While speaking with the Doctor of the physical qualities needed for these exploits, I noticed that his hands and feet, which had gripped many a frightful ledge at dizzy heights, were very small, and that his fingers, far from being thick and muscular, were slender, and felt soft when voluntarily relaxed. They must have been, however, on that account, all the more flexible, and had undoubtedly something of the wiry tenacity of steel.

A Woman In The Party. (Cherchez La Femme).

" Five Finger Exercises".

"Bad as it is," he said, "to be obliged to climb a perpendicular mountain wall, in such positions I am never so apprehensive as in the ' chimneys' and couloirs, where rocks of every shape and size are liable to fall, either singly as a monster boulder, or in a fusillade of stones. At those points it is vitally imperative for the leader of the party, if they are making the ascent, or for the final cragsman, if they are descending, to take the utmost care not to precipitate an avalanche of flying fragments on to the heads of those below him." We come, then, to the question asked so frequently, What is the motive that induces people voluntarily to assume in lofty mountain climbing the risk of falling to a fearful death ? It will not do to ascribe this passion merely to a love of notoriety. Although this motive doubtless influences some alpestrians, the great majority of enthusiasts care nothing for such fame, and are content if they but reach the summit and return in safety, unheralded and unobserved. Nor is it chiefly the excitement born of danger that allures them - a sort of gambling with Destiny, where life and death are the two stakes involved. A certain amount of peril, it is true, is fascinating; but men can get that stimulant in far less costly and laborious ways. Rarely, as in the case of De Saussure, the risks are willingly assumed for scientific purposes. But long reflection and inquiry have led me to believe that the great reason why appalling dangers are incurred by cragsmen on such mountains as the Matterhorn and the steepest Dolomites is the joy acquired by overcoming almost superhuman obstacles amid glorious surroundings. The last condition is essential, because achievement after struggle, although always gratifying, may not confer a positive delight if the attending circumstances are inglorious and depressing. But to surmount enormous difficulties and emerge victorious, rewarded by a hard-won vision of sublimity, "High in the stainless eminence of air," is something which transfigures life and transforms character. For one must ever after feel himself a stronger and a better man, who at the risk of life and limb has proved himself quick-eyed, enduring, patient, and indomitable, clutching the rocks with sinews tense and tireless as steel, and with cool head and dauntless heart subduing such an opposition of the powers of nature as to the world below seems insurmountable.

A Perilous Passage.

Taking Breath.

In The Upper World.

This can at least be said, - that he will probably never be a craven, morally or physically, who has ever placed his foot upon the summit of a mountain, reached only at the imminent peril of his life, and by the patient exercise of skill and self-control. Standing at last upon the vanquished peak - an isolated island in the sea of sunlit space - the conqueror feels a rapture unknown in the vale below - a rapture given him by the realization that his human will has triumphed over the opposing forces of the world of matter. Beneath the dome of heaven, and far above the earth-bound millions of the plains below, his is "The shining hour of those who dare and win".

Victorious!.

Scenery In The Grodner Thal.

Second in importance only to the northern and southern gateways of the Dolomites - Toblach and Belluno - is their western portal, Waidbruck, a little station on the Brenner railway, above which towers on the right Schloss Trostburg, early home of Oswald von Wolkenstein; while on the left, at a somewhat higher elevation, is the birthplace of the still more illustrious Minnesinger, Walther von der Vogelweide. Between these two great literary landmarks begins the celebrated Grödner Thal, which cleaves the country of the Dolomites in a direction almost at right angles to the Ampezzo. The Grödner road, however, is not so fine as the magnificent "Strada Regia," on which Pieve di Cadore and Cortina lie. It is in reality little more than a narrow shelf cut in the side of a mountain gorge, originally grooved out by a glacier. To make in this ravine a broad, macadamized serpentine like the Stel-vio and Ampezzo roads would have been too expensive for the inhabitants, since, unlike those great international thoroughfares, the Grödner merely penetrates the Dolomites for eighteen miles, and ends abruptly at the foot of the majestic Sella range of mountains. This terminus of the valley is, however, more than five thousand feet higher above sea level than Waidbruck at the entrance. Hence during the entire drive one is continually ascending. As usual in all such canons, a roaring torrent foams and frets between the narrow walls, writhing and whirling, leaping and swirling among innumerable rocks, whose sharp teeth card it into glistening spray. For several miles, indeed, river and road contest the right of way so closely that for about two hours one sees few human habitations.