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Ashwani Kumar
Yuan-Yeu Yau
Shinjiro Ogita
Renate Scheibe Editors

Climate Change,
Photosynthesis
and Advanced
Biofuels
The Role of Biotechnology in
the Production of Value-added Plant
Bio-products
Climate Change, Photosynthesis
and Advanced Biofuels
Ashwani Kumar • Yuan-Yeu Yau •
Shinjiro Ogita • Renate Scheibe
Editors

Climate Change,
Photosynthesis
and Advanced Biofuels
The Role of Biotechnology in the
Production of Value-added Plant
Bio-products
Editors
Ashwani Kumar Yuan-Yeu Yau
Department of Botany Department of Natural Sciences
and P.G. School of Biotechnology Northeastern State University
University of Rajasthan Broken Arrow, OK, USA
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India

Shinjiro Ogita Renate Scheibe

Faculty of Life and Environmental Faculty of Biology and Chemistry,
Sciences, Department of Life Sciences Plant Physiology
Prefectural University of Hiroshima University of Osnabrück
Syoubara, Hiroshima, Japan Osnabrück, Niedersachsen, Germany

ISBN 978-981-15-5227-4 ISBN 978-981-15-5228-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5228-1

# Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the
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broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
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claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721,
Singapore
Dedication

Govindjee, Mister Photosynthesis

—An extraordinary ambassador of photosynthesis research to the world

A 2019 photograph of Govindjee. Source: College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign

Since 2019, Govindjee (who had always used one name only) began to use
“Govindjee Govindjee” in order to be able to travel with ease around the world.
He was born on October 24, 1932, at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; he married
Rajni Varma on October 24, 1957, at Urbana, Illinois, USA; they have two children:
Anita and Sanjay; he was naturalized to be a citizen of the USA in 1972. On the
academic side, he has been Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology, Biophysics, and
Biochemistry, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) since 1999.
Going back in time, he was Professor of Biophysics and Plant Biology for 30 years
(1969–1999), Associate Professor of Botany and Biophysics (1965–1969), and
Assistant Professor of Botany (1961–1965), all at UIUC. During 1960–1961, he
served as United States Public Health (USPH) Service Biophysics Post-Doctoral
Fellow, and during his PhD days, 1956–1960, he held a UIUC Graduate Fellowship
in Physico-Chemical Biology (Biophysics), as well a research assistantship in
Botany earlier, i.e., during 1954–1956, he taught Plant Physiology in the Department
of Botany at Allahabad University. He was trained first, during his MSc (1952–
1954), in Plant Physiology, by Shri Ranjan, who was a student of Frederick Frost

v
vi Dedication

Blackman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Blackman). During his PhD

(1956–1960), he was trained by Robert Emerson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Robert_Emerson_(scientist)), a student of the 1931 Nobel laureate Otto Warburg
(https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1931/warburg/biographical/), and by
Eugene Rabinowitch (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Rabinowitch), a post-
doc student of 1926 Nobel laureate James Franck (https://www.nobelprize.org/
prizes/physics/1925/franck/biographical/). After his PhD, and while he was on
UIUC faculty, he also did collaborative research in several top photosynthesis
laboratories, e.g., that of Bessel Kok (RIAS, Baltimore, MD, USA); C. Stacy
French (Carnegie Institution of Science, Stanford, CA, USA); Jean Lavorel &
Martin Kamen (CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette, France); Louis N.M. Duysens (University
of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands); and Horst Witt (Technical University,
Berlin, Germany).
Govindjee has received many scholarships, fellowships, and has been recognized
by several societies. The list includes Fulbright Lecture Award; Japanese Society for
Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow; Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS); Fellow and Life Member of the National Acad-
emy of Science, India; President, American Society of Photobiology; Honorary
President, International Photosynthesis Congress, Montreal, Canada; honored for
his “Lifetime Contributions in the Field of Photosynthesis,” by the Indian Society of
Photobiology; the first Lifetime Achievement Award in Basic Biology, The Rebeiz
Foundation; the Communication Award of the International Society of Photosynthe-
sis Research (ISPR); The Professor B.M. Johri Memorial Award for outstanding
plant scientists; and (Pravasi) Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural
Science, India.
Last but not least is his love for teaching which includes drama (outdoors or
indoors) where students play the role of molecules involved in electron (and proton)
transport from water to NADP, and in making ATP (see Photosynth Res https://doi.
org/10.1007/s11120-016-0317-z, and https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-014-0034-4).
Further, for education around the world, he provides posters linked from his main
web page: http://www.life.illinois.edu/govindjee/ (prepared by D. Shevela &
coauthors) for teaching photosynthesis.
For further information on Govindjee and his life, see, e.g., http://www.life.
illinois.edu/govindjee/recent_papers.html; https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/
801235; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v¼cOzuL0vxEi0; and https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v¼OBKusHcjMzw
We, the editors of this volume, which focuses on new developments in biofuels
and sustainable energy, based on photosynthesis and related processes, dedicate this
book to Professor Emeritus Govindjee, one of the most respected authorities in the
field of photosynthesis. He had contributed the Foreword for the previous volume
entitled “Biofuels: Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Global Warming—Next Gener-
ation Biofuels and Role of Biotechnology.” Back in 2017, the editors pointed out that
his outstanding contributions in the field of photosynthesis, in particular on the
capture of light, energy conversion in the “light reactions,” and electron transport
(that uniquely requires bicarbonate), are fundamental for the development and
Dedication vii

distribution of this basic knowledge. This time, we wish to acknowledge his

continued interest and engagement and congratulate him on his 88th birthday in
the year 2020.

Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Ashwani Kumar

Broken Arrow, OK, USA Yuan-Yeu Yau
Syoubara, Hiroshima, Japan Shinjiro Ogita
Osnabrück, Niedersachsen, Germany Renate Scheibe
Foreword

Climate change threatens human welfare at a global scale. Depending on the degree
of temperature rise, it must be expected that weather extremes in the future become
even more frequent and more extreme than recently experienced. Drought resulting
in forest fires, soil salinity, and desertification on the one hand and flooding on the
other hand are two sides of the coin. The cause in both cases is an increase of thermal
energy in the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect. Among other greenhouse
gases such as methane, ozone, and nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide plays a prominent
role, contributing about 50% to the global temperature increase. Since the beginning
of industrialization and the increasing combustion of fossil fuels, atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentration has increased from 0.028% to more than 0.04%. In
preindustrial times, the carbon dioxide concentration was in equilibrium, governed
by four major processes: respiration and diffusion of carbon dioxide out of oceans
releasing about 210 gigatons of carbon per year, whereas diffusion of carbon dioxide
into oceans and photosynthesis balanced carbon dioxide release. Human activities
increasingly caused higher carbon dioxide release, mainly due to the burning of
fossil fuels and deforestation. Although part of the estimated 10 gigatons additional
liberation of carbon dioxide is compensated by photosynthesis and diffusion into
oceans, there is a net excess of roughly 5 gigatons carbon annually released into the
atmosphere.
The net diffusion of carbon dioxide into oceans provokes another problem; the
dissolution of carbon dioxide in water forms carbonic acid that decreases pH of the
seawater. This in turn may harm sensitive marine life particularly in coral reefs.
Thus, photosynthesis is the only significant process that contributes to a sustainable
reduction of carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Presently, 123 gigatons
of carbon are annually consumed by photosynthesis. An increase of global photo-
synthesis by 5% would more than compensate the additional anthropogenic carbon
dioxide release. Besides abandoning the consumption of fossil fuels, (re)forestation
and the use of renewable resources are key measures to limit further net release of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Large areas worldwide are available for sus-
tainable plant production on hitherto barren land.
In the present book “Climate change, photosynthesis, and advanced biofuels:
Role of biotechnology in production of value-added plant products,” scientists from
all over the world report their research results how photosynthesis may better

ix
x Foreword

contribute to the withdrawal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The plant
endeavor to collect carbon dioxide from a very low concentration and divert it to
the various products is an extremely efficient process that has been genetically
optimized during millions of years of evolution. However, with the development
of crop plants, it has also become apparent that survival and propagation are not the
main goals when plants are cultivated for food, feed, fiber, and fuel. Research on
resistance against abiotic stresses, resource efficiency, as well as source-sink
relationships has revealed that plants usually do not conduct photosynthesis at
maximum intensity but with a downregulated rate. This helps to avoid the accumu-
lation of metabolites that may compromise metabolism. At least five processes help
to compensate excess photosynthesis relative to assimilate consumption in order to
avoid the formation of reactive oxygen species that may impair nucleic acids and
membranes:

1. Alternative respiration is less efficient in ATP production than conventional

respiration and releases thermal energy.
2. Also, uncoupling proteins helps to dissipate some of the excess energy in the form
of heat.
3. Photorespiration of C3 plants consumes excess energy by releasing ammonia and
carbon dioxide.
4. Root exudates that mobilize nutrients in the rhizosphere and support the translo-
cation of signals into roots via phloem may reach as much as 30–40% of all
photoassimilates.
5. Finally, even in unstressed situations plants may release as much as 10% of
photoassimilates via volatilization of terpenes and similar compounds.

Consequently, in crop plants there is a large reservoir of photosynthetic potential

that is not utilized in the production of generative storage organs. Even for vegeta-
tively utilized fodder plants, there is evidence that sink activity rather than photo-
synthetic activity limits yield. Unraveling the bottlenecks during the establishment
of sink activity will greatly help to divert more assimilates into storage organs such
as grains, tubers, or beets. This, at the same time, will allow to enhance net
photosynthesis, water, and nutrient efficiency, as well as crop yields. Sustainable
production of food, feed, fiber, and fuel for an ever-growing word population is a
continuing but feasible goal that at the same time may contribute to mitigate climate
change.
This book provides valuable information, and I hope it will meet the expectations
of researchers, students, and decision-makers alike on the subject of climate change
and related matters. I highly recommend the book.

Institute of Plant Nutrition, Justus Liebig University Sven Schubert

Giessen, Germany
Foreword xi

Prof. Dr. Sven Schubert studied agricultural sciences at Justus Liebig University
Giessen, Germany. In 1985, he got his Ph.D. in agriculture with a thesis on proton
exudation by plant roots under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Drs. h.c. Konrad Mengel.
After a postdoc year at the University of California in Davis, USA, with Prof. Dr. Dr.
h.c. André Läuchli, Prof. Schubert finalized his habilitation on mechanisms of salt
resistance in maize plants in 1991. Following a call to the University of Hohenheim,
Germany, in 1992, he spent 5 years as Professor for Plant Nutrition in Stuttgart
before he was appointed Chair of the Institute of Plant Nutrition at Justus Liebig
University Giessen in 1997. His main research areas are nutrient acquisition of
plants, salt and acidity stress, and membrane biochemistry. Besides more than
120 refereed publications and 100 further publications, Prof. Schubert is author of
the two German textbooks Pflanzenernährung (Plant Nutrition) and Biochemie
(Biochemistry).

Selected Publications:

Yan F, Zhu Y, Müller C, Zörb C, Schubert S (2002) Adaptation of H+-pumping and

plasma membrane H+ ATPase activity in proteoid roots of white lupin under
phosphate deficiency. Plant Physiol 129:50–63
Qadir M, Oster JD, Schubert S, Noble AD, Sahrawat KL (2007) Phytoremediation of
sodic and saline-sodic soils. Adv Agron 96:197–247
Hatzig S, Kumar A, Neubert A, Schubert S (2010) PEP-carboxylase activity: a
comparison of its role in a C4 and a C3 species under salt stress. J Agron Crop
Sci 196:185–192
Hanstein S, Wang X, Qian X, Friedhoff P, Fatima A, Shan Y, Feng K, Schubert S
(2011) Changes in cytosolic Mg2+ levels can regulate the activity of the plasma
membrane H+-ATPase in maize. Biochem J 435:93–101
Hütsch BW, Osthushenrich T, Faust F, Kumar A, Schubert S (2016) Reduced sink
activity in growing shoot tissues of maize (Zea mays) under salt stress of the first
phase can be compensated by increased PEP-carboxylase activity. J Agron Crop
Sci 202:384–393
Faust F, Schubert S (2017) In vitro protein synthesis of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris)
and maize (Zea mays) is differentially inhibited when potassium is substituted by
sodium. Plant Physiol Biochem 118:228–234
xii Foreword

Hütsch BW, Schubert S (2017) Maize harvest index and water use efficiency can be
improved by inhibition of gibberellin biosynthesis. J Agron Crop Sci 1–10
Qadir M, Schubert S, Oster JD, Sposito G, Minhas PS, Cheragji SAM, Murtaza G,
Mirzabaev A, Saqib M (2018) High-magnesium waters and soils: Emerging
environmental and food security constraints. Sci Total Environ 642:1108–1117
Hütsch BW, Jahn D, Schubert S (2019) Grain yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)
under long-term heat stress is sink-limited with stronger inhibition of kernel
setting than grain filling. J Agron Crop Sci 205:22–32
Preface

