, on great Arctic and Himalayan
+glaciers, become veritable rivers, impossible to be leapt over or
+forded. The beds of these torrents are blue in colour and like
+transparent glass in aspect--a lovely contrast with the general surface
+of the glacier. For that is made white by the innumerable fissures that
+penetrate its surface, due to the dissolvent effect of the sun's heat,
+from which the icy water protects the bed of a stream. It is a favourite
+pastime to sit beside such a torrent and watch the water flow by between
+its white banks, one in bright sunshine, the other, perhaps, in shadow,
+with the blue ribbon of transparent ice between them and crystalline
+water scampering along with an aspect of joy in freedom.
+
+But there is a grim fate in store for it not far ahead. It must make
+haste to laugh in the sunshine while it can, and to display its
+short-lived clearness. Next time we see it, it will be thick and unclean
+with sediment, and far below in the valleys where men live and work.
+Little, however, does it seem to care as it hurries and dances along,
+and throws up its little glittering, splashing hands into the air. We
+follow it downward, and soon hear a musical booming not far away, like
+the note of a deep organ pipe. It is a _moulin_ or pot-hole, a
+cylindrical perforation of the glacier into which the torrent leaps, and
+where it disappears, to flow thenceforward in darkness along the rocky
+bed of the glacier, till it reappears at the snout into the open valley.
+
+Even lovelier than the streams are the pools on the surface of a
+glacier, when they have a clean floor unsoiled by moraine or sandy
+deposit. These pools are sometimes of large dimensions. They, too, have
+blue basins with white edges. Looked down upon from a distance, they
+appear like great sapphire eyes gazing at the heavens. Seldom, if ever,
+in the Alps are such pools found in the _neve_ region; to behold them
+there, one must go to Arctic glaciers, of which they form one of the
+chief glories. If the lakes on the Gorner glacier do not equal those for
+purity or perfection of contrast between untainted blue and unsullied
+white, they are none the less most lovely. Sometimes a lake may be found
+not on but beside a glacier, where the ice forms one bank and the
+mountain another. Such are the Maerjelen See by the Great Aletsch, and
+the little-visited lake at the west foot of Monte Rosa. On these you may
+see floating or stranded masses of ice, and perchance find one that has
+recently turned over, displaying its blue part that was before
+submerged.
+
+[Illustration: 54. MAeRJELEN SEE AND GREAT ALETSCH GLACIER. Winter ice
+not yet melted on the lake.]
+
+Now and again, if you look for them, you will find crevasses filled
+with water, whose depth renders up a yet bluer tone than can elsewhere
+be met with in the regions of ice. Perhaps, at one end the crevasse will
+be roofed over, and there you may gaze into the deep shadow and find the
+blue deepen almost to black. If you drop in a stone, you may hear the
+bubbles come rippling up and the wavelets lapping against the sides. If
+the roof be thin enough, a hole may be made in it with the ice-axe, and
+a beam of sunshine admitted which will increase the scale of the harmony
+in blue. Well do I remember one glorious pool of water, roofed over with
+a dome of ice, through which the sunshine glimmered. At one side was a
+natural portal, at the other a window. Two or three white blocks of ice
+floated on the water, and its uneven depths were of all tones from
+sky-blue to black; but that was in Spitsbergen, where glacier details
+are far lovelier than the Alps can show.
+
+But the middle glacier region, the region of what is fantastically
+called the "dry glacier," presents other charms than those of water.
+Note, for example, the brilliance of its surface and the peculiarity of
+its texture. It consists of an infinite multitude of loosely compacted
+rounded fragments of ice with a little water soaking down between them.
+If you watch it closely, you will see that the moving water makes a
+shimmering in the cracks between the ice-fragments. You will also
+observe that the blue of the solid ice below the skin of fragments
+appears dimly through the white, and the least tap with an ice-axe to
+scrape away the surface reveals it clearly. Each little fragment of ice
+has a separate glitter of its own, so that the whole surface sparkles
+with a frosted radiance. It is not the same at dawn after a cold night,
+for then there is no water between the fragments, but all is hard and
+solid. No sooner, however, does the sun shine upon them, than the bonds
+are released and the ice-crystals begin to break up with a gentle
+tinkling sound and little flashes of light reflected from tiny wet
+mirror-surfaces. One can spend hours watching these small phenomena as
+happily as gazing upon the great mountains themselves. Size is a
+relative term. The biggest mountain in relation to the earth is no
+greater than is one of these small ice-fragments in relation to a
+glacier. Reduce the scale in imagination and the smallest object may be
+endowed with grandeur, for all such conceptions are subjective.
+
+The open crevasses that are never far away on the dry glacier are full
+of beauties. It is not easy to tire of peering down into them. Sometimes
+one may be found into which a man armed with an ice-axe may effect a
+descent. He will not stay there long, for the depths are cold. Once I
+was able not only to descend into a crevasse but to follow it beyond its
+open part into the very substance of the glacier. It was a weird place,
+good to see but not good to remain in, and I was glad to return to
+sunshine very soon.
+
+The moraines and scattered stones that are frequently encountered on the
+dry glacier are more interesting than beautiful. It is well to make the
+acquaintance of the medial moraines and to scramble over them, first for
+the wider view that one gets from the top, and next in order to realise
+their dimensions, always larger than one expects. Seen from a distance
+medial moraines look smaller than they are. The eye must be educated to
+realise their true dimensions. When that has been accomplished, the
+great scale of the glacier that carries them can be felt, but not
+before.
+
+There is generally a breeze blowing over a dry glacier, so that when
+the pleasant luncheon-hour arrives, a sheltered spot must be sought out,
+one open to the sun and protected against the breeze, with good water
+near at hand, and stones of convenient dimensions for seats and tables.
+Experienced wanderers will detect such spots far sooner than novices. It
+is with them as with good camping grounds: they are not easy to identify
+at a glance, but they are well worth hunting out.
+
+So also is it with points suitable for photography. A dry glacier is
+full of details for a camera, and yet how few good photographs does one
+see taken at this level among the mountains, unless they be distant
+views. Nowhere are there better foregrounds to be discovered; yet when
+they are looked for, how hard it is to find them. The composition is
+generally faulty in the inexperienced amateur's picture. But those who
+are experienced in the art seem to find suitable foregrounds everywhere.
+It is the result of much taking thought.
+
+Generally it happens that the return from a day's glacier wandering
+leads up the hillside along the margin, so that as we ascend, the area
+of our adventures spreads itself out below, and the eye can range over
+the whole of it at once. We look for the place where we lunched, for the
+broad streams with difficulty crossed, for the large pools we looked
+down into. They are not often discoverable. What looked so important
+near at hand has shrunk to an insignificant unidentifiable detail. The
+river is one of hundreds of the same kind. The pools are innumerable.
+The moraine stretches along for miles, and one of its mounds seems like
+another. We thus begin to realise the size of the great icy expanse. Our
+track over it has revealed but little of the multitude of sights there
+are to see. We have but glanced at a few samples out of countless
+thousands. Were we to return on the morrow we could not retrace our
+steps, nor find again the objects we saw to-day. For a moment the grand
+scale of the glacier imposes itself upon us, but before night has gone
+we shall have forgotten it. Only by coming again and yet again does it
+gradually sink into our understandings and become a part of the habit of
+thought with which we approach the Alps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ALPINE PASTURES
+
+
+It is to be feared that the reader, whose persistence has availed to
+carry him thus far through the adventure of this book, may bring an
+accusation against me, on the ground that each form and type of scenery,
+as in its turn it has come to be discussed, has been described in
+language of too superlative praise, as though it and it alone were
+pre-eminent above all other Alpine forms and types. Let me forthwith
+confess that the accusation is well founded; for the fact is that,
+whether the attention be turned upon peaks of rock or domes of snow,
+upon cliffs or aiguilles, upon snow-fields or ice-falls, upon passes,
+alps, or valleys, the kind under immediate consideration always seems
+the finest, the central type and the most beautiful. We quit the valleys
+for the high snows in search of beauty. From the heights we return to
+the valleys on the same quest. Everywhere we may find it, and to find it
+is all we need ask; for it is like pure gold, whereof no fragment is
+intrinsically more precious than another. Each new-found nugget seems
+for the moment best of all.
+
+[Illustration: 55. THE CASTLE OF ZAeHRINGEN-KYBURG, THUN.]
+
+Beauty is not the prerogative of any zone or level of the mountains more
+than of any other. It is of different kinds in different regions, but
+not of different degrees. Some kinds may appeal to one man more than
+other kinds, but these in their turn will be preferred by a man of
+different disposition, and neither can boast that his taste is superior.
+Youthful vigour may find the keen consciousness of beauty most readily
+arising after difficulties have been overcome. Age may feel its sense of
+beauty deadened by toil. In neither case is the power of appreciation to
+be regarded as a test of the quality of the beauty perceived; it is
+merely an indication of the character of the person perceiving it.
+
+The normal Alpine climber is more sensitive to the beauty of the high
+regions than to the beauty of low levels. Nor is the fact surprising. He
+values that which he wins by toil, as is the natural habit of man. Yet
+he will by no means deny that there are beauties of the valleys and the
+middle regions, though he may freely confess that they appeal to him
+less powerfully. But even he, lying upon some high pasture or in the
+borders of a wood on some off-day, when the sun shines brightly and the
+peaks that he knows and loves look down upon him through a clear
+atmosphere, will realise consciously enough the fascination of the
+scene. The beauty of the middle region, however, stands in need of no
+apology, of no lengthy recommendation, for this is the region which the
+ordinary traveller most frequents and specially associates with his
+Alpine ramblings. The valleys are the home of the tripper; the alpine
+pastures, of the tourist; the snows, of the climber. Each class perhaps
+looks down upon the one below, but each is well rewarded and may rest
+content with what it receives.
+
+The grassy region between the belt of forest and the snows is known in
+Switzerland as the alps or high pastures, and it is from these "alps"
+that the great mountain range of Central Europe takes its name. An alp
+is essentially a summer grazing ground. It is the locality of cattle and
+horses, sheep and goats. A high Alpine village without an alp is an
+exceptional place. The normal village needs an alp for its equipment as
+much as it needs fields and woodland. The fact that there is an alp for
+summer grazing enables the grass lands at lower levels to be used as
+hay-fields; thus a supply of winter feed for the cattle is procured. Hay
+is also cut on some of the lower alps, but that is an exceptional use.
+
+The easily accessible alps are grazed by cattle. Highest alps whither
+cattle cannot go, or where frequent precipices surround the beasts with
+danger, are reserved for sheep and goats. Goat-alps are sometimes
+islands in the midst of glaciers, as, for instance, those at the foot of
+the Breithorn and the Twins along the south side of the main Gorner
+Glacier. Oftenest the alps grazed by sheep and goats are high up in the
+immediate vicinity of the snow-line, little patches of grass in a
+wilderness of rocks, or broken up by precipices. Some great grassy
+places at the ordinary cattle-alp level are so isolated by rock-walls
+that cattle cannot be taken to them with safety. Large flocks of sheep
+will then be found there. Such, for example, is the Muttenalp above
+Thierfehd in the Toedi district, which is grazed by some 1500 or 2000
+sheep. A single shepherd looks after them, and is almost entirely cut
+off from the lower world throughout the long summer months. The alp in
+question lies in a hollow of the hills, with terraced slopes rising like
+an amphitheatre from a grassy hollow, only accessible from below by a
+giddy path. There would be grass enough here for many cattle if the path
+could be cheaply improved.
