CORRESPONDENCE.

SNOW CORNICES AND CREVASSES.

(To the Editor of the "S.M.C. Journal.")

SIR,-The ingenious theory propounded in Mr Naismith's letter in the last number, that the hollow so frequently found just below a cornice in Scottish mountains is due to the piling up of snow blown over from the summit plateau, is possibly in many instances correct. I am strongly of opinion, however, that it is in a large majority of cases a true crevasse-or more correctly berg schrund-for, while the crack most frequently occurs just under the cornice, it is also often found a few feet below the line where a steep snow slope abuts against a rock wall—exactly the place where a berg schrund would be looked for in the Alps.

On Scottish mountains a long steep snow slope very frequently extends right up to below the cornice of the summit plateau, so that if any slight downward movement of the whole mass of snow occurred at all, it is just here that a berg schrund might be expected.

On the other hand, I may point out that the conditions illustrated in Mr Naismith's Diagram 3 are not incompatible with the piling up theory, for when the upper snows, including the cornice, have melted away, the crack would still remain, and would, as Mr Naismith shows, be a guarantee that there was no cornice.-Yours faithfully,

H. T. MUNRO.

MOUNTAINEERING LITERATURE.

MOUNTAINEERING AND EXPLORATION IN THE JAPANESE ALPS. By the Rev. WALTER WESTON. London: John Murray. AMONG the charms of mountaineering not the least is that it is manysided. A bit of rock gymnastics, a snow grind, or a steady trudge to the top of a mountain by the tourist route, has each its attractions, and the term mountaineering is wide enough to include them all. But even in this wide sense, a man who was a mountaineer and nothing more would be disappointed with Mr Weston's book. For the reader gradually discovers that the dominant position of mountaineering in the title is due more to the author's enthusiasm than to the contents of the work. The journeyings between the base of operations and the base of the mountain account for a very large proportion of the total bulk of the volume, and those whose ideal of mountaineering literature is such a book as "My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus" are not certain to appreciate this contribution. Of mountaineering in that sense there is none. There are doubtless accounts of ascents by steep arêtes and by long snow slopes, but the sensational incidents without which a difficult ascent does not seem complete, are conspicuous by their absence. The axe and rope are only mentioned in the most casual fashion, and even then the rope is such as would bring down a storm of righteous indignation if it were produced at one of our meets. Such difficulties as were encountered seem to have been chiefly on the lower ground, such as the impenetrable brushwood, or the still more impenetrable superstition of certain remote villagers, who looked on a certain ascent as an act of desecration, to be prevented if possible. It is satisfactory to observe that native guides are so well up in mountaineering expressions :-"You have no idea of the inaccessible nature of those upper rocks, and in their present condition you are running a risk that is absolutely unjustifiable." We might be reading an account of the Crowberry Ridge or the N.E. Buttress.

But if the "mountaineering" of the title has scant justification, the "exploration" has enough and to spare, and is of exceptional interest. It is not the scamper of the globe-trotter or the personally conducted, but the exploration of a man who knew the country and its people well, and meant to know them better. Even those who have a fair

acquaintance with recent writings on Japan will learn much that is new, while the ordinary reader will find it necessary to unlearn a good deal of what he thought he knew, and to considerably modify his views as to civilisation, and the reverse. The comparisons which incidentally appear between Japanese manners and our own are not always favourable to the latter, but many of us have experience nearer home of the difference between the natural native and the native spoiled by the tourist. The same dismal transformation which we lament in the Highlands has evidently commenced in Japan.

The accounts given of Japanese customs and manners and the descriptions of Japanese scenery are both full of interest, and whether or not Yarigatake, "the Matterhorn of Japan," would be considered by our Ultramontanes as presenting sufficient difficulty, and whether or not the "matchless" Fuji would be admitted to excel Ben Nevis or Sgurr Alasdair, it is impossible to read Mr Weston's descriptions without a feeling akin to envy of his opportunities, and admiration of the use he has made of them. The Japanese mountaineering clubs, who send deputations to the top of the sacred mountain, may differ somewhat from our own, but the same germ is there, and the veneration accorded to the mountains irresistibly suggests Sheriff Nicolson's fine reference to King David.

What has been said about the text may apply equally to the illustrations. Although they are not mountaineering pictures, they are pictures of a high class, both as regards artistic merit and general interest. The whole book is a delightful one.

CLIMBING REMINISCENCES OF THE DOLOMITES. By Leone Sinigaglia, Soc. Club Alp. Ital. Translated by Mary Alice Vialls. London: T. Fisher Unwin.

OF the many recent and important additions to mountaineering literature published in English, few, if any, will be more welcome than the translations of Signor Sinigaglia's contributions to the "Bollettino del Club Alpino Italiano." These contributions form a record chiefly of his climbs on the Dolomites of the Cortina district; but the record also includes descriptions of ascents of the three wellknown peaks of the Sextenthal-the Dreischusterspitze, the Elferkofel, and the Zwölferkofel, in addition to the even better-known Kleine Zinne.

