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Sierra Club Bulletin 



"The Conquest of This beautifully illustrated and attractive volume is 

 Mount Cook"* an interesting record of a woman's mountaineering 

 experiences in the Southern Alps of New Zealand. 

 It is primarily a book of adventure, though the frequent descriptions of 

 the mountain scenes are sketched with clearness and appreciation. The 

 climbs made by Miss Du Faur are exceedingly difficult, involving dan- 

 gerous work on glaciers and steep rock faces, and entitle her to a place 

 in the front rank of woman mountaineers. Miss Du Faur was the first 

 woman to reach the summit of Mount Cook, and the first mountaineer 

 to attempt the complete traverse of its three peaks. Many other of her 

 climbs were first ascents. All of her climbing was done under the leader- 

 ship of the guides Peter and Alexander Graham, to whom she generous- 

 ly accords all the recognition they deserve. For the general reader the 

 only defect of the book is that the unusual features of New Zealand's 

 mountain world — its tropical vegetation growing so close to the snows, 

 its bird life, where parrots are found displaying an interest in recumbent 

 mountaineers "altogether too personal for comfort," are touched upon 

 only with tantalizing brevity. Miss Du Faur's very notable career as a 

 mountain climber was inspired by a real love and appreciation of the 

 mountains, and all mountaineers will wish her success in her future 

 work. M. R. P. 



"Nature and Science on The Pacific Coast Committee of the American 

 THE Pacific Coast"! Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 in issuing this "guide book for scientific trav- 

 elers in the West," has performed a valuable service not only for travel- 

 ers, but for those of our own people in whom the interest in our out- 

 door world is awakening. We have not space here even to catalogue the 

 interesting material collected by Joseph Grinnell and the fellow mem- 

 bers of his committee in Nature and Science on the Pacific Coast. Three 

 historical sketches are followed by articles on meteorology, geology, 

 mineralogy, entomology, botany, irrigation, mountaineering, outdoor 

 life, etc., all signed by names that give weight and authority. Among 

 the contributors are many of our own members — Vernon Kellogg, Alex- 

 ander McAdie, Joseph Le Conte, David Starr Jordan, Charles Atwood 

 Kofoid, Willis Linn Jepson, William Albert Setchell, Harvey Monroe 

 Hall — distinguished authorities, many of them of international repute. 

 Maps of the chief Pacific Coast cities, geological and other charts, add 

 to the value and attractiveness of this very interesting book. 



M. R. P. 



* The Conquest of Mt. Cook. By Freda Du Faur. An account of four seasons' 

 mountaineering on the southern Alps of New Zealand. New York, Chas. Scribner 

 Sons. London, George Allen & Unwin, Ltd. 1915. Pages, 250. Price, $3.50. 



t Nature and Science on the Pacific Coast. A guide book for scientific travelers in 

 the West. Illustrated with nineteen text figures, twenty-nine half-tone plates and 

 fourteen maps. Paul Elder & Company, San Francisco. 1915. Pages, 302. Price, 

 $1.50. 



