He used to experiment not only on Nature, but on
himself. I once asked him what food he took on the
mountains. He said the guides commonly consumed
a mixture of butter and honey which they had found
supplied for long excursions in the most portable form
the greatest amount of heat and nourishment. But for
himself he liked cakes of chocolate best, and these he
used to eat every two hours while climbing. His love
for the Alps was more than scientific, and more than
mere mountaineering, or than both together. It was a
passion, and they were his home every summer during
the last twenty j r ears or so of his life. He had a cot-
tage on the Bel Alp to which he went regularly, and
when he chose a country home in England he chose
Hindhead, nearly 1000 feet above the level of the sea.
He understood, as few men in this fog-laden and mist-
enshrouded isle seem to understand, the value of pure,
12



STUDIES OF MEN



dry, fresh air. It was to him a condition of intellectual
vitality. He could work for a time without it, as every
Londoner does and must, but he sought it with eager-
ness as often as he could escape from town.
