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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIETT. 
Botzen or Bruneck, the nearest railway stations being Toblach on the north. 
Atzwang on the west, and Conegliano on the south. All that is grandest, 
all that is most attractive to the artist, the geologist and the alpine climber, 
lies midway between these three points, and covers an area of about thirty- 
five miles by fifty. The scenes which the writer has attempted to describe 
all lie within that narrow radius.” The greatest beaut}^ of the district, or 
almost so, seems to our mind to be the fact dwelt upon by the authoress, 
that she travelled sometimes for days together without meeting a single 
traveller, either in the inns or on the roads.” But apai-t from this, there can 
be no doubt, we think, that the country is singularly wild and beautifully 
picturesque j the fact that many of the mountains exceed 10,000 feet in 
height, and some, as the Cima di Fradusta, the Palle di San Martino, and 
the Sass Maor, are so difficult, that the mountaineer who shall first set foot 
upon their summits will have achieved a feat in no way second to that of 
the first ascent of the Matterhorn,” must in itself prove attractive to the 
reader. The authoress adopts Bichthofen s views as to the origin of the 
mountains, and gives a brief summary of his theory of the coral-reef origin 
of the mass ; but of that we need not say anything. Suffice it to describe, 
in Miss Edwards’s own words, the three exquisite cuts which we have bor- 
rowed from her publishers. And first of the Monte Antelao. 
Here, says the authoress, ‘‘ from a grassy knoll, the writer devoted a long 
time to making a careful drawing of the Antelao, which is here seen to its 
greatest advantage. . . . The first ascent of the highest peak of this moun- 
tain was achieved by that famous climber Dr. Grohmann, in 1863 ; and the 
second in 1864, by Lord Francis Douglas, of hapless memory, accompanied 
by Mr. F. L. Latham and by two guides. . . . The ascent is taken from a 
pass called the Forcella Piccola, which divides the mass of the Marmarole 
from that of the Antelao. ... It was supposed to be inaccessible till Dr. 
Grohmann’s time, when the fortunate discovery of a certain cleft by one of 
his Cortina guides opened the way to the German cragsman.” And 
assuredly the climb must have been no easy matter, to judge from the 
sketch which Miss Edwards has given of the snowy mountain. But this is 
not all. Another view which we have obtained from Miss Edwards’s book 
is that represented here — the Monte Cristallo and Piz Popena. 
She says, Passing Schluderbach, a clean-looking roadside inn, we come 
presently in sight of the Diirren See, a lovely little emerald-green lake, 
streaked with violet shadows, and measuring about three-quarters of a mile 
in length. Great mountains close it in on all sides, and the rich woods of 
the lowly hills slope down to the water's edge. The clustered peaks, the 
eternal snows and glaciers of Monte Cristallo ; the towering summit of the 
Piz Popena ,* and the extraordinary towers of the Drei Zinnen, come one after 
the other into view.” And certainly the sight must have been grand 
indeed, for we know of very few even of the well-known alpine picture- 
spots that can at all compare with this grand combination, as it were, of 
Killarney and Mont Blanc. 
There is only one other picture which we have taken from this book, to 
which we have to direct the reader’s attention, and that is of the Sasso di 
Bonch. This the authoress very briefly describes, but she alleges that the 
view obtained in going up to it was singularly grand. Indeed, all through 
