Lakhasly

RELEVANT MATERIAL Sometimes, since titles can be ambiguous or vague, you can't be sure that the sources listed in the card catalog, indexes, and bibliographies are really about your topic."For rashness, ignorance, or carelessness the mountains leave no margin: and to rashness, ignorance. or careless- ness three-fourths of the catastrophes which shock us are to be traced."For example, suppose you haye dedded to look into the safery methods (the use of ropes and other equipment) of the early mountain- eers to see whether their safety methods were really safe or just another unintended hazard.The catalog card is evidence that the book possibly is related somehow to your topic, but is the work a nineteenth-century physical-fitness treatise or is it a book about mountain climbing?In the card catalog you find a listing for Hours of Exercise in the Alps by John Tyndall.When you actually have the book in your hands, you confirm that it does deal with the general topic of mountain climbing, but how can you find out if it has specific information on your topic: the supposed safety practices of early mountaineers?First, of course, check the table of contents.You will, therefore, need to be something of a detective.

RELEVANT MATERIAL
Sometimes, since titles can be ambiguous or vague, you can't be sure that
the sources listed in the card catalog, indexes, and bibliographies are
really about your topic. You will, therefore, need to be something of a
detective. For example, suppose you haye dedded to look into the safery
methods (the use of ropes and other equipment) of the early mountain-
eers to see whether their safety methods were really safe or just another
unintended hazard.
In the card catalog you find a listing for Hours of Exercise in the Alps
by John Tyndall. The catalog card is evidence that the book possibly is
related somehow to your topic, but is the work a nineteenth-century
physical-fitness treatise or is it a book about mountain climbing?
When you actually have the book in your hands, you confirm that
it does deal with the general topic of mountain climbing, but how can
you find out if it has specific information on your topic: the supposed
safety practices of early mountaineers?
First, of course, check the table of contents. Maybe there will be a
chapter on "Climbing Techniques" or something similar. If there is not
(and there is no such chapter in this case), next check the introductory
material: The preface, author's introduction, or foreword may tell you the
range of material covered in the book and the author's intent.
In the preface to this book, Hours of Exercise in the Alps, you find out
that the author did not intend to cover safety techniques:
I refrain from giving advice, further than to say that the perils of wander-
ing in the High Alps are termibly eal, and are only to be met by knowl
edge, cauion, skill. and strength. "For rashness, ignorance, or carelessness
the mountains leave no margin: and to rashness, ignorance. or careless-
ness three-fourths of the catastrophes which shock us are to be traced."
Those who wish to know somerhing of the precauions to be taken upon
the peaks and glaciers cannot do better than consult the excellent little
volume lately published by Leslie Stephen, where, under the head "Dan-
gers of Mountaineering." this question is discussed.
John Tyndall, Hours of Exercise in the Aips (New York. 1896) vi-vil.