BOOKS.

KARAKORAM.* Trim magnificent record of a great expedition which has been compiled by Dr. de Filippi and admirably translated from the Italian, is a story of mountain travel carried to the highest pitch of scientific organization. The Duke of the Abruzzi has now four remarkable achievements to his credit, and each commemorative volume excels its predecessor in fulness of information and magnificence of form. He travelled royally, but the elaboration of his preparations was justified. If man wishes to conquer the very highest mountains he must marshal all his forces. Ile failed indeed to climb K2 and the lower Bride Peak, but he reached a higher altitude than any mortal had attained before, and he enormously advances our knowledge of the Karakoram range and the conditions of climbing at great heights. He established the height of a new mountain above 27,000 feet, and measured for the first time fifteen peaks all above 23,000. That is the most that can be hoped for now, for we are not very likely to find a higher mountain than Everest, though in the same year as the Duke's expedition, Dr. Longstaff fluttered geographical circles by the story of a peak in the 29,000 feet neighbourhood above the Siachen glacier. The story of Himalayan mountaineering is a curious one. As far back as 1883 Mr. W. W. Graham climbed Kabru, in the Kangchenjunga group, a height of nearly 24,000 feet. At first his story was scarcely credited, but it is now generally accepted since the ascent of the same mountain by Rubenson and Aas in 1907. In the same year Dr. Longstaff ascended Trisul, in the Gahrwal Himalaya, a height of 23,406 feet. The Bullock Workmans reached 23,300 feet in the Nun Kun range, and 23,400 feet in the Karakoram. The Karakoram range is separated from the Himalaya group by the trench of the Indus, and lies some 200 miles from the capital of Kashmir. It contains some of the greatest glaciers in the world—the Chogo Lungrna and the Hispar, explored by the Bullock WOrkmans ; the Biafo, first traversed by Sir Martin Conway; the Siachen, explored by Dr. Longstaff ; and the Baltoro, which was the object of the Duke's visit. Round the Baltoro lie the great peak K2, the Gasherbrnms, Masherbrum, Mustagh Tower, Broad Peak and Bride Peak. Colonel Godwin Austin dis- covered it in 1860; it was visited by Sir Francis Younghusband in his famous traverse of the range, by Sir Martin Conway in 1892, and by the Eckenstein-Guillarmod expedition in 1902. For a man who wished to make an attempt on the grand scale, the top of the Baltoro glacier offered the best chance, situated as it was in a nest of giants with the second highest of the world's mountains at its head. K2, in spite of its prosaic name, is a romantic and most beautiful mountain. It was first discovered in 1858 by an Indian surveyor, who saw the white shadow 137 miles off from a peak of Haramuk near Srinagur. Few Europeans have seen it, for apart from the chance of a glimpse from the top of some other giant of the range, it is necessary to go up the Baltoro to the very head, for the elusive monarch is round the corner from the ordinary glacier. Bat the sight is worth the trouble, for from Signor Sella's splendid photographs we can judge K2 to be one of the most shapely of the great peaks, worthy to rank with Siniolchum and Kangchenjunga.

The expedition, which besides the Duke and his aide-de- camp and Dr. de Filippi, included Signor Vittorio Sella and seven guides and porters from Courmayeur, sailed from Mar- seilles on March 26th, 1909. The author gives a very vivid and careful amount of the journey up-country to Kashmir, with full notes on the geography and history of the route. From Srinagur, where they bad the benefit of Sir Francis Young- husband's hospitality and advice, they travelled up the Sind valley, taking the ordinary post road to Skardu, the capital of Baltistan. On the other side of the Zoji La they entered the barren glens which debouch on the Indus valley. Dr. de Filippi's scientific interest is always alive, and be bee some valuable notes on the progressive drying up and denudation of the Central Asian system. At Skardn the Duke organized a private postal service to keep the expedition in touch with the outer world. Thence they followed the valley of the Shigar C.Kra)roriam„imd Wesqrn Himalaya, 909; an toint the, E editon of kEff Prnes Anibo ofavn has of Ams» IV :PP°de tvols. IlidOi:Constable and-Co. RS

mit.] through the apricot orchards which make it the oasisof Baltistan, till at the village of Askoley they reached the outpost of human habitation. They were now almost within sight of the high mountains. Leaving Askoley on May 16th they ascended the valley of the Biaho, past thts snout of the Biafo glacier,.

down which in old days the Hunza raiders descended, and at Paijn reached the mouth of the Baltoro, where, the whole caravan was reunited, a community of nearly, 400 persons. They were now 11,000 feet above sea-level. The base camp was established at a place called Rdokasa, on the, south side of the glacier at the foot of Idasherbrum. Thirty- five coolies were selected for the further expedition, and equipped with warm clothing and European boots.