+
+Nothing in the Alps is more lonely and forlorn in aspect than are these
+high shepherds' huts. They are always wretchedly built. The lads or men
+that occupy them are the poorest of their village and the worst clad. In
+an alp where cheese is made there is plenty of work to fill every hour
+of the day; but a shepherd who lives aloft and does not have to drive
+his flock back to the village every day, finds time hanging heavily on
+his hands, and acquires a forlorn expression that matches his attire,
+his surroundings, and the miserable weather which so often envelops him.
+Those of us who climbed among out-of-the-way parts of the Alps in the
+seventies or earlier often had to take shelter for the night in
+shepherds' huts, and very uncomfortable they were. But modern climbers
+hardly know that such refuges exist.
+
+One such hut I well remember at the head of the Ridnaunthal in
+Tirol. Now there are no less than three luxurious climbers' huts built
+beside or near the glacier further up. The old shepherd's hut has fallen
+to decay. Only a fragment of one of its walls was left when I passed the
+place recently. Modern comforts, however, are not all clear gain. To
+sleep a night in the old upper Agels alp was not a comfortable
+experience, but it had its recompenses. The rough stone-built cabin was
+perfectly in harmony of aspect with its surroundings, as a club-hut is
+not. Built out of the stones that lay around, its crannies stuffed with
+moss, its roof formed of slabs and sods, it seemed a part of the
+mountain landscape, a natural growth rather than an artificial
+structure. A philosopher, ignorant of the conditions of life there,
+might have argued that the hut had been invested with an intentional
+protective coloration and form. The hut was hard to find, hard even to
+see when you were looking straight that way. It stood in a gorge upon a
+sloping grassy shelf, clutching a dark rock-cliff, as though it feared
+to slide down and tumble over into the roaring torrent. There was
+another dark cliff over against it, and the gorge curved round, so that
+you could not see far, either up or down. Everywhere the dark
+rock-cliffs shut it in, and only the minimum of sky was visible
+overhead, as it were poised on cliffs. There was always a bitter wind
+blowing when I was there, and always the river roaring, and its spray
+rising to the door of the hut like a wet cloud.
+
+The entry was by a low and narrow door, and there was a tiny window
+beside it. A little passage or track led from the door down the room to
+the fire at the far end, where cheese was made of goat's milk. On one
+side of the passage was a bed of hay, retained by a board. On the other
+were some shelves fastened against the wall. The door did not fit, and
+the walls were full of holes through which the wind whistled. It was
+indeed a wretched shelter; but we slept well enough within it, rolled up
+in our wraps. The hospitality of the simple peasant was as hearty, his
+welcome as warm, as his means were exiguous. No one sleeps in these
+goat-herd huts any more. Climbers have provided better accommodation for
+themselves, but in so doing they have lost that intimate touch with the
+life of the mountain-dwellers which a former generation learned to
+enjoy.
+
+When now we speak of alps, it is the cattle alps that are generally
+intended and understood. These cattle alps are of all sizes and
+descriptions, large and small, relatively high planted or relatively
+low. Some, like Moser's alp above Randa, belong to an individual and
+afford grazing only for a few beasts; but most are the property of the
+commune and are worked co-operatively for the benefit of all the
+cattle-owners who may wish to send their cows aloft to graze. Most alps
+are divided into two levels, a lower and a higher. The cattle are driven
+to the lower alp for the beginning and end of the summer season, to the
+higher for the middle weeks. Every such alp must be supplied with the
+necessary buildings for the accommodation of the herdsmen and
+cheese-makers, and generally for the cattle also, though in some parts
+of Switzerland the cattle are left out in the open throughout the whole
+summer season. Pigs are usually kept at a cattle alp to consume the
+refuse of the whey. An old woman once told me that pigs are "the fourth
+child of milk," the other three being butter, serac, and cheese. What
+with the coming and going of the cattle, the pigs, and the herdsmen, the
+milking at dawn and eve, and the cheese-making that follows, a cattle
+alp is a very busy place. Some are better equipped than others, but in
+almost all one finds a shake-down on hay, a fire, and good shelter
+against all possible inclemencies of the weather. The immediate
+neighbourhood of the huts is liable to be dirty, especially when there
+are pigs, and at certain seasons there is a plague of flies in the hot
+hours of sunshine. But, as a rule, these discomforts infest only a very
+small area, and it is enough to pass beyond that to escape them.
+
+Now that the throng of climbers is so great near the fashionable
+centres, cattle alps are unsuited to accommodate them, and club-huts or
+even hotels have been built for their service. Yet even now a climber
+who quits the beaten track often has an opportunity of spending a night
+under the conditions which were universal in the days of the Alpine
+explorers. To climb the mountains without associating with the folk
+whose lives are passed upon their lower slopes is to lose half the
+pleasure of mountaineering, as I shall attempt to prove in the next
+chapter. Valley-life is not widely different from life in the plains. It
+is the life on the alps that is characteristic of the mountain-dweller.
+There the peasant learns sureness of foot. There he grows familiar with
+the aspect of the high peaks and the glaciers. There, as the years pass
+by, he becomes differentiated from the man of the plains. No one can
+really acquire the mountain-spirit who has had no contact with the
+people of the alps. That spirit does not reside in the club-huts, one of
+which is already in telephonic communication with a Stock Exchange--a
+foretaste of what the future will bring to others. The great charm and
+recreative power of mountain-wandering arose from the fact that the
+climber cut himself off from the life of the Cities of the Plain and
+exchanged it for the life of the hillside. He came into communication
+with another set of men, with other habits, other ideals. Each year that
+passes in the Alps makes that change less considerable and by so much
+the less salutary.
+
+[Illustration: 56. CHALETS AND CHURCH. RIEDERALP.]
+
+The crowd of holiday visitors to Switzerland tends to settle in the high
+pasture region more than was the habit thirty years ago. Formerly hotels
+flourished in the valley-bottoms, in villages or close to them. Now they
+are built with ever-increasing frequency upon the alps. The Riffel and
+Muerren led the way. Such hotels now exist by dozens, and more are built
+every year. Round Zermatt there are smaller or larger inns, about 3000
+feet higher than the village, in many directions. But to live in one of
+these high hotels is yet to live the normal life of hotel-frequenting
+man. The scenery is changed, but not the human medium. It is the
+inevitable consequence of Alpine vulgarisation which drives the true
+lover of nature and of the freedom of simple life further afield.
+
+To know what the high pastures are really like, what kind of a
+foreground they naturally provide for an outlook on the world of
+mountains, you must not go to the modern Triftalp inn or the Schwarz
+See, but rather to such unspoiled places as the alps of Veglia or of By,
+both glorious expanses of wide pasturage, which no crowd as yet has
+attempted to invade, or is likely to attempt, thanks to their
+situations, remote from the great tripping highways. There you may
+obtain simple accommodation for a few fine days, and wander as you
+please over the undulating meadows, with no sound to break the stillness
+save the rustling of the breeze, the laughter of the waters, and the
+musical clang of cow-bells more or less remote.
+
+It would be easy to divide the alps into many classes and to
+discourse of their characters from many points of view, but there are
+two main kinds of high pastures, differentiated from one another by
+their situations, which will naturally occur to every lover of
+mountains. One kind covers the floor and lower slopes of some
+high-planted valley; the other lies on some open shelf or convex curving
+mountain-knee. The first sort is recondite; the other displays itself to
+the world and commands extensive views. The impression they produce is
+very different. One is wild and gloomy; the other gay and brilliant. One
+has to be sought; the other summons you from afar.
+
+[Illustration: 57. EVENING IN ZERMATT. The promenade after dinner--a
+scene more reminiscent of Earl's Court than the "heart of the Alpine
+world."]
+
+The high grassy valleys are not so common as the knees, nor do I at this
+moment recall one of them that is likely to be known by the general run
+of my readers, though there are plenty scattered about in all sorts of
+corners of the Alpine range. Perhaps the Taesch alp will do for type,
+though compared with many it is relatively open and accessible. There
+are better examples near the Dent du Midi, which may be more widely
+known than I imagine. The ascent to such an alp may lie straight up the
+valley, first through the forest, afterwards through glades and grassy
+openings, often of singular loveliness. At last you come to the stunted
+and scattered outliers of the forest, pathetic trees all crooked and
+misformed, bending away from the habitual wind and stretching forth
+angular arms after it as it hurries by. When these are left behind, the
+open grass-land spreads before and around you, seamed with radiating
+paths, that start away as with a most definite intention, but soon
+divide and subdivide, leading in fact nowhither.
+
+If it is early in the season and you are ahead of the cattle, the grass
+may be relatively tall and the flowers countless in number and variety.
+You will wade not ankle-but knee-deep in them, and the air will be
+filled with delicious perfume. Then indeed it is good to wander at this
+level. It is essentially the level for wandering. You may go as well in
+one direction as another. The views are in every direction and from
+every place. There are no points to ascend, no goals to reach. Now it is
+a fold of the ground, some little hollow with a pool, that attracts the
+eye; now it is an outcrop of rock; now some gap ahead filled by a
+snow-peak; now some downward vista of forest or valley. Anywhere you may
+find entertainment. Anywhere you may be tempted to sit down and gaze
+around.
+
+[Illustration: 58. BERN FROM THE NORTH-WEST. Spire of Cathedral against
+the dimly seen mountains of the Bernese Oberland.]
+
+The higher you go the shorter becomes the grass, but it is all the
+more succulent. As the season advances the flowers fade. But the alp
+nevertheless retains its charm. The kind of alp now specially under
+consideration, the hollow sequestered high pasture, is often round some
+corner, cut off from distant and especially from downward views. Perhaps
+a portion of a snowy peak can be seen over a shoulder of the surrounding
+foreground. Oftenest even the snows are shut out, and the vision is
+limited by enclosing slopes or walls of shattered rock, where snow lies
+late in chinks and crannies. Such places have a wild and at first sight
+a forbidding aspect. But we grow to appreciate them and find delight in
+them as the novelty wears off. They have the dignity, the solemnity of
+solitude. Such elements of beauty as they possess are simple. They do
+not overwhelm the imagination by imposing shapes, nor astonish and
+puzzle it by complexities of colouring. Such places are best seen in
+dull weather when distant views are not to be had, and the eye has to
+take its pleasure in gazing upon what is near at hand. Then the brown
+rocks emerging from the grass and embroidered with lichens have their
+chance. In some places, where water habitually trickles over them, they
+are quite black and glossy. After all, there is variety enough of colour
+to be found about them, if one takes the trouble to look. Moreover, how
+much entertainment is to be found in the really intricate modelling of
+the grass-covered surfaces. Far different are they from mere low level
+fields which long ploughing has invested with a continuous curvature
+like that of a _neve_ basin. The grassy alps possess a complex
+accidentation of form. They bend and curve with an exhaustless variety.
+They burst, as it were like a breaking wave, against the rocks that
+perforate the grass. How many shelves and islands grass covers among the
+rocks! What picturesque corners it makes! What sheltered nooks! What
+attractive camping grounds! What charming sites for picnics, aloof from
+the ways of the crowd! In these remote and solitary places it is
+charming to while away the hours of an idle day, seeing nothing that has
+name or fame, following no track, accomplishing no expedition, no walk
+even that can be identified, yet finding everywhere something to look
+at, some entertainment for the disencumbered mind.
+
+It is, however, the high and open alps, lying on the slopes or laps
+of the great hills, that are the favourite places with visitors of all
+sorts. Here the variety is so great, the opportunities of enjoyment are
+so many, the possible beauties so multitudinous, that it is almost
+impossible to indicate them in a brief space. Who that has climbed much,
+or merely wandered much, through Alpine regions has not an exhaustless
+store of memories of these open, far-commanding alps? What a variety of
+reminiscences arise when the thoughts are turned towards this belt of
+the mountains! It forms a stage in the ascent and again in the descent
+of every peak and pass; and it is the special arena for the "off-day."
