THE ALPINE CLUB GUIDE TO THE ALPS.* THERE can, we
imagine, be no doubt that Mr. Ball possesses peculiar qualifications for the by no means easy task of compiling an Alpine Guide. There are few men, in England or elsewhere, whose knowledge of the Alps is at once so extensive and so minute. He has, he tells us, crossed the main chain forty- eight times by thirty-two different passes, besides traversing nearly one hundred of the lateral passes. Those who are aware of the extreme difficulty—we might say, the• impossibility—of acquiring anything like an accurate idea of the geographical arrangement of a mountain district without an actual acquaint- ance with all its parts, will at once appreciate the immense ad- vantage which Mr. Ball must derive from the mere extent of his travels. And, in the present instance, Mr. Ball's own personal experience is supplemented and backed up by that of the whole Alpine Club, whose most active members have freely communicated to him the results of their labours, and have, as he gratefully acknowledges, been of material service to him in the preparation of his book. When we add that Mr. Ball is a gentleman of considerable literary and scientific attainments, we have said enough to warrant the reader in form- ing very high anticipations respecting the volume before us, These anticipations will not be disappointed. Beyond all question, Mr. Ball's work will, when completed, be the best Alpine guide-book that has yet been published. We are by no means insensible to the merits of Mr. Murray's well-known pub- lication; but we have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be in- ferior to Mr. Ball's, alike in the accuracy, the extent, and the systematic arrangement of its information. Like all true lovers of mountain scenery, Mr. Ball strongly recommends the traveller to devote himself to the thorough and leisurely exploration of a comparatively small district, in preference to making it his object to see the greatest number of different places in the smallest possible time. He has accordingly so arranged his book as to direct travellers in each district of the Alps to those central spots which they may most conveniently adopt as head- quarters, with a view to becoming intimately acquainted with the immediately surrounding country. This peculiarity of arrange-
'A Guide to the Waters dtps. By John Ball, !CELLA., F.L.S., do, late President of the Alpine Club. London : Longman and Co.
ment will render his volume specially acceptable to those travellers who do not propose to confine themselves to the ordi- nary beaten track of the Swiss tourist. It must not, however, be supposed that Mr. Ball addresses himself exclusively to the adventurous mountaineer. His book will be found fully to supply the wants of those travellers who are unable or unwilling to encounter the fatigues and difficulties of a grande course. It may be as well to quote a passage in which our author's feeling on this point is distinctly expressed. "The writer," he says, "warmly admires and sympathizes with the feelings of those who have developed the ardent and aspiring style of mountaineering that has so largely increased our knowledge of the Alps, and all but effaced the word inaccessible ' from the Alpine dictionary; but, for the sake of the next generation, he would think it a matter for regret if the life of Alpine travellers were always to be one of struggle and warfare. There is a keen pleasure in storming some citadel of nature, hewing the way axe in hand, or clambering up some precipitous outwork; but the recollections of days of soli- tary enjoyment amid the more accessible and not less sublime scenery leave an impression no less deep and abiding."
The volume before us, which in size, type, and general ap- pearance, bears a very close resemblance to Murray's "Swiss Handbook," is only the first instalment of the entire work. It is confined exclusively to the Western Alps, the Central and Eastern Alps being reserved for future treatment Mr. Ball has fixed his eastern boundary at the pass of the Simplon ; and con- sequently the present volume includes the range of the Pen- nine Alps to the west of that point, together with the various mountain groups of Piedmont and Dauphine, from Mont Blanc to the Maritime Alps above Nice. It will be seen, therefore, that very few of the mountains of Switzerland proper are included in the present work. Mr. Ball commences at the extreme south, and works his way gradually to the north and east, concluding with the Monte Rosa range. Nearly the whole of what, for the sake of brevity, we may call the Southern Alps—i. e., from the Maritime Alps to the Mont Blanc group—are still very imperfectly known, and would be scarcely known at all but for the labours of the Alpine Club. It is to Messrs. F. F. Tuckett and W. Mathews, jun., two gentlemen who certainly deserve the credit of being regarded as the most active and useful mem- bers of that association, that we owe nearly all the informa- tion that we possess respecting these districts. Among the Cottian Alps both these gentlemen have done good work, especially in the immediate neighbourhood of the loftiest peak, Monte Viso. For the Alps of Dauphine, especially for the Mont Pelvoux group, Mr. Tuckett is almost the only authority. This section of the Southern Alps ranks next to the Pennine and Bernese ranges both in the height of its principal peaks and the grandeur of its rock and glacier scenery. The reason why it has been hitherto so little visited is probably to be found in the extreme badness of the accommodation which it affords to travellers. Moun- taineers are not, as a class, apt to be over particular about their food and lodging; but even they will look askance at a district where "the inns, with very few exceptions, are repulsive to an unusual degree, food is bad and bard to procure, and the habits of the people are filthy beyond example." In describing the group which lies between the Cottian and the Graian Alps Mr. Ball performs—certainly not by faith—the feat of re- moving a mountain. Nearly all the most authentic maps of this district assert the existence of a first-class mountain, the Mont Iseran, 13,271 feet in height, close to the Col of the same name. One guide-book, of which Mr. Ball speaks in very favourable terms, actually gives an account of the ascent of this mountain and descsibes the view from its summit. No such mountain is in existence. Mr. Cowell in 1860, climbed the highest eminence near the Col which occupies the precise position of the Mont Iseran of the maps, and found it to be about 1,600 feet higher than the pass, or rather less than 10,800 feet above the sea. It is rather singular that, after having taken the pains to correct tbis error in the body of his work, Mr. Ball should have perpetuated it in his index of mountains, in which the item "Mont Iserau, 13,271," appears in due course. Concerning the Graian Alps, we now know a good deal, thanks chiefly to M. Carrel; of Aosta, and Messrs. Tuckett and Mathews. The Pennine Alps are, of course, comparatively well known, especially the Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa groups. Even here, however, the Alpine Club has done good service in determining more precisely the topography of various parts of the range, particularly in the north-east portion of the Mont Blanc' district, and the mountains that lie between the Great St.
Bernard and the Matterhorn. And there is work still to be done in this quarter ; for Mr. Ball tells us that few parts of the Alps have been so imperfectly explored as the chain between the Buet and the Dent du Midi.
One word in conclusion respecting the maps which are con- tained in the volume before us. They are at once more nume- rous and more accurate than those furnished by any other guide- book with which we are acquainted. Besides two admirably executed maps of the whole region described, one of which is coloured so as to show the geological formations, Mr. Ball gives us four special maps of the most important districts, on a much larger scale, which supply as detailed a representation of the country as most travellers can possibly require. Their utility is, however, seriously impaired by their being printed on paper so thin as to have but a poor chance of withstanding the wear and tear even of a single season's travelling. Neither the author nor the publisher of the Alpine Guide can possibly be ignorant that a map which is designed for continual reference must necessarily, if it is to answer its purpose, be mounted on linen ; and we trust that the first edition of the work will be the only one in which we shall have to point out the neglect of this very obvious precaution.
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