During the Fifteenth session of Conference of the Parties (COP15), December 2009,
almost 190 countries worldwide signed an agreement to keep a global temperature
rise below 2  C in this century. This agreement has a focus on temperature changes
due to greenhouse gas emission with a preferable goal of remaining within 1.5  C
above preindustrial level (https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agree
ment/what-is-the-paris-agreement). During COP25 (December 2019), deliberations
regarding implementation of policy ended with goals to be achieved by individual
nations. Attendees agreed, it is not “climate change”; it is “climate emergency.” With
increasing global surface temperatures, the possibility of more heat waves, droughts,
and increased powerful storms will likely occur (www.usgs.gov). Recent natural
disasters such as droughts in California (USA) and South Africa fire in Australia, and
vanishing islands in the oceans cannot be ignored. Worldwide increases in sea levels
and acidification of seawater are causing loss of flora and fauna. All this negatively
influences human health, food supply, and potentially promotes hunger and misery.
However, an increasing human population, industrialization, and affluence all drive
up the demand for energy. Currently, fossil fuels meet 88% of the demand, resulting
in rising carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide
levels are increasing at alarming rates. The past 40 years have tracked an enormous
rise in recorded temperature correlated with increasing carbon dioxide levels. Forests
act as carbon sinks, but they are diminished worldwide with some vanishing in the
Amazonian area with unprecedented loss of biodiversity.
It is common to hear people say, “I believe in the environment. I need clean water
and clean air.” The problem is energy sources for growth and development, which
largely come from fossil fuels. Can we shift to green energy without negatively
affecting economic growth? How quickly can we shift to green energy? How to find
solutions to create a bright and sustainable future is important and urgent.
In our previous book, “Biofuels: Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Global
Warming—Next Generation Biofuels and Role of Biotechnology,” it was pointed
out that a small increase in global mean temperature results in a profound change in
climate. Even a small increase leads to frequent floods, cyclones, droughts, and other
natural calamities. Negative impacts of climate change are increasing in frequency
and intensity. Much of the world has seen a steep rise in temperature during the last
15 years, including North America and Europe. Additionally, we are also witnessing

xiii
xiv Preface

unprecedented snowfall and cold. Changing weather patterns are reflective of cli-
mate change, according to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).
Global concerns regarding the use and benefit of biofuel can be addressed appropri-
ately through proper species choice of plant, algae, and bacteria to improve biomass
productivity.
The world’s leading research groups have contributed valuable articles to current
book from a variety of perspectives. Their insights include photosynthesis, source-
sink relationships, stress resistance, productivity, nutrient uptake, and recycling. In
addition, the role of biotechnology in developing next-generation biofuels and
bio-products, and improving biofuels and new alternatives to meet global energy
and food demands is also discussed. This book has three major parts. Each highlights
one important approach to generating new biofuels/bio-products using plants, algae,
or bacteria. Readers will learn about background physiology of plants and algae used
as renewable energy sources. Optimally, attempts can be made without impacting
food production by competing with agriculture. This can only be achieved by
improving grain yield and primary productivity of specially designed crops capable
of growing under stress conditions.
Part 1: Photosynthesis and Biomass Production under Changing Conditions
This section describes the present situation and role of new biofuels in a world
experiencing dramatic climate change. The basic principles of photosynthetic pro-
cesses, namely light reactions for energy capture and conversion, fixation and
assimilation of oxidized carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur for the synthesis of all organic
matter are described. In addition, all related pathways such as photorespiration and
respiration, nutrient uptake and recycling, source-sink relationships, and stress
resistance influencing productivity are included in this section. Regulatory principles
allowing plants to maintain homeostasis under changing conditions are also
discussed, which need to be understood for genetically modifying or inserting new
pathways in plants to produce technically useful compounds. This section is most
relevant for the successful setup of new approaches.
Part 2: Microalgae and Engineered Crops for Production of Biofuels and High-
Value Products
Algal cultures are useful options for hydrogen production, and synthetically
designed pathways for technologically useful products. An overview of
bioproduction based on microalgae species is given. Specifically, the taxonomic
distribution of major microalgae species used in industry is described. This section
highlights the utility and many recent algae advance.
Part 3: Genetic Resources and Engineering Methods to Improve Crop Plants
Contemporary biotechnology options and potential improvements are presented.
Improvements in biofuel production complement an array of value-added products
to improve economic viability. Basic principles of the suggested methodologies,
with physiological, genetic, and molecular information required for the production
of functionally superior plant resources, are explained. Hybrid vigor (heterosis) is
economically important for plant breeding. It plays a role in increasing fertility,
growth rate, yield, and stress resistance in hybrids. In this regard, heterosis can be
Preface xv

exploited to increase biomass production for biofuel crops. In this section, heterosis
is discussed by an expert team.
The book provides plentiful resources for biofuel researchers and is designed to
provide both general and specific information for students, teachers, academic
researchers, industrial teams, as well as laymen who are interested in new
developments for the production of biofuels containing value-added properties.
We are thankful to Professor Dr. Sven Schubert of Justus Liebig University in
Gießen, Germany, for writing the foreword for our book. We heartily thank all of our
coauthors and colleagues who have contributed to this book. We dedicate our book
to Professor Dr. Govindjee of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (USA)
on his 88th birthday. Dr. Govindjee has contributed immensely to the basic under-
standing of photosynthesis and is commonly called Mr. Photosynthesis. His detailed
biodata is enclosed.

Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Ashwani Kumar

Broken Arrow, OK, USA Yuan-Yeu Yau
Syoubara, Hiroshima, Japan Shinjiro Ogita
Osnabrück, Niedersachsen, Germany Renate Scheibe
Acknowledgments

We acknowledge source material from UNFCC, IPCC, COP, and other agencies of
UN quoted in this book. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship to one of
the editors (AK) and constant encouragement received from Professor Dr. Sven
Schubert from Institute for Plant Nutrition, Justus Liebig Universität, Gießen,
Germany, Professor Dr. Raghavendra from Hyderabad, Professor Dr. Govindjee
from USA, Professor Dr. Jack Widholm from USA, and Dr P.V. Sane from Pune.
We also thank and acknowledge 46 chapter contributors from 8 countries: Yagut
Allahverdiyeva (Turku, Finland); Most Tanziman Ara (Hiroshima, Japan);
Wagner L. Araújo (Viçosa, Brazil); Willian Batista-Silva (Viçosa, Brazil);
James A. Birchler (Columbia, USA)); Lindsey Brennan (Broken Arrow, USA);
Marina Cvetkovska (Ottawa, Canada); Paula Da Fonseca-Pereira (Viçosa,
Brazil); Avishek Dey (Guwahati, India); Mona Esterling (Tulsa, USA); Norman
P.A. Hüner (London, Canada); Birgit W. Hütsch (Gießen, Germany); Alexander
G. Ivanov (Sofia, Bulgaria); Osamu Iwata (Kanagawa, Japan); Martina Jokel
(Turku, Finland); Stephan Jung (Cologne, Germany); Johannes Knuesting
(Osnabrück, Germany); Sergey Kosourov (Turku, Finland); Ashwani Kumar
(Jaipur, India); Sanjeev Kumar (Guwahati, India); Keiichi Mochida (Kanagawa,
Japan); Chakravarthi Mohan (Gainesville, USA); Sujatha Mulpuri (Hyderabad,
India); Ashwin Narayan (Coimbatore, India); Misaki Nishibe (Hiroshima, Japan);
Srinivasan Nithiyanantham (Hyderabad, India); Greta Nölke (Aachen,
Germany); Adriano Nunes-Nesi (Viçosa, Brazil); Shinjiro Ogita (Hiroshima,
Japan); Paul Porter (London, Canada); Jyoti Porwal (Dehradun, India); Suheel
Porwal (Dehradun, India); Marc Possmayer (Ottawa, Canada); Nurhidayah
Syahira Muhammad Radzi (Hiroshima, Japan); Lingaraj Sahoo (Guwahati,
India); Renate Scheibe (Osnabrück, Germany); Stefan Schillberg (Aachen,
Germany); Sven Schubert (Gießen, Germany); Jennifer Selinski (Bielefeld,
Germany); Kuldeep Singh (Mullana, India); Raman Singh (Mullana, India);
Marleen Steinbach (Gießen, Germany); Beth Szyszka-Mroz (London, Canada);
Lam-Son Phan Tran (Kanagawa, Japan); Yuan-Yeu Yau (Broken Arrow, USA);
Agustin Zsögön (Viçosa, Brazil).
We also acknowledge figures reproduced from papers listed below: Espaux, L.,
Mendez-Perez, D., Li, R. and Keasling, J. D. (2015) Synthetic biology for microbial
production of lipid-based biofuels. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 29:58–65.

xvii
xviii Acknowledgments

Figure was reproduced under license no. 4652791194061 (Figs. 2.1 and 2.4); Zhang,
Y. P. (2015) Production of biofuels and biochemicals by in vitro synthetic
biosystems: Opportunities and challenges. Biotechnology Advances 33(7):1467–
1483. Figure was reproduced under license no. 4652950482642 (Fig. 2.2); Albers,
S. C., Berklund, A. M., and Graff, G. D. (2016) The rise and fall of innovation in
biofuels. Nature Biotechnology 34(8):814–821. Figure was reproduced under
license number 4642520128912 (Fig. 2.3a–d); Nielsen, J. and Keasling, J. D.
(2016) Engineering Cellular Metabolism. Cell 164(6):1185–1197. Figure was
reproduced under license no. 4666911059117 (Fig. 2.5); Jagadevan, S., Banerjee,
A., Banerjee, C., Guria, C., Tiwari, R. and Baweja, M. (2018) Biotechnology for
Biofuels: Recent developments in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering in
microalgae towards biofuel production. Biotechnology for Biofuels 11:1–21. Used
under Creative Commons license (Fig. 2.6); Liao, J. C., Mi, L., Pontrelli, S. and Luo,
S. (2016). Fuelling the future: microbial engineering for the production of sustain-
able biofuels. Nature Review Microbiology 14(5):288–304. Figure was reproduced
under license no. 4645730007098 from Rights Link (Fig. 2.7); Alper, H. and
Stephanopoulos, G. (2009) Engineering for biofuels: exploiting innate microbial
capacity or importing biosynthetic potential, Nature Reviews Microbiology 7:715–
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license no. 46456400840514 (Figs. 2.8 and 11.1); Peralta-Yahya P.P. et al. (2012)
Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels. Nature 488:320–
328. Reproduced under license no. 4643340791481 (Figs. 2.9 and 2.10); Su, H., Lin,
J. and Wang, G. (2016) Metabolic engineering of Corynebacterium crenatium for
enhancing the production of higher alcohols. Scientific Reports 6:39543. Open
Access. Used under Creative Commons license (Fig. 2.11); Zhang, Y. P. (2015)
Production of biofuels and biochemicals by in vitro synthetic biosystems:
Opportunities and challenges. Biotechnology Advances 33(7):1467–1483.
Reproduced under license no. 4652950482642 (Fig. 2.12); Liao, J. C., Mi, L.,
Pontrelli, S. and Luo, S. (2016) Fuelling the future: microbial engineering for the
production of sustainable biofuels. Nature Review Microbiology 14(5):288–304.
Reproduced under license no. 4645730007098 (Fig. 11.2); Martien J.I. and
Amador-Noguez D. (2017) Recent applications of metabolomics to advance micro-
bial biofuel production. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 43:118–126. Reproduced
under license no. 4666750205840 (Fig. 11.3); Jones, J.A., Ö. Duhan Toparlak and
Mattheos AG Koffas (2015) Metabolic pathway balancing and its role in the
production of biofuels and chemicals. Current Opinion in Biotechnology 33:52–
59. Reproduced with permission no. 4671031226483 (Fig. 11.4); Peralta-Yahya,
P. P., Ouellet, M., Chan, R., Mukhopadhyay, A., Keasling, J. D. and Lee, T. S.
(2011) Identification and microbial production of a terpene-based advanced biofuel.
Nature Communications 2:483–488. This is an open-access article distributed under
the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
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Nielsen, J. (2019) Lipid engineering combined with systematic metabolic engineer-
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Acknowledgments xix

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1483. Reproduced under license no. 4652950482642 (Fig. 11.10); Jagadevan, S.,
Banerjee, A., Banerjee, C., Guria, C., Tiwari, R. and Baweja, M. (2018) Biotechnol-
ogy for Biofuels Recent developments in synthetic biology and metabolic engineer-
ing in microalgae towards biofuel production. Biotechnology for Biofuels 11:1–21.
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P. (2012) Exploiting diversity and synthetic biology for the production of algal
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We would like to thank the Springer Nature for publishing the book and the
support from Dr. Akansha Tyagi of Springer Nature for guiding us through the
process and brings out this book so nicely.

