REVIEWS, 
99 
From Engelberg across the Joch pass is as beautiful and pleasing a spe- 
cimen of Alpine work as can be imagined. Too common, and offering too 
little difficulty to demand a chapter in the volume of Alpine travel, it is 
better worth the trouble it costs than many greater works. There are the 
most charming Alpine plants growing out of the snow in the exquisite 
little Triib See ; there are the steep paths and awkward zigzags of the 
ascent, and the chalets with milk and cheese — the reward of Alpine labour. 
But these are but the portals to the path of honour to him who would 
traverse the Trift. The Stein glacier, at the head of the Gadmen Thai, is 
the beginning of this pass. From this to the Tliierberg, a virgin peak, 
not much more than 11,000 feet high, but not overlooked, was an easy 
excursion for Mr. Forster. Afterwards, descending to the valley, the cross- 
ing the Trift was another hard day’s work, to reach the well-known glacier 
of the Rhone — one of the noblest and grandest of all those to be seen in 
Switzerland. Fifteen hours’ hard walking across the ice and rock, but 
chiefly the former, was required to complete the trip ; and Mr. Forster 
relates, with laudable satisfaction, that he was honoured that night above 
other guests when it was known that he had accomplished the feat of the 
Trift, and that, to crown all, he had the satisfaction of being pointed out 
to some curious lady-travellers, in a mysterious whisper, as the hero of 
the day — “ Das ist der Forster ! ” 
We have endeavoured rather to give the reader an idea of the style of the 
better kind of Alpine narratives than to quote mere detail of places and 
names. We think it somewhat to be regretted that all the devotion of the 
traveller should be paid to one chain of mountains, though that -is no 
doubt the loftiest European chain ; and we should welcome as a novelty an 
account of a visit to those glorious valleys and mountains of the Carpa- 
thians, that have been little examined hitherto ; and a notice of an 
exploration of the Caucasus, of the mountains of Arabia, or of the 
greater Atlas, All these are “ fresh fields and pastures new.” 
AR, in its materials, its instruments, and its results, is absorbing a 
large share of attention, even from those least interested in its 
political bearings. It has enlisted in its service our engineers, and men of 
science, hitherto occupied in more peaceful achievements, and has required 
of them the solution of some of its most difficult problems. And whilst 
we wait in the expectation of a time when the need of warfare shall no 
longer exist, when appeal to arms shall be suppressed in public, as it lias 
already been in private disputes, — whilst we hope that, in the end, each 
man will “ find his own in all men’s good,” and the mailed fleets and 
armed towers be broken,- — it is yet wisest to learn sadly, from the events 
of our time, that the ancient scourge of national weakness may not be 
laid aside ; that the last resort in national differences is still the arbitre- 
■ On the Properties of Iron , and its Resistance to Projectiles at High 
Velocities. By William Faikbaikn, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S. 
OUR NEW IRONSIDES, 
H 2 
