354 ON MOUNTAINS AND MANKIND. 



might easily have made it more purely geographical, if it is geog- 

 raphy to furnish a mass of statistics that are better and more intelli- 

 gibly given by a map. I might have dwelt on my own explorations 

 in greater detail, or ha\e summarized those of my friends of the Al- 

 pine Club. But I have done all this elsewhere in books or review^s. 

 and I am unwilling to inflict it for a second time on any of my hearers 

 Avho may have done me the honor to read what I have written. Look- 

 ing back, I find I have been able to communicate very little of value, 

 yet I trust I may have suggested to some of my audience what oppor- 

 tunities mountains offer for scientific observations to mountaineers 

 better qualified in science than the present speaker, and how far we 

 scouts or pioneers are from having exhausted even our Alpine play- 

 ground as a field for intelligent and svstematic research. 



And even if the value to others of his travels may be doubtful, the 

 Alpine explorer is sure of his reward. "\Miat has been said of books 

 is true also of mountains — they are the best of friends. Poets and 

 geologists may proclaim — 



The hills are shadows, and they flow 



From foi*m to form, and nothing stands ! 



But for us creatures of a day the great mountains stand fast. Jung- 

 frau and Mont Blanc do not change. Through all the vicissitudes of 

 life Ave find them sure and sympathetic companions. Let me conclude 

 with two lines which I copied from a tomb in Santa Croce at 

 Florence : 



Hue properate, virl. salebrosum scandite montem, 

 Pulchra laboris erunt prsemia, palma, quies. 