+
+[Illustration: 59. LOOKING DOWN THE VAL FORMAZZA FROM TOSA.]
+
+My own keenest enjoyments of the open alps are associated with two
+examples, not, I fear, very widely known--the Fontanella alp above
+Valtournanche, and the alp over which one descends from Rutor towards La
+Thuille. Both may be described as staged or terraced alps. They lie on a
+series of shelves, separated from one another by walls or steep
+descents. For aught I know, they may be dull to ascend; but to descend
+they are of marvellous beauty. This beauty is greatly enhanced by the
+waters that fall in cascades from step to step, and lie in pools, or
+race along over the successive flats. The waters and the meadows form
+foreground to the loveliest distances. There are undulations and slopes
+of green in front; green slopes to right and left; and then the sight
+leaps across a blue valley to the opposite woods and upper hillsides
+crowned with rocky crests, above which other ridges rise and peaks
+appear, till far away soars some snowy giant into the serene sky. In the
+descent we must turn this way and that--now facing a waterfall, now
+going down some recondite gully, now down some outward-looking slope.
+And always, presently, comes the flat meadow on a lower shelf, and the
+call to tarry upon it and look back at the waterfall, or sit beside the
+torrent, or watch the reflections in a quiet pool. There are several
+examples of these lovely staged alps in Ticino, as you go down from the
+Basodino towards Bignasco. Wherever you find them they are fascinating.
+They always seem greener on the flats than any other alp. Their
+picturesqueness has in it an element of the scenic. The arrangement
+seems to have been made for effect.
+
+There is another kind of far-commanding open alp, that all
+mountaineers must often have enjoyed. It is a long, relatively narrow
+slope or level of high pasture that lies horizontally between two cliffs
+or rocky belts. Such an alp lies above Zermatt to the south-westward,
+along the foot of the Unter Gabelhorn, round which it curves, so that as
+you walk along it your direction gradually changes from about south to
+west. It begins high up on the flank of the Zermatt valley, and it is
+carried round into the valley of Z'mutt, always at the same high level.
+There is no lovelier walk in that fine neighbourhood than this; for the
+foreground is always a slope dropping away to an invisible cliff at your
+feet, so that the eye constantly enjoys a delightful visual leap across
+the neighbouring valley to the great pyramid of the Matterhorn, or the
+more distant snowy range that ends in Monte Rosa.
+
+[Illustration: 60. IN THE VAL BAVONA. River Bed filled by avalanche.
+Basodino in the distance.]
+
+The extent and development of the alpine belt vary greatly, not merely
+in different regions, but in different parts of the same region. On
+descending some mountains, rocky debris are found to cover a large area
+of undulating ground, and then the grass slopes plunge steeply to the
+forest, and are quickly traversed. On others the grass reaches high and
+undulates slowly down, so that you may be walking over it for hours
+before you reach the trees. These lazily sloping alps are most charming
+when rightly used and approached, though to the climber, eager to gain
+the snowy heights, their extent may seem tedious, especially when they
+have to be traversed in the dark.
+
+There are some magnificent alps along the north side of the Rhone
+valley above Sierre. The slopes that support them rise rapidly from the
+valley with an equal and continuous slant. When those are surmounted
+there comes a great area of undulating land which begins amongst the
+trees but soon opens out to the sky and stretches far back towards
+Wildhorn, Wildstrubel, and the rest. On these great alps there lie many
+small lakes, and all the alpine region hereabouts is very diversified,
+and filled with foregrounds of all characters and kinds of
+picturesqueness--and then what distant views they have to set off, for
+across the Rhone valley to the southward is all the splendour and extent
+of the Pennine range, with Mischabel or Weisshorn standing out in front
+in overpowering magnificence.
+
+Perhaps we shall be held justified in claiming that the views from the
+region of the high pastures are their chief charm, rather than the
+nearer views upon them. Certain it is that most of the great peaks are
+best seen from the alpine level, and that the favourite views of them,
+the characteristically memorable and popularly best remembered views,
+are from alps. Such is the view of Mont Blanc from the Flegere, of the
+Matterhorn from the Riffel alp, of the Weisshorn from the Taesch alp, of
+the Mischabelhoerner from above Saas-Fee. The spectator stands high
+enough and not too high; he can be near enough at this level and yet not
+too near. The mountain still retains its individuality, its existence
+separate from its neighbours, and yet can be seen as a whole. A little
+nearer and it begins to disclose the details of its structure, whilst
+its mass fills a larger area than can be embraced at a glance. A little
+further away and the mountain is only beheld as one of several, part of
+a larger mass, a component element of another effect.
+
+From the alpine level you look down as well as up. The depth beneath
+and the height above may be, or appear to be, approximately equal.
+Moreover, the distance to which the sight penetrates, the area over
+which it ranges, bears some moderate proportion to the size of the
+mountain-masses included in it. In the view from a high peak, visible
+distances are so great, the area embraced is so vast, the peaks visible
+appear to be so countless, that each of them may shrink into individual
+insignificance. It is the multitude of peaks rather than the mass of
+any, their abundance rather than the form of any, that causes the
+overwhelming impression upon the spectator. But in views from the alpine
+level there is a greater simplicity and a no less effective moderation.
+The mountains in sight are few, and of them one is sure to be most
+prominently placed, one will be central if not unique; and that
+mountain, in the typical view from an alp, will be seen from base to
+summit, not merely its superstructure of rock and snow, but its wide
+foundation also, reaching down into the depths of the valley and
+spreading broadly with all needful amplitude.
+
+It is not thus that mountains are beheld from the valleys. As you
+traverse the whole Vispthal from Visp to Zermatt, you do indeed behold
+the summits of most of the great flanking peaks from successive points
+on the valley floor, yet it is only the expert who can recognise them,
+or tell which white fragment far aloft is the top of a great mountain
+and which are the mere shoulders of lower buttressing ridges. The knees
+of the hills hide their breasts and generally also their hoary heads
+from the view of one who passes along at their feet. If you would behold
+a great mountain as a whole, it is from the knees or the grassy lap of
+some other that you must look. Foreshortened foundations are then
+withdrawn; each component part of the whole vast structure takes its
+proper place and is seen to fulfil its own function. Buttresses stand
+forward and widen out below; high valleys can be traced into the heart
+of the mass; minor peaks are duly subordinated. The mountain, in fact,
+can be seen as a whole. It is thus you behold the Mischabel from the alp
+at the base of the Weisshorn or the Fletschhorn; thus the Matterhorn
+from the Riffelalp; thus the Jungfrau from Muerren. A true instinct has
+selected and made such points of view famous.
+
+[Illustration: 61. IN THE VAL D'AOSTA. The Mont Blanc group of mountains
+hidden in clouds.]
+
+We have left ourselves little space to discuss the value of the high
+pastures as an element in the mountain landscape, parts of the scene to
+be looked at, not positions to gaze from. That their value in this
+respect also is very great must be obvious enough, for in most mountain
+views the grassy belt fills the largest part. Of course it is not the
+most impressive. We look at the mountains, or at some mountain, some
+glacier, waterfall, or cliff, and make it the centre of our observation.
+As a rule, however, except when we stand in the midst of the snowy
+world, the mountain that is centrally gazed at does not occupy so large
+a part of the field of view as is filled by the grassy expanse at its
+foot. The grassy alp, in fact, generally bears to a mountain the
+relation that the background does to a Madonna in a picture. Or we may
+say that alp and sky are the fabric on which the mountain is
+embroidered.
+
+In many parts of the world the grassy belt is absent from the ranges,
+and its loss is greatly felt. Peaks rising out of slopes of debris and
+sand have a grandeur of their own, but it is not the normal grandeur of
+the Alps. In some other ranges the tree-level leads at once to rocks and
+snow. It is the merit of the Alps that a broad belt of delicately
+modelled grass-land almost invariably intervenes between forest and
+snow. This grassy belt covers the wide substructure of the peaks. Above
+it is the realm of frost, of split rock and jagged forms. But as soon as
+the grass-level is reached suave outlines and rounded surfaces,
+broadening as they descend, take the place of the accidented forms
+above. The value of the contrast will be apparent to all. Small and very
+correct little models of the Matterhorn in bronze are sold for
+letter-weights, in which the culminating pyramid alone is given, planted
+on a rectangular stone plinth. They are interesting mementoes. But
+compare one of them with a view of the mountain as seen from the
+Riffelalp, rising above the long bulging grass-covered slopes that
+descend almost to Zermatt, and you will at once realise how important an
+element in the general impressiveness of the mountain are those lower
+slopes, and that not merely for their form but for their rich
+coloration.
+
+The green of the alps is the true key-note of Swiss colour. To it all
+the rest are subordinate. By contrast with it, rather than with the
+remote transparence of the air-submerged rocks, the snows manifest their
+whiteness and the sky its blue. From season to season of the year it
+changes its tint, between the shrill green of opening spring and the
+amber of autumn. It changes likewise from hour to hour beneath the
+varied slanting of the sunshine. How velvet-dark seems the alpine belt
+at night when the moon is high! Even in the twilight you cannot tell
+that these slopes are grass-covered, till
+
+    "Under the opening eye-lids of the morn"
+
+"the high lawns appear." At first the sunshine lies upon them in
+patches, like carpets of gold on a rich green floor. The sunlit area
+increases as the gold itself changes into green, whilst the dominant
+note of colour rises in the scale. Long before mid-day the broad belt
+attains its unity of effect, and divides the dark forests and deep
+valleys from the radiant heights. Most of us, who delight in mountain
+scenery, praise this peak or that, this broken glacier, wide-spreading
+snow-field, or intricacy of splintered ridges, forgetting that it is
+often the unobtrusive, tenderly modelled alps below, that endow these
+high eminences with half their charm. The beauty of a scene depends upon
+the harmony of all its parts. It is well sometimes to fix attention on
+those that seldom insist upon it for themselves.
+
+
+     NOTE TO PAGE 229.--Mr. Coolidge informs me that the Muttenalp
+     belongs, not to the Thierfehd, but to Brigels in the Grisons,
+     and is reached over the Kisten Pass. That is why the path down
+     to the Linththal is so bad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE HUMAN INTEREST
+
+
+It has often occurred to me, when travelling over glaciers and among
+mountains, seldom or never before visited by men, how much the
+impression they produce upon a first spectator loses by lacking the
+human interest. Of course some stray huntsman or dumb and forgotten
+native may have been there before, but if the fact is unknown to us, it
+is as though he had not existed.
+
+When climbing Illimani, the great Bolivian mountain, the human interest
+accompanied us up the lower slopes. Here were old fields, old irrigation
+channels, even ancient ruined huts. Higher up we still had the memory of
+former adventurers to keep our hearts warm; but when we had forced the
+great rock-cliff that guards the peak, and were upon the upper
+snow-field, we were, so far as we knew, in an unvisited world. There did
+indeed exist an ancient tradition that once, long long ago, an Aymara
+Indian had gone aloft, seeking the abode of the gods, and that having
+found it, he was taken by the gods to themselves and never returned to
+his people; but the tale was too slender a thread to form a sensible
+connection between us and the world of bygone humanity. The climb took
+us over one high peak, then across a great snow-field and up the highest
+peak. We revisited and rested on the lower peak in the descent. While
+there resting, I dropped my hand on the rock beside me, and snatched it
+away, feeling something soft and clammy, a kind of texture instinctively
+perceived to be strange at such a place.