University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India Ashwani Kumar

Broken Arrow, OK, USA Yuan-Yeu Yau
Hiroshima, Japan Shinjiro Ogita
Osnabrück, Germany Renate Scheibe
Jan 2020
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Ashwani Kumar, Yuan-Yeu Yau, Shinjiro Ogita, and Renate Scheibe

Part I Photosynthesis and Biomass Production Under Changing World

2 Climate Change: Challenges to Reduce Global Warming and Role
of Biofuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Ashwani Kumar
3 The Multifaceted Connections Between Photosynthesis and
Respiratory Metabolism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Paula da Fonseca-Pereira, Willian Batista-Silva, Adriano Nunes-Nesi,
Agustin Zsögön, and Wagner L. Araújo
4 Regulatory Principles of Energy Fluxes and Their Impact
on Custom-Designed Plant Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Johannes Knuesting, Renate Scheibe, and Jennifer Selinski
5 Strategies to Enhance Photosynthesis for the Improvement of
Crop Yields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Greta Nölke and Stefan Schillberg
6 Photosynthetic Acclimation and Adaptation to Cold Ecosystems . . . 159
Norman P. A. Hüner, Alexander G. Ivanov, Marina Cvetkovska,
Beth Szyszka, Marc Possmayer, and Paul Porter
7 What Is the Limiting Factor? The Key Question for Grain Yield
of Maize as a Renewable Resource Under Salt Stress . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Birgit W. Hütsch, Stephan Jung, Marleen Steinbach,
and Sven Schubert

Part II Microalgae and Engineered Crops for Production of Biofuels

and High-Value Products
8 Bioproduction from Microalgal Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Osamu Iwata and Keiichi Mochida

xxi
xxii Contents

9 Hydrogen Photoproduction in Green Algae: Novel Insights

and Future Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Martina Jokel, Sergey Kosourov, and Yagut Allahverdiyeva
10 Synthetic Biofuels and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Jyoti Porwal, Suheel K. Porwal, Raman Singh, and Kuldeep Singh
11 Synthetic Biology and Future Production of Biofuels and
High-Value Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Ashwani Kumar

Part III Genetic Resources and Engineering Methods to Improve

Crop Plants
12 Kinetics Genetics and Heterosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
James A. Birchler
13 Genome Information Resources to Improve Plant Biomass
Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Keiichi Mochida and Lam-Son Phan Tran
14 RNA Interference: For Improving Traits and Disease
Management in Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Sanjeev Kumar, Avishek Dey, Yuan-Yeu Yau, Mona Easterling,
and Lingaraj Sahoo
15 Current Transformation Methods for Genome-Editing
Applications in Energy Crop Sugarcane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Chakravarthi Mohan, J. Ashwin Narayan, Mona Esterling,
and Yuan-Yeu Yau
16 Development of Transgenic Sugarcane for Insect Resistance . . . . . . 389
J. Ashwin Narayan, Chakravarthi Mohan, Mona Esterling,
and Yuan-Yeu Yau
17 Rapid Agrobacterium-Mediated Transformation of Tobacco
Cotyledons Using Toothpicks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Yuan-Yeu Yau, Mona Easterling, and Lindsey Brennan
18 Genetic Improvement of Jatropha curcas L. Through
Conventional and Biotechnological Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Sujatha Mulpuri and Srinivasan Nithiyanantham
19 Plant Cell Manipulation Technology for Biorefinery . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Most Tanziman Ara, Nurhidayah Syahira Muhammad Radzi,
Misaki Nishibe, and Shinjiro Ogita
Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Ashwani Kumar is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (Germany) and Professor

Emeritus, Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India. He initially
worked with Professor Dr. K. H. Neumann at the Institute of Plant Nutrition, Justus
Liebig University Giessen, Germany, on the photosynthetic apparatus in vitro and in
vivo, and subsequently with Professor Dr. Sven Schubert on the physiology and role
of enzymes in salinity stress resistance with support from an Alexander von
Humboldt Fellowship. A former JSPS visiting professor to Japan, Dr. Kumar has
published 220 research papers and 23 books. Currently, he is the President of the
Indian Botanical Society.

Yuan-Yeu Yau (aka Frank Yau) received his B.Sc. in Botany from National
Taiwan University (NTU) in Taiwan, and received his Master and Ph.D. from the
University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. He subsequently worked at the University
of California Berkeley and the Plant Gene Expression Center (USDA-ARS) in
Albany (California, USA); the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Full Professor); and
Northeastern State University (Oklahoma, USA). His work focuses on developing
clean-gene technologies using microbial site-specific recombination (SSR). He has
also worked on cotton transformation and the production of anti-stroke drugs using
molecular farming. He is an active member of Research Gate, a professional network
for scientists and researchers.

Shinjiro Ogita has over two decades of experience in the field of plant biotechnol-
ogy. In 1992, he began his research career as a master student at the Graduate School
of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), Japan. In
1997, he received his Ph.D. in Agriculture from the United Graduate School of
Agriculture, TUAT, Japan. He is an expert on cell and tissue cultures, and on
transformation technologies for higher plants. He is currently a full professor and
director of the Field Sciences Center, Prefectural University of Hiroshima (PUH),
Japan.

xxiii
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Alpine notes
and the climbing foot
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
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laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Alpine notes and the climbing foot

Author: George Wherry

Release date: April 10, 2024 [eBook #73368]

Language: English

Original publication: Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes, 1896

Credits: Sonya Schermann and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file
was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ALPINE NOTES

AND THE CLIMBING FOOT ***
ALPINE NOTES AND THE
CLIMBING FOOT

W. ALOIS KALBERMATTEN. XAVER IMSENG. A. B.

Alpine Notes
&
 The Climbing Foot

By
George Wherry
MA., M.C.Cantab., F.R.C.S.
Surgeon to Addenbrooke’s Hospital,
Cambridge; University Lecturer in
Surgery; Member of the Alpine Club

