ON ALPINE HEIGHTS AND BRITISH CRAGS.*

Mn. G. D. ABRAHAM is now a popular lecturer and writer on mountaineering. He has long been known as a bold and skilful climber and a first-rate photographer. His " three-legged, one- eyed balancer on fearsome ledges," as he calls his camera, has accompanied him in places where its companionship must have been a sore trial. He sad his brother have produced a series of books that might be described as " Gossiping Guides " to the precipices of Britain and the Alps, full of excellent illus- trations, exciting incidents, and practical information. The illustrations in his recently published book, On Alpine Heights and British Crags, are admirable. Those who have experienced the difficulties of manipulating even a small-sized camera on very steep slopes will appreciate the work involved in repro- ducing such scenes as " The Kleine Zinne Traverse," the "C" Gully of the Screes, and the Falcons' Eyrie. " New Year's Eve in Borrowdale" and "Near the Top of the Funffingerspitze" are wonderful, both in atmosphere and in perfection of tone and detail.

The early chapters are devoted to the Dolomites. By the time the reader has followed the author over the Cinque Torsi, the Rosengartenspitze, the Vajolet Thfirme, and the Fiinffinger- spitze, he will either be longing for the plains or regretting the holidays he has wasted upon them. The "Night Adventure on the Ffinffingerspitze " is certainly one of the best things Mr. Abraham has written ; it is a faithful and thrilling description of a difficult rock-climb, when the attainment of the summit and the return to the valley are long withheld and stubbornly and skilfully won. There is a chapter on " Winter Mountain- eering " which contains useful information and some needed warnings, and a long account of a winter ascent of the Schreckhorn by Mr. 0. G. Jones, who was killed on the Dent Blanche in 1894, and who with Mr. Abraham did a great deal of pioneer work on the cliffs of Lakeland and North Wales.

• On Alpine Heights and British Crap. By G. D. Abraham. London: Methuen ILO& ed. net3

An ascent of the Manch in a storm is the only expedition among the great Alpine peaks that is described. It is illustrated by a picture in which, for once, the camera with its single eye for truth has played little or no part. Indeed the cornice shown near the top of the mountain is of such dimensions and of such problematical origin that one suspects a more genial " monk " is winking at us behind his cowl of mist.

Nearly half the book consists of descriptions of climbs in Britain, many of them on the less famous but more recently discovered crags. Apart from the charm of novelty, these crags cannot be said to bear comparison with their older, grander neighbours, while the new routes upon the latter are not of a nature that can safely become popular. A single quotation will sufficiently indicate the nature of modern pioneer work on Scafell :— " The ascent thence proved a grim and desperate undertaking. . . . The strain proved too much for the second man. The hand which held him in place on the boulder was just slipping, through sheer exhaustion, when the loader stepped straight across upon it, and thus held firm the lapsing fingers."

Chapters on " The Work of the Alpine Guide," " How to Climb Safely," and " With the Birds of Prey on the Crags " add considerably to the interest and much to the criticism the book is sure to arouse.

Mr. Abraham is essentially a Cumbrian eragsman and a photo- grapher. Naturally he prefers rocks to snow and ice, and chooses to take pictures of places that are popular rather than of those that are known to few. But he gives as his reason for the selection of " the more primitive Dolomites " the " over- crowded state of the Swiss Alps, where one has almost to fight for sitting-room amongst fashionable society on many of the peaks." This is a gross exaggeration. As to the more primitive conditions of the Dolomite country—which Leslie .Stephen described as hill rather than mountain country—Mr. Abraham

himself shall speak. " The huts are practically all bewirtechaftet"; during the season " they are crowded with a cosmopolitan company " ; " The prices of everything more than matched the high situation." By the Vajolet but there is a " small outdoor gymnasium." Even on the Ftinffingerspitze " an ice-axe spends

a lonely life upon a ring by the side of the chimney." The reason for his preference for the Dolomites is to be looked for rather in the fact that the modern climber is inclining to the view of " the sensation-loving American expert " referred to on p. 58 who " disliked the Matterhorn and guessed he only cared for cliffs where he could spit a mile." He wastes few words on the famous Dolomite sunsets. " Some of us who had spent evenings high up on our British crags knew that a sunset made in Germany or Austria falls short of the home product in true beauty of colour, magnificence, and artistic impression."

