Page:My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.djvu/412

Rh On the other hand, nothing develops a man's faculties so rapidly and completely. No one detects a crevasse so readily as the man who is accustomed to traverse snow fields by himself. No one takes such careful note of the line of ascent as the cragsman who has got to find his way back alone. The concentration of all responsibility and all the work on a single individual forces him to acquire an all-round skill which is hardly to be gained in any other way. Climbing in parties is apt to develop one-sidedness. One man cuts the steps, another climbs the rocks, and a third always knows the way. Division of labour is doubtless excellent, and perchance deserves all that Adam Smith has said in its favour, but it does not develop the ideal mountaineer. In this department of human duty Mr. William Morris gives sounder advice. Of course this is merely another way of saying that the chamois hunter—i.e., the solitary mountaineer —is the best raw material for a guide. The fact that a man has been in the habit of climbing alone, means that the law of the survival of the fittest has had full and ample opportunity of eliminating him should he be, in any way, a careless or incapable mountaineer.

From the individual's point of view this elimination may not, perhaps, appeal* wholly desirable. Yet, judging from his habits, the faithful climber, carried away by altruistic feelings and thinking