THE CLIMBER'S GUIDE TO THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE GAELIC TONGUE.

OH, a terrible tongue is the tongue of the Gael,

And the names of his mountains make Southrons turn pale;
It's ill to pronounce them, to spell them is worse,
And they're not very easy to hitch into verse.

A mountain's a mountain in England, but when
The climber's in Scotland, it may be a Beinn,
A Creag or a Meall, a Spidean, a Sgòr,

A Carn or a Monadh, a Stac, or a Torr.

For he goes up Beinn Dothaidh
In the ice and the snothaidh,
And nothing will staim
From climbing Sgòr Mhaim;
If he's long in the leagaidh
May tackle Creag Meagaidh,
Or, job that is hardhoire,

The "posts" of Corr' Ard Dhoire.
He strolls up Beinn Eighe
By the easiest weighe

If he's wise-but Sgurr Dubh,
Will make him look blubh.
Very grand is the vuidhe
Will get from Meall Buidhe,
But more will he sithe
From Bruach na Frithe.
Then for sport that is raoghal
He hies to Beinn Laoghal,

And surely will straidheimh

To ascend Beinn a' Chlaidheimh,

And gaze from afarr

On Beinn Airidh a' Charr.

To get up Stob Gabhar

Takes more that an abhar,

But considerably leas

The ascent of Carn Eas.

Now one cannot conciol

That the slopes of Beinn Sgriol

Are hardly as sheur

As the crags of Carn Bheur,

Nor can one mainteadhoin

That the view from Beinn Meadhoin

Surpasses the vaoigh

Observes from Beinn Laoigh.

And besides the above there are dozens which I'm

Unable at present to put into rhyme ;

Whilst most of these hills, it's no libel to say,

Are easier climbed than pronounced, any day!

L. W. H.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CLUB.

A SPECIAL GENERAL MEETING of the Club was held in Glasgow on Wednesday, 2nd December 1896, when Joseph Collier, George Duncan, William Garden, George Bennett Gibbs, David Hepburn, H. G. S. Lawson, R. G. Napier, Harold Raeburn, A. W. Russell, A. J. Shepherd, W. Cecil Slingsby, M. W. Travers, H. G. Walker, were balloted for and elected members of the Club.

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Club was held in the Central Hotel, Edinburgh, on Friday, the 11th December 1896, at six o'clock. The President, Mr H. T. Munro, was in the chair.

The Honorary Treasurer submitted his accounts for 1896, showing that the income amounted to £122. 9s., and the expenditure to £88. 12s. 7d., leaving a balance to the credit of the Club of £99. 19s. 5d., as compared with £66. 3s. at the corresponding date last year, and they were unanimously adopted.

To fill the vacancies in the list of Office-bearers the following have been elected:- Secretary, Mr Gilbert Thomson; Members of Committee, Mr William C. Smith and Mr A. E. Maylard. The remaining Office-bearers were re-elected.

After a brief discussion, it was unanimously agreed that Rules XV. and XVI., regarding the election of new members, be altered to read thus:

RULE XV. "Every candidate for admission to the Club must forward to the Secretary (on a special form to be obtained from him), at least one month before the Annual General Meeting in December, or any other General Meeting, a list of his Scottish and other ascents, stating the month and year in which each ascent was made, or a statement of his contributions to science, art, or literature, in connection with Scottish mountains. Such a list or statement must be signed by the candidate, and by two members of the Club, acting as proposer and seconder."

(Members of the Alpine Club are eligible for election without further qualification, and gentlemen who have made ascents or given valuable contributions as above, elsewhere than in Scotland, may be recommended for election at the discretion of the Committee.)

RULE XVI.—“ If in the opinion of the Committee the qualifications be deemed sufficient, the name, designation, and address of the candidate, along with the names of his proposer and seconder, shall be

sent by post to each member at least one week before the closing of the ballot, together with a voting paper on which shall be printed the names of all candidates for election. Any member desiring to vote must seal up his voting paper and send it, accompanied by his name written on a separate piece of paper, to the Secretary in such time as to reach him before the closing of the ballot. In voting, a member shall strike out from the voting paper the name of any candidate against whom he desires to vote. He shall leave uncancelled the name of any candidate for whom he desires to vote. He shall write the words 'no vote' against the name of any candidate for or against whom he does not desire that his vote should be recorded. Two members appointed at the previous meeting of Committee shall together count the votes at the closing of the ballot, and the Secretary shall declare the names of the successful candidates at the next General Meeting.

"Not less than eight votes must be recorded for the election of any candidate, and one adverse vote in eight shall reject for one year." The following places were selected for Club Meets :New Year-Loch Awe.

