NATURE 



193 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 1896. 



THE ALPS FROM END TO END.. 

 The Alps from End to End. By Sir William Martin 

 Conway. With 100 full-page illustrations by A. D. 

 M'Cormick. Pp. xii + 397. (Westminster : Constable 

 and Co., 1895.) 



SIR WILLIAM CONWAY has given us in this new 

 work a racy account of a three months' summer 

 journey through the Alps from west to east. To a 

 climber of Himalayan fame it was not much that the 

 *' Playground of Europe " had to oflfer in the way of enter- 

 prise or difficulty. Neither was it Sir William Conway's 

 intention to combine scientific aims with his mountaineer- 

 ing feats in the Alps, as he had done in the Himalayas. 

 The purpose he had in view was 



** to devise a route ... so that a climber might begin at 

 one extremity of the snowy range, and walk up and down 

 through its midst to the other e.xtremity over a con- 

 tinuous series of peaks and passes " (p. 3). 



The tour began at Turin, on June i, 1894, and ended 

 on August 26, at Gastein. Seven were of the party — Sir 

 William Conway and Mr. E. A. FitzGerald, accompanied 

 by three well-known "high tour" guides, Carrel, Zur- 

 briggen, Aymonod, and two Gurkhas, Amar Sing and 

 Karbir, who had been with Sir William Conway in his 

 Himalayan journeys. 



The first part of the route lay along the French- Italian 

 frontier, traversing the Maritime, Cottian, and Graian 

 Alps. The climbs here were not so successful as they 

 might have been, owing to late snow on the mountains, 

 general bad weather, and the occasional interference 

 of the frontier gendarmerie. The narrative gives many 

 amusing accounts of custom-house colloquies. We read of 

 the " inquisitive Jack-in-office " and " suspicious lieu- 

 tenants," and we sympathise with the would-be climbers 

 waiting hours at Colle di Tenda for a colonel " who was 

 either asleep or out," and at last sent a " ghostly captain " 

 to assure the party of his distinguished consideration, but 

 to announce that this fortified circle of the hills was closed 

 to all the world ! The author's keen sense of humour is 

 seen to full advantage in those early chapters. 



The first successful climb was that of Pelvo d'Elva, on 

 June 8, followed on June 12 by the ascent of Monte Viso, 

 both in the Cottian Alps. The cold must have been very 

 intense. 



" Some cold cream in FitzGerald's pocket was turned 

 into a stony lump. Our knitted gloves were as stiff as 

 boards. Icicles hung in rattling plenty from beards and 

 moustachios ..." (p. 53). 



Unfriendly weather pursued them into the Graian 

 Alps, but on June 22 the Aig. de la Grande Sassi^re was 

 climbed under favourable skies, and a glorious panorama 

 rewarded them. They could see from the Maritimes in 

 the south to Mont Blanc and the Swiss giants in the 

 north. The photograph of the Sassi^re peak is a good 

 representation of the broad slabs of slaty rock so 

 characteristic of this region of the western Alps. 



Very pleasantly written pages relate the journey from 

 the Graians into the Valais, over the Col de St. Grat and 



down the Ruitor glacier to La Thuille. Sir William 

 Conway writes : 



" Assuredly nowhere else is Mont Blanc better seen 

 than from this Ruitor nevd. No foreground more 

 admirably serves to set off its blue shadowing buttresses 

 and cream-coloured domes than the flat white area of 

 this magnificent snow-field " (p. 94). 



The party was now in full training, and the glaciers 

 and peaks of the Mont Blanc massif were attacked with 

 extraordinary vigour. The reader is hurried through the 

 grand natural gateway of Courmayeur, torn along the 

 lovely AUee Blanche — whgre he is allowed to hear nothing 

 but Aymonod's chatter, and to see little except two cow- 

 herds fighting and a background of glacier — then, after 

 rapid climbing up the Miage glacier, he is given time for 

 reflection in the Dome Club-hut. The next day, too, 

 when the summit is reached, the reader cannot but be 

 disappointed that Sir WiUiam Conway so summarily 

 dismisses the expected description of the view. Any 

 one who has read Mr. Leslie Stephen's " Sunset on Mont 

 Blanc," will feel the wide difference between the essayist 

 who faces the difficulties of Mont Blanc because he is 

 first and foremost a lover of nature, and the author who 

 is steeped in professional climbing, and includes Mont 

 Blanc in a record tour ! We are glad that the continua- 

 tion of the route was made over Col d'Emaney and the 

 Salanfe Alp, for this region deserves to be better known 

 amongst English travellers. 



The most effectively written chapters in the book are 

 those which follow, on the " Western Bernese Oberland." 

 There the author strikes many wise notes of experience. 

 For instance : 



" All high mountains command fine views, but there 

 are differences between them, both in kind and degree. 

 I hold that on one side at least there should be green and 

 fertile land. If a lake is visible, so much the better. The 

 eye, too, should somewhere plunge into a profound valley. 

 The great ranges should not spread themselves out like a 

 procession, but should be grouped into masses. The 

 Diablerets' view conforms to all those conditions" 

 (p. 138). 



Every one knows how the pleasant chalet-life helps 

 to enhance and soften the scenery of the mountain 

 pasturages between Lake Geneva and Lake Thun. Sir 

 Willam Conway treats this part charmingly, and, thanks 

 to the garrulous guide Aymonod, he acquaints the reader 

 with many secrets of Swiss cheese-making. 



A much sterner aspect of Swiss experience is pre- 

 sented in the chapter on Monte Rosa. The ascent was 

 undertaken on this occasion by Sir William Conway 

 entirely for the sake of the " reading public." A fearful 

 gale blew on the mountain, and we question if charitable 

 England will agree that the amount of enlightenment 

 gained entirely justified the foolhardiness of the party of 

 climbers and the frost-bitten toes of Amar Sing ! The 

 author writes in his enthusiasm : 



" Such struggles with nature produce a moral invigor- 

 ation of enduring value . . . They bring a man in con- 

 tact with cold, stony reality, and call forth all that is best 

 in his nature. They act as moral tonics. Of all the 

 time I have spent in the mountains, such days as these 

 have possessed upon the whole the most enduring 

 value " (p. 174). 



K 



