Ii E DRAKENSBERG - "The Roof of Africa"
CHAPTER XV
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness on you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like Autumn leaves."
— John M uir.
UROPE has its Switzerland, famed throughout the world for the splendour of its mountain scenery. For variety and charm, as well as accessibility, it has well-grounded claims to the title of a "prince of play-grounds." But though the scenery is unchangingly beautiful and the familiar Alpine monarchs retain a ceaseless fascination for the mountaineer, yet at this date the charm of novelty and newness for many Alpine tourists has worn off. In like manner. America and Canada, while still comparatively new countries have matured so rapidly that climbers among the Rocky Mountains have long since made what the mountaineer's soul craves for — the chief joy of the climber's ambition, a "first ascent" — an event of past history. It is here that the Drakens- ^■E? - '^f^*™-^ \ lici'p; p;!!U;i:. part I c : 111 : 11 ' I y I ha! portion known as I Ik;
Mount aux Sources group, makes its challengé to all lovers of nature in her grandest and most sublime moods. Tourists and mountaineers can no longer be satisfied with repeated ascents of the well-trodden peaks of the Continent or Canada now that the beauties of the Drakensberg are making so emphatic a claim to attention. Here the geologist, the botanist, and the naturalist, can find in every direction opportunities for original research work of the most valuable character; and the mountaineer and sportsman can revel in regions untrodden from the beginning of time. The health and pleasure seeker can hardly fail here to obtain new energy and new inspiration, while the artist may find in the Drakensberg a new world to conquer and make his own.
The most important climatic consideration in judging of a health resort is its altitude, though occasionally other factors demand attention.
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