The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-18 00:00:00

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

MR. LINCOLN'S BUTTERFLY ADDRESS

LITERATURE.

Broken on the Wheel of Manhattan's
Criticism.

William S., of England, never wrote grander
than A. L. in what follows. Job was grand, when
he showed himself in his most majestic parts, but
he never was so sublime as our President, A. L.:—
"The signs look better. The Father of ,Waters again
goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-West
fur it. Nor yet wholly to them 300 miles up they met
New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their
way right and left. The Sunny South, too, in more colours
than one, also lent a hand. On the spot their part of the
history was jotted down in black and white."
Hide your head, Idyll Tennyson. " The signs look
better." When, how, and where ? Gold is going
up and greenbacks are coming down. Charleston
cannot be taken. Soldiers cannot be had : 40,000
are required to keep New York quiet. " Tne Father
of Waters goes unvezed to the sea." He might
have added " for which give glorious thanks tome."
It would have been potent but false. He means
thet " the Mississippi river runs into the Gulf of
Mexico, and steamboats come as far as New Orleans
without being fired into by the rebels. He might
have added, that Jeff Davis has given positive
orders that not a steamboat shall be molested upon
the Mississippi for six months, and it is religi-
ously obeyed. Tell me, that unless such orders
had been given that every boat would not have
been fired at fifty times upon every passage up or
down ! Pdh ! Jeff needs supplies, and he will
wait until 500 boats are running, loaded with mil-

lions of dollars of cargo, and then he will change
his orders, and nab every boat, and secure millions
of property. " Thanks to the great North•West"—
meaning Ohio, Illinois,.lndiana, Wisconsin, lowa,
Michigan, Minnesota. " They met New England"
(the short for the six New England States, viz.,
Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Massacbusetts,Rhode
Island, New Hampshire.) " Empire" (New York),
" K:istone" (Pennsylvania), " and Jersey" (New
Jersey), hewing their way"—one of his old similes
of his rail-splitting days. " The Sunny South—
more colours than one" (meaning the white and
black troops raised in South Carolina, Louisana,
Tennessee, and so forth), " jotted down in black
and white on the spot" (a sportive way of saying
that the whites and niggers were killed promis-
cuously.
" The job was a great national one, and let none be
banned who bore a honourable part in it. And while those
who have cleared the great river may well be proud, even
that is not all."

Job is good. Though a job is generally a contract
one. " Let none be banned" means, " give the
negroes as mush credit for it as to the white folks."

" It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely
and better done than at Antietam, Murfreesborough, Get-
tysburg, and on many fields of less note."
2

I nevor gave credit to 111‘Clellan for doing anything.
How Uncle Abe got Antietam shoved iu his poetry
passes my comprehension. I always thought An-
times a defeat, although it was claimed by both sides
as a great victory, only we got Whipped the worst.
The following is juicy:—

" Nor must Uncle Sam's web-fest be forgotten. At all
the waters' margins they have been present, not only on
the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up
the narrow muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a
little damp, they have been and made their tracks."
" Uncle Sam's web-feet." This is dark. To fully
comprehend it you must know that our greatest
shipbuilders in the city are named Webb. They
built the frigates for the Russian Government, and
they have built some of the best gun boats that
went up the Mississippi. If the President spoke
ornithologically about Web feet, he stuck fast ;
for on the deep sea our Web feet have made a ter-
rible fiasco. It is estimated that over 200 of our
best war steamers have first and last been chased
by or have sought to chase the rebel steamers
Alabama and Floi ida without success,

" Wherever the ground was a little damp they
have been and made their tracks" is decidedly
running the thing into the ground. There is no
explaining that poetically or prosily, except by sup-
posing the writer had wetted his subject by more
lager beer or " bonbon" than is his usual custom,
It would seem so by what follows :
" Thanks to all. For the great Republic—for the prin.
ciples by which it lives and keeps alive—for man's vast
future—thanks to all."

" thanks to all," reminds one of a drunken man's
last efforts as he is taken cut from the public
dinner table. The closing up, and " Ltt us be

quite sober" is significant .--

" Still, let us not be over sanguine of a a speedy final
triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us diligently apply
the means, never doubting that a just God, is His own
good time, will give us the rightful result."
Earl Russell thinks that he is some pumpkins in
letter writing, but he sinks into insignificance
alongside of our chief cook.

