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CAUCASIAN insTOltV AND TltAVEL 77
of youth and eneruy that, in play as well as in earnest, forgets
or does not realise danger has, so long as it is unconscious, a
healthy
and a fine side. It is often heroism run to waste. But
when it bearins to boast and sflorv in its excesses and its ini-
prudences, the time has surely come to seek a cure for a perverted
tendency that may be fast haixlening into a diseased
habit.
To deny the reality of danger on the high mountains is to shut
one's eves in the face of facts and annuallv recurring warnino-s. The
SIIKARA KKOM ISUKII,
generation that formed the Alpine Club fully recognised the risks
of its favourite pursuit, and devoted its best energy to devising
and elaborating a craft or system by which these dangers might
be avoided or minimised. It acted on a principle similar to that
of the seamen who formed and promulgated an art of navigation.
But our success has tended to produce a reaction ; the younger
climbers— guides and amateurs alike—show a disposition to flout
and neglect the wisdom of their elders. They find that our pre-
cautions to a large extent eliminate the element of risk ; they
imagine that it is more completely eUminated than it ever can be,