MOUNTAIN 



MOUNTAINEERING 



Mountain, THE (Fr. La Mon- 

 tagne). Name given to one of the 

 political parties that arose in France 

 during the Revolution. They first 

 appeared, an offshoot of the Jaco- 

 bins, in the national convention, 

 1792, the name being due to the 

 fact that, about 100 strong, they sat 

 on benches raised above those 

 occupied by other 

 groups. The 

 Mountain in- 

 cluded among its 

 members Marat, 

 Danton, and 

 Robespierre, and 

 undertheir leader- 

 ship dominated 

 the Jacobin Club. 



Mountain Battery. Portable gun of 75 mm. calibre. Top, limbered up. Centre, ready for 

 action. Bottom, parts of the gun when taken down for transport. 1, 2, and 3. Component 

 parts of the shield. 4. Hinged trail. 5. Carriage with elevating and traversing gears. 

 6. Firing shield. 7. Top of cradle. 8. Buffer, recuperator and cradle with trunnions. 

 9. Breech mechanism and chamber of gun, screwing into 10. Barrel and muzzle. 11, 13, and 

 14. Sights and sighting gear. 12. Elevating handle. 15 and 17. Wheels, fitting to 16. axle 



By courtesy of Vickert, Ltd. 



Their chief opponents in the con- 

 vention were the Girondins, repub- 

 licans too, but with more theoretical 

 and less savage views, who were 

 overthrown by the Mountain in 

 1793. The latter were responsible 

 for the Reign of Terror. See French 

 Revolution ; Girondins. 



Mountain Ash OR ROWAN TREE 

 (Pyrus aucuparia). Small tree of 

 the natural order Rosaceae. It is a 



by the G.W. and Taff Vale Rlys. 

 The urban district includes a 

 number of mining villages, among 

 them Mountain Ash itself, Aber- 

 cynon. and Cwmpennar, that be- 

 came populous with the opening 

 of the coal mines in the 19th 

 century. The chief industry is 

 the mining of coal. The principal 

 buildings, all mod- 

 ern, include the 

 town hall, hospital 

 and library, and 

 the churches of S. 

 Margaret and S. 

 Winifred. The 

 Welsh name for 

 Mountain Ash is 

 Aberpennar. Mar- 

 ket day. Sat. Pop. 

 42.300 



Mountain Bat- 

 tery. Artillery 

 unit formed for 

 m ilitary operations 

 in hilly country, or 

 where wheeled 

 carriages cannot 

 travel. The guns 

 and their mount- 

 ings are carried on 

 pack mules or by 

 men. Generally 

 the equipment 



native of Europe, including Britain, makes about five mule loads, as a 



and Canaries, N. and W. Asia, mountain battery has neither lim- 



and N. America. Its leaves are bers nor wagons. The gun is jointed, 



divided into six to eight pairs so that the breech ring can be 



of slender leaflets. The small carried separately. The 75 mm 



creamy-white flowers are produced Vickers mountain gun illustrated 



in numerous clusters, and are sue- herewith can be unpacked from 



ceeded by bright scarlet fruits. mule-back and assembled in 3 



Mountain Ash. Urban dist. of minutes. It weighs 1,408 Ib. and 



Glamorganshire, Wales. It is 4 m. divides into 6 loads, the, heaviest 



from Aberdare. and 18 m. from of which is 230 Ib. The gun fires 



Cardiff, and stands on the Cynon, a shell of 14 - 33 Ib. with a rapidity 



a tributary of the Taff. It is served of 20 rounds a minute. 



MOUNTAINEERING AS A SPORT 



C. E. Benson, Author of British Mountaineering 



The reader may be referred from this article to those on the mountain 

 ranges of the world, e.g. Alps ; Andes; Rocky Mts. See also Alpen- 

 stock ; Alpini; Ice Axe; Rock Climbing; and biographies of 

 Whymper and others 



Mountain Ash. Flower and leaves 

 of tree of natural order Rosaceae 



Mountaineering is the sport of 

 climbing mountains. Art or science 

 may be combined with it, but the 

 man who climbs a mountain for 

 artistic or scientific purposes is not 

 necessarily a mountaineer, though 

 he may become one by the compul- 

 sion of his pursuit. Sport is its 

 essence, and for this reason the 



first ascent of Mt. Aiguille near 

 Grenoble, in 1492, is inadmissible, 

 as it was by order of Charles VIII 

 of France. 



Early mountaineering expedi- 

 tions were for the most part spora- 

 dic outbursts of individual enter- 

 prise, of which perhaps the most 

 notable is a considerable ascent in 



