10 The Mountaineer 
resent an invasion of their domain. Such views survived to 
quite modern times as in the case of the Matterhorn, and are 
still held among the more primitive peoples of the earth. The 
above-mentioned Egyptian inscription contains a prayer to the 
god Sutekh that he may “dispose to fairness the flood and the 
cold upon the heights” for the benefit of the Hittite embassy. 
The modern interest in mountaineering manifested itself first 
in connection with the awakening spirit of scientific inquiry. The 
foremost pioneer in this double enterprise was the French-Swiss 
physicist Horace Benedict de Saussure (1740-1799). In 1787 he 
chimbed Mont Blane under the guidance of Jacques Balmat, 
who had gained the summit for the first time a year earlier. 
Slow but substantial progress was made during the next 
half-century in laying the foundations for the development of 
mountain climbing as an art and as a form of sport. But the 
systematic conquest of summits of first-rate difficulty did not 
begin until the second half of the nineteenth century. Coincident 
with this new phase of alpinism came the organization of 
various alpine clubs. First among them was the English Alpine 
Club founded in 1857. Its organization was followed by the 
Austrian Alpine Club in 1862, the Italian and Swiss Alpine 
Clubs in 1863, the German Alpine Club in 1869, and the French 
Alpine Club in 1874. North America joined the procession in 
1876 with the organization of the Appalachian Mountain Club. 
But the Pacific Slope, with its misty camps of mountains 
trailing in tumultuously diversified chains from the icefields of 
Alaska to the warmth of tropic seas, is destined to be the future 
arena of American mountaineering. The Sierra Club of Cali- 
fornia, the Mazamas of Oregon, and the Mountaineers of Wash- 
ington already have well established organizations and an 
enthusistic membership. Upon these clubs has fallen the respon- 
sibility of directing alpestrian sentiment and energy on this 
coast. It is proper that they should ask themselves whether the 
history of alpine sport, brief as it is, may not suggest new lines 
of endeavor which have never been fully realized. The plasticity 
of our western life, unexploited fields of nature study, uniquely 
favorable climatic conditions, and the existence of national 
parks big enough for kingdoms in Europe, present advantages 
which no alpine club of the Old World has ever enjoyed. 
The highest function of a mountain club must always 
consist in the encouragement it affords to the noblest and 
