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Sierra Club Bulletin 



BOOK REVIEWS 



Edited by Marion Randall Parsons 



"The Ascent Very modestly does Mr. Hudson Stuck narrate the inci- 

 OF Denali"* dents which led to the successful ascent of Denali, 

 20,700 feet high. This mountain is perhaps better known 

 as Mt. McKinley, though the author begins and ends the book with a 

 plea for the Alaskan Indian name. Mr. Stuck's route, from the north- 

 east, followed closely that of several earlier climbing parties, to all of 

 whom he gives due credit. His great advantage over the Parker- 

 Browne expedition, so nearly successful the previous year, lay in his 

 approach from the north, which enabled him to transport his supplies 

 by boat to a point within fifty miles of the base of the mountain. 

 Nevertheless, Mr. Stuck's achievement in conquering this peak cannot 

 be measured by the ordinary standards of mountaineering. For aside 

 from the difficulties of the climb itself, one must take into consideration 

 the remoteness of the mountain in its sea of ice and snow ; the size of 

 the packs the men carried, including heavy instruments, besides food, 

 bedding and fuel; the sleeping for fifty nights on snow and ice — four 

 men in a 7 A-tent warmed by a coal-oil stove ; and the intense cold, so 

 cold that sometimes a camera could not be loaded for fear of losing a 

 hand. The view from the summit is made to appeal to us as marvel- 

 ously impressive. That the writer does not climb mountains solely for 

 the sake of adding trophies to his record is shown by the sense of 

 "awe, of reverence, and worshipful uplift" which he makes us feel; 

 and his whole-hearted tribute to the three companions who shared in 

 the hardship and glory of the ascent is but one instance of the generosity 

 and manliness which is the keynote of this delightful book. L. M. R. 



"Ten Thousand Miles In this earlier written but later published 

 WITH a Dog SLED"t work of Archdeacon Stuck may be read the 



secret of his successful ascent of the moun- 

 tain that has defied so many attempts; for the long winter journeys 

 between the missions of the Alaska interior gave him a wide and 

 varied experience with the wintry conditions which, rather than the 

 actual mountaineering difficulties, so long kept "Denali" unconquered. 

 The book is a chronicle of journeys with a dog sled that covered almost 

 incredible distances and were pursued under conditions that most of us 

 cannot realize — traveling sometimes forty miles in a day with a tem- 

 perature of 60° below zero. Mr. Stuck brings the beauty of the icy 

 wilderness and his keen deHght in these arctic days and nights very 



* The Ascent of Denali. By Hudson Stuck, D. D., Archdeacon of the Yukon. 

 Chas. Scribner's Sons, New York, 1914. Illustrated. 188 pages. Price, $1.50 net. 



t Ten Thousand Miles With a Dog Sled. By Hudson Stuck, D. D., F. R. G. S. 

 Chas. Scribner's Sons. New York, 191 4.. 420 pages. Illustrated. Price, $3.50 net. 