Signor Sinigaglia is a well-known member of the Italian Alpine Club, and his name became familiar to most English climbers by his description of the sad circumstances attending the death of Jean Antoine Carrel during an expedition on the Matterhorn in 1890, when the latter, along with Gorret, were acting as Signor Sinigaglia's guides.

The author refers to his book as an unpretentious record." We would rather call it a modest, but important record, and one par

ticularly welcome to English readers; for, as Mr Garwood, in his interesting preface, points out, the climbs of this delightful district have received much less attention at the hands of English writers than of those of other countries. We have nothing to compare with Grohmann's "Wanderunger," Zsigmondy's "Im Hochgebirge," Wundt's “Wanderungen in den Ampezzaner Dolomiten,” and the same writer's "Die Besteigung des Cimone della Pala." It is all the more surprising that this is so, when we remember that in the pioneer days many important first ascents were made by Englishmen-the Civetta by F. F. Tuckett, Blackstone, Howard, and Hare; the Cima di Canale, the highest of the Rosengarten group, and the Saas Maor by Tucker and others the latter in 1875); while E. R. Whitwell made first ascents of Cimone della Pala, Piz Popena, and Croda Rossa. Ball and Bonney were among the first climbers in the district, and the former in his Eastern Alps" certainly deals pretty fully with the district, but he was, of course, limited by the comparative dearth of mountaineering information available at that time. During the last few years climbers in this country have become alive to the charms of the Dolomites, and we confidently anticipate that many readers of this book will be added to the number.

The book itself is extremely readable, and, while the author describes with much detail and great accuracy the various points of the many climbs included, the record never becomes dry or tedious, nor do these details prevent his giving natural and pleasant expression to his impressions, produced by the delightful scenery by which the climber is ever surrounded in this wonderful district.

Of the Drei Zinnen, as seen from the hut on the Toblinger Riedel, he says: "Here indeed we are confronted by the indescribable. These colossal fortresses of rock, so bold, and so symmetrically placed by the side of one another, tower majestically to the sky like sentinels on guard, showing from this side-especially the two greater peakswalls exceedingly precipitous, and almost smooth. These three gigantic rocky obelisks, remarkably original examples of the most fantastic Alpine architecture, leave an impression that defies analysis, and that none of the most enthusiastic eulogists of the Dolomites have yet succeeded in doing justice to. As one of them has aptly said, the beholder can but wonder and be silent.”

The important new routes described by Signor Sinigaglia are the north ridge of Croda da Lago, the west side of Croda da Lago, and the west-south-west face of Cristallo. The record of the first ascent of the north ridge of Croda da Lago is a truly remarkable one, and it shows what undreamt-of climbing possibilities there are on these peaks. Signor Sinigaglia took one and a quarter hours in his ascent on a previous day from the "Rast-Platz" by the ordinary way. With Pietro Dimai he does the climb by a new route at the first time of asking in forty-seven minutes!

The author, quoting from Guido Rey, says: “The discovery of a

new route up an already well-known peak is a matter of little interest when the one so found does not boast any advantage of safety, brevity, or convenience over those already known." Signor Sinigaglia assures us that this new route combines all the qualities above enumerated.

The other new routes described are evidently different matters as regards length and difficulty, and it is apparent they must be treated with due respect.

It is no easy matter to give what would be to the average climber's mind a correct impression of the difficulty of various points in a climb, but Signor Sinigaglia seems, so far as we can judge, to have been very successful in this respect, and neither exaggerated nor underrated the difficulties he met with. He was singularly successful in his expeditions, and on only one occasion, which is related in an interesting chapter, which he describes as "A Day's Adventure on Antelao," did he and his guides fail to reach their top by the way marked out.

The book is profusely illustrated by, in the main, capital photographs reproduced, and if the reproductions are not all so beautiful as the view from the summit of Marmolada, which forms the frontispiece, they admirably illustrate the book.

The translation seems to have been done extremely well, and the various climbing technicalities accurately expressed, for we take it that "hand-holes," which the reader comes across occasionally, is not intended to be hand-holas, as so many holds on Dolomite peaks are holes, and not excrescences or cracks.

W. B.

WELSH MOUNTAINEERING. By Alex. W. Perry. London:

L. Upcott Gill. 2s. 6d.

"So far as I am aware there is no authenticated or practical guide to the mountains of North Wales." These are the opening words of Mr Perry's little book, and they give us the key, containing as they do an astonishing confession of ignorance. It is difficult to speak seriously of a man who gives himself away in this manner. It is as though some one should publish a treatise on Chemistry, assigning as a reason that so far as he was aware there was no practical work on Chemistry. Mr Perry ought to know, and probably by this time does know, that his book is quite unnecessary, and that the ground has been far better covered by others. The guides to Wales are legion. Has he never heard of Haskett-Smith and Baddeley? But better far, for the public he seeks, if he will invest in Woodall's “Gossiping Guide to Wales," he will discover that the work of compiling a guide has been done once for all. On comparing the two books we find that with the exception possibly of four molehills not worth mentioning, the ascents have been well described by Woodall, who also gives a vast number more. With the idea in his mind that he is a pioneer, we can to some extent understand the line Mr Perry has taken, but

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