hours of my life. The deepest silence seemed to press down on all the vast, immeasurable virgin landscape. The sun near the horizon reddened the edges of belted cloud-bars near the base of the sky, and the jagged ice-boulders crowded together over the frozen ocean stretching indefinitely northward . . . it was to the far north that I ever found myself turning, to where the ice met the sky." Written in the full flush of a new and absorbing experience, this book has a bright, spontaneous charm that, coupled with the almost universal appeal of Arctic exploration, is sure to make it a favorite.

M. R. P.

"Two SUMMERS IN
THE ICE WILDS
OF EASTERN

KARAKORAM"

To stand where the foot of man has never trod, particularly at this period of the earth's history, is an inspiring and memorable experience. It does not happen as often as some writers would have us think. Many a lesser explorer, believing himself the first ever to penetrate a region, has come upon some such record of human occupation as the cairn of rocks found by Mrs. Workman high up on the Rose Glacier. But to Dr. Hunter Workman and Mrs. Bullock Workman the conquest of virgin peaks of almost incredible height and the exploration of great glaciers is already an old story, as readers of their earlier writings know. The present volume describes two expeditions during the summer of 1911 and 1912, including explorations of the Hushe and Kondus Glacier Systems of the Eastern Karakoram in Kashmir. The story of the first summer, told by Dr. Workman, confines itself largely to the scientific aspects of their discoveries. Mrs. Workman's narrative of the 1912 journey, on the other hand, has a more lively tone, richer in human incident. The story of months-long camping above 16,000 feet in altitude; of the first ascents of peaks 21,000 feet high; of caravan troubles with coolies, such as the pilfering of supplies and wanton extravagance with precious wood; of the two lives claimed by the glacier-all is told with vigor and a fine sense of values. Mrs. Workman was the originator and leader of the second expedition. Dr. Workman was "photographer and glacialist"; and with them also went Mr. Grant Peterkin, surveyor, and Sarjan Singh, a native plane-tabler. Three guides, Cyprian Savoye, Quazier Simeon, and Rey Adolf, and two porters, Rey Julian and Chenoz Cèsare, who later lost his life in a crevasse of the Bilaphond Glacier, were also a part of the expedition. The third part of the book is made up of discussions of the physiographical features of the Bilaphond, Siachen (Rose) and Kaberi basins and glaciers by Dr. Workman. The illustrations throughout the book are very numerous and of exceptional beauty. The "geographical re

*Two Summers in the Ice Wilds of Eastern Karakoram. The Exploration of Nineteen Hundred Square Miles of Mountain and Glacier. By FANNY BULLOCK WORKMAN and WILLIAM HUNTER WORKMAN. With three maps and one hundred and forty-one illustrations by the authors. E. P. Dutton & Company, New York. Pages,296. Price, $8.00.

sults of this expedition" are partially summed up by Mrs. Workman as follows: "About 850 square miles of mountain territory were mapped with plane table. Forty or more peaks were measured in different ways, many by triangulation, by Mr. Grant Peterkin. The Rose Glacier was first explored from end to end, and surveyed to its tongue in the Nubra Valley. The north and east Siachen sources . . . were discovered and first visited, and the relation of the Eastern Karakoram and Indus watershed to that of Chinese Turkestan at these points established. . . . A new group of high snow peaks was discovered beyond the east Rose wall on the Turkestan side. The King George V group was first seen and identified as such, and its three highest peaks triangulated. A new pass, 18,700 feet, was discovered and crossed and a first descent made from it to the head of the twenty-mile-long Kaberi Glacier, which was followed down its whole length to its tongue.