Mr. Abraham does justice to many of the qualities of the Alpine guide, but he is occasionally ungenerous. Many climbers will resent the accusation that " it is the insidious temptation of gold that leads him into danger." Every fisherman lost off our coasts, every miner entombed in the pit, might be so accused. His own attempt to bribe his guide Sigismondo to consent to what he regarded as a dangerous overloading of his party with the heavy camera should have been sufficient to keep the author silent on this subject. There is, too, a serious misstatement as to the cause of the accident below the Bergh but in 1910, and a slur on the character of the great guide Alexander Burgener is based upon it.

" How to Climb Safely " is an interesting chapter. The whole book bears eloquent testimony to the need for such instruction.

It contains accounts of no less than forty accidents, so that the youthful climber will do well to keep it out of his parents' hands. This is Mr. Abraham's plea for ensuring safe mountaineering in the High Alps : " Begin on the British crags. All can be learnt thereon except glacier practice and ice-craft above the snow-line, but these details are easily acquired by the man who has learnt all the technique of the sport at home." It is dangerous advice. Imagine a party of purely home-trained British climbers setting out to climb what are called in this book " the comparatively easy routes on the north face of the Aiguille du Plan." As far as they go, Mr. Abraham's methods are quite Teutonic in their thoroughness. " There are now standard works available with all the important routes mentioned and classified in order of difficulty. The beat plan is to take the list and work patiently through the series." Destruction of soul if not of body must surely be the fate of most pupils before they have got far into the climbs at the end of the list that are " just humanly possible."

The standard works referred to are, presumably, those produced by Mr. Abraham. Interesting as they are, they have encouraged a dangerously competitive spirit, and a mania for eahning, grading, and labelling every gully and ridge in Britain.

Mr. Abraham drives well home the fact that safety in rock- climbing depends on trustworthy leadership and the right use of the rope. The consciences of many leaders of parties will be relieved to find that even in the case of a most methodical and experienced master precept and practice occasionally differ : " What mattered it that, for one wild instant, one's weight depended solely on a quivering turf ledge ? " " It was a place where an abnormally large nose might prove a handicap " ! His methods on snow occasionally bear traces of having been acquired on British crags : " My ice-axe had lost part of its head in a rocky niche lower down, it was useless. . . . There was a wild plunge for the foothold ; it collapsed and I toppled over the icy precipice." " A huge mass collecting enveloped us in its deep embrace and all went helter-skelter, head over heels with a disconcerting downward rush to the more level slopes below." It makes one wonder what unsafe climbing is like ; it must be a perpetual anticipation, at times even a longing for the final bump !

The solitary climber gets no sympathy from Mr. Abraham. Solitary climbing he dismisses as " absolutely unjustifiable." He may be right, but it must be remembered that among all the thrilling adventures he describes to us romance has no place. To a man who has learnt to estimate rightly his own powers and the difficulties of rocks or snow, and who has ceased to covet climbing records, the risks of solitary climbing are small. On the other hand, the rewards are such that for them, far more than for the achievement of a great climb, a man would be willing to stake much. There are times when a man yearns to be alone with a mountain he loves. Then, if ever, with his burning cheek close to hers, he may see the world as she sees it and hear its oall for service ; then, unashamed, he can let fall the tears that divinely tender beauty brings into his eyes ; he may kneel down and pray with her.

Romance runs through all the mountaineering literature that is treasured most. Leslie Stephen, despite his cynical humour, betrays the tragic bitterness of his renunciation of the great Alpine peaks. Mummery exhibits a wild passion that is only enflamed by the knowledge that his love carries a dagger in her breast. Guido Rey is gloriously, hopelessly romantic, now fervently embracing, now kneeling to his beloved, in speech and in years a mature poet, in heart a boy. Mr. Abraham presents to us a jolly, sporting person, who derives a certain meretricious charm from a lurid past. Those who culti- vate her friendship patiently and methodically will find in her a companion that will banish care and help them to bear life's burdens easily. Mr. Abraham shows his wisdom in being content with what is demonstrably profitable. The romantic creature that occasionally steals a climber's heart in the recesses of the hills is reticent and shy ; only a favoured few can safely introduce her to dwellers on the plain. Love of an adventurous sport will suffice to draw generations of climbers to Alpine summits and British crags ; and once a man is in the presence of the challenging heights, their wild beauty and a youthful heart will look after the romance.