MOORE'S ALPINE JOURNALS.*
Ma. A. W. blooRE belongs to a generation of mountaineers whose ranks have been thinned by the hand of time, and in which each year as it passes leaves fresh gaps. His chief exploits are seen through the mists of nearly forty years. Having first made the acquaintance of the Alps in 1860, he began his career as a climber in 1862, did brilliant work in 1864 and 1865—though, indeed, his journals show that he was not then the expert he became in the early " seventies "—and also spent two seasons in the Caucasus. He was likewise the pioneer, if not the actual inventor, of winter climbing, and obviated the objection brought against this form of the sport on account of the shortness of the days by deliberately performing his climbs by night. His professional career was no less distinguished, and at the time of his death in 1887 he had just been appointed to the important post of Political and Secret Secretary at the India Office. All who knew him speak of the liveliness of his wit, and the warmth and generosity of heart which underlay his good-natured cynicism and an affectation of selfishness. The same qualities of bright humour and kindliness appear in these delightful Journals, and mingle with something sterner and less insouciant in the admirable sketch-portrait by Mr. E. R. Hughes which serves as frontispiece. Of his characteristic fun an amusing instance is recorded by a friend of his own genera- tion. When climbing in Wales for the first time Moore re- fused to believe that the people should be absolutely unable to understand English. Finding that all his remarks met the invariable answer "Dim Saesoneg," he declared that those he addressed must be shamming, and determined to put their ignorance to a severe test. Meeting an old woman on the road, he made a profound reverence and addressed her with the words, " Fairest of creation, I love you to distraction I " The inevitable answer, "Dim Saesoneg," convinced him of the fact that it was possible to live within a day's journey by train from London and yet be wholly ignorant of the English language.
Moore's Journal for 1864 was privately printed, and has long been among the rarest and most valued treasures of an Alpine library. It is here reprinted intact, and forms chaps. 1-15, the remaining five chapters being taken from later Journals of 1865 and 1872, which were placed at the editor's disposal by the family. But although the charm and importance of the Journals themselves necessarily and rightly give its value to the handsome volume before us, it is not, as sometimes happens, merely a sumptuous reprint of a work the interest and rarity of which have given it a reputation sufficient to command a buying public. Mr. Kennedy's editing is of a kind which has seldom or never before fallen to the lot of a book of Alpine travel. Minute notes at the end of each chapter give the sub- sequent history of the peaks and passes with which the narrative deals, clear up any obscurities in the text, or supple- ment Moore's descriptions in the light of modern topographical knowledge. The volume is also illustrated by close on fifty photographs, almost all admirable, many of which were
• The Alps in 1834: a Private Journal. By A. W. Moore. Edited by Alex.
B. W. Kennedy. Edinburgh : D. Douglee. net.]
taken expressly to illustrate the particular routes and points of view mentioned in the text, and so elucidate Moore's minute accounts ; while not the least important feature of the book is the description of these illustrations, which fills no less than eighteen octavo pages of small print. The only photograph which does not came up to the general level is, unfortunately, one of the most important of all, illustrating as it does what is perhaps Moore's most famous exploit,—the ascent of Mont Blanc from the Brenva Glacier. This view is not only from a weak negative, but is taken from a com- paratively low point on the Mont de In Brenva, so that the upper glaciers are much foreshortened. The description of this plate, too, is a little confused. A better view of the route taken is obtained from the summit of the Tour Ronde, at least as regards the upper and more important part, though the actual spot at which the rocky spur was struck cannot be seen from that point. We only mention this, however, because the plates are in most cases so wholly admirable.
The illustrations are all the more interesting in that it is largely to photography that we owe that advance in Alpine topography which has marked the interval since Moore wrote, and to which he himself, by his accurate observation and minute description, in no small degree contributed. The value of photography in this connection is perhaps generally little recognised, but mountaineers who have ever been under the necessity of making out their own routes will be the first to recognise its importance. bathe early "sixties," indeed, climbing had many of the features of exploration. The mountains were but very imperfectly mapped, scantily reconnoitred and described, and in most cases mountaineers had no means of knowing the appearance of peaks, which present such different appearances when approached from different sides, except from personal observation and recollection. In many cases it was matter of uncertainty, when the summit of a pass was reached, on what particular valley or glacier the adventurers might find themselves looking down, almost always whether a descent on the further side could be accomplished in a manner such as to recommend itself to rational human beings.
Moore made up for the deficient topographical knowledge of his day by a power of observation and memory which is but rarely found in the amateur climber, and which the habit of constantly relying on a professional for leadership certainly does not tend to foster. His power of description is equally accurate and vivid, a natural but not invariable consequent of the former gift. Occasionally, indeed, and even where he is most careful to be correct, he falls into the usual errors of the climbing annalist. Thus we may excuse him if the ice arite on the Brenva route, which made such an impression on Melchor's hardened nerves, affected his imagination too ; but such is certainly the case. " We were on the top of a wall," he writes, " the ice on the right falling vertically (I use the word advisedly), and on the left nearly so." About the right-hand slope he is not far from the truth, but the left or south-western side of this remarkable ridge cannot, as is clearly seen from the Tour Ronde, exceed 45 degrees. Such exaggerations, however, are very rare, and he usually carried a clinometer in his pocket, a practice which has an astonish- ingly sobering effect on mountaineering narrative, and is one which we heartily recommend to our readers. Nevertheless, it is clear from his later Journals that in 1864 he was inclined to exaggerate difficulties, which is not to be wondered at seeing that up till then he had had little experience of serious climbing.
Several of the ascents recorded were performed in com- pany with Whymper, and are recorded in his Scrambles. In these cases it is interesting to compare the accounts. In the first ascent of the Ecrins, for instance, we have an opportunity of observing which parts of that exciting climb affected the imagination of either most deeply. Thus Moore does not so much as mention Almer's leap on the western arele, immortalised by Whymper's engraving. Dr. Kennedy says in a note that "there is no disagreement between the two accounts"; but this is hardly the case, for though both narratives were based on notes made at the time, and though Whymper had seen and quotes from Moore's Journal, there are distinct discrepancies. Thus Whymper definitely states that in the ascent the party actually reached the eastern ridge and followed it for half an ce:attlistig of flu Moue Mr of PetaLrbythevfarlissarays clo;Itt to the izaid.sent hour before beating a retreat ; while Moore says that the line I vols. 'London : And co. r42...1
of attack was altered when they were yet on the rocks below the arete. Again, Moore asserts that Almer, when he broke through the snow crest and almost executed a rapid descent to the Glacier Noir, was roped ; Whymper, that he had untied himself and gone off in advance. The style in which the narratives are written also differs widely, and without in any way wishing to disparage a work which is by common consent ranked among the classics of mountaineering literature, we must confess that where Whymper's account reads like a text-book, Moore's reads like an epic. For in spite of the minuteness of the topographical description with which the four hundred odd pages of these Journals are crammed, and which constitutes their permanent contribution to Alpine explora- tion, the writer succeeds in bringing the actual conditions of the climb home to the reader in a manner calculated at times almost to take his breath away. He makes one believe that it would be possible to go and repeat the exact route merely from his description. It may be an erroneous impression, but of how many writers on mountaineering can it be said P In any case, as we follow him over the ice-wall, and along the aretes of the Ecrins, through the hurricanes on the Dom, across the awful barrier of the Morning Pass, and up the hanging glaciers of the Brenva, we feel as if we were ourselves standing amid the snows and rocks of the Alpine giants as we sit in our arm-chair, waiting till the return of a summer holiday sends us once again to the happy hunting-ground.
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