The Friendly Mountains, edited by Roderick Peattie. 8vo., 341 pages with 23 illustrations, 2 geologic figures, appendices and index. New York: Vanguard Press, 1942. Price $3.50.

Those who know Mountain Geography will have no doubt as to its author’s qualification to edit the present work dealing with the Green, White and Adirondack mountains, in the first volume of a series covering American ranges. Although the publisher’s blurb to the effect that there have hitherto been no volumes on this country’s proudest heritage—its sweeping mountain ranges—is astonishing, and we can little forgive an editor, a self-acknowledged mountaineer of wide experience, for calling an ice-axe a “climbing pick,” we can at least wish the venture success, and the initial volume seems to indicate that it will be.

It is the regional story of the northeastern United States, leading us through the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont, including the Taconics; the Katahdin area of Maine and the Adirondack summits of New York. It is a compiled book, and the editor has been fortunate in his contributors. Professor Peattie introduces the four ranges (the Taconics, usually grouped with the Green Mountains, being the fourth), while Zephine Humphrey tells the history of settlement and Professor Robert Balk of Mount Holyoke College presents the geologic story. Dr. Victor Conrad of Harvard describes mountain weather and climate; Dr. Hugh Raup of the Arnold Arboretum has written the botanical chapter, while the editor and Henry Potter offer a highly interesting account of the yearly round of nature.

Professor Louis Puffer, of the civil engineering department in the University of Vermont, belies his name and gives sound advice on how to enjoy the mountains in summer. This includes the climbing, and as one would expect from a past president of the Green Mountain Club, the directions are unexceptionable. Katherine Toll presents the concluding chapter on winter sports.

The four appendices (Points of Geological Interest; Guides and Maps; Mountain Elevations; Ski Areas) are packed with useful data. Possibly the second of these is offered in lieu of any map in the book itself, Although even an outline map of the areas covered would have been useful.

From the viewpoint of possible criticism by climbers, the editor’s task will become more formidable as he approaches ranges offering greater Alpine problems, and the success or failure of the series will depend upon the care with which his collaborators have been selected. If high quality is maintained, we shall eventually have a monumental shelf, such as has not before this time been devoted to the ranges of our country.

J. M. T.