Peaks and Pleasant Pastures. By Claud Schuster. (The Clarendon Press.
7s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Schuster relates mountain- eering experiences in one part of his book and he meditates and moralizes on them in another. Ho does not, indeed, keep the two things rigidly apart—that would be a great mistake—but the essays may be thus divided: "Alpine Wanderings," ranged Ender five years 1902 and 1908-11, occupy about two-thirds of the volume. In "The Middle Age of a Mountaineer" wo have the reflections in which a, climber may be supposed to indulge when ho finds the energy of youth on the wane. In " Mountaineering " and "The Cup and the Lip" we have a combination of adventure and meditation, and "Dueds,me " is a sort of summing-up on the question in general—what is mountaineering and what pleasure do we got from it? Much of the book has already appeared in print ; every one will be glad that this should be put into a more permanent form. To the outsider the most interesting things in the volume are those which concern the guides and a matter Closely connected—the moral question of danger. Tho " tourist' is one of tho three dangers which the guide reckons on, and is the worst of the throe, the other two being sudden bad weather and falling stones. Has one a right to create this danger P And yet the guideless climb is really too serious a matter ; besides, it does but change the lie of the problem. But this is not the place for a problem so large. Prom "Peaks and Pleasant Pastures" wo may learn something about it while we are reading some
tales of climbing.
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