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diff --git a/39542-8.txt b/39542-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0e383fd --- /dev/null +++ b/39542-8.txt @@ -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: 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 Schänzli 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, Mönch, 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. François 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. Märjelen 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. Flüelen at end of Lake of Uri, South Arm of Lake of Lucerne 200 + +49. Furggen Glacier Icefall 206 + +50. The Gletscherhorn from the Pavilion, Hôtel Cathrein, close to Concordia + Hut 208 + +51. The Trugberg 210 + +52. Pallanza--Sunset 212 + +53. Kranzberg--Rotthalhorn--and Jungfrau: Sunset 214 + +54. Märjelen See and Great Aletsch Glacier 220 + +55. The Castle of Zähringen-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. Châtillon, 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 SCHÄNZLI. 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, Mönch, 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, arête, 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 Glück." +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, séracs, 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 æsthetic 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 æsthetic 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 +Flüelen.] + +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 +séracs. Thus the intelligence replaces the æsthetic 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 æsthetic 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, MÖNCH, 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 æsthetic 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 Dürer 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 Dürer 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 mediæval 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 Brünig 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 cañons 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 séracs 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. FRANÇOIS 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 géant!_ 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 Täschhorn 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, Blümlisalp, 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 Lötschen 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 Tödi, the Rhætikon, 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 æsthetically 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 +Lötschenlücke 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 arête. 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 _névé_ 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 sérac 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. MÄRJELEN 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 _névé_ 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 +Bérisal 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, arêted 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 arête. 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 Théodule 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 _névé_ 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 +arêtes, 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 arêtes, 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 Géant 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 Géant 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 Géant, 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 Mischabelhörner, 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 _métier_, 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 sérac, 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 Blümlisalp +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 Täschhorn. 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 Güssfeldtsattel, 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 arête, 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 +Lötschen 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 séracs 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 _névé_ 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 _névé_ 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 Géant, 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 æsthetically 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. FLÜELEN AT END OF LAKE OF URI, SOUTH ARM OF LAKE OF +LUCERNE. The pyramid of the Bristenstock in the background. Föhn 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-arêtes, 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 séracs 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 Übelthal glacier, or +the Kürsinger 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 +_névés_ are within a stone's throw, and the final peaks may be gained by +a morning's walk. The Concordia Hut (now Hôtel, 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 Märjelen 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 _névé_ 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 +_névé_ ice-falls are formed, which are far more majestic than the +ice-falls of the middle region (such as that of the Col du Géant). 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 _névés_, 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 _névé_ 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 Märjelen 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. MÄRJELEN 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 ZÄHRINGEN-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 Tödi 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, sérac, 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 +Mürren 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 Täsch 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 _névé_ 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 débris 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 Flégère, of the +Matterhorn from the Riffel alp, of the Weisshorn from the Täsch alp, of +the Mischabelhörner from above Saas-Fée. 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 Mürren. 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 débris 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 Mycenæ 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. CHÂTILLON, 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'Hérens, 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 Jägerhorn, 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 Tödi be if robbed of the memory of Placidus à +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, mediæval 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 Thingör 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 +Dürer 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 débris 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 châlets. 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 sérac, 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 archæan 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 Schänzli, 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 cañon 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. 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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 × 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 × 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 × 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. 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