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Sierra Club Bulletin 



the scientific life of the day, as well as to establish it as one of the arts of sport 

 and recreation. There could be no one better fitted, therefore, than Mr. Fresh- 

 field to place before us with fullness and accuracy the events in the life of a 

 great mountaineer and to pass judgment upon mountaineering achievements. 



De Saussure was the first great mountaineer in the modern sense. Others 

 before him had climbed mountains, had made memorable explorations, had 

 written with charm and literary skill ; but hardly until de Saussure do we find 

 the modern spirit of the love of mountains combined with scientific purposes 

 and dependable accuracy. Living at a time when mountains were still com- 

 monly regarded as awful and horrible, if not indeed actually hideous, de Saus- 

 sure came to know them at closer range than his contemporaries, and learned to 

 perceive their beauty and sublimity. Moreover, he saw in the lofty peaks of 

 the Alps, visible from his home in Geneva, an almost untouched field for scien- 

 tific exploration in the realms of physics, geology, and botany. 



In 1760 de Saussure first visited Chamonix and beheld Mont Blanc. During 

 the next thirty years this mountain was a controlling interest in his life. He 

 was not the first to climb it, but it was his inspiration that prompted the first 

 ascent. In 1787, a year after Dr. Paccard and Jaques Balmat had conquered 

 the monarch of mountains, de Saussure organized an expedition, made the 

 ascent himself, and spent three crowded hours on the summit engaged in scien- 

 tific observations. 



Mr. Freshfield acknowledges the valuable assistance of Mr. Montagnier, 

 whose exhaustive knowledge of Alpine literature brought to this work a vast 

 amount of information. 



The Life of de Saussure is much more than a chronicle of mountain climbs ; 

 it is a portrait with a background. The chapters on "Forerunners," "Geneva in 

 the Eighteenth Century," "Politics and Home Life," and "De Saussure in Sci- 

 ence and Literature" create an atmosphere that enables us to comprehend the 

 motives and share in the enthusiasms of that eighteenth-century mountain- 

 lover and servant of science. Francis P. Farquhar 



• • 

 • 



McLouGHLiN AND The story of the early American settlements in Oregon and 

 Old Oregon* the opposition they met from the Hudson Bay Company, 

 is here told as the life-drama of Dr. John McLoughlin, As 

 Chief Factor for the company over all territory west of the Rockies, his estab- 

 lishment at Fort Vancouver was more like the court of a feudal chief than the 

 post of a fur-trader. McLoughlin's loyalty to England and to his company was 

 questioned because of his generous kindness to starving American missionaries 

 and immigrants. He dealt with these as individuals in a dire need, and at the 

 same time he maintained the Hudson Bay Company's policy of not allowing 

 settlements to interfere with their trade and with the roving habits of the 

 Indians, who thus became dependent on the company for support. Eventually, 

 the suspicious "higher-ups" of the company forced his resignation as Chief 

 Factor, and then the Americans would have none of him on account of his 



*McLoughlin and Old Oregon. By EvA Emery Dye. Doubleday, Page & Co., New 

 York. Pages, 381. Price, $1.75. 