Cambridge: Macmillan & Bowes

1896
 PREFACE
The following pages were mostly written with pencil in the railway
train when the writer was returning from Alpine holidays. The letters
were published in the Cambridge Chronicle as a record of the
mountaineering season, and extend over the past five years.
A few serious remarks on the climbing foot, and on accidents, are
added separately, and little attempt has been made to retouch these
yearly letters. Being “touched for the evil” has been known,
according to the court wags, to kill a feeble son of Tom Esmond’s.
There being little but evil in the lad’s composition, the royal touch
which expelled the evil from the patient was a fatal performance.
Fearing it might prove so for my poor tracts, they remain much as
they were originally printed. Only of this I feel assured, that similar
notes, put into my hands when I began climbing, would have been
read by me with avidity.
If one of these papers be found now and then somewhat
technical, and to savour of another craft, more useful even than
mountaineering, that possible usefulness must be my excuse for
these digressions.
The series of pictures to illustrate the chapter on the climbing foot
I hope will prove of interest. Mr. Stearn, the photographer, of Bridge
Street, Cambridge, has caught the expression in the infant’s foot,
which I kept in position with my finger, and the remarkable
adaptation of the tiny infant’s foot for climbing and all-four
progression is very well shown; also those by Captain Abney of the
Swiss guides have come out exceedingly well.
These notes may be found acceptable to any novitiate, who, after
making his first climb, can feel what Meredith’s hero in The Amazing
Marriage so well expresses to his comrade:
 “I shall never forget the walk we’ve had. I have to thank you for
the noblest of pleasures. You’ve taught me—well, a thousand things;
the things money can’t buy. What mornings they were! and the
dead-tired nights! Under the rock, and up to see the snowy peak
pink in a gap of thick mist. You were right: it made a crimsoning
colour shine like a new idea. Up in those mountains one walks with
the divinities, you said. It’s perfectly true. I shall remember I did. I
have a treasure for life! Now I understand where you get your ideas.
The life we lead down there is hoggish. You have chosen the right.”
A small matter will suggest pleasant memories of mountaineering
to those (harmless degenerates, according to Max Nordau) who see
the Mer de Glace in every frozen puddle, as a child sees pictures in
the fire.
Many a man helping a dish of Devonshire junket on his table,
thinking of Forbes’s viscous theory, watches for the place opposite
the first gap made by the spoon, where in the junket there forms a
chasm parallel with the side, still leaving a fringe or shelf attached to
the edge of the dish—for him at the moment that crack is a
bergschrund—there he finds at one point a bridge convenient for
crossing, at another an impossible yawning crevasse.
Such a man will not find these notes dull, for he can enjoy the
plainest junket, and though he finds recorded few new things, yet
pleasant thoughts will be suggested of the past, and infinite
possibilities for the future.
Cambridge, May 1, 1896.
 CONTENTS
PAGE
An Alpine Letter, 1895, 1
Mountaineering in Dauphiné, 1894, 19
Switzerland and Savoy in 1893, 42
An Alpine Letter, 1892, 67
A Month upon the Mountains, 1891, 93
On the Climbing Foot, 119
On Accidents, 145
Index, 168
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Group of Climbers, Frontispiece
“The New Route,” Vignette
A Regiment of Larches advancing on Veteran Pines, 6
Melchior Anderegg, 1895, 16
Sketch Map of the Highest Point of the Dauphiné, 20
Les Ecrins from the Glacier Blanc, 26
Group of Climbers, 32
La Meije from the Val des Etançons, 36
Icebergs stranded on the bed of the Märjelen See, 80
Old Stone Bridge at Saas Fée, 108
Foot of an Infant Five Weeks Old, showing the Instep
touching the Shin on slight pressure of the Finger, 122
Foot of an Infant Five Weeks Old, touched with the Finger
to show the Angle of the Foot with the Leg and the
Prehensile Toes, 124
Foot of an Infant Five Weeks Old. The Instep is made to
touch the Shin by slight pressure of the finger, 126
Foot of an Infant nearly a Year Old—
First Position, 128
Second Position, 130
Guide’s Foot in Climbing Position against the Shoehorn
Rock at Zermatt (Alois Kalbermatten), 134
Do. (Peter Perren), 136
Guide’s Foot, to show the Angle made by the Foot with the
Leg without pressure, 138
Do., Another Position, 140
Foot of Experienced Amateur, 143
Act of Sitting Down, using only One Limb—
First Position, 142
Second Position, 144
 ALPINE NOTES

An Alpine Letter
1895
Training at Kandersteg—Climbing the south face of the Birrenhorn—The viper’s
cast—The larches replacing the pines—The ascent of the Doldenhorn—The
Petersgrat—The ascent of the Bietschhorn—An interesting anniversary ascent
—Ascent of Monte Rosa by the Lys Pass—Cold feet on the glacier—The
Furggen Joch—Accident to a guide—Traverse of the Matterhorn—Naked feet
of guides photographed in climbing position—The Traverse of the Charmoz—
Farewell to Melchior—Lines to my lantern.

Every one should try to be in good training once a year, and

experience has confirmed my opinion that Kandersteg, in the
Bernese Oberland, is a good place to train for a climbing holiday.
There the expeditions are interesting enough without being too
serious. The enervating effect of what is ironically called carriage
exercise, which only exercises the carriage, and does nothing for the
man inside, must be gradually counteracted by hard work in fine air.
Also it must be remembered that as one grows older, training is
more difficult, and too often hurried in the process.
With a friend of former years, our first little climb up the
Tschingellochtighorn resulted in a ducking, and for myself it must be
confessed that the bodily fatigue of the first tug up steep slopes
hardly permits of the usual interests and enjoyments of the way.
Now it is rather sad to reflect upon those two black sluggish lizards
that I was too lazy to collect, and that a fine crop of yellow Gentians
were merely noticed without pleasure. Climbing the
Tschingellochtigrat—a yellow Gentian it was that: and very little
more.
 Every struggle makes the next more easy—at first it is a purgatory
for the pie-crust of the past year, then the later labour is all delight.
Mr. M., that veteran climber, hailed me on my arrival at Kandersteg
with a shout: with him was his son, already at sixteen well
experienced in mountain craft, and the well-beloved Melchior
Anderegg. Mr. M. says “a man is always at his best on the Alps,” and
surely this is true; his body is most freed from disorder, and his mind
from cant, as he climbs away from all the worries of life.
We had an expedition together, a pretty climb up the steep south
face of the Birrenhorn; on our way up to the rock we killed an adder.
Near this spot last year I found a perfect viper’s cast (eye-covers and
lips also quite entire). It is now in the Cambridge Museum, and
proves that Gilbert White is correct in his statement that the snake’s
cast is turned completely inside out. Here too are a great number of
large white snails like escargots—“O helix infelix tui quam miseresco
sine sheetis aut blankets dormientis al fresco.”
As my friend had made with me this same ascent last year, we
were allowed to lead the way up, and had a nice scramble, notes of
which are to be found in the Alpine Journal, and seen on a later
page. This excursion gives a good view of the forests of the two
valleys seen from many points above the Kander stream and
Oeschinen See. No one can fail to note, when once attention is
aroused to it, how the larch is gaining ground in the struggle for
existence, and the pine is rapidly diminishing. Rarely does one see a
young Arolla pine, and the old trees are picturesque ruins. In the
Arolla valley the same observation may be made, and there are
decaying stumps of trees, 200 or 300 years old, remaining high up,
near the glaciers, where once a forest stood. A great advantage the
larch has in being a deciduous tree, shedding its thin and spiky
leaves every winter, and riding out the storm with bare poles, when
the pine holds on its evergreen branches a great weight of snow,
and presents a large surface for the tempest to burst upon.
When these pine trees stand together collecting snow, more
opportunities for avalanches occur, and ruin is scattered on the
forest beneath. The lovely green tints of the sprouting larches in
Spring will bring us some compensation if the pines are to be lost.