+
+Looking to see what the substance was, I found it to be a fragment of
+goat-hair rope, such as the Indians of the Bolivian plateau have used
+from time immemorial. Instantly the old legend was recalled to my
+remembrance. It was true! The Indian had actually been here where I was
+sitting. Here he rested. Hence he looked abroad over the country of his
+birth--probably his last long look on any view in this world; for he
+never returned, and must presently have lost his life in some hidden
+crevasse. The thought of that nameless one animated the scene, and
+enriched the emotions we experienced with a new interest. I thought now
+of how he had felt with this great prospect spread abroad before him. I
+wondered whether his gods had appeared to him, whether he had beheld
+visions and dreamed dreams, and what those visions were like. There
+beneath him he had perhaps gazed for the last time on his birthplace,
+and identified the little hut that was his home. Did he know that he
+would never return? Did he think about his friends so far below and
+wonder whether they were looking up towards him? Did he promise himself
+great future fame in his tribe? Did he dream that they would identify
+him with the very gods? For the remainder of our resting-time the whole
+view was animated by thoughts of this man. It is the best instance I can
+cite of the value of a human interest in giving sentiment to a mountain
+scene.
+
+The same lesson was taught me by the Spitsbergen mountains, amongst
+which I spent two long summer seasons. The coast of Spitsbergen is rich
+with the tales and traditions of human achievement and suffering. Few
+places have been the scene of tragedies so numerous and so long drawn
+out. In few have more dramatic adventures occurred and more varied
+enterprises been undertaken. But the interior of Spitsbergen, and
+especially its mountain ranges, had scarcely been penetrated before. The
+mountains beyond reach of the shore were unclimbed, with one exception.
+The landscapes were unknown to man. It was necessary to spend some time
+in these solitary places to realise how much they lost by this
+aloofness. No peak possessed name or history. None had ever been the
+centre of any one's landscape. None had measured mid-day for any toiler,
+or served as reckoning point for the close of his labour. No villagers
+had ever imagined those Arctic glaciers as the home of any gods or the
+paradise of any heroes. They had never found their way into ancient tale
+or legend. They had never been worshipped or sung by man, historic or
+pre-historic. They were just elemental lumps of the earth, with no more
+human sentiment attached to them than to any dozen stones you may gather
+off a heap and make mountains of in your imagination.
+
+Pick up any fragment of rock you please and place it upon your table.
+Look closely at it and persuade yourself that it is not six inches but
+20,000 feet high. On that assumption search for routes up it. Examine
+its faces and its ridges, its cracks and its gullies. You will be able
+to climb about it in a day-dream, to have accidents upon it, to succeed
+or to fail in various ascents. But who will care to "hear tell" of your
+proceedings? And yet, apart from geographical and geological
+considerations, which are in fact historical, any casual mountain is no
+more interesting in its essence than your stone. There are hundreds of
+thousands of mountains in the world. What intrinsic interest has one of
+them more than another, from a climber's point of view, except in two
+respects, the difficulty of the climb and the human interest? But the
+difficulty is of no account, for if that is what you want you can find
+it on Scafell, and need not wander to seek it.
+
+No! it is above all the human interest that ennobles a peak and makes
+the ascent of it desirable. It is to climb an elevation that men have
+seen; to climb a peak that has been named, that has been looked at for
+centuries by the inhabitants at its base, that travellers have passed by
+and observed, that has a place in the knowledge and memory of men. If
+there were a great mountain in full view of London or Rome, how much
+more interesting it would be to climb than some nameless lump in Central
+Asia, like K2, that was never within view of any abode of men.
+
+This was one of the main attractions of the unclimbed Alps to early
+explorers of the high levels. Mont Blanc was known of old. How many
+generations of men had looked from Thun at the Oberland giants and told
+stories about them. How much the famed devils and dragons added to the
+fascination of the Matterhorn. The Alps had looked down upon the march
+of armies and the flux of peoples for uncounted thousands of years.
+Their solitudes were peopled by the dreams of all the generations that
+had passed by them or dwelt amongst them. The subliminal consciousness
+that this was so, counted for much in the strong attraction that drew
+the pioneers aloft.
+
+The pioneers in their turn have richly endowed the Alps with a further
+human interest. Why do so many people want to climb the Matterhorn? It
+is not a better climb than the Dent Blanche. The reason is because of
+the stronger human interest that the Matterhorn evokes. All who have any
+knowledge of Alpine history have read the story of the long siege, the
+triumphant conquest, and the dramatic tragedies of which the Matterhorn
+has been the scene. It is the fascination of those memories that draws
+men to the peak, and makes the climbing of it seem so desirable an
+adventure to so many people.
+
+Thus also is it, more or less, all over the Alps. Each peak now has its
+story. Each ascent has been made before and described. Wherever we go
+now we find and recognise the traces of our predecessors. Here is an old
+tent-platform; we know who built it and when. This is the site of such
+an accident; that crag turned back such a party on such an occasion. The
+memory of bygone climbers is everywhere. It peoples the solitudes and
+humanises the waste places. These memories will grow mellower as they
+deepen into the past. The best stories will become classical, and the
+scenes of them will be endowed with a prestige far beyond any that now
+attaches to them.
+
+A very dull person looks interesting when beheld down a vista of
+several centuries. The memory of the first climbers of the great Alpine
+peaks will remain among the mountains to a far-distant future. I daresay
+my Illimani Indian was a crack-brained semi-civilised person, but I
+would sooner see him than a living Cabinet Minister. I can never think
+about his peak without recalling him. So is it with the bays of
+Spitsbergen. The whale-fishers were no doubt a coarse lot of quarrelsome
+seamen, who stank of blubber most disgustingly; and yet if I could call
+Mr. William Heley from his grave, and hear how he emptied out the
+Dutchmen on one occasion and they emptied him out on another; if I could
+get him to show me his huts where they stood, and could hear him yarn
+about the fishery, how entertaining that would be, and how gladly would
+I exchange the morning newspaper for such talk. We cannot in fact recall
+these men, but in fancy we can and do. It is because we possess and
+exercise this power of fancy that the mountains, which have been in past
+times the scene of human activity and life, are so much more interesting
+to wander amongst, except from a purely scientific and adventurous point
+of view, than those which have not.
+
+What is true of bygone individuals is no less true of bygone peoples.
+Valleys that have been long inhabited and the high pastures that have
+been frequented of old are far more pleasant to visit than valleys that
+have scarcely beheld the face of man. We were made conscious of this
+difference in the Mustagh mountains of high Kashmir. There the secluded
+fastness of Hunza-Nagar is the home of an ancient civilisation. The
+gently sloping floor of the valley is divided into terraced fields,
+supported by cyclopean walls that might be as old as Mycenae itself. The
+villages are built upon their own ruins, who can say to how great a
+foundation depth? The paths are worn deeply into the ground. The Raja's
+castle, dominating his little capital, has a venerable aspect, and if
+not actually old, incorporates an ancient type. There are little ruins
+by the roadside and carvings upon the rocks. Where-ever you look, the
+marks of long frequentation are to be traced. Moreover, the people
+themselves bear the imprint of surrounding nature upon them. Their
+action in movement, their way of life, their adaptation to their
+environment--all imply old habit and deep-rooted tradition. The valley
+in which they are enclosed is the world to them. Its every feature has
+entered into their habits of thought. The surrounding mountains are a
+part of their existence, and borrow from man in turn a reflected glow of
+traditional interest.
+
+From this man-impregnated valley we presently passed over the mountains
+to the valley of Braldu, descending upon the highest village. Above that
+poverty-stricken place the traces of man were few. There were faintly
+marked tracks; there were even a few small ruined huts; but all that
+these indicated was the occasional passage of hunters or the brief
+visits of shepherds or gold-washers. Once the glacier was reached, the
+last of these traces was left behind. It was impossible not to feel the
+contrast between this region and peopled Hunza. The scenery was not
+less, was even more stupendous, but the human interest was lacking.
+There were few named spots, and hardly a remembered tradition. The
+scenery to the natives with us was not the home of their fathers, but
+the elemental earth. It might have been fetched from the other side of
+the moon, for all they had to tell about it. Two recorded parties had
+preceded us for a certain distance up this valley, and their ghosts
+alone peopled the solitude, but not a trace had they left upon the
+surface of the ground discoverable by us. If we had found even the
+remnants of one of their encampments, it would have animated the
+surroundings with the memory of man; but we saw none. The lack was a
+vacuum, an intellectual hunger, continuously felt.
+
+[Illustration: 62. CHATILLON, VAL D'AOSTA.]
+
+Few mountain regions in the world, outside of the Arctic and Antarctic
+solitudes, are thus denuded of human interest. The mountains of the Old
+World and the New have been inhabited over a large part of their
+valley-area; but often the inhabitants have been people about whom
+little is known. It is one of the great charms of the Alps that they
+have long been the home of a fine group of peoples. "Your country," I
+once remarked to a citizen of a South American Republic, "ought to be
+the Switzerland of South America." "I will make it so," he replied, "if
+you will fill it for me with the Swiss."
+
+Throughout the large Alpine area various races have dwelt and dwell at
+the present time. The character of the population changes from valley to
+valley, and there is no small variety, not merely in dialects, but even
+in languages. There is a similar variety in habits, in domestic
+architecture, in costume, and in bearing. Much of these differences in
+the character of the inhabitants we are wont to impute in our thoughts
+to the mountain districts themselves. When we talk of the charms of the
+Italian Alps, are we not thinking of the attractiveness of the people,
+and the picturesqueness of their abodes and places of worship, as much
+as of the luxuriance of the valleys, the sparkling of the waters, and
+the mere beauty of the hills? The spirit of the people seems to infuse
+itself into our memory of the mountains about them, as much as the
+character of the mountains has affected the nature and disposition of
+the people. Which, I wonder, borrows most from the other--the Lake of
+Lucerne from the old Tell legend, or the legends from the landscape of
+the lake?
+
+An essential part of the human interest in the Alps grows out of the
+length of time through which history has concerned herself with them.
+The history of the Alpine valleys has only been written, or begun to be
+written, in recent years. Early visitors to Zermatt no doubt were
+conscious of the deep impress made by man upon the valley landscape, but
+they could not interpret, as we now can, the meaning of much that they
+saw. But when the local archives were searched and the traditions
+written down, when it was realised that the life now being lived by the
+peasantry was in all essentials the same life that had been lived by
+their ancestors for hundreds of years, ancestors bearing the same names
+and owning the same properties that are still borne and owned by their
+living descendants, what an increase of interest that gave to a place.
+
+[Illustration: 63. A CORNER OF THE TOWN OF ALTDORF. The traditional
+scene of William Tell's exploits. Here Gessler ruled and the shooting of
+the apple took place. A place of patriotic pilgrimage of the youthful
+Swiss.]
+
+The old tales about the village deep in Tiefenmatten, about the
+pilgrimage that used to cross the Col d'Herens, about the frequented
+routes over Theodul and Weissthor--does it not add a new charm to the
+places themselves to hear them told? Who is not interested to remember,
+when standing on the Theodul pass, that Roman coins have been found
+there? Climbers have taken fully as much interest in the question of
+where the Old Weissthor route lay as in actually climbing the passes. I
+well remember the keen delight that came to me when I discovered that a
+pass I had crossed, as I supposed for the first time, between the
+Fillarkuppe and the Jaegerhorn, was in fact the real Old Weissthor
+itself, a well-known mountain-route centuries ago. To rediscover an old
+track like that is far more delightful than to invent and carry through
+some entirely new expedition.
+
+Correspondingly with the future as with the past--to make an expedition
+for the first time that others will often repeat is a lasting source of
+pleasure; but to make one that no sane person ever repeats or is likely
+to repeat is poor fun. I have had many opportunities of making new
+expeditions in the Alps and elsewhere, and have availed myself of a few;
+but none ever gave me the continuing satisfaction that I derive from the
+Wellenkuppe near Zermatt, a mountain that I invented, climbed, and
+baptized, and that immediately became and has since remained a most
+popular scramble.[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: Its summit had previously been touched by some unrecorded
+route by Lord Francis Douglas, in an attempt to climb the Gabelhorn; but
+for twenty years no one had thought of the peak, which had no name.]
