* DARTMO UTH OUTING CLUB HANDBOOK.

Dartmouth Outing Club,Hanover, N. H.

This is a practical handbook for members of the Outing Club, and a guide for all who use its trails and cabins. It contains a lot for the money. There is a description and history of each cabin and shelter; a detailed guide to all the trails; five maps; and panoramas of the view from Smarts and Moosilauke. There are also suggestions as to more distant trails and mountains, and, which is something new, a section on short walks about Hanover. There are stimulating chapters on the various things one sees

* Reprinted from the December issue of "Appalachia," through the courtesy of the Editor. along the trail. Finally, there is a practical section containing chapters on equipment, winter mountain climbing, first aid, and camp cooking. Last of all is a collection of the words of songs most often sung around the cabin fireplace. This collection is really unique in that it appears to consist largely of songs that are actually sung instead of those which are put into the ordinary song books. Some of them are of the sort which lend themselves to infinite variation in wording, and the particular versions printed here are likely to arouse the wrath of those who prefer their own—which is all to the good.

The handbook has been a long time growing. That it has been so long on the "way is one reason why it is so excellent. It embodies the experience of several college generations and the suggestions of many to whom credit cannot be. given. Chapters have been revised and re-revised; chapters have been written and discarded, and others evolved in their place. Everything has been subjected to criticism. It is concisely written, free from padding, and forms an authoritative expression of the actual practice of the Outing Club, and an official guide to its trails and cabins. It is prepared for the Outing Club in general and confines itself to the essentials which every Outing Club man needs to know. There are plenty of other books which will give the enthusiast details of all the camp gadgets and suggestions in all the side lines of the out-of-doors such as hunting, fishing, canoeing or riding. It is almost certain, however, that others than Dartmouth men will find it useful both as the only existing guide to the Outling Club territory, and as a record of Outing Club practice in those winter activities which are its speciality.

The present reviewer has had a hand in the compilation of several such handbooks and guidebooks, and knows something of the difficulties. It seems to him that this is an exceptionally good job. There are doubtless errors in it, but he believes they will be found to be few and unimportant. Many will find that their particular practice in some details of equipment or whatnot differs from the suggestions in the Handbook, but that is inevitable and only adds to its interest. In the detailed descriptions of the trails there is the greatest chance for error and obscurity. Anyone who has ever tried to write a trail description which can be understood and followed by anyone else will know how difficult is the task, particularly when the trail leads through open country. It should be remembered that these descriptions are intended to be used on the ground and that some apparent obscurities may be perfectly plain when one is actually following the trail, book in hand. The editors made most painstaking efforts to have these descriptions correct and clear, but entire success in this undertaking is all but impossible, especially on the first attempt.

The chapters in the section called "Along the Trail," contributed by the members of the faculty, are intended obviously to be stimulating suggestions rather than detailed manuals. There is humor and imagination in this section. Professor Goldthwait's "Pioneer Relics" is something new. Nothing quite like it has been done before. The chapters on equipment and winter mountain climbing seem to the present reviewer, who has done a good bit of that sort of thing himself, eminently sound and practical. The medical advice seems to be in the same class, but the reviewer is not qualified to judge. Jump's chapter on cooking is most unusually good. The writer is very evidently a master of the subject and is not afraid to express himself definitely and with some humor. While it is a long time since the reviewer has done camp cooking himself, many things in it arouse appreciative memories, and he cannot recall seeing a more common sense and practical manual in this field.