A REGIMENT OF LARCHES ADVANCING ON VETERAN PINES.

According to Mr. Sowerby, in his Forest Cantons, the larches
always choose the crystalline rocks, while the pines prefer the
limestone.
Starting from the Hotel at half-past one in the morning, we had a
roasting hot day on that beautiful snow-peak, the Doldenhorn. With
Hari as guide, we followed a large swinging oil-lamp, instead of the
usual lantern, and toiled up through jungle, to find the snow all fresh
and soft; lovely to look upon, but wearisome to travel up; a long ice-
slope at the top gave rest to all except our leader, who had to cut
steps to the final corniced ridge; there we held him with the rope in
leaning over to judge whether we might safely sit down upon the
summit.
On our departure from Kandersteg, a lady and her husband joined
us in a delightful walk over the Petersgrat. We rested a night at the
Selden châlets in the hay, giving the lady the only bed of the place,
and, starting the next morning early, had an easy day over that
beautiful glacier pass, arriving at Ried in the Lötschen Thal in a
broiling sun. Nothing more was then known of those two poor
fellows who went for their last climb a few weeks before, left the
little inn and never returned.
My companion had come with me to ascend the Bietschhorn, and
we found it a first-rate climb, requiring continual care because of the
rotten state of the rock arête. Every stone has to be tested before
the weight is allowed to rest upon it, and the movements over the
ridge must be lovingly and embracingly made without jerk or hurry.
In Alpine slang the mountain is badly in need of repair. We were on
the summit during an earthquake, of which we felt nothing, though
at Zermatt there was considerable alarm, and a climber on the
Rothhorn is reported to have had to sit tight as though on a bucking
horse!
Next day we walked down to the Rhone valley, and came to
Zermatt with our guides, Alois Kalbermatten and Peter Perren. Here
again Mr. M. was actively at work with Melchior, and as he came
down from Monte Rosa, he told me how pleased he was to have
made an anniversary ascent of a mountain he had climbed forty
years ago!
 We made for the highest point of Monte Rosa by starting from the
hut by lantern-light, and going up the glacier as if to cross the Lys
Joch, then taking a rock arête to the summit, we descended by the
usual snowy route to the Gorner glacier, and so back to Zermatt. My
feet had been very cold on the glacier; the mass of nails carried,
unless the soles of the boots be very thick, chills the feet as the iron
gets cold upon the ice, and in this respect there is more to say for
Mummery spikes, which carry the feet slightly off the ice. F.
Andenmatten, of Zermatt, made such a successful improvement in
clumping my boots, that he obtained an order for another pair on
the spot, and I believe him to be an artist of the first rank for
climbing boots.
On our next climb, in crossing the Furggen Joch to reach the
Italian hut above the Col du Lion, on the Italian side of the
Matterhorn, we had an awkward adventure. Perren was helping a
porter, who carried up wood for us, over the bergschrund, and was
leaning forwards to reach him with his axe, when down came a
stone from above—“a bolt from the blue” and struck poor Perren on
the head. The blood ran over his face and gave him a ghastly look.
The blow did not result in ordinary shock, it only excited him so that
he would not sit down to have his hurt dressed, but shouted out a
noisy account of the accident. Fortunately I had an antiseptic
dressing and bandage in my rücksack, and though he had a nasty
torn wound of the scalp, I decided to proceed at least as far as the
hut, though it was five hours’ hard climb, and I felt doubtful as to
whether he would be fit to traverse the Matterhorn in the morning.
The main object of our expedition was to climb over the top of the
mountain from Italy and down the Swiss side to Zermatt. However,
when day broke he wished to proceed, and assured me that he
could manage the climbing. Rather than risk the success of the
expedition, I offered to come down with him, and pay him the same
price, but he would not hear of it, and the other guide being quite
confident, with some misgiving I went over the mountain with the
wounded man. My fear was of brandy combined with a hot sun, and
images arose before me of a strong man delirious on the awful
precipices of this south side of the Matterhorn. It was very soon
apparent that my guide’s powers were fully equal to his work, for
our party went strongly and at a fair pace. We had breakfast and
rested half an hour on the classic rocks of the Tyndallgrat, and
reached the summit in less than five hours from the start, the
second time we have stood together on that snowy ridge which
crowns the majestic mountain. “Long Biner,” a Zermatt guide, who
came up with a party from the other side, here told us of the death
of Emile Rey, and we were filled with wonder that the famous
climber should have ended his career by a fatal slip when all his
serious work was done on the Aiguille du Géant—a mountain which
he knew so well.
Returning to the Monte Rosa Hotel for a rest, I was fortunate in
falling in with Captain Abney, who kindly photographed for me the
naked feet of my guides in the act of climbing a rock. It has often
been noticed that a guide can go face forward, and whole-footed up
a slope, while the amateur following, and coming to the steep part,
has to go on his toes or turn sideways. It seems possible that the
angle made by the foot with the leg may be more acute in the guide
who has climbed from infancy, and though it is probably very much a
matter of balance, I wished to compare photographs of amateurs’
feet when put into similar action. The guides wear thick leather
boots loosely laced at the top, so that it is difficult to see the play of
the ankle.
There is a most interesting discussion by Darwin, in his voyage of
the Beagle, on muscular action and balance in riding, but of course
in the case of the guides’ feet there may be some structural
difference, hereditary and acquired, actually permitting more
freedom of movement at the ankle joint, which neither muscular
action nor power of balance could give to the amateur. These points
are separately considered in another chapter on the “Climbing Foot.”
On a memorable morning at the end of August, the morning of
Miss Sampson’s fatal accident upon the Triftjoch, while we were
packing up to travel over that same pass, my friend had a telegram
to report the death of his mother at Chamounix. It was his first great
grief, and seemed the one unbearable thing in life. With him I
travelled to join his afflicted family. The sorrow of others thus threw
a strong shadow over me, and my friend having gone to England, I
had now little heart for further climbing.
Nevertheless, taking my guides to Montanvers I traversed the
Charmoz, a very fine rock climb, in which five points of varying size
are scrambled over. There is a good deal of standing on one
another’s shoulders in acrobatic fashion in the ascents, and the use
is frequent of a second rope looped over a point of rock in the
descents. The highest peak is the last climbed, and its couloir is
descended to the base of the rock to join the route below the couloir
of the first ascent. The glacier which it is necessary to cross is, this
year, in a dangerous state; falls of ice are seriously frequent. When
on the highest point of the Charmoz, the most awful avalanche of
stones came thundering down from near the top of the adjacent
Grépon. The noise was deafening, and a strong sulphurous smell,
which lasted some time afterwards, suggested, as Whymper says,
that the Devil was at the bottom of the business.
 MELCHIOR ANDEREGG, 1895.
FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MR. MYLES MATHEWS.
Wandering into Couttets’ Hotel at Chamounix quite without
intention, I witnessed a touching farewell between Mr. M. and
Melchior. To see an undemonstrative Englishman kiss his grey-
bearded old guide on both cheeks, when these two have climbed
together for forty years, gives one suddenly a glimpse of the pathos
of life impossible to recall without emotion.
Beautiful for weather, dreadful for disasters, this season will be
remembered as the year in which Emile Rey was killed on the Alps,
and Mummery lost in the Himalayas. All who knew the strong and
genial Benjamin Eyre have felt his loss, and he was a man with
many friends. Then alas! there were others to whom we say farewell
for ever.
For this season I have said good-bye to my faithful guides, one of
whom is a friend of many other climbs, giving them a modest
addition to their moderate fees and the old rope, which I leave
behind. My folding lantern shall come away with me for future use; it
shuts up into a leather case no larger than the little sketch-book in
which I write the following somewhat heathenish, but very hopeful
hymn:
Guide, who breaks my midnight sleep,
Leads me up the glacier steep,
Where the lantern’s feeble beams
Shine on snow and icy streams;
We fear no darkness in the night
While your strong hand controls the light.