+
+Some part of the popularity of the ascent of Mont Blanc from Chamonix is
+due to the fact that the mountain is the highest in the Alps; part is
+due to the fascinating beauty of the ice and snow scenery passed
+through; but far the greatest attraction is the long and interesting
+history of the climb. No one, I suppose, ascends Mont Blanc without a
+thought of Balmat and De Saussure, and at least some dim consciousness
+of the number of early climbers who mounted by the way he takes, and
+felt all the strange emotions and high excitements they so naively
+recorded. What would the Toedi be if robbed of the memory of Placidus a
+Spescha? Even a Mont Ventoux can attain dignity and importance by
+association with so great a man as Petrarch.
+
+It is, however, to the passes rather than to the peaks of the Alps that
+history clings. Allusion has been made to the Weissthor and the Theodul,
+and many other minor passes similarly recorded might be mentioned; but
+it is the great passes, the deep depressions in the main range, that are
+chiefly memorable from the historical standpoint. Modern climbers
+unwisely neglect these great routes, or confine themselves to such as
+are tunnelled. John Ball and his contemporaries made a point of knowing
+as many main passes as they could. It was their pride to be able to say,
+not that they had climbed so many peaks, but that they had traversed the
+Alpine chain by so many great passes. Old literature is therefore fuller
+of accounts of the historic passes than are most present-day volumes,
+which regard them as a subject outworn.
+
+To mention the historic passes is to call up the name of Hannibal. Here
+is no place to revive that old discussion as to the situation of
+Hannibal's pass. Historians have not yet entirely convinced one another
+on the matter. But if a general certainty had been arrived at, if we
+could feel perfectly sure that Hannibal and his host had actually trod a
+particular route, it cannot be denied that that route would be well
+worth following, book in hand, for its historic interest alone.
+
+Some, perhaps many, of my readers will have traversed the Great St.
+Bernard, the Summus Penninus of antiquity. Few who have done so will
+have been oblivious, as they went, of the many great men in whose steps
+they were treading. Celts, Romans, Saracens, mediaeval warriors,
+statesmen, saints, bishops, and monks streamed in their day across this
+col. Here passed Charles the Great and other Holy Roman Emperors,
+Lanfranc too, and the saintly Anselm in all the fervour of his young
+enthusiasm. The reader will forgive me for quoting once again Bishop
+Stubbs' translation of the letter of a Canterbury monk describing his
+passage of the pass in February 1188:--
+
+     "Pardon me for not writing. I have been on the Mount of Jove;
+     on the one hand looking up to the heavens of the mountains, on
+     the other shuddering at the hell of the valleys, feeling myself
+     so much nearer heaven that I was more sure that my prayer would
+     be heard. 'Lord,' I said, 'restore me to my brethren, that I
+     may tell them, that they come not into this place of torment.'
+     Place of torment indeed, where the marble pavement of the stony
+     ground is ice alone, and you cannot set your foot safely;
+     where, strange to say, although it is so slippery that you
+     cannot stand, the death (into which there is every facility for
+     a fall) is certain death. I put my hand in my scrip, that I
+     might scratch out a syllable or two to your sincerity--lo, I
+     found my ink-bottle filled with a dry mass of ice; my fingers
+     too refused to write; my beard was stiff with frost, and my
+     breath congealed into a long icicle. I could not write the news
+     I wished."
+
+[Illustration: 64. PONTE BROLLA. Over the Maggia, near its junction with
+the Melezza, looking up the Val Centavalli.]
+
+Mr. Coolidge, in that store of Alpine learning, his book entitled _Swiss
+Travel and Swiss Guide-Books_, reminds us that the first known
+guide-book was written for the crowd of pilgrims crossing this same
+pass, by no less unlikely a person than the Abbot of Thingoer in Iceland,
+about 1154. There was a building on the pass before the year 812. A
+century later the Little St. Bernard was similarly provided. The Simplon
+was thus equipped before 1235, the St. Gotthard before 1331, and the
+Grimsel before 1479. Modern Swiss travellers may not be aware of these
+facts in detail, but it is impossible for any intelligent man to
+frequent the Alps and not become conscious of the antiquity of the
+relation between man and the mountains.
+
+Sometimes traces of visibly ancient ways are encountered, as on the
+Albrun pass, for instance, or the Monte Moro. The sight of such a
+fragment of old paved way instantly carries the mind back into the past,
+and animates the route as with a ghostly procession. Thus, too, I found
+it in Bolivia and Chile, where remnants of the old paved Inca road, that
+traversed a large part of the continent from north to south, are often
+to be met with. The sentimental value of such relics is incalculable.
+They, as it were, hypnotise the mind and induce a mood in which we see
+the nature that surrounds us in a new way. They remove from the
+traveller the sense of isolation, and form a link between him and the
+countless generations that have gone before. He shares with them the
+toil of the way, and looks abroad on the scenes that they beheld.
+
+Still more interesting and rich in a historic sense are the Brenner
+and other passes over the Eastern Alps, which are known to have been
+important trade-routes in the age of bronze. Over them successive
+immigrant waves of humanity poured into Italy. Over them at a later date
+passed emperors with their armies. No route bears the evidence of its
+rich historical associations more visibly than the Brenner. An aura of
+antiquity rests upon its villages. Its many castles, its ancient
+churches, its noble village streets, its countless monuments, all tell
+the same tale. I never can cross the Brenner without having Albrecht
+Duerer by my side, who four times made the transit, sketch-book in hand,
+and whose careful and beautiful drawings of some of the views still
+exist in perfect preservation.
+
+[Illustration: 65. IN THE VAL D'AOSTA.]
+
+The presence of man, not as a traveller through the Alps, but as a
+long-settled resident there, deriving his subsistence from the soil, is
+an important scenic factor in yet another respect. The difference in
+aspect between a well-peopled mountain region and one sparsely or not at
+all inhabited is more striking to the eye than the inexperienced might
+be prepared to expect. The amount of landscape modelling that one man
+can effect in a lifetime is small, but a community of men, working
+generation after generation for many centuries, can effect much.
+
+The trained eye can perceive the effect almost everywhere in the
+Alps; the untrained must learn to look for it. Take, for example, such a
+well-known large grassy area as the slope descending from the Matterhorn
+to the Zermatt valley, between the Gorner glacier on one side and the
+Zmutt glacier on the other. If man had not laboured for centuries on
+that slope, it would be ragged with fallen and protruding stones. The
+grass upon it would be rough and uneven, or entirely replaced by stunted
+rhododendron, juniper, or the like bushes. Now it is all smoothed and
+tended. The loose stones are gathered into walls, bordering the
+mule-paths or supporting the lower edges of the fields. Earth has been
+carried on to bare patches. Little hay-huts and other farm-buildings are
+planted about on suitably protected places. The grass is mown to a
+velvety fineness of texture. Irrigation channels are led in all suitable
+directions, and the glacier dust deposited along their beds has raised
+long grassy mounds, which in process of time have sometimes grown to a
+height of two or three feet. More important still, in smoothing off
+asperities and giving a rounded curvature to the general surface, is the
+continual deposit of the same dust which this artificially distributed
+glacier-water lays down all over the meadows. There results a suavity of
+outline, a delicacy of modelling, and a fine quality of grassy surface,
+which change the aspect of the whole slope, even when beheld from a
+great distance, so that it would be impossible to mistake it for a slope
+correspondingly situated in any uninhabited or uncultivated mountain
+region in the world.
+
+[Illustration: 66. IN THE WOODS OF CHAMONIX.]
+
+What is true of the middle pastures is likewise true of the forests.
+Virgin hill-forests, such as one may see in the southern part of the
+Argentine or Chile, are very different in appearance from an Alpine
+wood, whether seen from far or near. Man, as we know only too well, has
+not treated mountain-forests wisely, and he is suffering the consequence
+to-day. But apart from cases of forest removal and the consequent
+changes of scenery thereby caused, the alteration in appearance produced
+by good forest management is very noticeable. Alpine woods have a
+gardened aspect. The mere sight of them is eloquent of the presence and
+activity of man, who here also has left unmistakable traces of his
+activity drawn broadly over every Alpine landscape.
+
+In the regulation of streams and rivers, again, the hand of man makes
+its long, slowly acting presence felt in the Alps. Gaze from the
+Riffelhorn down the St. Niklausthal, and notice how mainly of human
+determination are all the minor forms of the valley-floor. It is easy to
+compare with a photograph of that well-known view one, say, of the Bush
+Valley in British Columbia, which has been revealed to us by the
+explorations of Professor Norman Collie and his friends. Such a
+comparison manifests, as no words can, the great effect upon valley
+scenery on a large scale produced by the activity of man.
+
+It is only high aloft, close to and all above the snow-line, that man's
+energies have not availed to change the landscape. He has built a few
+huts there, but they are insignificant. He cannot turn a glacier from
+its course, nor can he dam it back in the event of its pleasing to
+advance. The great cliffs and debris slopes, the reservoirs of snow, the
+rivers of ice--these giant phenomena of the heights are beyond his
+governance, even if any material advantage tempted him to try meddling
+with them. The most he can do is to blast some small tunnel in ice or
+rock to control the outflow of a gathering of water, that might
+otherwise discharge itself with violence and work destruction far below.
+
+
+[Illustration: 67. IN A GARDEN AT LOCARNO. Last gleam of the sunset on
+the hills above Lago Maggiore.]
+
+It is the great good fortune of the Alps, beyond all other snowy
+ranges, to possess both the region of utterly untamed nature above, and
+a larger area of humanly modified land below. A normal Alpine view
+includes parts of both regions. Looking up from beneath, you have the
+gardened world for foreground and the wild world for distance. Looking
+down from above the reverse is the case. The contrast is always
+charming. What more beautiful setting for a snow mountain can be
+conceived than that which surrounds the Jungfrau as beheld from near
+Interlaken? How pleasant it is, when resting at some fine noontide hour
+on the summit of a lofty peak, to look abroad over the peopled Italian
+plain, or down into some deep valley, dotted with farms and villages,
+with here and there a white church standing in the midst of chalets. It
+is only the works of modern man, his huge caravanserais, his railway
+stations, and his accurately engineered roads, that are wholly
+hateful--blots on the landscape defiling and degrading it. Let us hope
+that these hideous intruders are not destined to a long existence. It is
+not likely, much though we may desire it, that in our time the tide of
+touristdom will abandon the Alps. It has come to stay. It will increase
+rather than diminish. But with the advance of civilisation perhaps its
+manners and tastes will improve, and it may, at some far distant time,
+come to demand a kind of housing that will not utterly destroy the very
+beauty which it blindly travels to seek.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+VOLCANOES
+
+
+To the purely Alpine traveller, Volcanoes are not a matter of interest,
+because there does not exist a single volcano in the Alps, nor, so far
+as I am aware, even the ruins of one. Volcanic rocks there may be, but
+we are not concerned with rocks except in so far as mountains are built
+out of them. To the mountain-lover, however, in the broad sense--and it
+is for such I am writing--volcanoes are as interesting as any other
+definite type of peak, and I therefore propose to devote this chapter to
+a consideration of them from the picturesque and climbing point of view.
+For the European traveller there are volcanoes enough, both active and
+extinct, and that without going to Iceland. Most people have seen
+Vesuvius. Etna and Stromboli are frequently passed, and the former is
+not unfrequently climbed. Auvergne is a good place for a holiday. If
+ordinary tourists knew how well the volcanic Eifel repay a visit, they
+would oftener turn aside to them. Teneriffe is on the list of mountains
+most people hope some day to see. In my own mind, when volcanoes are
+mentioned, there always rises first the reminiscence of the great
+mountains in South Bolivia and Northern Chile, with their stately
+grandeur of scale and grace of outline.
