Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/969

 the Grindstone” and “Farmer’s Nooning,” Jonathan Sturgis collection; “Turn of the Leaf,” Lenox Library, New York; “Bargaining for a Horse,” New York Historical Society; “Raffling for a Goose,” M. O. Robert’s collection; “Long Story,” Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington; and “War News,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. He died at Setauket, Long Island, on the 19th of November 1868. His brother, Shepard Alonzo Mount (1804–1868), also an artist, best known as a portrait painter, became a National Academician in 1842.

MOUNTAIN (O. Fr. montaigne; popular Lat. montanea, an adjectival form from the classical mons, montis, whence Eng. “mount,” a form usually used along with the name of an individual mountain, e.g. Mt Everest), a natural elevation of the earth’s surface. The term properly connotes height superior to that of a hill (O. Eng. hyll, cognate with Lat. collis); but the distinction depends on the prominence of a given elevation in relation to its surroundings, and in some degree to the bold or gentle character of its outline.

MOUNTAIN, THE (La Montagne), the name applied during the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly. The term, which was first used during the session of the Legislative Assembly, did not come into general use until 1793. At the opening of the Convention the Montagnard group comprised men of very diverse shades of opinion, and such cohesion as it subsequently acquired was due rather to the opposition of its leaders to the Girondist leaders than to any fundamental hostility between the two groups. The chief point of distinction was that the Girondists were mainly theorists and thinkers, whereas the Mountain was composed almost entirely of uncompromising men of action. During their struggle with the Girondists, the Montagnards gained the upper hand in the Jacobin Club, and for a time Jacobin and Montagnard were synonymous terms. The Mountain was successively under the sway of such men as Marat, Danton, and Robespierre, and the group finally disappeared after Robespierre’s death and the successes of the French arms.

MOUNTAIN ASH, an urban district of Glamorganshire, south Wales, in the Aberdare valley on the Cynon, a west bank tributary of the Taff, with stations on the Taff Vale and Great Western railways, 18 m. N.E. of Cardiff. Pop. (1901), 31,093. A branch of the Glamorganshire canal passes through the place. At the beginning of the 19th century Mountain Ash was a small village known only by its Welsh name of Aberpenar, but from 1850, with the development of its collieries, the population rapidly increased. The district has an area of 10,504 acres and comprises; besides Mountain Ash proper, a string of villages, the chief being Cwmpenar, Penrhiwceiber, Abercynon or Aberdare Junction (at the confluence of the Cynon with the Taff) and Ynysybwl, 3 m. to the west on the Clydach. The public buildings include St Margaret’s (1862) and St Winifred’s (1883), the parish churches of Mountain Ash and Penrhiwceiber respectively; old and new town halls (1864 and 1904), cottage hospital (1896), and a library institute and public hall erected in 1899, at a cost of £8000, by the workmen of Nixon’s Navigation collieries. There is a park of 7 acres given in 1897, by Lord Aberdare, whose residence, Duffryn, is in the district. There are also a workmen’s institute and a public hall at Penrhiwceiber. The older part of the urban district is included in the parliamentary borough of Merthyr Tydfil, and also shares with Merthyr and Aberdare the services of a stipendiary magistrate.

 MOUNTAINEERING, the art of moving about safely in mountain regions, avoiding the dangers incidental to them, and attaining high points difficult of access. It consists of two main divisions, rock-craft and snow-craft. Rock-craft consists in the intelligent selection of a line of route and in gymnastic skill to follow the line chosen. In snow-craft the choice of route is the result of a full understanding of the behaviour of snow under a multitude of varying conditions; it depends largely upon experience, and much less upon gymnastic skill. The dangers which the craft of climbing has been developed to avoid are of two main kinds: the danger of things falling on the traveller and the danger of his falling himself. The things that may fall are rocks, ice and snow; the traveller may fall from rocks, ice or snow, or into crevasses in ice or snow. There are also dangers from weather. Thus in all there are eight chief dangers: falling rocks, falling ice, snow-avalanches, falls from difficult rocks, falls from ice slopes, falls down snow slopes, falls into crevasses, dangers from weather. To select and follow a route avoiding these dangers is to exercise the climber’s craft.

Falling Rocks.—Every rock mountain is falling to pieces, the process being specially rapid above the snow-line. Rock-faces are constantly swept by falling stones, which it is generally possible to dodge. Falling rocks tend to form furrows in a mountain face, and these furrows (couloirs) have to be ascended with caution, their sides being often safe when the middle is stone-swept. Stones fall more frequently on some days than on others, according to the recent weather. Local experience is a valuable help on such a question. The direction of the dip of rock strata often determines whether a particular face is safe or dangerous; the character of the rock must also be considered. Where stones fall frequently débris will be found below, whilst on snow slopes falling stones cut furrows visible from a great distance. In planning an ascent of a new peak such traces must be looked for. When falling stones get mixed in considerable quantity with slushy snow or water a mud avalanche is formed (common in the Himalaya). It is necessary to avoid camping in their possible line of fall.

Falling Ice.—The places where ice may fall can always be determined beforehand. It falls in the broken parts of glaciers (seracs) and from overhanging cornices formed on the crests of narrow ridges. Large icicles are often formed on steep rock-faces, and these fall frequently in fine weather following cold and stormy days. They have to be avoided like falling stones. Seracs are slow in formation, and slow in arriving (by glacier motion) at a condition of unstable equilibrium. They generally fall in or just after the hottest part of the day, and their débris seldom goes far. A skilful and experienced ice-man will usually devise a safe route through a most intricate ice-fall, but such places should be avoided in the afternoon of a hot day. Hanging glaciers (i.e. glaciers perched on steep slopes) often discharge themselves over steep rock-faces, the snout breaking off at intervals. They can always be detected by their débris below. Their track should be avoided.

Snow Avalanches.—These mainly occur on steep slopes when the snow is in bad condition, early in the year, or after a recent fresh fall. Days when snow is in bad condition are easily recognized; on such days it may be inadvisable to traverse snow-slopes which at another time may be as safe as a high-road. Beds of snow collected on rock-ledges in bad weather fall off when a thaw comes, and are dangerous to rock-climbers. Snow that has recently fallen upon ice slopes is always liable to slip off bodily. Such falling masses generally make the lower part of their descent by couloirs. Snow avalanches never fall in unexpected places, but have their easily recognizable routes, which can be avoided in times of danger by experienced mountaineers.

Falls from Rocks.—The skill of a rock-climber is shown by his choice of handhold and foothold, and his adhesion to those he has chosen. Much depends on a correct estimate of the firmness of the rock where weight is to be thrown upon it. Many loose rocks are quite firm enough to bear a man’s weight, but experience is needed to know which can be trusted, and skill is required in transferring the weight to them without jerking. On all difficult rocks the rope is the greatest safeguard for all except the first man in the ascent, the last in the descent. In such places a party of three or four men roped together, with a distance of 15 to 20 ft. between one and another, will be