M. R. P.

"VOYAGES

ON THE

The "Call of the Wild" leaves an unpleasant taste. It raises the question: How strong a force is civilization? YUKON"* Must a new country be not only a place of hardship, but also one of crime and lawlessness? Fortunately our "storybook writers" have not the last word, and I agree with Hudson Stuck that Jack London has not left any "literary memorial" of the great stampede to Alaska, and that but one side of that period has been presented in his much read book. Hudson Stuck's book, "Voyages on the Yukon and its Tributaries," is more valuable to the reader who desires to know Alaska than a cartload of extravagant and highly-colored stories. It is a sane, well-balanced account of travel in the interior of Alaska. Climatic, topographic and sociological conditions as well as historical notes are covered in an interesting way. In contrast with the author's "Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog-sled," the book deals with summer travel, and this is synonymous with river travel. Part I is an account of the Yukon from the upper headwaters to St. Michael and the Bering Sea. Part II describes the Porcupine, the Chandalar, the Tanana, the Koyukuk, the Innoka and the Iditarod rivers and the Changeluk Slough. One must not expect a scientific and exhaustive treatise, for Stuck writes in a cursory and easy style and sees more with the eye of an ordinary observer than that of a scientist. For the general reader interested in travel, for the business man who wishes to understand the general conditions of life in and the future possibilities of Alaska, and for the sociologist who is interested in primitive conditions, I heartily recommend the book. GEORGE J. YOUNG

Voyages on the Yukon and its Tributaries. By HUDSON STUCK. Charles Scribner's Sons. Price $4.50 net.

"ON THE

HEADWATERS

An unusually interesting narrative of a thousand mile canoe trip through one of the most remote and unOF PEACE RIVER"* explored regions of British Columbia-"beyond the farthest camping ground and the last tin can." Leaving the railroad at Prince George, on the Fraser River, Mr. Haworth, with Joe Lavoie, his canoeman, for his sole companion, paddled as far as Giscome Portage, where their outfit was carried over the low divide to Arctic waters. At Summit Lake the long canoe journey really began— down the Crooked River to McLeod Lake, and down the Pack River to the Porcupine, whose junction with the Finlay forms the mighty Peace. As far as Fort Grahame on the Finlay, and for some miles beyond, the voyage was along traveled ways, as travel goes through the "immensity of that mighty mountain mass called British Columbia"-Indians, trappers, prospectors and Hudson's Bay Company men, occasionally a big game hunter or a party of scientists. The headwaters of the Finlay, however, are practically unexplored, and on some of its tributaries, notably the Quadacha, Mr. Haworth and Joe undertook long "backpack" trips, climbing mountains and noting great ranges and glaciers as yet unmapped. On the return journey they proceeded down the Peace in their canoe as far as Hudson's Hope, where they took a gasoline boat to Peace River Landing and the railroad. The narrative is told with spirit and many touches of human interest. The hunting experiences are plentiful enough to add zest, but do not usurp too much space. The whole book has the stamp of sincerity and shows a deep love of wilderness life, the more so, perhaps, that Mr. Haworth does not hesitate to record his moments of disillusionment when he longs for "hotels and ladies and electric lights." Many of us have known such moments. He leaves with us, however, a vivid impression of those memorable days when he "climbed beyond the barrier ranges and looked upon a world that was new." M. R. P.

"REPORT OF THE
DIRECTOR OF
THE NATIONAL
PARK SERVICE"

In our National Park Notes we have quoted extensively from this admirable report, but it contains so much that is of interest to our members that it should be mentioned here also. The maps, showing railroad routes, automobile roads, trails, improvements and accommodations, make it an extremely valuable guidebook for travelers afoot, horseback, or motoring. A copy is on file in the Sierra Club rooms. We have not been informed whether the report can be obtained from the Superintendent of Public Documents. M. R. P.

On the Headwaters of Peace River. A Narrative of a Thousand Mile Canoe Trip. By PAUL LELAND HAWORTH. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 1917. Price, $4.00 net. Illustrated.

Report of the Director of the National Park Service to the Secretary of the Interior for the year ended June 30, 1917. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 1917.

"GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES"*

What a book for the shut-in, for the war-wearied or war-wounded mortal! Here is a real and living bit of New England spread out before our western eyes; a country commonplace and unpretentious to us westerners, used as we are to the great inland valleys, the endless expanses of desert and the sky-piercing mountains of our Pacific Coast. It takes a Walter Prichard Eaton to disclose the charm of the Berkshires, and a Walter King Stone to picture it for us. Ordinary hill pastures take on dainty beauties of form, color and vista under Eaton's loving gaze. Paddling a canoe down a little stream is fraught with all the wonders and mysteries of a trip up the Amazon. Even though only a few yards from a well-traveled road, you are utterly alone in a beautiful world, flowerfringed, tree-shaded. No gardener can equal a river, Eaton tells us. It understands the art of border, draping its banks with “wild grape-vines, a little feathery clematis and great masses of wild balsam, apple . The current is the gardener who keeps the edge in line, the beautiful sweeping line of the bend."