+
+Every one who has climbed Vesuvius has some idea of the nature of
+volcano climbing. It is by no means the best sort, and the Alps as a
+play-ground are none the worse for lacking it. From a climber's rather
+than a petrologist's point of view, volcanic rocks are liable to seem
+both very hard and very brittle. They fracture with an astonishingly
+sharp edge, which cuts, like a knife, the fingers and clothes of the
+climber. Notwithstanding their apparent hardness, which seems to promise
+for them an unusual durability, they crack up with great rapidity under
+the action of frost or of blows, and rapidly subdivide into small
+angular debris. The smoothness of the fractured surfaces, when fresh,
+reduces the friction between the fragments much below that normal to the
+debris of ordinary rocks, so that slopes of volcanic debris are very
+unstable. The foot sinks into them, almost as into sand, and they cut
+the boots and gaiters to pieces. To run down such a slope is pleasant
+enough, but to wade up it is the worst kind of purgatory, provocative
+too of more sins of language than it can possibly purge in the time.
+
+The novice at volcano-climbing approaches his mountain with a light
+heart. However big it may be, it looks easy, and he promises himself a
+rapid ascent. The lower slopes of volcanoes are frequently most fertile,
+so that the first stages of the ascent may be along umbrageous paths or
+through vineyards and olive gardens. Ultimately the naked mountain has
+to be tackled, and then troubles begin, and they are the same all the
+world over. All that a volcano produces is toilsome for the foot of man.
+The slope continuously steepens. The disintegrated lava or the volcanic
+ash are alike disagreeable. The mountain is sure to be voted a fraud
+from the climber's point of view. Even Aconcagua, greatest of all
+volcanoes, is as rotten as the rest. There is hardly a firm crag on its
+mighty face.
+
+[Illustration: 68. PILATUS AND LAKE OF LUCERNE FROM THE SLOPES OF THE
+RIGI.]
+
+It follows that volcanoes are peaks of an unstable character. They
+are upstarts by nature, and they are easily pulled down. Among mountains
+they are the most short-lived. In their decay they lack the dignity of a
+peak of crystalline rock, that fights against disintegration and resists
+to the last, holding forth to the sky its splintered crags like
+passionately protesting hands. There is no protest in a volcano. It
+yields willingly to decay. The debris of its upper rocks flow down its
+face almost like water. They grind together into dust and are blown away
+by the winds. The old moraines of Aconcagua ultimately turn into sand
+dunes.
+
+Yet these mushroom monsters are not without their compensations. When
+active they enjoy a magnificence of public advertisement that no other
+kind of peak, even when it is the scene of a particularly ghastly
+accident, can ever hope to rival. They grow in height, or are blown to
+perdition, amidst earthquakes and terrific thunders. Lightnings flicker
+about them like the dartings of a serpent's tongue. The storm-clouds
+that envelop snowy peaks are nothing to the monstrous piles of smoke and
+darkness that wreathe the brows of an erupting volcano. Blasts of fire
+shoot from them, and for glaciers, their sides are flooded with molten
+lava. Few of us can hope to see such sights in the fulness of their
+glory.
+
+When the mountain is full-grown, and its days of activity are done,
+for a while it reigns, a figure of perfect grace, a very queen for
+elegance and beauty of form. Who that has ever seen Vesuvius can deny
+this fact. Probably no snowy peaks in the world are more absolutely
+perfect in form than the white-clad giant volcanoes of Kamchatka, or, on
+a smaller scale, the peerless Fuji of Japan. The outline of the cone,
+gently rising from the foot, and then steepening in its incomparable
+logarithmic curve, is the gracefullest that nature produces on a large
+scale. Even the effulgent domes of the greatest cumulous clouds that, on
+a faultless summer afternoon, soar into the clearest blue sky, are not
+to be compared with volcanoes at their best. These have the aspect of
+works of art, made, as it were, expressly to incorporate an idea of
+beauty. They possess the symmetry of a fine crystal, but at the same
+time, a grace far beyond what is possible to any crystalline form. And
+then, how they soar! How their beautiful heads seem almost to float in
+the blue! How symmetrically the mists gather about their summits! At one
+time the base will vanish in the bright opacity of the lower air, and
+the top will be seen in sharp distinctness, like a floating island in
+the sky. At another, the summit will fade away, and the shadowed base
+will fill the vision with its purple solidity. And always there hangs
+about a volcano the memory of its fire-begetting, and the suspicion that
+all may not yet be over. It is, as it were, an inscribed finger-post,
+warning us of the molten core within. It is at once a memorial and a
+monition to those that dwell beneath it. It is the witness of past and
+the herald of future convulsions; yet, being such, it is itself in form
+the peacefullest and tenderest in nature. No woman's robe droops more
+delicately over her bosom than droops the once molten drapery of a
+volcano. Its aspect bears a double and opposed suggestiveness. Such are
+volcanoes in the day of their perfection, before the denuding forces
+have made inroads on the symmetry of their form.
+
+[Illustration: 69. MONTREUX, LAKE OF GENEVA.]
+
+Yet even then it is not well to approach them too closely, unless you
+would have the sense of their beauty supplanted by a different kind of
+emotion. The nearer you approach a snow-mountain, such as Mont Blanc,
+and the more intimately you penetrate its white recesses, and acquaint
+yourself with its details of crevasse and serac, the more conscious are
+you of the perfection of its finish and the loveliness of its details.
+It is not so with a volcano at any time of its career. When it is newly
+fashioned and the lava streams are still in movement and smoking upon
+its sides, and the cinders and ashes of its recent ejection are piled
+upon it, to approach them is to behold sights more provocative of horror
+than of admiration. They appal, they create astonishment, but they do
+not attract. Cast your eye over the remarkable series of photographs by
+Dr. Tempest Anderson, published under the title "Volcanic Studies," and
+you will have ample proof of this. Consider the Icelandic gorges, the
+outer crater of Teneriffe, or the views of recent volcanic energies
+displayed in St. Vincent--the mud-rivers, the sand-strewn valleys; here
+is enough to interest and more than enough to appal, but the kind of
+beauty associated with a distant view of a volcano is absent. There is
+no grace, no charm, none of the sweet feminine outline which makes
+volcanoes the queens and fair ladies among hills.
+
+But when all the dramatic stage of their existence is over, and the
+fires are out and the earth around has ceased from quaking; when trees
+have gathered over the lava torrents and rich vegetation has covered up
+cinders and ash; when the sulphurous vents are become sapphire pools of
+clear water overshadowed by foliage, and all the ghastly details of
+tragedy are covered up by the splendid garments of tropical vegetation;
+then you may approach and ascend if you please, but it will not be as a
+climber, for the climber is one who seeks the naked places of the earth,
+and does not wander for choice in grassy dells and tree-embosomed
+shades.
+
+He, however, who should converse about volcanoes and say no more than
+this, would leave a most false impression upon his hearers, for Nature
+always provides compensations for her sincere and humble lovers, and
+even in the barest volcano she has not failed. The very rapidity with
+which they yield to destructive forces leads to results not discoverable
+in stronger and more resolute peaks. Frost, winter, and snow breach
+their sides with exceeding facility. Torrents dig gullies into them. The
+very winds blow their substance away. Hence it comes that a volcano in
+active process of destruction often provides detailed scenery of
+astonishing grandeur and boldness. Its vertical-walled gullies, its
+cliffs, its castellated ridges are like none other. There is no aspect
+of durability about them, no signs of hoary antiquity, none of the
+dignity that belongs to archaean rocks. They are visibly in rapid decay,
+yet, for all that and even because of it, they are strangely imposing
+with a sort of rococo grandeur. If the Meije and Ushba are Romanesque,
+if the Matterhorn, Masherbrum, and Siniolkum are Gothic, we may describe
+the world's shattered volcanoes as Flamboyant. They boast a greater and
+more unusual variety of forms, a multiplicity of details that bewilders.
+The spiry exuberance of Milan Cathedral can be paralleled in the
+neighbourhood of Aconcagua. Nowhere are buttresses more emphatic, points
+of rock in perilous precipitance of decay more plentiful, cliffs more
+abrupt, the skeleton of the mountains more nakedly displayed.
+
+Yet better deserving of note is the brilliancy and variety of the
+colouring by which volcanic rocks are often characterised. The local
+colouring of Alpine rocks is seldom rich. The Dolomites indeed have a
+reputation for the richness of their tints, but it is mainly derived
+from the sunrise and sunset colouring which they reflect so brilliantly
+that it almost seems to proceed from them. The general effect of Alpine
+rocks is some variety of grey or brown, the tone of which is deepened by
+contrast with the snows. Except in volcanic districts, it is only in
+Spitsbergen, and at one or two spots in the Himalayas, that I have
+observed the local colouring of the rocks to form a prominent factor in
+the beauty of a mountain view. There indeed the red and yellow
+sandstones display their rich tints with great effect, so that the
+colour, shining over the wide expanses of Arctic glacier and snow-field,
+becomes a main element, and reduces the forms of the peaks to a
+secondary consideration. Yet in Spitsbergen this only happens in a
+relatively small area, within Kings Bay.
+
+In volcanic districts, however, the colouring of the rocks is almost
+always remarkable. It seems as though Nature had emptied her whole
+palette upon them. Hardly any tint, from white to black, is missing.
+Other mountains depend for their colour upon the atmosphere. These are
+independent of that source. Their own colour is predominant. All they
+ask for is transparent air and bright sunshine to display them. Their
+combination is so unusual, their chord so unlike any to which we are
+accustomed in ordinary natural surroundings, that they cannot fail to be
+the chief element in the view. That is why photographs of volcanic
+scenery convey an impression so different from actual sight. The normal
+blues, greens, and browns of the temperate habitable regions; the black,
+greys, and whites of the snowy world; the blue sea, white sand, and red
+cliffs of a Devonian coast: such chords of colour are usual; the eye
+expects them. Even a tropical landscape, except for its occasional
+blazes of blossom, belongs to the same category. Autumnal glories, first
+of golden harvest, later of iridescent foliage, are an accustomed sight.
+But all these schemes of colour belong to a wholly different category
+from that which volcanic rock-masses display. They bring together,
+combine, and contrast a whole series of unusual tints. Their purples are
+not the purples which we elsewhere know. Their greens are not the greens
+of vegetation. Their yellows are not the yellows of a blossoming field
+or a fading forest.
+
+Were I to catalogue in a list the colours I have seen in a volcanic
+panorama, it would little serve, for it is not the names that count but
+the special significance of each, and that is not capable of brief
+statement. Such a scene as I am recalling astonishes by the multitude
+and close juxtaposition of an apparently countless number of coloured
+strata. It looks as though Nature had kept changing her mind and
+staining each successive ejection with a different tint. Sometimes there
+comes a considerable thickness of a certain coloured rock, but above and
+below it thin strata will succeed of all sorts of colours. If such a
+series of deposits is intersected by a cliff, its face will be ruled
+across by a polychrome multitude of bands. Oftenest, however, the whole
+mass will be riven into gullies and weathered into pinnacles of all
+heights and varieties. Or short cliffs and elbows will alternate with
+slopes of debris. In such cases any sense of order in the succession of
+colours may be lost. A blue pinnacle will stand before a yellow one, and
+that beside a red with a green top. In one buttress purple may
+predominate, in another grey, in a third orange.