Easter (1st) The S.W. Coolins, &c., to be reached by steam yacht, and (2nd) Tyndrum.

The Honorary Editor stated that the Journal had appeared three times during the year, and that, owing to increased sales, it had only cost the Club some £35. He pointed out that nineteen members had contributed papers, notes, and reviews during the year, and that the Club was indebted to Sir Archibald Geikie, Professors Ramsay and Prothero, Messrs Bell, Boyd, Brown, Fraser, Fraser-Campbell, Hinxman, Jackson, Maclay, Munro, Naismith, Rennie, W. A. Smith, Swan, Thomson, and Tough for doing so.

The Honorary Librarian reported that the use of the Library among the members was increasing, and that during the last year there had been a considerable demand for the use of the lantern slides. Since last report "Hours of Exercise in the Alps" had been presented by Mr Solly, "Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers" and "The High Alps in Winter" by Mr Maclay, and the continuation of the Scottish Geographical Magazine by Mr Rennie. The Alpine Journal is regularly received as an exchange, and Mr Weston recently gave to the Club the last five numbers of Vol. 14 (102 to 106).

The Honorary Secretary stated that in the course of the year the Club had lost only one member, and that

through resignation. The present membership of the Club, including the thirteen elected at the Special Meeting on 2nd December, was one hundred and thirty-nine.

After a hearty vote of thanks to the Office-bearers, and to Mr Thomson for the continued use of a room in his office for Club purposes, the business of the meeting was concluded.

THE EIGHTH ANNUAL DINNER was held in the Central Hotel at the close of the General Meeting. The President, Mr H. T. Munro, occupied the chair, and Messrs Thomson and Rennie acted as croupiers. There were fifty-one members and guests present. The toasts were :—

A special feature of the Dinner was the presentation to Mr Maylard, the retiring Secretary, of a handsome writingtable set, consisting of double silver inkstand, pair of silver candlesticks, silver-mounted ivory paper-cutter, and silvermounted gum-pot. The inkstand bore the inscription— "Presented to A. Ernest Maylard by friends in the Scottish Mountaineering Club in recognition of his invaluable services at the formation of the Club and during the past eight years, 11th December 1896."

The following forenoon a large party were on Arthur Seat and the Salisbury Crags, the "steady guides" being Messrs Raeburn and Brown; and in the afternoon the Editor gave an acetylene-gas lantern demonstration, showing a number of mountain-views taken by himself and others.

XXII. D

EXCURSIONS.

The Editor will be glad to receive brief notices of any noteworthy expeditions. These are not meant to supersede longer articles, but many members who may not care to undertake the one will have no difficulty in imparting information in the other form.

THE S.M.C. ABROAD IN 1896.—In the Alps the season of 1896 will long be remembered as among the wettest and worst within the memory of the oldest climbers. During nearly the whole month of August, and well into September, fresh snow fell among the high peaks almost daily. As might be expected, this state of matters greatly interfered with climbing records, a large part of the climber's time being occupied in going up to huts and coming down again. Only one or two ascents are recorded of the Matterhorn, which in ordinary seasons is climbed thirty or forty times, and the Gabelhorn and Dent Blanche are said not to have been climbed at all.

Messrs Charles Pilkington, W. Cecil Slingsby, G. Solly, and Horace Walker spent six weeks in Switzerland, and being out early, managed, in spite of the weather, to make several good expeditions, all of them guideless. These were the Glarnisch; the Galenstock; the Jungfrau ; Mönch; first ascent of the Central Fusshorn from the Bel Alp; col and peak of Mont Fort; a traverse of Mont Blanc from the Dôme Glacier to Chamouni.

Mr Walter Brunskill snatched the following ascents out of a stormy fortnight at Zermatt :-Monte Rosa by the rocks; the Wellenkuppe ; and the Riffelhorn by the "Matterhorn Couloir."

Mr E. A. Crowley, among minor ascents, made a traverse of the Trifthorn, with descent of N.W. face (not given in Conway, and may be new - with a companion); the Aiguille de la Za (alone); the Vuibez séracs-an ice-fall which has probably not been passed before without taking to the rocks; Aiguilles Rouges d'Arolla traversed (climbing every gendarme on south peak-party benighted on ridge). All guideless.

Mr J. W. Drummond spent some time at Arolla, where he did several of the well-known climbs. He subsequently crossed the Col d'Hérens, but found the weather at Zermatt impossible for mountaineering.

Mr W. Wickham King visited Tyrol, and ascended the Grosse Zinne, Kleine Zinne, Croda da Lago, Saas Maor (traversed), Cima di Bocche, Winkler Thurme, Rosengarten Spitze, and Innerkofel; crossed