not removed, if we had been provided with ice-axes. Indeed, so shifting was the snow, that save as a means of clearing handholes, an axe would only have been a hindrance. It is said that a certain place is paved with good resolutions, and we have sent on our contribution by resolving never more to climb in snow without gloves. Our hands did not recover their equilibrium for at least twenty-four hours, and were certainly the worse for the wear. W. INGLIS CLARK. CORRESPONDENCE. (To the Editor of the "S.M.C. Journal.") January 4, 1897. SIR, Kindly allow me, through the medium of the Journal, to thank "the man ca'ad Broun" for his interesting and instructive résumé of the Coolins in 1896. Let me also say how heartily I concur in his suggestion of having a Club Hut in Coruisk. I long ago advocated shelters near the base of operations (S.M.C. Journal, Vol. I., p. 133). I never enjoyed to walk, as some members of Club have done, five miles or more an hour, even for a few hours, after a day on the hills to catch the last train or to dine before, say, 11.15 P.M. The "Club Meets," so admirably arranged by our late Secretary, has done much to obviate the "rushing" to and from the hills, and has also done a great deal to promote fellowship between members. There is still, however, room for a Hut at Coruisk, and let us hope Mr Brown's idea will ere long become an accomplished fact. It is one of the chief articles in the creed of the members of the S.M.C. that all proprietary rights shall be respected. I mention this here only because of misconception in the minds of some respecting a former contribution referred to above, where this trait was not specially mentioned. It is hoped, therefore, that any objection on the part of the proprietor of Coruisk will be readily overcome when he is fully informed about the Club and the objects in view. D. MACKENZIE. STOB GHABHAR, in the Black Mount, has, as everybody knows, a couloir which cleaves the bold north-east rocky buttress of its summit, and which has afforded many an hour's good sport, sometimes defying every effort to successfully ascend it, while at others succumbing to the persistent and stubborn assaults of the "good old axe." How many attacks have been made upon this particular couloir in winter and spring I do not know. Our Journal records but two; the first partially successful, the second unsuccessful. The following adds a third, and was successful. The first attempt was made on 16th April 1892; the lower half of the couloir was climbed, but the ascent could only be continued by a diversion from the ice and snow to the rocks. The second attempt was made on 24th March 1894; the condition of the ice and rocks, however, rendered the ascent impossible. On 1st May of the present year (1897) it was for a third time attacked, and the ice proved of such a nature as to admit of a complete ascent. I personally took part in the first and last ascents; and it is particularly in regard to the last that I am tempted, for reasons which will shortly appear, to write a short account of it. Being, as I have just stated, one of the party—which comprised Professors Ramsay, Joseph Coats, and Mr Naismith-who made the ascent in 1892, I wrote an account of the same for the Journal, which appeared in the XXIV. A |