+
+The effect on slopes of debris is often most peculiar. Naturally they
+derive their tint from that of the rocks above, out of whose fragments
+they are formed. If those rocks are a mass of a single colour, such will
+be the tint of the debris slope. But if they be fed by the splintered
+fragments of two different beds, as for example one red, the other
+yellow, the slope below will be a kind of orange, varying in tone
+according to the supply of the two ingredients. Sometimes a slope will
+be, let us say, purple throughout its upper portion till it comes down
+to a point where white rocks emerge. Below them it will be streaked as
+by splashes of whitewash. In the floor of a valley, where all these
+ingredients mix together in sandy intimacy, the general tone will be of
+a light neutral tint, the colour being destroyed by the intimacy of the
+mixture, the minuteness of the fractures, and the multiplicity of the
+incidence and reflection of light.
+
+Where there is snow aloft its melting will enforce the local colour of
+the rocks or debris over which it flows. Similar will be the effect of a
+spring bursting out of the hillside. These waters will themselves be
+brilliantly stained, and if they chance to flow over a bed of snow, they
+will stain it in their turn. I have seen a blood-red area of snow
+produced in this fashion.
+
+The reader may not derive from the foregoing description an idea of any
+effect produced by the reality save strangeness. One should be a
+landscape-painter of remarkable skill to convey any other. But the
+actual effect in nature, when the first shock of strangeness has worn
+off, is an effect of remarkable beauty. The colours in their great
+variety and multitude do in fact harmonise and agree together. Being
+fashioned in one work-shop, the work-shop of Nature, the self-same that
+fashions the eyes and intelligences of men and implants in them the idea
+of beauty as part of nature's law, they do not appear chaotic or
+inharmonious to the natural man. On the contrary they are bonded
+together and informed by the sense of a common origin, a common purpose,
+and a common meaning. When this unity is felt and perceived by the eye,
+not only do the forms, for all their jagged and splintered multiplicity,
+harmonise into compositions of remarkable grandeur, but their rich and
+varied colouring ennobles and distinguishes those forms.
+
+Views of this kind affect the imagination and impress themselves upon
+the memory more than most. Amongst the many wide vistas or actual
+panoramas which a mountain-climber of a few years' experience must have
+seen, he will doubtless freely admit that there are few which he can
+recall to his memory with any completeness. The first he ever saw
+overwhelmed him with their intricate elaboration. Later on, when he knew
+better what to look for, his susceptibility to impression was already
+lessened. The same is likely to be true of valley views. How many of
+them can we conjure up in any detail? The Matterhorn from Zermatt, Mont
+Blanc from Chamonix, and a few other similarly well-known prospects we
+know by heart; but of how many valley views, that we have only beheld
+once or during a short interval, can we form a visual image in our
+minds. My own experience leads me to conclude, though without making any
+allowance for a possibly large personal equation, that desert views are
+more memorable than those in which fertility predominates. Various views
+in the naked Indus valley are firmly fixed in my mind, though none of
+them were more than briefly beheld. The same is true of the scenery in
+the desert volcanic regions with which I am acquainted: the
+neighbourhood of Arequipa in Peru, parts of the provinces of Oruro and
+Potosi in Bolivia, the surroundings of the volcanoes of Ascotan in
+Chile, and of Aconcagua in the Argentine. In all these districts the
+scenery I beheld remains photographed in my memory with exceptional
+vividness, not merely its strangeness but its beauty, and the element in
+the scenery most vividly memorable is the element of colour.
+
+In fact both colour and forms are strange to an eye accustomed to look
+upon the fertile and normally habitable regions of the earth. This is
+true not merely of the mountains themselves and their constituent parts
+but of all their surroundings. I have never looked down upon the boiling
+interior of an active volcano, such as travellers to Hawaii are
+privileged to behold on the top of Mauna Loa. That must be a sight
+passing wonderful. Nor have I ever beheld an erupting volcano from near
+at hand. But I have seen enough in the volcanic districts of South
+America to realise the marvels and fascinations they contain. Let me be
+forgiven for quoting one or two passages from my book on the Bolivian
+Andes, which were written when the impressions were fresh, though not a
+detail of them has yet escaped me.
+
+Near Ollague, on the Chile-Bolivian frontier, is an active volcano. It
+was puffing steam in white jets from its top when I passed. All the
+hills and ground beneath, utterly bare of vegetation, were red or yellow
+in colour, or of white ashes dotted over with black cinders. Proceeding
+southward for some 200 kilometres, this kind of scenery continued. We
+wandered in and out among volcanoes, lava-streams, and great level
+sheets of white saline deposit, like frozen lakes covered with snow.
+Most of the volcanoes were extinct, but some retained the perfection of
+their form--wide, infinitely graceful cones outlined by a pure unbroken
+curve against the clear sky. The surface of the hills was often coloured
+in the most brilliant fashion imaginable. The combinations of the rich
+colours and strange forms rising beyond, and apparently out of, the
+large, flat, greyish-white surface of the saline deposits were most
+beautiful. One white imitation lake was framed in a margin of black
+volcanic dust and cinders, merging upward into grey sand. White
+dust-spouts were dancing on its white floor. A riven hill near by
+revealed streaks of blood-red, chrome yellow, and I know not what other
+bright colours.
+
+Presently came the smoking volcano San Pedro, with a smaller cone at
+its foot, from which there stretched to a distance of two or three miles
+a flow of lava, long cold, but looking as it lies on the sandy desert as
+though newly poured out. It resembled a glacier with steep sides and
+snout much crevassed and all covered with black moraine. With this
+strange product of volcanic convulsion for foreground, the sunburnt and
+silent desert stretching around, and volcanoes great and small rising
+behind, San Pedro's head smoking over all, I thought I had never beheld
+a more weird and uncanny scene. Yet it was beautiful, beyond all
+question beautiful to a high degree. If a man could be transported to
+the surface of the Moon, say somewhere near Aristarcus or Gassendi,
+such, I imagine, might be the kind of landscape that would salute his
+eyes.
+
+[Illustration: 70. AFTER THE SUNSET. From the Schaenzli, Bern.]
+
+Over against these mountains there rose on the other side of the valley
+a polychrome hill, the Cerro Colorado, covered, they say, with magnetic
+sand, which leaps into the air and flies about in sheets and masses when
+a thunderstorm comes near--to the very natural horror of the local
+Indians. At such times, amidst the roar of thunder and the electric
+flashes, surrounded by a desert shaken by earthquakes and dotted over by
+cinders, and with this dancing fiend of a hill close at hand, ignorant
+people may be pardoned for imagining themselves possessed by a horde of
+rioting devils.
+
+Not far away is the blood-red canyon of the Rio Loa, 360 feet deep. I
+stood at the edge of this profound meandering trench at an hour when the
+low westering sun struck full on one face of it and a dark shadow fell
+from the other. With this sanguinary hollow at my feet, I looked across
+a great flat plain towards countless volcanic hills, many of them
+perfectly symmetrical in form, shining in the mellow evening light. The
+sunset is the time to enjoy to the fullest this clean lunar landscape,
+enriched by the world's fair atmosphere, when the shadows are stealing
+across the flat and climbing the opposite crimson hills, whence they
+seem to drive the colour up to the soft still clouds, where it fades
+away in the purple pomp of oncoming night.
+
+Is it possible, I wonder, by any words to convey to the reader the
+least notion of this sort of scenery? Picture to yourself a lake the
+size of Zug, or Annecy, or Orta. It is not a lake for all its flatness
+and the aspect of its shores, but a flat plain of salt, white as snow.
+Its banks and surroundings are not green, but wide-spreading sand, that
+stretches away and yet away till it vanishes perhaps into trembling
+mirage. Black spots are dotted all about as though newly scattered from
+some enormous pepper-pot. They are ashes. You can scarcely believe they
+are yet cold from the fire, that ejected them, however, ages ago.
+Yellow, crimson, green slopes rise nearer or farther away to form
+stately cones or ruined lumps of the crude earth. Alas! the picture is
+not paintable by me. Beheld, it smites the eye with a single indelible
+impression. Described, it is a mere succession of details and fragments,
+and there is no verbal lightning-stroke that will avail to smite them
+for an instant into simultaneous visibility.
+
+Strictly speaking, what has been written above has no place in an
+Alpine book. Yet the interest of the Alps to me, or of any range of
+mountains, lies in the fact that they are a specimen range, that they
+resemble more or less other ranges from Arctics to Tropics, that they
+are examples of one large category of mundane phenomena. To understand
+the position and character of Alpine scenery in the scenery of
+mountains, we must consider what the Alps lack as well as what they
+possess. Every range of mountains, indeed, has its own special and
+purely local elements of character, but outside of them it likewise
+possesses many more in common with other ranges. The experienced Alpine
+climber will find himself, if not at home, at all events not far from
+home in the mountains of Spitsbergen, Greenland, or the Antarctic, in
+the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the Canadian Rockies; even in the snowy
+Cordillera of tropical Bolivia, or in the African groups of Kenya and
+Ruwenzori. The only kind of mountains, so far as I know, that will be
+wholly strange to him, and at first sight almost wholly
+incomprehensible, are the desert volcanoes. It has been for the purpose
+of bringing this fact clearly before his mind that I have felt myself
+justified in devoting a brief space to the character of such volcanic
+scenery.
+
+
+THE END
+
+_Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+BLACK'S BEAUTIFUL BOOKS
+
+This series of books is chiefly distinguished by its exquisite
+illustrations in colour. There is no volume that one cannot turn to
+again and again with renewed interest and delight. No expense has been
+spared in reproducing the exact colourings of the artists, and the books
+are beautifully printed and bound. Whether one regards them merely as
+beautiful things to be looked at and admired, or whether one goes to
+them for information and entertainment, one cannot but be pleased with
+these books, which are the outcome of the united efforts of artists,
+authors, printers, and publishers to place the best work before the
+public.
+
+
+THE =20s.= SERIES
+
+ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED
+
+=Size 9X6-1/4 ins.=
+
+
+Painted and Described by FRANCES E. NESBITT
+
+=Algeria and Tunis=
+
+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Described by SIR MARTIN CONWAY Painted by A. D. M'CORMICK
+
+=The Alps=
+
+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By H. M. CUNDALL, I.S.O., F.S.A.
+
+=Birket Foster=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (OVER 70 IN COLOUR) AND MANY SKETCHES IN THE
+TEXT
+
+
+Text by MARCUS B. HUISH, LL.B.
+
+=British Water-Colour Art, etc.=
+
+60 OF THE KING'S PICTURES IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E. Described by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Brittany=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
+
+=Burma=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WILLIAM MATTHISON Text by M. A. R. TUKER
+
+=Cambridge=
+
+77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by T. MOWER MARTIN, R.C.A. Described by WILFRED CAMPBELL
+
+=Canada=
+
+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by HENRY B. WIMBUSH Described by EDITH F. CAREY
+
+=The Channel Islands=
+
+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WARWICK GOBLE Described by PROF. ALEXANDER VAN MILLINGEN,
+D.D.
+
+=Constantinople=
+
+63 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Text by JOSEPH GREGO
+
+=Cruikshank's Water-Colours=
+
+68 FULL-PAGE FACSIMILE REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=The Durbar=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by R. TALBOT KELLY, R.B.A.
+
+=Egypt=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. Text by MARCUS B. HUISH
+
+=Happy England=
+
+80 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+
+=English Costume=
+
+73 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS SKETCHES IN THE TEXT
+
+
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK . SOHO SQUARE . LONDON . W. AND OBTAINABLE
+THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME OR ABROAD
+
+
+Painted by A. HEATON COOPER Described by WILLIAM T. PALMER
+
+=The English Lakes=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by COLONEL R. C. GOFF Described by MRS. GOFF
+
+=Florence and some Tuscan Cities=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by REV. J. A. M'CLYMONT,
+M.A., D.D.
