Hours of Exercise in the Alps

Abstract

THIS volume is a collection of short articles which have already seen the light in various publications, and are here thrown together, as the author says, “partly to preserve to myself the memory of strong and joyous hours, and partly for the pleasure of those who find exhilaration in descriptions associated with mountain life.” Accordingly we find in it accounts of exciting scrambles, such as the Lawinenthor and the Old Weissthor, the first ascent of the Weisshorn, and the various assaults upon the Matterhorn, crowned at last with success. Of sadder interest are the story of the death of Benner, the professor's faithful guide, upon the Haut de Cry, contributed by one of the survivors; notices of the accidents on the Col de Géant and on the Matterhorn; and, hardly less in interest though with happier ending, the rescue of a porter from the jaws of a crevasse on the great Aletsch Glacier, and the author's own hairbreadth escape on the Piz Morteratsch. All these are described with his usual graphic power and intense appreciation of natural scenery; sometimes in the philosophic vein, when a glass of whisky gives “a flash of energy,” and even a ham sandwich can only be regarded as a conditioned form of potential muscular force; or sometimes in the more jubilant mood, when we are shown the grave professor “delighting to roll himself in a bubbling pool in some mountain stream, and afterwards dance himself dry in the sunshine.”

Hours of Exercise in the Alps.

By John Tyndall. (London: Longmans.)