Slowly the little party picked their way up the difficult surface of the great glacier, still out of sight of their goal. At last they rounded the spur which separates the Godwin Austin glacier from the Baltoro, and K2, the jealous monarch of these

solitudes, lay before them.

"It fills the whole end of the valley, with nothing to draw the attention from it. All the lines of the landscape seem to meet and converge in it. The mountains group themselves about it, yet without any intrusion upon it, or interference with its extra- ordinary upward effort. Its lines are ideally proportioned and perfectly balanced, its architectural design is powerful, adequate to the majesty of the peak without being heavy ; the steepness of its sides, its ridges, and its glaciers is appalling ; its rocky wall is 12,000 feet high."

In shape it is by no means unlike the Matterhorn as seen from the Italian side. The Duke at once made preparations for an attempt on it. He tried first the southern ridge, chiefly

because of its exposure to the morning sun, but after a. strenuous attempt it proved to be impossible to get coolies up. so as to form a high camp. He then explored the glacier on its western side, and with great difficulty reached the col at its head, a height of 21,870 feet; but the western ridge proved equally forbidding, and there was no hope from the north face. Finally he explored the eastern glacier and ascended a considerable distance up a mountain called Staircase Peak. But the eastern side was equally unscalable, and he was reluctantly driven to the conclusion that K2 was not to be

climbed.

"I haste to add," says Dr. de Filippi, "that; such a sentence applies to IC2 not altogether in an absolute sense, but very much as a result of the remote situation of the giant, the impossibility of camping near its base for more than a few weeks, and finally- the unfavourable climatic conditions. If K2 were in the Alps it is possible that a siege of several years weuld end in conquest.'

The next step was to try to find something that could be

climbed. The choice fell on Bride Peak, at the head of the Vigne glacier, which enters the Baltoro from the south-east. It is over 25,000 feet high, and its ascent would have broken all previous records of height. On July 10th the Duke succeeded in setting up a camp on Chogolisa Saddle, between Bride Peak and Golden Throne, at 20,784 feet of altitude. The first attempt on the mountain was foiled by bad weather. In the second they formed a high camp at 22,4.83 feet, and on

July 18th made the final attempt. Once more the fog baffled them, and they were compelled to give up when within 510 feet

of the summit. The point reached was 24,600 feet, which for the present remains the highest by some 700 feet of the heights yet reached by man. But the remarkable fad in the performance was not so much the altitude as the excellent health of the whole party. The Duke and his guides lived for thirty-seven days above 16,000 feet, and for another seventeen about 18,000 feet, and of the latter days nine were spent above 21,000 feet and included three arduous ascents. Yet nobody seems to have suffered. The progress on the last part of the climb was slow, only 273 feet per hour, and on the rock 160 feet. From this we may argue that unless the top of

Everest is a snow slope it will never be conquered, for the climbing of rock is too exhausting at the low atmospheric

pressure of great altitudes. The scientific information brought back by the expedition was varied and valuable, especially on the geographical side; and we may look to see it greatly amplified by the new expedition which Dr. de Filippi is at present equipping. The Duke took his measurements of height both by triangu- lation and atmospheric pressure, and -tbe results obtained by

the latter method proved, as they had proved in the Alaska and Ruwenzori expeditions, extraordinarily accurate. But the

most interesting discovery remains the physiological one. Dr: Workman believes it impossible to sleep at heights of over

20,000 feet, but the Duke and his companions slept peace- fully over 22,000 feet, although they were crowded in small Mummery tents ; they had no headache, no difficulty in breathing, and their pulses were normal. The only effect of the great altitude seems to have been a gradual loss of appetite and a diminution of energy. Something, of course, must be put down to the perfect organization of the expe- dition. Mountain-sickness, the bugbear of old travellers, seems to have been driven out of the list of mountaineering drawbacks. Since the first ascent of Mont Blanc we have only gained 8,820 feet, bat the end is not yet. There is nothing, in Dr. de Filippi's opinion, in the mere height of the highest mountains to make them insuperable. "Under present conditions altitude is not to be considered as in itself the obstacle to an ascent. Our experience rather tends to prove that, if there is a physiological limit, we are still far from reaching it. The real difficulty to be confronted and solved is the one of transport." In this connexion it is pleasant to notice Dr. de Filippi's tribute to the often-abused Himalayan coolies, who certainly served the expedition heroi- cally. As both climbers and porters acquire more experience of great heights we may yet see Everest conquered—always provided that its Tibetan side, about which every mountaineer has his dreams, proves to be a reasonable snow slope.