NOTES FROM A KNAPSACK.
Notes from a Knapsack. By George Wherry, MA. (Bowes and Bowes, Cambridge. 5s. net.)—Mr. Wherry is a lecturer on surgery and a member of the Alpine Club. From these descriptions we may get an idea of the contents, of this very attractive volume. The first chapter is given to an account of climbing in the Mont Blanc region. The second deals with other climbing experiences, with various interludes, as, for instance, the siege of Fort Chabrol, where in the Dreyfus days a certain M. Guerin held out against the French authorities. Then comes an "Adventure on the Za." This is a place which it is important to have to oneself. Mr. Wherry's party thought that this had been arranged ; but they found another party was before them. They ought, in view of this, to have turned back. This, however, they did not like to do; and the end of it was that one of the guides was nearly killed by a stone Which had been dislodged by the party in advance. Then he toile 1111 about "roof climbing," which we cannot help regarding as a doubtful practice. It is true, however, that, once we acknow- ledged it, we might have climbing clubs in every town and village in England. Quotations are given from the letters of a friend who has been "doing" the Abyssinian Alps, and then Mr. Wherry describes what he saw and did at Stonehenge. Next comes a description of the roof-rings to be seen in some villages. Their use seems to have been to pull off a thatched roof when it caught fire. Nothing can extinguish such a fire—certainly nothing that was available in times peat, or even now in most villages—and the
only check is by destruction. Chapters on animal anatomy follow. The "Touching Mania" affords another subject. Who does not know the superstition of touching wood to avert what may be called the "divine envy" ? "A Village Tragedy of Fifty Years Ago" relates the heroic method followed by a certain Nehemiah Perry in dealing with a gang of burglars; and "Tongue Swallowing" throws some light on various curious phenomena, among them that of the burial of the Indian fakirs.
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