Below the Snow Line. By Douglas W. Freshfield, D.C.L. (Constable.
18s.) Below the Snow Line. By Douglas W. Freshfield, D.C.L. (Constable. 18s.) Mountaineers may be divided into two main types. There is first the " greasy-pole expert " of Ruskin, the " aseen- sionist " of Dr. Freshfield, the Cockney climber" of Conway, who cares nothing for secondary peaks and climbs either for admiration or for exercise, insulting the everlasting hills by considering them as mere gymnasia. Then there is the mountain lover, who must see his love from all points of view at all times of the day and year, in all weathers, under condi- tions, in fact, only possible to the skilled mountaineer. He knows the absurdity of Ruskin's paradox that all of strength and beauty the mountains have to reveal to us may be known by the cripple, the greybeard, and the infant ; but he appre- ciates the beauty of lesser hills and climbs them with hardly less delight. The former class may leave this book alone, but the latter will recognize it as the true companion of Leslie Stephen's Playground. The mountains described would be of little value in an Alpine Club qualification list, for most are chosen from districts ` barred as by a flaming sword to the Limited Company of Serious Mountaineers." But the lay reader and he who, like Dr. Freshfield, feels that there arc times when nothing but rock and snow becomes monotonous, will appreciate these lazy wanderings in flowery valleys and over green hills round the Mediterranean Sea. Even he who finds his only joyikon an English rock-face or a steep ice-slope in the Oberland will rejoice to know that, when old age has robbed him of these delights, there is pleasure still to find in the Maritime Alps and Corsica, Greece and North Africa, the Apennines and Japan, Bosnia and even Savoy. Dr. Freshfield has a delightful style. Climbers, like scientists, suffer fre- quently from having too much to say to say it well, and their literary indigestion is communicated to their readers. No such disease is here. The book is as easy and smooth as the wanderings described. Only here and there it rises to heights of vivid but restrained description, or wanders off down a side track to philosophize concerning climbing in general or to poke fun at the " ascensionists."
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