FORERUNNERS 13 



frost-bite. The rope and dark spectacles were not adopted, 

 either at Chamonix or in the Oberland, until two hundred years 

 later. On the other hand, the ice-axe was a Chamonix invention, 

 a combination of the short axe used by crystal-hunters and the 

 alpenstock. 1 



The following quotation may serve to show that even at 

 Simler's date Alpine travellers with a taste for mountain scenery 

 were not unknown. He writes : 



' In the entire district, and particularly among the very lofty 

 ranges by which the Valais is on all sides surrounded, wonders of 

 nature offer themselves to our view and admiration. With my 

 countrymen many of them have, through familiarity, lost their 

 attraction ; but foreigners are overcome at the mere sight of the 

 Alps, and regard as marvels what we through habit pay no atten- 

 tion to.' 



After the flood-tide of the Renaissance there was a notable 

 reaction in Alpine literature. Religious wars and controversies 

 ravaged Europe and distracted men's minds. The invention of 

 printing proved far from an unmixed boon to the human intelli- 

 gence. When the new impulse had spent its force, men's minds 

 grew less active and less open to fresh, first-hand impressions. 

 Swiss professors students of philosophy, they called themselves 

 became more bookish, they took facts at second-hand from their 

 shelves instead of from the direct observation of nature. For 

 several generations there were no more Conrad Gesners. 



The works published during the next hundred and fifty years 

 paid relatively small attention to the mountain region. Their 

 authors were more concerned with the towns than with the High 

 Alps, with political and social statistics than with natural history. 

 They had no difficulty in swallowing wonders ' miracles of 

 nature ' or in accepting childish explanations of the physical 

 problems that met their eyes . As late as Simler's day it was still 

 held open to argument whether crystals such as were found in the 

 Alpine crags might not be the result of intense and perpetual 



1 The cause of the distinction is obvious. Necessity is the mother of inven- 

 tion. Natives of the Upper Valais who wanted to get to Val d'Aosta had to 

 cross a glacier pass : the peasants of Chamonix could go round Mont Blanc ; 

 but they needed a weapon to extract the crystals, the quest of which had de- 

 veloped into a local industry. (See Evelyn's Diary.) 



