124 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



off" consisted in setting on a large flat stone a round stone, . . . 

 which from a certain distance one strove to knock off." Our 

 "trail-blaze" on rocky ground is here so exactly described that any 

 one who had ever played the game would almost inevitably call 

 the thing a "duck." The volume containing the letter D was 

 published in 1897, which fact may account for the absence of any 

 notice of the word in the use under discussion here. 



Ver}'- truly yours, 



Cornelius B. Bradley. 



Appeal for a Crippled Guide. 



We clip the following from the New York Evening Post. Our 

 esteemed fellow-member and mountaineer, Harrington Putnam, 

 has most appropriately set forth this lamentable case of affliction 

 that has befallen a worthy man. Any contributions may be sent 

 to Mr. Putnam direct, or to the Secretary of the Sierra Club, 

 and will be duly acknowledged. 



To the Editor of The Evening Post: 



Sir: The sympathy of mountain-climbers should be given to 

 the Zermatt guide, Rudolf Taugwalder, who arrived in New 

 York from Peru on Saturday. He is going homeward with the 

 loss of his left hand (amputated at the wrist), with his right 

 fingers more or less maimed, and having also lost most of his 

 left foot, from the ascent of Mt. Huascaran, in Miss Peck's 

 expedition, described in January Harper's. 



Taugwalder is one of a noted family of Swiss guides. In 1893 

 he went to Ararat, making a successful ascent for Mr. H. P. 

 Lynch, a London Alpinist, and he afterward acted for Dr. and 

 Mrs. Bullock Workman in their first Himalayan season, but was 

 prevented by bad weather from any high ascent. 



The perils of frostbites at high Andean altitudes have been 

 previously noted. It was largely from this apprehension that 

 Sir Martin Conway turned back when just below the top of Mt. 

 Sorata, in 1898, as the feet of both his guides had become frost- 

 bitten. 



In Miss Peck's climb, however, the freezing occurred on the 

 descent. It was due to the loss of Taugwalder's mitten, and the 

 fact that he wore but one pair of stockings inside his stiff 

 alpine boots. It was three days before he could reach the hos- 

 pital at Yungay, where he stayed three months. His professional 

 task had been successfully accompHshed, having shared with the 

 other guide, Gabriel Zumtaugwald, in a notable mountaineering 

 achievement. 



