ON MOUNTAINS AND MANKIND. 351 



which fiv(iuen(s the Al|>s, (les])ises tlie Caucasus, reappears in masses 

 in the ITiniahiya, and then, k'aping all the isles of the Tropics, turns 

 up again under the snows of New Zealand. T may mention that it is 

 a superstition that it grows only in dangerous 2)laces. I have often 

 found it where cows can crop it; it covers acres in the Himalaya, and 

 I believe it has been driven by cows oif the Alpine pastures, as it is 

 being driven l)y tourists out of the Alps altogether. 



The Italian botanists, Monsieurs Levier and Sonnnier, have given a 

 vivid account of what they call the makroflora of the Central Cau- 

 casus — those wild-flower beds, in wliich a num and a horse may 

 literally be lost to sight, the product of sudden heat on a rich and sod- 

 den soil composed of the vegetable mold of ages. Has any compe- 

 tent luind celebrated the mikroflora of tlie highest ridges, those tiny, 

 vivid forget-me-nots and gentians and ranunculuses that flourish on 

 rock-island " Jardins " like that of Mont Blanc, among the eternal 

 snows, and enamel the highest rocks of the Basodano and the Lom- 

 bard Alps? A comprehensive work on a comparison of mountain 

 flora and the distribution of Alpine plants throughout the ranges of 

 the Old \Vorld would be w^elcome. We Avant another John Ball. 

 Allied to botany is forestry, and the influence of trees on rainfall, and 

 consequently on the face of the mountains, a matter of great impor- 

 tance, whicli in this country has hardly had the attention it deserves. 



From these brief suggestions as to some of the pliysical features of 

 mountains I Avould ask you to turn your attention to the points in 

 which mankind come in contact with them, and first of all to History. 



I fancy that the general impi'ession that they have served as efficient 

 barriers is hardly in accordance with facts, at any rate from the mili- 

 tary point of \iew. Hannibal, Casar. Charles the (lireat, and Napo- 

 leon passed tlie Alps successfully. Hannibal, it is true, had some 

 difficulty, but then he was handicaj)ped with elej)liants. The Holy 

 Roman Emperors constantly moved forwards and backwards. Bur- 

 gundy, as the late Mr. Freeman was never weary of insisting, lay 

 across the Alps. So till our own day did the dominions of the House 

 of Savoy. North Italy has been in frequent connection with (ier- 

 many ; it is only in my own time that the Alps have become a frontier 

 betAveen France and Italy. But (juestions of this kind might lead us 

 too far. Let me suggest that some competent hand should comj)ose 

 a history of the Al})ine passes and their famous ])assages, more com- 

 plete than the treatises that have appeared in (xernumy. Mr. Cool- 

 idge, to wlioni we owe so much, lias, in his momunental collection and 

 repi-int of early Alpine writers just published, thrown great light on 

 the extensive use of what I may call the by-])asses of the Al})s in early 

 times. Will he not follow up his work by treating of the great i)asses^ 

 I may note that the result of the construction of carriage roads o\er 

 some of theni was to concentrate traffic; thus the Monte Moro and the 



