CAPTAIN LAWSON'S "WANDERINGS IN NEW GUINEA."
(To TEM EDITOR OF THE '‘ SPEOTAT08.1
believe that in a very few lines I can remove your reviewer's doubts as to the accuracy of the author of "Wanderings in New Guinea," and perhaps save that most entertaining volume from being wholly misunderstood, as it has been, by some of its earlier critics.
In describing his partial ascent of "Mount Hercules," Captain Lawson states (p. 155) that starting " soon after 4 o'clock" from a bivouac below 2,000 feet, he reached by 9 a.m. a height of 14,000 feet, and by 1 p.m. 25,314 feet above the sea,—that is, he ascended over 12,000 feet in the first five hours, and over 11,300 feet (in- cluding a halt) in the second four. This feat was accomplished by men laden with "arms and blankets" over ground where "coarse grass impeded progress," over rocks "dangerously slippery," up "an almost perpendicular face," where masses of the rock gave way and some ugly falls were received, and despite extreme suffering from the rarity of the air at an elevation higher than had ever before been reached, unless by aeronauts.
Mont Blanc is about 12,000 feet above Chamounix. At Captain Lawson's New-Guinea pace, it would be an easy five hours' walk from the village to the top ; but climbing without impediments, and on what in summer is a well-marked trail, he will doubtless, should he ever condescend to our European hills, make the ascent in much less time.
I need scarcely say that no Alpine Clubman needs to wait for the return of an expeditionr to New Guinea, in order to form an opinion on the value of the statements contained in these thrilling
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