Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-21
PLEASURES MOUNTAINEERING.
Dizziness Not Un1versaI-A Blind AL
 pine Climber.


 From the London Standard
 Of all the various forms of pleasure taking to which so many are now beginning to turn attention, none are so exhilarating and, to many persons, none are so delightful as
 mountaineering. There are some, of course, to whom an ascent of the Matterhorn, Mont
 Blanc or the Aiguille Verte would prove any | thing but delightful, and to whom the enthu- l siasm of the holiday mountaineer is in comprehensible craze Even the enthusias- tic climber, intensely as he may enjoy the exercise, cannot often satisfactorily explain his enjoyment, and philosophic travellers who l have tried to elucidate the rationale of the
 thing have usually been only very imperfect ly successful. MT. Laing, for instance, in
 his notes on Holland, is led by the fiat, run- interesting nature of that country to specu-
 late upon the secret of the pleasures afforded by mountains. A section of country four or five miles in length and one or two in breadth,
 spread out horizontally, is, he remarks, but flat, unimpressive place. Elevate this small parallelogram of land to an angle of sixty degrees with the horizon, and it becomes sublime; it surpasses Mont 8lanc-it is the side of Chimborazo. Set it on edge and it would be the Himalaya Mountains cut down from their dizziest peak to the level of the ocean-a preeipice sublime that the mind
 would shrink in terror from it's very recol- lection. How is this? MT. Laing asks, and the answer which appears, partially at any rate, to satisfy him is that the mind instinc- lively recognizes the stupendous power that has raised that giant pile, and is overcome by it. There is very much in this undoubtedly. Mountains are suggestive of power invisible and inscrutable, and to those who scale them
 something of that power seems to be impart- ed The mere exaItation of mountain peak is in itself capable of atford1ng @ strange
 sense of physical achievement and triumph due, no doubt, to many combining causes.
 There is the sense of might suggested by the mountain itself; there is the sense of achieve ment over the various difficulties and, it may
 be, the dangers of the ascent; there is the enlarged vision, and there is the physical eff feet of muscular eXertions in & pure and bracing atmosphere and in rural scenery.
 The dullest and prosiest of travellers cannot
 be altogether impervlous to such influences.
 It would, however, save good many dis appointments, prevent good many mis- takes and avert not few dangers, if it were generally understood that mountaineering, to be thoroughly enjoyed, demands some qualifications which only a comparatively few possess ''Trust me-" says Mordaunt Mer- toun, in Sir Walter Scotts "Pirate," 'tthe world has few grander sensations than when one is perched in mid-air between a high browed cliff and roaring ocean, the rope by which you are sustained seeming scarce stronger than a silken thread, and the stone on which you have one foot steadied af fording such 8 breadth as the kttywah might rest on." That is all very well for a young cragsman of exceptional physique and lifelong experience in scaling cliffs. To ninety persons out of a hundred such situation would be simply frightful. q profess" returned the canny Scot to whom this tirade was addressed, 1T cannot see the pleasure of dangling on rope's end betwixt earth and heaven. In any case had as lief the other end of the rope were fastened to the gibbet. I should be sure of not falling, at least" To the majority of people great elevation puts t'toys of desperation" into the brain, as Shakespeare expresses it. An almost irresistible i'm pulse to precipitate themselves is the expe- rience of some persons on looking down preeipice, while to others the result is perilous giddiness. So common are these sensations that they are generally assumed to be universally felt by persons gazing from a great elevation, and the resulting danger is consequently assumed to be com mon to all mountain climbers It IS not SO, however. There are many who know nothing of these strange qualms and trem- ors which ought to be regarded as total disqualifcations for any mountaineerlng ln- yolying serious risks No doubt they are to be overcome by practice; but 1t may be considered mooted point, at least, whether