ON MOUNTAINS AND MANKIND.^ 



By Douglas ^V. Fkeshi'Iki.d. 



We have all of us seen hills, or what we call hills, from the mon- 

 strous protuhcrauces of the Andes and the Himalaya to such puny 

 pimples as lie about the edges of the Cambridge fens. Next to a 

 waterfall, the first natural object (according to my own experience) 

 to impress itself on a chihrs mind is a hill, some spot from wdiich he 

 can enlarge his horizon. Hills, and still more mountains, attract the 

 hnman imagination and curiosity. The child soon asks, " Tell me, 

 how Avere mountains made? " a question easier to ask than to 

 answer, which occupied the lifetime of the fatli t of mountain 

 science, De Sanssure. But there are mountains and uiountains. 

 Of all natural objects the most impressive is a vast snowy peak 

 rising as a white island above the waves of gi'een hills — a 

 fragment of the arctic woi'ld left behind to commemorate its 

 past ])redominance — and bearing on its broad shoulders a gar- 

 land of the alpine flora that has been destroyed on the lower 

 gi'ound by the rising tide of hi^at and drought that succeeded the last 

 glacial epoch. Midsummer miows, whether seen from the slojjes of 

 the Jura or the plains of Lombardy, above the waves of the Euxine 

 or through the glades of the tropical forests of Sikhim, stir men's 

 imaginations and rouse their curiosity. Before, however, we turn to 

 consider some of the physical aspects of mountains. I shall venture, 

 speaking as I am here to a literary audience and in a univei-sitv town, 

 to dwell for a few minutes on tlieir place in literature — in the mirror 

 that reflects in turn the mind of the passing ages. I'\)i- geography is 

 concerned with the interaction between man and Nature in its widest 

 sense. There has been recently a good deal of writing on this sub- 

 ject — I can not say of discussion, for of late years wi-iters have gen- 

 erally taken the same view. That view is that the love of mountains 

 is an invention of the nineteenth century, and that in ])revious ages 

 they had been generally looked on either with indifference or positive 



"The address delivered to Section E (Geograi>h,v) at the Caiuliridirc iiieetiii^ 

 of the British Association. 1004. Reprinted from author's revised copy. 

 SM 1904^; — 22 ,337 