+
+=Greece=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By M. H. SPIELMANN, F.S.A., and G. S. LAYARD
+
+=Kate Greenaway=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (51 IN COLOUR) AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS IN
+THE TEXT
+
+
+By NICO JUNGMAN Text by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
+
+=Holland=
+
+76 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by REV. JOHN KELMAN, M.A.
+
+=The Holy Land=
+
+92 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS, MOSTLY IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by FLORA A. STEEL
+
+=India=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.H.A. Described by FRANK MATHEW
+
+=Ireland=
+
+77 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ELLA DU CANE Described by RICHARD BAGOT
+
+=The Italian Lakes=
+
+69 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Japan=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ROSE BARTON, A.R.W.S.
+
+=Familiar London=
+
+60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. Described by MARIAN AMY WYLLIE
+
+=London to the Nore=
+
+60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by PHILIP NORMAN, F.S.A.
+
+=London Vanished and Vanishing=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by HERBERT M. MARSHALL, R.W.S. Described by G. E. MITTON
+
+=The Scenery of London=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by A. S. FORREST Described by S. L. BENSUSAN
+
+=Morocco=
+
+74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By AUGUSTINE FITZGERALD Text by SYBIL FITZGERALD
+
+=Naples=
+
+80 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by NICO JUNGMAN Described by BEATRIX JUNGMAN
+
+=Norway=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by EDWARD THOMAS
+
+=Oxford=
+
+60 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ALBERTO PISA Text by M. A. R. TUKER AND HOPE MALLESON
+
+=Rome=
+
+70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by SUTTON PALMER Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+
+=Bonnie Scotland=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by NORMAN H. HARDY Described by E. Way Elkington, F.R.G.S.
+
+=The Savage South Seas=
+
+68 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by Edgar T. A. Wigram
+
+=Northern Spain=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by SUTTON PALMER Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+
+=Surrey=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WILFRID BALL, R.E.
+
+=Sussex=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by G. E. MITTON
+
+=The Thames=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by A. HENRY SAVAGE LANDOR
+
+=Tibet and Nepal=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Venice=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ROBERT FOWLER, R.I. Described by EDWARD THOMAS
+
+=Beautiful Wales=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=War Impressions=
+
+99 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By CAPTAIN S. E. ST. LEGER
+
+=War Sketches in Colour=
+
+165 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+
+
+Painted by FRED. WHITEHEAD, R.B.A. Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
+
+=Warwickshire=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by WALTER TYNDALE Described by CLIVE HOLLAND
+
+=Wessex=
+
+75 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by A. S. FORREST Described by JOHN HENDERSON
+
+=The West Indies=
+
+74 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=World's Children=
+
+100 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=World Pictures=
+
+500 ILLUSTRATIONS (50 IN COLOUR)
+
+
+_A detailed prospectus, containing a specimen plate, of any volume in
+this List will be sent on application to the Publishers._
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK . SOHO SQUARE . LONDON . W. AND OBTAINABLE
+THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME OR ABROAD
+
+
+THE =10s.= SERIES
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+=Size 9 x 6-1/4 ins.=
+
+
+Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. Described by A. K. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+
+=The Highlands and Islands of Scotland=
+
+40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by A. FORESTIER Described by G. W. T. OMOND
+
+=Bruges And West Flanders=
+
+37 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by NICO JUNGMAN Described by G. E. MITTON
+
+=Normandy=
+
+40 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+THE =7s. 6d.= SERIES
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+=Size 9 x 6-1/4 ins.=
+
+
+Painted by WILLIAM SMITH, Jun. Described by REV. W. S. CROCKETT
+
+=Abbotsford=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By C. LEWIS HIND
+
+=Adventures among Pictures=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
+
+
+By GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I.
+
+=The Beautiful Birthday Book=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR DECORATIVE BORDERS BY A. A.
+TURBAYNE
+
+
+Painted by A. FORESTIER Described by G. W. T. OMOND
+
+=Brabant & East Flanders=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Text by A. CROXTON SMITH Painted by G. VERNON STOKES
+
+=British Dogs at Work=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR;
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Text by ROSALINE MASSON
+
+=Edinburgh=
+
+21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by DION CLAYTON CALTHROP
+
+=English Costume=
+
+In Four Sections, each containing 18 to 20 full-page Illustrations in
+Colour, and many Illustrations in the text:
+
+  Section I. Early English
+  "      II. Middle Ages
+  "     III. Tudor and Stuart
+  "      IV. Georgian, etc.
+
+Price 7s. 6d. net each.
+
+
+Painted by GEORGE S. ELGOOD, R.I. Text by ALFRED AUSTIN, Poet Laureate
+
+=The Garden that I Love=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By LADY BUTLER Painter of "The Roll Call"
+
+=Letters from the Holy Land=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY LADY BUTLER
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Described by A. R. HOPE MONCRIEFF
+
+=Middlesex=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by MRS. WILLINGHAM RAWNSLEY
+
+=The New Forest=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by ARTHUR GEORGE BELL Described by NANCY E. BELL
+
+=Nuremberg=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by H. J. DOBSON, R.S.W., A.R.C.A. Described by WILLIAM SANDERSON
+
+=Scottish Life and Character=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by HELEN ALLINGHAM, R.W.S. Described by ARTHUR H. PATERSON
+
+=The Homes of Tennyson=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By C. LEWIS HIND
+
+=Days with Velasquez=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 IN COLOUR AND 16 IN BLACK AND WHITE)
+
+
+By OLIVER GOLDSMITH
+
+=The Vicar of Wakefield=
+
+13 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ARTIST
+
+
+Painted by JOHN FULLEYLOVE, R.I. Text by MRS. A. MURRAY SMITH
+
+=Westminster Abbey=
+
+21 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by GEORGE M. HENTON Described by Sir Richard Rivington Holmes,
+K.C.V.O.
+
+=Windsor=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By GORDON HOME
+
+=Yorkshire Coast and Moorland Scenes=
+
+32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted and Described by GORDON HOME
+
+=Yorkshire Dales and Fells=
+
+20 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR ANGLERS
+
+=Price 7s. 6d. net each=
+
+=Size 8 x 5-1/3 ins.=
+
+
+Edited by F. G. AFLALO
+
+=Fishermen's Weather=
+
+Opinions and Experiences by 100 well-known Anglers.
+
+CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR FROM PICTURES BY CHARLES
+WHYMPER, F.Z.S.
+
+
+By W. EARL HODGSON
+
+=Trout Fishing=
+
+CONTAINING FRONTISPIECE AND A MODEL BOOK OF FLIES IN COLOUR
+
+
+By W. EARL HODGSON
+
+=Salmon Fishing=
+
+CONTAINING 8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR, INCLUDING MODEL CASES OF
+74 VARIETIES OF SALMON FLIES, AND 10 FULL-PAGE REPRODUCTIONS FROM
+PHOTOGRAPHS
+
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK . SOHO SQUARE . LONDON . W. AND OBTAINABLE
+THROUGH ANY BOOKSELLER AT HOME OR ABROAD
+
+
+
+
+THE =6s.= SERIES
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.H.A. Described by FRANK MATHEW
+
+=Ireland=
+
+32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by MORTIMER MENPES, R.I. Text by DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Paris=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND NUMEROUS LINE ILLUSTRATIONS IN
+THE TEXT
+
+
+Painted by A. S FORREST Described by JOHN HENDERSON
+
+=Jamaica=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Painted by J. HAMILTON HAY Described by WALTER SCOTT
+
+=Liverpool=
+
+24 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+Described by F. J. SNELL
+
+=North Devon=
+
+26 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+
+
+MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E.
+
+=Whistler as I Knew Him=
+
+SQUARE IMPERIAL OCTAVO, CLOTH, GILT TOP (11x8-1/4 INCHES).
+
+=PRICE 40S. NET=
+
+125 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND TINT OF WHISTLER OIL-COLOURS,
+WATER-COLOURS, PASTELS, AND ETCHINGS
+
+
+By MORTIMER MENPES, R.I., R.E.
+
+=Rembrandt=
+
+With an Essay on the Life and Work of Rembrandt by C. LEWIS HIND DEMY
+QUARTO, CLOTH, GILT TOP (11x8-1/4 INCHES).
+
+=PRICE 12s. 6d. NET=
+
+16 EXAMPLES OF THE MASTER'S WORK, REPRODUCED IN COLOUR FACSIMILE BY A
+SPECIAL PROCESS
+
+
+By SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+=The Lady of the Lake=
+
+LARGE CROWN OCTAVO, CLOTH, GILT TOP
+
+=PRICE 5s. NET=
+
+50 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (8 OF THEM IN COLOUR, FROM PAINTINGS BY
+SUTTON PALMER)
+
+
+By W. C. STEWART
+
+=The Practical Angler=
+
+=or, the Art of Trout Fishing, more particularly applied to Clear Water=
+
+12MO., CLOTH. =PRICE 3s. 6d. NET=
+
+CONTAINING COLOURED FACSIMILES OF THE FLIES USED BY Mr. STEWART (6
+PLATES)
+
+
+=_THE PORTRAIT BIOGRAPHIES SERIES_=
+
+Size 6-1/4x4 ins.
+
+
+By MORTIMER AND DOROTHY MENPES
+
+=Sir Henry Irving=
+
+CONTAINING 8 PORTRAITS OF IRVING IN COLOUR
+
+=PRICE 2s. NET=
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
+
+ALL WITH FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR PRICE =6s.= EACH
+
+=Size 8-1/4x6 ins.=
+
+
+By S. R. CROCKETT
+
+=Red Cap Tales=
+
+=Stolen from the Treasure-Chest of the Wizard of the North=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By SIMON HARMON VEDDER
+
+
+By ASCOTT R. HOPE
+
+=The Adventures of Punch=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+_=ANIMAL AUTOBIOGRAPHIES=_
+
+=The Black Bear.= By H. PERRY ROBINSON
+
+=The Cat.= By VIOLET HUNT
+
+=The Dog.= By G. E. MITTON
+
+=The Fox.= By J. C. TREGARTHEN
+
+=The Rat.= By G. M. A HEWETT
+
+EACH CONTAINING 12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
+
+_Others in preparation._
+
+
+Translated and Abridged By Dominick Daly
+
+=The Adventures of Don Quixote=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+=Gulliver's Travels=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY STEPHEN BAGHOT DE LA BERE
+
+
+=BY JOHN BUNYAN=
+
+=The Pilgrim's Progress=
+
+9 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR By GERTRUDE DEMAIN HAMMOND, R.I.
+
+
+=By P. G. WODEHOUSE=
+
+=William Tell Told Again=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY PHILIP DADD
+
+
+By G. E. MITTON
+
+=Children's Book of London=
+
+17 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY JOHN WILLIAMSON
+
+
+By ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+
+=Children's Book of Edinburgh=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY ALLAN STEWART
+
+
+By ELIZABETH W. GRIERSON
+
+=Children's Tales from Scottish Ballads=
+
+12 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY ALLAN STEWART
+
+
+By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
+
+=The Story of Stories=
+
+32 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS (FRONTISPIECE IN COLOUR)
+
+
+By the REV. R. C. GILLIE
+
+=The Kinsfolk and Friends of Jesus=
+
+16 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND SEPIA
+
+
+By HARRIET BEECHER STOWE
+
+=Uncle Tom's Cabin=
+
+8 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR AND MANY OTHERS IN THE TEXT
+
+
+_Kindly apply to the Publishers,_ ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK_, Soho Square,
+London, W., for a detailed Prospectus of any volume in this list. The
+books themselves may be obtained through any Bookseller at home or
+abroad._
+
+PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK . SOHO SQUARE . LONDON . W.
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