Rivers have their fascination, but so too do the stone walls on the New England country. These "artless hedgerows" in Eaton's glowing phrase "march in feathery beauty between a thousand fields, up hill and down, bright at their base with mulleins and milk-weed, with roses and goldenrod, harboring chipmunks within the old wall which is their spine, and white-throats flitting in their branches."

Flashes of lightsome humor liven Eaton's simple conversational style. Occasionally, however, its grace and humor is marred by self-consciousness. He pleads guilty to dropping into the fallacy of personifying nature, and discourses on his lapse at such length that we feel the tiresomeness of the discussion a greater sin than the original; for the chief commandment to an author is "Thou shalt not bore."

Only once does Eaton leave his beloved home country. Then he suddenly transports us to Glacier National Park. Here, as we would expect, his spirit expands and soars to meet the awe-inspiring beauty of the Rockies. Perhaps it was from this visit to the national parks of the West that Eaton received his inspiration as to the future for his beloved but neglected New England hills. Back of his love for them one feels all the time the question: What is to become of all this neglected country; these outworn farms, abandoned hamlets and villages? Country roads and canals are too distant to help open up this country again, the railroads have passed so far off that they are of no use. All the energetic and younger people have gone to the cities; it is not likely they will return. No, we can not look for a return of the vigor of pioneer days in these lonely hills; but why not convert this country into a playground for the people teeming in the cities of the Atlantic Coast? Why not make a great national forest out of the Berkshires? Many, I suppose,

* Green Trails and Upland Pastures. By WALTER PRICHARD EATON. Doubleday, Page & Co. 1917. Price, $1.60 net.

will shake their heads over the practical difficulties of such a scheme, but who knows? The dreams of today are often the deeds of tomorrow. FLORENCE E. ATKINSON

"LIGHTS AT One evening during the outing of 1912, at a Sierra Club DAWN"* campfire near the foot of Mount Whitney, a young Greek student stood up and described his experiences of the preceding night, spent at the summit of the loftiest mountain in the country. Those who heard Aristides Phoutrides that evening will remember his enthusiasm and his glowing words as he described the colors of the sunset. They will also recall that he told of singing “America," inspired by the grandeur of the scene before him. The experiences of that night on the mountain top made a deep impression on Phoutrides, for they stirred the two dominant emotions of his life—a passionate love of the harmonies of nature, and an ardent patriotism.

Anyone knowing Phoutrides would expect poems from him. His joy in the splendors of natural scenery is very real, impelling him to expression in song. His patriotism is of that fine type that looks for its inspiration not to any particular place or people, but to the spirit of freedom and liberty. Thus it is quite natural to find in his "Lights at Dawn" verses reflecting now the brightness of the California Sierra, now the soft color of the mountains of Greece, poems inspired by the triumph of liberty in the new Greece and the promise of America.

The poems cannot be rightly understood without some idea of the writer's experience. It is hard to believe that they were written by one who came to America only ten or twelve years ago, a stranger from an old-world country, with but a few words of English at his command. Born in the island of Icaria, near Samos, in the Egean Sea, under Turkish sovereignty, Aristides Evangelus Phoutrides was Greek by race and spirit. His mother and sister did much for his early education before he attended the gymnasium and university at Athens. Later he studied in Cairo, and about 1906 came to America to continue his studies. After a year learning the English language and American ways, he entered Harvard College, and in 1911 was graduated “summa cum laude." He continued at the university, receiving the degree of Master of Arts and teaching in the department of the classics. In 1913 he was made a Travelling Fellow of Harvard University, going to Berlin and other German cities for research work and later to Italy and Greece. He returned to Cambridge after the outbreak of the European war and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1915. It was during the period of his graduate studies at Harvard that he spent a summer vacation in California and joined the Sierra Club outing in the Kern.

Last summer Phoutrides gave up his studies and his teaching and en

*Lights at Dawn. Poems. By ARISTIDES E. PHOUTRIDES. The Stratford Co., Boston, 1917. Price, $1.25.