"SEA OR MOUNTAIN ?"
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATOR."] Sin,—My article with the above title in the Fortnightly Review has been fortunate enough to elicit in your Columns a learned and interesting letter from Mr. Douglas Freshfield. I find little to complain of in his friendly criticism, but there are two or three
points in his letter upon which I should like to be permitted to offer a few comments.
Mr. Freshfield seems to think I have disregarded the historical evidence of the ancient use of mountain health-resorts ; it was, however, no part of my purpose to consider this branch of the subject. So far as concerns the Engadine, it had been already well treate,d in interesting articles by Professor Pole in 1868 in London Society, and by Mr. Lionel Tollemache quite recently in the Fortnightly Review. I must, notwithstanding, maintain my statement to be literally correct, that their "popularity is of quite recent date." That the demand for accommodation at St. Moritz at the beginning of this century exceeded the supply, as Mr. Freshfield states, is credible enough ; but if he will take the trouble to ascertain what the " supply " there was seventy-seven years ago, he will be quite satisfied that the term "popular" could not then be applied to the Engadine.
Mr. Freshfield also seems to complain of my having passed over the health-resorts of the Eastern Alps. It was not my object to give an exhaustive account of such places, which would indeed have been inconsistent with the limits of a magazine article ; and when one finds most persons complaining that the Engadine is "so far off," it is extremely improbable that they would feel much interest in mountain stations still more remote, and with certainly far inferior accommodation.
Finally, I can by no means accept Mr. Freshfield's correction of my account of the Morteratsch Glacier,—of that part of it to which I allude, and which I am careful to say stops when "the broken part of this immense ice-stream is reached." For that part where ropes and spectacles are needed, Mr. Freshfield is an authority, and I am not ; but without these insignia (dear, no doubt, to the heart of so distinguished a mountaineer), there is a great, almost level ice-fleld, which can be safely traversed, as I have said, in all directions for hours, and which a gentleman whom I have often accompanied on this part of the glacier has aptly designated "the patients' walk."-1 am, Sir, &c., J. BURNEY YE°.
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