MR. CHARLES MATHEWS IN PARIS.

Elder.

Tim SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 18, 1863.

A Guide to the Western Alps. By John Ball,
M.R.1.A., F.L.5.,• &c., late President of the
Alpine Club. One vol., pp. 377. Longman.
" Il n'y a plus de Pyrenees," exclaimed Louis
XIV. when a member of his own family was placed
on the throne of Spain. " The Pyrenees are no
more." In a kindred spirit it may be said that the
enterprise and determination of modern travellers,
more particularly among the number the late Albert
Smith, have abolished, not the Alps, but the difficul-
ties and obstacles wLich to a certain extent rendered
them heretofore inaccessible. The Autumn tour among
the Alps has become now-a-days almost as much a
matter-of-course as a gallop in Rotten Row during
the season. Even Montlßlanc has lost his terrors.
The daring motto of the Alpine traveller is " Ex-
celsior." No difficulties daunt him—" If it is pos-
sible, it is done; if it is impossible, we will do it !"
So general and so earnest has become the passion
for " mountaineering" among our adventurous coun-
trymen that a number of gentlemen have enrolled
themselves as members of the Alpine Club. Their
avowed object is "to explore those districts of the
Alps which are little known, to scale the higher
summits, and to discover passes that should connect
valleys that are separated by lofty ranges." The
late President of the Alpine Club, Mr. Ball, one
eminently well qualified for the task, has just
brought out a guide book for the Western Alps
which will henceforth rank as the Alpine Guide for
that locality. About the size of Bradshaw,
but with this difference that where Brad-
shaw too often tends to bewilder, Mr. Ball
serves to enlighten, this little volume is pro-
fusely illustrated with most excellent and elaborate
maps, drawn expressly for the work, with the
various routes laid down, and the various stations
marked out. These maps should have been backed
with linen, for they are designed for frequent use
and consultation, and we doubt not will be turned
over again and again during many an Alpine ram_
ble. The volume is divided into two parts. The
Alpine Guide (the second part) contains full and
elaborate descriptions of a variety of different routes,
all numbered or marled with different letters of the
alphabet, corresponding with the routes drawn out
in the maps. From these descriptions the traveller
learns all necessary particulars not only con-
cerning the various places to be visited,
but respecting the manner of travelling and
the time likely to be required in the transit from
one spot to another. Every item of necessary in-
formation as regards the route, the scenery, the
guides, or the resting-places will be here found
duly chronicled with praiseworthy fidelity. The
first part of the book consists of some very interest-
ing introductory descriptions, from which we ex-
tract the following remarks on
THE DANGERS OF ALPINE TRAVELLING.
" The dangers of Alpine expeditions may be divided into
two classes—the real and the imaginary. Where a ridge
or slope of rock or ice is such that it could be traversed
without difficulty if it lay but a few feet above the level of
a garden, the substitution on either side of a precipice
some thousands of feet in depth, or of a glacier crevasse,
makes no real difference in the work to be done, though it
may have a formidable effect on the traveller's imagina-
tion. Those who cannot remove this source of danger
by accustoming themselves to look unmoved down verti-
cal precipices, and, in cases of real difficulty, to fix their
attention exclusively en the ledge or jutting crag to which
they must cling with foot or hand, should avoid expeditions
whore a moment's nervousness may endanger their own
lives or those of others.
" The real dangers of the high Alps may, under ordinary
circumstances, be reduced to three. First, the yielding of
the snow bridges that cover glacier crevasses ; second, the
risk of slipping upon steep slopes of hard ice ; third, the
fall of ice or rocks from above.
" From the first and most frequent source of danger ab-
solute security is obtained by a precaution generally known,
but often neglected. In the higher region of the glaciers,
crevasses, even of considerable width, are often completely
bridged over by a covering of snow or neve, so that no in-
dication of their existence is seen on the surface of the
glacier. The bridges, especially when formed of fresh snow,
often yield under the weight of a man's footsteps; in such
a case an active man whose attention is on the alert may
sometimes extricate himself at once, but it more commonly
happens that he falls into the chasm beneath, in which case
his chance of life is faint indeed. But if several travellers
are tied together with a stout rope, as it is in the highest
degree improbable that a majority of them should fall at the
same moment into the same crevasse, no appreciable danger
from this cause need be incurred. Even two travellers tied
together may with a proper attention avoid this risk, but
greater seem ity is obtained when there are three or more in
number. It is mainly because he cannot be protected from
this danger that a man who goes alone over the higher
regions of the great glaciers incurs a risk that must be called
unjustifiable.
" As it is hard to persuade a landsman that a weil••found
yacht has more danger to fear in a fog, with a smooth sea
around, than when a stiff breeze is blowing, so few moun-
taineers are willing to admit that there is more real chance
of accident in traversing some wide expanse of neve, un-
broken by a single ruffle, than in crossing a broken glacier
with wide crevasses opening on every side. A very mode-
rate amount of practice enables a man to make sure of his
footing and to avid seen dangers, but unseen perils call
forth no caution, and though the rope offers complete se-
curity, few travellers yet understand that it should form a
part of their regular equipment. At the risk of being
thought overcautious, the writer will not cease to urge upon
his fellow-travellers in the Alps the enactment, as a fixed
rule in mountaineering, that on reaching the limit of the
neve the members of a party should all be roped together.
He is perfectly aware that there are many places where the
risk is very slight ; a practised mountaineer might cross the
Theodule Pass 500 times without accident, but the 501st
time he might be lost in a crevasse, as has happened twice
on or near the pass since the writer first knew it. With a
sufficient inducement, and if it were impossible to find a
companion, he would not hesitate to cross that or some other
high pass alone, but if he were in company he would insist
on the use of the rope.
" It would seem scarcely necessary to add that the rope
should be sound and strong, if it did not often happen that
untrustworthy articles are taken by guides ; and it is not
lees important to note that it should be fastened round the
body of each member of the party, guides included, leav •
ing both hands free to use the alpenstock in case of a slip.
A neglect of this obvious rule led, in 1860, to the loss of
three English travellers, and one of their guides, in the
descent from the Col du Geant to Courmayeur."
A very interesting account of the geology of
the Alps has been translated by Mr. Ball for
the benefit of his readers from an article by M.
Desor, the celebrated Swiss geologist. In short,
Mr. Ball has omitted nothing likely to enhance
the value and attractiveness of his Guide. He
modestly tells us that he has himself no claim to " a
brilliant share in the adventurous performances of
his friends and fellow-members of the Alpine Club."
His qualifications for the task he has undertaken
are, however, by no means insignificant. He can
vary justly boast of prolonged and extensive
acquaintance with the regions which he has under-
taken to describe, having crossed the main chain of
the Alps no less than forty-eight times by thirty-
two different passes, besides traversing nearly one
hundred of the lateral passes. The advice given in
this volume consequently comes from one duly
qualified by personal experience to instruct the
novice and to advise the less experienced traveller.
Messrs. Longmans have conferred a benefit upon all
lovers of Alpine scenes, whose name now is legion,
by placing within their reach this very excellent
and admirable Guide-book.

