66 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



"What I love in these pages, what attracts me to their author, 

 is the sentiment of benevolence and humanity which always ani- 

 mates de Saussure toward the poor mountaineers among which 

 he lives; that gentle and cheerful goodness with which he meets 

 those people, excusing their prejudices, compassionating their 

 harsh fatigues, appreciating the excellent qualities covered by 

 their coarse exteriors. He converses with his guides, he inter- 

 ests himself on their behalf, he makes himself their friend, he 

 does not consider that mere money pays for the respect, the 

 devotion, the affection of those simple hearts who give them- 

 selves to him. Nobility as true as rare, token of an admirable 

 soul, of a sane heart, of a character upright and good. 



"These things move me, for they have become rare, if they 

 were not always so. For so many who are merely rich the pride 

 of wealth alone is enough to make them exacting, harsh, and 

 haughty toward the poor people they employ ; but this man, rich 

 too, — and more, a scholar, — and more, celebrated, — found it easy 

 to be the friend of those who loved him, and on the mountains 

 to be the equal of mountaineers. 



"Finally, that which distinguishes these pages, that which will 

 place them always at the head of all that have been written on 

 these particular regions, is the charm of novelty, the force and 

 movement of discovery. The fresh, pure color of a still virgin 

 nature is there felt throughout. And this charm one only can 

 perceive and describe who, as de Saussure, is the first to pene- 

 trate unknown valleys ; the first to there discover magnificent 

 treasures reposing since the creation, surprising among remote 

 peoples antique ways, touching customs, a thousand naive traits, 

 already tarnished when noticed, lost when admired, and which 

 certainly it is useless to seek to-day in these beautiful valleys." 



E. T. P. 



A charming novel of travel in the Alps is The 

 ' The Princess p^i^^ess Passes,^ by C. N. and A. M. William- 



son. In its early chapters one renews acquaint- 

 ance with the famous "Lightning Conductor," his automobile and 

 his wife. Later the hero of this book. Lord Lane, combines a 

 walking trip across the Saint Bernard Pass and into Chamounix, 

 with a love-story rather suggestive of "Twelfth Night" in some 

 of its complications. 



To one accustomed to mountaineering, some of the hardships 

 and perils described will have an effect very different from what 

 the authors intended. The picture of the pedestrian who finds 

 it "impossible to improvise a dressing-room in the neighborhood 

 of the pump" for the putting on of a clean collar would be amus- 

 ing if it were not pathetic ; and the ardors of the climb of Mont 

 Revard would seem very awe-inspiring if we had not a gauge of 

 its difficulty in the ease with which the muleteer gets his beasts 

 to the summit. 



One interesting aspect of the book is the association of historic 



* The Princess Passes. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson. Henry Holt & Co., 

 New York. $1.50, 



