BRITISH MOUNTAINEERING.*
MB. CLA.UDID BENSON'S manual deserves a warm welcome from all who are interested in one of the noblest of human sports. Its great merit is that it preaches common-sense on a subject where dangerous heresies are becoming too frequent. In these islands we have many fine rock-mountains where the man who cannot afford to go further afield can learn his craft. The result of the constant practice of a great many people in a limited area is that the standard in such crags- manship has become very high, and courses are climbed which would be thought unjustifiable at Chamonix or in the Dolomites. Hence there are two dangers to be avoided. The beginner may start at ones on too difficult rocks and break his neck, since he is an individualist, climbing without guides and with no tradition behind him. Again, the man who has done difficult things in the Lakes or in Wales may imagine that thereby he is the complete mountaineer, and only learns too late on some great Alpine peak that he is not. As to the first risk, the beginner who reads this book is not likely to incur it. Mr. Benson candidly and fairly sets out the perils of the hills. He gives excellent advice as to equipment and method, and he who pays attention to these wise words will learn his craft in the only true way,—by its legitimate stages. The author is catholic in his tastes, and loves the homely joys of time Gratwanderer as much as the awful pleasures of the cragsman. More important still, he places British mountaineer- ing in its proper perspective. He shows that it can never give adequate training in ice-and-suow work, and that its rock climbs, though often of great difficulty, are short compared with the first-class Alpine courses, and are not attended with the risks of over-fatigue, storms, falling stones, and the other possibilities of higher mountains. British mountaineering will make a man a splendid rock-gymnast, but it will not necessarily make him an accomplished mountaineer. Having said this, let us add that we can imagine no finer training-ground, provided the climber understands precisely what it is that he is learning. The great quality of Mr. Benson's book, as we have said, is common-sense, and it follows that it is a most practical and useful manual. He occasionally shows a tendency to be too jocose, but the style as a rule is as workmanlike as the matter. It deserves to become a classic of the rucksack.
British Mountaineering. By C. E. Bonbon. London' G. Routlodgo and Rom. [Ss.]
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