Knots for Mountaineering, Camping, Climbing, Utility, Rescue, Etc., by Phil D. Smith. 24 pages, 5 pages of illustrative diagrams. Pamphlet-bound. Twenty-nine Palms, California: The Desert Trail, 1953.

This booklet covers 55 knots, hitches, etc., each illustrated with one or more drawings by Rodney H. Smith. The presentation cannot be classed as one for the beginner. While the drawings are lucid and well executed, some of the knots require more stages for clarity. Methods of tying are always difficult to learn from a verbal text, and these would be no exception. The author breezes through them in an authoritative but sketchy manner. He assumes a common understanding of such words as hitch, reeve, standing part, loop, bend, bight, etc., terms which in practice require carefully defined meanings. The treatment contains numerous sound points about utilization of the knots and about their comparative virtues.

Robert M. Ormes