The Crystal Hunters : a Boy's Adventures in the Higher
Alps. By G. Manville Fenn. (S. W. Partridge and Co.)—Mr. Manville Fenn can do one thing well, and that is, describe life on the outskirts of civilisation; rough life, not of the sportsman kind, but of that belonging to inhabitants of Nature's wilder scenes. The three people whose adventures are herein recorded, never for a moment leave the Higher Alps, and the whole story is instinct with that strange feeling of continuous caution that pervades the mountaineer's life. The accidents that do happen to the two Englishmen and their guide are not exaggerated, but carefully detailed so as to bring before the reader all the technical niceties of the climber's art, his resource in moments of danger, and the necessity of endurance. We can certainly imagine no better training for the embryo-Alpinist than the fascinating account of the passage of the narrow gully in flood, the avalanche, and the dangers of the seraes, the crevasses, and the ice and snow slopes. The personality of the guide is one of the best things the author has ever done. The Crystal Hunters is the best Alpine book for boys -we have seen yet, and one that more than keeps up Mr. Manville Penn's reputation as a strong writer.
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