Alpine Ways is first and last a picture book; the text serves merely as an introduction to and commentary on Mr. Smythe’s photographs. It is adequate to this purpose, but one would have been grateful for the photographic data—choice of stops, length of exposure, etc.—that the author-artist supplied in at least one of the earlier books in the series. Incidentally, now that another of Mr. Smythe’s publishers is bringing out a “Uniform Edition” of his mountaineering writings, could not A. and C. Black be persuaded to reprint the earlier picture books, long out-of-print?

E. C.