The Scottish Himalayan Expedition. By W. H. Murray. (Dent. 30s.)
THE purpose of a reconnaissance being to provide data for the next comer, Mr. Murray's report on the party of four he led into the backblocks of Kumaon and Garhwal is a model ; a detailed account of experience is fortified with abundant photographs, sketch-maps, a list of supplies and equip- ment, and a summary of expenses—sur- prisingly light. The value of such a record to the prospective conqueror of the Girthi Gorge or the Panch Chuli would be inestim- able ; but it has much to offer also as a narrative of ambitious adventure, of discon- certing difficulties that failed to disconcert. " It was an enlivening situation," writes Mr. Murray on one of his more desperate mornings, " thus to be setting off into the unknown, all plans and provisions duly made, so that nothing was left to do but to hope for the best " ; that was the expedi- tion's motif as its motto was Dr. Longstaff's : " Forget all before-and-after and soak the moment into you so that it will never come out." That Messrs. Murray, Scott, Weir and Mackinnon failed in some of their major objectives is no matter ; they survived, they accomplished their intinerary, they soaked their moments. Good-friendship and adapta- bility served them well ; their minds were open, and they drew the most out of those they met—notably their indispensable Dotial porters whose contribution is handsomely acknowledged. Merely as a Himalayan picture-book this volume is a triumph, though the colour photographs are less impressive than the black-and-white many
of these are quite superlative. H. B.
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