THE NEW ZEALAND ALPS.*
IF the Southern Alpe of New Zealand cannot now be fully known it will not be for the want of accurate information.
• Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand. By Arthur P. Harper, B.A. London: Fisher Unwin. We have had already Mr. Green's dashing account of them in his High Altitudes of New Zealand, Mr. Mannering's racy narrative in his With Axe and Rope in the Southern Alps, Mr. Fitzgerald's brilliant story in his Climbs in the New Zealand Alps, and now Mr. Harper follows suit with his sober chronicle of his pioneer work in the same regions. In fair- ness to the latter we must say that the fates have been rather unkind. For the bulk of Mr. Harper's book was written before Mr. Fitzgerald's recent visit to the Otago ranges. The two men actually met under the shadow of Mount Cook. They did some of the exploring together. Mr. Fitzgerald even com- pleted his published map from the data furnished by Mr. Harper. To go further still ; Mr. Harper and his staunch com- rade—Mr. C. J. Douglas—were on the point of striking for the hermitage from the west side of the range when Fitz- gerald and Zurbriggen had only just crossed from the east. Hence the casual visitors scored off the long and patient explorer in that the discovery of the pass, which by the fair rules of the game should have fallen to the native New Zealander, will henceforth be credited to the foreigner; it will be known as Fitzgerald's when it seemed so near being handed down as Harper's.
Our readers will already perceive that the book under review is the work of an enthusiastic climber who has been engaged for many years, both as amateur and as Government official, in exploring the whole of the great Southern Alp system. How complicated and arduous, not to say hazardous, the task has been is only evident to those who know the district or who will con this book from cover to cover. That Mr. Harper has not made the daring ascents so graphically described by Mr. Edward Fitzgerald is due to the fact that Harper's task was sternly one of business, not one of pleasure only. An immense amount of preparatory survey work had to be done before it was at all necessary to scale giant peaks. We are in full sympathy with the writer when he says :—
" It is not right to contrast our unsuccessful ascents before that date [1892] with subsequent work, because we were 'learning the game,' and those who came after us had the benefit of our experi- ence, and consequently saved a great deal of time, and knew how to go to work. For men to attack such a difficult country without guides or experience is very different to following an ex- perienced leader. Though peaks were not scaled then as they have been since, a great deal of necessarily hard work was done, and later corners do not always realise the benefits they derive from the gathered experience of the pioneers."
For the work of gathering topographical knowledge has to precede the ascent of the leading peak, the one kind of ex- ploring being useful, the other ornamental. The brunt of South Alpine climbing was done by a handful of men, and these were New Zealanders, before the highest ascents were made by Fitzgerald and his brave Swiss guide twelve months ago. From 1889 to the spring of 1896 Mr. Harper was almost con- tinually in the Western ranges of Otago, and this admirable book is the outcome of his threefold work as surveyor, ex- plorer, and scientific observer.
As distinguished from Mr. Fitzgerald's book, Mr. Harper's deals with the whole mountain system which has Mount Cook for its centre and culminating point, but especially with the Western ranges which lie above and enclose the famous wands or fiords which indent the coast from Preservation Inlet northwards to Milford Sound. From Captain Cook downwards this region has called forth the keenest admiration ind delight from all beholders, especially from a distant point an the ocean, from which favoured position the present writer taw it ten years ago. If any ardent Alpinist thinks that the mountain•climbing of the world is exhausted he will be reassured after reading Mr. Harper's fascinating pages. Here are many virgin peaks still untrod ; here, too, are glaciers before which the largest in Europe must really bow down their diminutive heads and (terminal) faces. The majestic sweep of the huge Franz Josef Glacier long ago transfixed the present writer's old professor—Sir Julius von Haast—to his standing-point, as it did his pupil years after, and our author, having seen it from very many points of view, is able to convey his impression in these words :— " In front of us was the grand ice-fall in all its glory, 1,800ft. or more in height, and a mile wide, presenting a dazzling array of towering seracs and deep blue crevasses. I have seen many fine ice-falls in Switzerland and New Zealand, but very much doubt if any, except perhaps the Haast Glacier on the Tasman, is as grand as that of the Franz Josef. Though I call it 1,800 ft. in height, it may be said that for 3,000 ft. at the least the glacier is really an ice-fall."
It is fortunate for the reader that Mr. Harper is not only a member of the English Alpine Club, but that he is also familiar with all the best scenery in Switzerland and Norway, His mind—as Wordsworth would say—is a mansion of lovely forms. He can, therefore, compare similar natural scenes with similar pictures in the great gallery of Nature. His comparisons, therefore, are not odious, but luminous. Here is a case in point :—
" New Zealand," he says," could not be compared with Switzer- land—that was before I had been into the then unknown Western Ranges. I now say, without hesitation, that the Southern Alps can not only be compared to, but in many cases exceed in grandeur the scenery of Switzerland. The only thing lacking is the presence of human interest, for there are no picturesque peasants and chalets to give an added charm to the wild and glorious scenes met with at every turn."
The writer well observes that the New Zealand snow-fields have attractions for the scientific observer which are absent from those in Europe :— " There is far greater activity in the Southern Alps than in the European, and therefore the effects of snow and ice are more marked, and more easily recorded. The avalanches are more frequent—falling night and day—than in Europe; the glaciers descend to a lower level, and the country is more shattered. Consequently the action of snow and ice in altering the conforma- tion of the country is going on to a greater and more noticeable extent."
The illustrations are as delicately beautiful as they are lavishly numerous, while the large map is a model for clearness and obvious accuracy. In a note at the end of the volume the author wisely gives credit to the good men who even before himself did much to make this interesting snow- clad district known to the outer world. As far back as 1862 Von Haast made the first recorded expedition into these mountain fastnesses. It may be added—for Mr. Harper does not mention the fact—that Haast's book, the Geology of West- land, is out of print, and a copy not long ago was sold for the sum of ten guineas.
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