We have further to recommend for axe-handles an addition which is liable to suspicion as an entire innovation, but which, we are confident, will be found valuable at those critical moments when the axe is required to hold up two or three men.  It has happened that when the axe has been struck into the snow a man has been unable to keep his hold of the handle, which slips out of his hand, and leaves him perfectly helpless.  To guard against this mischance, we propose to fasten a band of leather round the handle, at a distance of a foot from the ferrule at the lower end.  This leather should be about an eighth of an inch thick, and will be quite sufficient to check the hand when it is sliding down the handle.  It should be lashed round the wood and strained tight when wet.

Alpenstocks.—­What we have said about the handle of the axe applies in all respects to the Alpenstock, except that the length of the latter should be different, and that the leathern ring would of course not be required.  It is generally thought most convenient that the Alpenstock should be high enough to touch the chin of its owner, as he stands upright; but this is a matter on which it is scarcely possible, and, were it possible, scarcely necessary to lay down an absolute rule.

Boots.—­Several nails are sure to be knocked out after each hard day’s work, therefore a reserve supply is necessary in lands where none other are to be found.  No makeshift contrivance, so far as I am aware, will replace the iron last used by shoemakers when they hammer nails into the boot.  There is a well-known contrivance of screws with jagged heads, for screwing into boots when a little ice has to be crossed.  They do excellently for occasional purposes, but not for regular ice-work, as they are easily torn out.  Crampons are soles of leather with spikes; they are tied over the shoes, but neither English mountaineers nor modern guides ever employ them:  nailed boots are better.

Snow Spectacles.—­The Esquimaux, who have no coloured glass, or any equivalent for it, cut a piece of soft wood to the curvature of the face; it is about two inches thick, and extends horizontally quite across both eyes, resting on the nose, a notch being cut in the wood to answer the purpose of the bridge of a pair of spectacles.  It is tied behind the ears; and, so far as I have now described it would exclude every ray of light from the eyes.  Next, a long narrow slit, of the thickness of a thin saw-cut, is made along the middle almost from end to end.  Through this slit the wearer can see very fairly.  As it is narrower than the diameter of the pupil of his eye, the light that reaches his retina is much diminished in quantity.  Crape or gauze is a substitute for coloured glass.

Mask.—­Is merely a pocket-handkerchief, with strings to tie it over the face; eye-holes are cut in it, also a hole for the nose, over which a protecting triangular piece of linen is thrown, and another hole opposite the mouth, to breathe through it is drawn below the chin so as to tie firmly in place.  The mask prevents the face from being cut to pieces by the cold dry winds, and blistered by the powerful rays of the sun reverberated from the snow.