96 
REVIEWS. 
PEAKS, PASSES, AND GLACIERS* 
I T may seem rather late now to ask what was the original object of the 
“Alpine Club,” beyond that of meeting in friendly symposium to 
compare notes and experiences of pleasant long- vacation trips over a 
dinner-table, and decide what new worlds among the Alps yet remained to 
conquer. Two series of narratives, nearly fifty in number, written by 
thirty-nine adventurers in the lofty mountains, have been put before the 
public, and, as far as the publishers are concerned, it may be presumed 
not without success. Still the exact object and the result are not clear. 
How many peaks, before thought inaccessible, have been climbed, and the 
history of the trip recorded in imperishable type? IIow many difficult 
passes have been discovered and crossed ? and, perhaps, most of all, how 
many glaciers, or how many hundreds of miles of glacier, have been 
travel sed that would otherwise have long remained undisturbed except by 
the rolling- of avalanches? All these are points that may be calculated ; 
but, certainly, the literary or scientific fruit is small and unripe. At any 
rate, the fashion of doing mountains is on the increase, and the Alpine 
Club must have contributed to the growing taste. It is in the hope that 
the explorations of future adventurers may take a more scientific turn 
that we give these a place here. Meanwhile they must be dealt with as we 
find them. 
Except an account of a tour in Iceland — a country very little visited 
by the tourist and not offering much inducement for a visit to any but 
determined travellers — there is little in the volumes before us that has 
much of absolute novelty to recommend it. 
An interesting notice of a Pyrenean ascent from the Bagneres de Luchon 
proves that adventure is not entirely confined to the Swiss, French, and 
Italian Alps, among the European mountains ; but as so very large a pro- 
portion of the members of the Club seem to decide on attacking that 
chain again and again, rather than attempt any new field of operations, 
it must be assumed that there yet remains much to be done there ; and, 
perhaps, we may look forward in time to a considerable library of illus- 
trated stories of Alpine travel. 
It is evident that the writers of narratives which in themselves are so 
much alike that the description tends to become monotonous feel that they 
must adopt varieties of style to cover a want of variety of matter. Thus, 
* Peals, Passes, and Glaciers. Being Excursions by Members of the 
Alpine Club. 2nd Series. Edited by Edward Shirley Kennedy, 
M.A., F.R.G.S., President of the Club. 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1862. 