A Mining Journey Across the Great Andes. By
Major F. 'guano Ricard. Pp. 314. Smith and

Major Ricard having been appointed by the
Argentine Republic Inspector-General of Mines,
has given us an interesting record of his wan-
derings—

" Where Andes, giant of the western star,
Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world."
Much information may be acquired from a perusal
of this little volume, which is written by one well
qualified for the task. In dencribing the Republic
ot La Plata, Major Ricard strongly recommends it
as a fit place for immigration :
"The very name of the Republic is in itself indicative of
its mineral wealth. La Plata, or the silver country, the
name given by the early Spaniards on its discovery, no
doubt emanated from the fact of their having found large
quantities of silver there. Its extent is enormous, reaching
as it does, from the river Plate in the 34° of south lat. to
Cape Horn in the 55°, and stretching across almost the
entire continent to the Great Andes, which form a semi-
impenetrable barrier on the Chilian frontier ; then away to
the north it joins Bolivia in about the 22°, and on the east
the territory of Brazil ; presenting on the whole such a
diversity ot climate as is not equalled by any other country
in the world. It is larger than all Europe ; yet epidemic
or sickness is almost unknown : but alas I there is that
great want of population ; which in such an extensive terri-
tory is severely felt. Thousands of square miles of the
richest and most productive soil remains in its primitive
st , and comparatively valueless, thcugh watered by some