370 



NA TURE 



[January 28, icog 



the season at their disposal. The mosquitoes do 

 their best to render life intolerable, but Mrs. !e Blond 

 found them of no trouble except in the valley ; the 

 writer, however, remembers one easy rock-climb in 

 an area to the south of Mrs. le Blond's district that 

 became dang'erous owing to a flight of mosquitoes, 

 which took advantage of the shelter from the wind 

 to accompany him up the cliff. 



The extreme rottenness of the rocks renders the 

 danger of falling stones greater than in Switzerland. 

 The mountains are covered with such a litter of loose 

 stones that, according to the author, it is unsafe for 

 more than three climbers to go on a rope. " Dumkopf ! 

 you will have the whole mountain down," is one of 

 Imboden's ejaculations to his son. Mrs. le Blond 

 seems disposed to attribute the superior security of 

 the Alpine rocks to successive climbers having 

 cleared away the loose material. Her testimony 

 throughout the book to the looseness of the rocks. 



in the book is its fine scries of photographs; tlie 

 304 pages of the text are illustrated by seventy photo 

 t raphs, nearly all of which occupy a full page, and 

 the illustrations give an excellent idea of the geo- 

 graphical structure of the country. Some of thcnf 

 confirm the view that this part of Norway is a dis- 

 sected plateau. The book has, unfortunately, no 

 index and practically no map, for its useless chart 

 of Scandinavia and the Baltic merely indicates the 

 position of the district in which Mrs. Ic Blond's 

 mountaineering feats were achieved. 



J. W. G. 



.4 NATIONAL SCHEME OF AFFORESTATION. 

 'X'HE Royal Commission on Coast Erosion and 

 A Afforestation has issued its second report, which 

 deals with afforestation. If the scheme proposed in 

 this report be adopted, it would mean that in eighty 



Ihe Urtind at Midnight. In the background the Faestning and Kjostind. From " Mount,! 



ng in the Land ot the Midnight Su 



and the photographs showing the sharp cones and 

 jagged pinnacles characteristic of the country, sug- 

 gest that onlv the lower slopes of the mountains 

 have been glaciated. She speaks of well-rounded 

 glaciated surfaces on the lower ground, and it 

 appears possible, from her descriptions and photo- 

 graphs, that, as has long been well known regarding 

 the Lofoden Islands, the mountains were never com- 

 pletely buried beneath an ice-sheet. Their upper 

 slopes may still wear the debris due to prc-Glacial 

 weathering. 



The book gives very little direct geographical in- 

 formation other than details as to the climbing. To 

 mountaineers in the Tromso district it will be in- 

 dispensable. There is a short chapter on the Lapps, 

 and much enthusiasm expressed for both Norway 

 and the people. One of the most valuable features 



NO. 2048, VOL. 79] 



vears from its commencement there would be 

 afforested 9,000,000 acres of land at present classed 

 in the agricultural returns as rough mountain land 

 used for grazing. In their investigations the com- 

 missioners find that there are no less than 16,000,000 

 acres not under cultivation or permanent pasture in 

 Great Britain. To this there may be added several 

 million acres of similar land in Ireland. However, 

 much of this land is not suitable even for tree-growlh, 

 and mav be already used to better advantage. The 

 commissioners find 9,000,000 acres of this land is 

 suitable for afforestation, and they recommend that 

 the State should undert.ike the task of afforesting that 

 area. 



Two schemes, a larger one and a smaller one, are 

 proposed : — First, that the inaxiinum area — 9,000,000 

 acres — should be planted up at the rate of 150,000 



