624. REPORT—1904. 
elephants. The Holy Roman Emperors constantly moved forwards and backwards. 
Burgundy, as the late Mr. Freeman was never weary of insisting, lay across the 
Alps. So till our own day did the dominions of the House of Savoy. North 
Italy has been in frequent connection with Germany; it is only in my own 
time that the Alps have become a frontier between France and Italy. But 
questions of this kind might lead us too far. Let me suggest that some competent 
hand should compose a history of the Alpine passes and their famous passages, 
more complete than the treatises that have appeared in Germany. Mr. Coolidge, 
to whom we owe so much, has, in his monumental collection and reprint of early 
Alpine writers, just published, thrown great light on the extensive use of what I 
may call the by-passes of the Alps in early times. Will he not follow up his 
work by treating of the Great Passes ? I may note that the result of the construc- 
tion of carriage roads over some of them was to concentrate traffic ; thus the Monte 
Moro and the Gries were practically deserted for commercial purposes when 
Napoleon opened the Simplon. The roads over the Julier and Maloya ruined the 
Septimer. Another hint to those engaged in tracing ancient lines of communica- 
tion. In primitive times, in the Caucasus to-day, the tendency of paths is to 
follow ridges, not valleys. The motives are on the spot obvious—to avoid 
torrents, swamps, ravines, earthfalls, and to get out of the thickets and above 
the timber-line. The most striking example is the entrance to the great basin of 
Suanetia, which runs not up its river, the Ingur, but over a ridge of nearly 9,000 
feet, closed for eight months in the year to animals. 
From the military point of view mountains are now receiving great attention 
in Central Europe. The French, the Italians, the Swiss, the Austrians have 
extensive Alpine manceuvres évery summer, in which men, mules, and light 
artillery are conveyed or carried over rocks and snow. Officers are taught to use 
maps on the spot, the defects in the official surveys are brought to light. It is 
not likely, perhaps, except on the Indian frontier, that British troops will have to 
fight among high snowy ranges. But I feel sure that any intelligent officer who 
is allowed to attend such manceuvres might pick up valuable hints as to the best 
equipment for use in steep places. Probably the Japanese have already sent such 
an envoy and profited by his experience. 
A word as to maps, in which I have taken great interest, may be allowed me. 
The Ordnance maps of Europe have been made by soldiers, or under the supervision 
of soldiers. At home when I was young, it was dangerous to hint at any defects 
in our Ordnance sheets, for surveyors in this country are a somewhat sensitive 
class. Times have altered, and they are no longer averse from receiving hints and 
even help from unofficial quarters. Since the great surveys of Europe were 
executed, knowledge has increased so that every country has had to revise or to 
do over again its surveys. In three points that concern us there was great room 
for improvement—the delineation of the upper regicn as a whole, and the definition 
of snow and glaciers in particular, and in the selection of local names, In the 
two former the Federal Staff at Bern has provided us with an incomparable model. 
The number of local names known to each peasant is small, his pronunciation is 
often obscure, and each valley is apt to haveits own set of names for the ridges and 
gaps that form its skyline. Set a stranger, speaking another tongue than the local 
patois, to question a herdsman, and the result is likely to be unsatisfactory. It 
has often proved so. The Zardezan is an odd transcription of the Gias del Cian 
of patois, tbe Gite du Champ in French. The Grand Paradis is the last term an 
Aostan peasant would have used for the Granta Parei, the great screen of rock and 
ice of the highest mountain in Italy. The Pointe de Rosablanche was the Roesa 
Bianca, or white glacier. Monte Rosa herself, though the poet sees a reference to 
the rose of dawn, and the German professor detects ‘the Keltic ros, a promontory,’ 
is a simple translation of the Gletscher Mons of Simler, or rather Simler’s hybrid 
term is a translation of Monte della Roesa. Roesa, or Ruize, is the Val d’Aostan 
word for glacier, and may be found in De Saussure’s ‘ Voyages.’ 
An important case in this matter of mountain nomenclature has recently come 
under discussion—that of the highest mountain in the world. Most, if not all, 
mountaineers regret that the name of a Surveyor-General, however eminent, was 
