There are some stories which age cannot wither nor custom stale. Of these is the story of Hannibal. In discussing the vexed and much-debated question as to the pass by which Hannibal crossed the Alps, Mr. Freshfield gives us the latest views which have approved themselves to him as a geographer and mountaineer. We may say at once that Mr. Freshfield is not even now, after all the study which he has given to the subject, prepared to name a particular pass and say ' This is the pass of Hannibal.' He tells us in his preface: 'The following pages do not pretend to offer a summary, or analysis, of recent attempts to elucidate the historical episode they deal with. They are rather an endeavor to treat the classical texts relating to Hannibal's Passage of the Alps from the point of view of an Alpine traveler and topographer. In undertaking this task I have been impressed by the importance of a fragment of Varro which has come down to us, and by the curious way in which it has been either ignored, or what seems to me its plain meaning distorted and obscured, by most of my predecessors in this discussion. Incidentally I have been led to examine somewhat closely the arguments recently brought forward by several French military writers in their effort to prove that Hannibal crossed the Col du Clapier, a lofty and difficult by-pass near the Mont Cenis. I have been urged to do this by the fact that their theory has been adopted and put forward in this country by the Professor of Military History in the University of Oxford, Mr. Spenser Wilkinson.' The fragment of Varro to which Mr. Freshfield refers is translated by him on p. 19: 'The Alps can be crossed by five passes, one near the sea, through the Ligurians; the second, by which Hannibal crossed; the third, by which Pompey went to the Spanish war; the fourth, by which Hasdrubal came from Gaul into Italy; the fifth, which was formerly occupied by the Greeks and is hence called the Graian Alps.' We regret that space prevents us from discussing this quotation. Mr. Freshfield thinks that there can be 'no legitimate room for doubt about the first and fifth; they can only be the Coast-road and the Little St. Bernard.' Mr. Freshfield thinks that there are conclusive reasons for assigning the Mont Genevre to Pompey. Can we assume that Varro, in his catalogue, took all the five passes in their geographical order, beginning from the sea?' Is it not the only plausible assumption?' says Mr. Freshfield. And he then suggests that we must look for a pass south of the Mont Genevre for Hannibal, and one north of it for Hasdrubal. Quid plura? Hannibal crossed the Col de l'Argentiere, and Hasdrubal the Mont Cenis. The account which our author gives in his third chapter of the Vars-Argentière route is very interesting: to say that it is absolutely convincing would be going too far—farther than the author goes himself. The question of the power and position of the Taurini is carefully and profitably discussed by Mr. Freshfield. Perhaps the most interesting of the points discussed by Mr. Freshfield is that of the identification of Turin as the chief town of the Taurini. His remarks on this subject (p. 51) are convincing. We regret that we have not space to reproduce the whole page. He declines to accept the identification. 'Some town,' he writes (p. 52), 'like Cavour, lying close to the foothills, and described by Promis as a natural fortress raised four hundred feet above the plain, is far more likely to have served as the city of refuge of the Taurini.' –The Alpine Journal, Vol. 28 [1914]