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MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, RECENT. 



MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION, RECENT. The Ap- 

 palachian Mountain Clnb. The exploration of the 

 mountains of the United States is promoted by 

 the Appalachian Mountain Club, which fur- 

 nishes in its corporate and field meetings and 

 in its semi-annual journal, u Appalachia," means 

 through which mountain-climbers may commu- 

 nicate their results to the public. The earliest 

 mountain club in the United States whose his- 

 tory is recorded was the Alpine Club of Will- 

 iamstown, Mass., which had nine members at 

 its organization, and enrolled twenty - four 

 members as its greatest number. It made 

 excursions during the next three years to the 

 mountain-regions near Williamstown and other 

 places in New England, including one to the 

 White mountains. Formal records of its ex- 

 cursions ceased to be kept after 1865, and the 

 majority of its members have removed from 

 Williamstown, although occasional reunions are 

 still held there. The Appalachian Mountain 

 Club was formed in February, 1876, by the 

 association of 39 members, and was incor- 

 porated in March, 1878, when it had 199 

 members, of whom 150 became corporate 

 members. Till Jan. 1, 1884, 790 persons had 

 been enrolled as corporate members of the 

 club, of whom 579 still continued to be mem- 

 bers, and 51 other persons had been enrolled 

 as non-corporate members. This club is in- 

 terested in mountain exploration everywhere, 

 and contemplates, as its membership is en- 

 larged and extended, including all the mount- 

 ain - regions of the United States within its 

 field of work. As yet, most of its members 

 being residents of New England, or summer 

 visitors to the New England States, most of 

 its work has been accomplished in the White 

 mountains and the Alpine regions of the States 

 adjacent to New Hampshire. A list of altitudes 

 in New Hampshire was published in 1880, and 

 a " Table of less visited Peaks in White Mount- 

 ains " was begun, which has been continued 

 and extended from time to time. This list in- 

 cluded summits concerning which no published 

 accounts existed at the time of the formation 

 of the club, many of which were wholly unex- 

 plored, and some unnamed. At the end of 

 1882, of the forty-seven mountains recorded 

 on it, all but thirteen had been explored and 

 described. The list has since then been further 

 reduced considerably, but other less prominent 

 mountains have been added to it, leaving still 

 abundant work to be done. In connection 

 with this work may be mentioned the map 

 and list of altitudes of the Catskill mountains 

 published by Prof. Guyot in 1880. In addi- 

 tion to the mountain exploration, the Appa- 

 lachian Club has encouraged the making of 

 roads, the cutting of paths, and the planting of 

 landmarks in the White mountains and their 

 gorges for the aid of excursionists, thus greatly 

 enlarging the field of adventure accessible to 

 oni inary tourists. Much of this work has been 

 done at individual expense and gratuitously, 

 but during the first eight years of its existence 



the Appalachian club, in a total expenditure of 

 $5,980, devoted $495 to purposes of " improve- 

 ment and exploration." In 1881 the attention 

 of the club was called to the condition of the 

 " Old Man of the Mountain," the forehead of 

 which was believed to be in danger of injury 

 from frost, and provisions were made to have 

 everything feasible done to protect it. At the 

 October meeting in 1882, Major JedediahHotch- 

 kins gave an address on the A ppalachian mount- 

 ains of the Virginias, explaining in detail the 

 profile of the country from the sea to the mount- 

 ains, and showing that the essential formation 

 of all parts of the Appalachian system might be 

 found in Virginia. He referred to the paral- 

 lelism and great length of the ranges there, as 

 compared with the mountains of New England ; 

 and, describing the Shenandoah valley, he ex- 

 plained the effect of its configuration in pro- 

 ducing certain incidents in the war of the re- 

 bellion. At the June meeting in 1883, a report 

 was presented, calling attention to the various 

 kinds of aid that could be rendered by those 

 members of the club who have had no training 

 in scientific work ; showing that in hydrogra- 

 phy, especially, much remained to be done, and 

 that members could render valuable assistance 

 by making notes of their explorations, by 

 sketching ridges and streams, and by criticis- 

 ing and correcting existing maps. The atten- 

 tion of the club was called in 1884, by Prof. 

 Pickering, to a statement that had been made 

 by Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of the United States 

 Signal Service, that the rainfall on the summit 

 of Mount Washington was about twice the total 

 fall at adjacent points in New England, and that 

 observation at different heights on the side of 

 the mountain showed that the amounts varied 

 as the heights. In order to further the study 

 of the "Effect of Mountains on Rainfall," it 

 was desired to obtain regular observations at 

 different points in the White mountain region ; 

 and it was suggested that the members of the 

 club endeavor to interest the residents of the 

 region on the subject. 



The Appalachian Mountain Club is in cor- 

 respondence with a number of similar organi- 

 zations and geographical societies elsewhere, 

 among which are the " Gesellschaft fur Erd- 

 kunde," Berlin; the "Societe de Geographie 

 Cornmerciale de Bordeaux " ; the " Club Alpin 

 Suisse"; the ''Club Alpin Francaise"; the 

 " Deutscher und Oesterreichischer Alpenve- 

 rein " ; the " Soci<te" Khediviale de Geographie," 

 of Cairo, Egypt; the " Club Alpino Italiano"; 

 the " Societa degli Alpinisti Tridentini " ; the 

 "Norske Turistforening " ; the "Oesterreich- 

 ischer Alpen Club"; the "Oesterreichischer 

 Touristen Club"; the "Associacio d'Excnr- 

 sions Catalana " ; the " Siebenbtirgischer Kar- 

 pathenverein " ; the " Societa Alpina Friu- 

 liana"; the "Imperial Russian Geographical 

 Society"; the "Kaiserliche Konigliche Geo- 

 graphische Gesellschaft"; the "Royal Geo 

 graphical Society " ; the " Sociedade de Geogra- 

 phia," of Lisbon; the " Socie"t6 Royals de 