Dawn will for the climber rise,

Daylight point him to the skies—
What if all be mist and cloud
When we reach that summit proud?
Who, conquering, can victory cry,
More gladly lives, dreads less to die!

Mighty Guide! who woke and led me here,

Lend Thy light to make my pathway clear.
Though dim at first on Life’s all doubtful way,
The struggle ends in dawn and perfect day;
Obscuring daylight hides my lantern and Thy star,
But purple glows with gold on glorious peaks afar.
 Mountaineering in Dauphiné
1894
Wet weather at Kandersteg—Fly-fishing there—The fisherman’s fear of a precipice
—Birrenhorn ascent—Ascent of the Blümlis-Alphorn—Chateau at Vizille—La
Bérarde in the Dauphiné—Accident to a guide’s tongue—Traverse of the Pointe
des Ecrins—Guide’s hand benumbed—Wild and impressive scenery—Ascent of
the Grande Aiguille—A frost-bitten porter—My ascent of the Meije with a
broken rib—The heel spikes of the district.

The Alps of Dauphiné, which may be said to lie in France between

the Mont Blanc range and the Mediterranean Sea, would be best
approached by Paris, Lyons, and Grenoble, but as my climbing
friend, A. B., was at Kandersteg, I went there to meet him and a
guide, and to stretch my legs on the Swiss mountains. On the first
day after my arrival we inspected, with a view to attack the steep
south face of the Birrenhorn, and surmounted the only difficulty of
the climb, a steep chimney where a rope is useful to avoid risk. We
planned to complete the ascent on the first fine day. On this little
mountain I found the most perfect snake’s cast I ever saw, which I
gave to Professor Newton. Its head end was in the hole where its
owner got rid of it. The films over the eyes were present, and by
blowing into the mouth I could inflate the cast to a lively
resemblance of the creature it had covered.
 MAP OF THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS IN THE DAUPHINÉ.
Walker & Bontall sc.
The weather in the Bernese Oberland was very bad, every day it
rained in the valleys and snowed on the peaks; on any expedition
one was sure to get wet, and mountains of any magnitude were
impossible. With a Surgeon-Major on leave from India I took a turn
at fly-fishing, not in the glacier water of the Kander, but in a pretty
stream with pools, where the trout, though small, would rise to a fly.
His Himalayan experience made the Surgeon-Major anxious to stock
the glacier torrents of Switzerland with Mahsir, a fish more powerful
than the salmon, whose first wild rush on tasting the hook gives
such a fierce joy to the sportsman.
My companion, who was a strong walker, described to me his
horrible sensations at the sight of a precipice. He told me that his
father, though he had shot game in the Himalayas, could never
overcome this fear. If the idea of space was absent my friend could
climb well, but I gathered that horizontal as well as vertical distance
was concerned, because he could not comfortably eat his lunch on a
flat platform of an acre of grassland when there were miles of
country far distant below and beyond. Mountain climbing for him
was out of the question, his condition was almost that of one
suffering from agoraphobia or la peur des espaces.
We engaged Joseph Truffer as guide, and as soon as he joined us
we completed the Birrenhorn expedition. It was a satisfaction to me
to find that he did not climb the couloir easily or at the first attempt,
but we had a good scramble on an interesting arête rather like the
Portjengrat, in which there is a rock hole or window to crawl
through. We went home by a long route up by way of the Ober-
Oeschinen Alp, and got thoroughly wet as usual.
To climb the Blümlis-Alphorn, the highest point of the range, we
slept out at a hut, which was unluckily occupied by workmen, who
were building another hut close by. Our night in dirty straw was not
so pleasant in dirty company, and the early morning was dark and
threatening; we started however at 4.30, led by Joseph Hari, a local
man. After crossing the glacier he took us over some smooth slabs
of rock arranged like a slated roof and coated with ice to make us
careful. These safely crossed, Truffer took the lead, and up the final
steep everything was ice wherein steps had to be laboriously cut to
the summit. We stood on the top at 10 o’clock, but saw little of our
surrounding glories, except occasionally a brief glance round through
the mists while standing perched in an ice step. The weather ended
up in snow, which shut us in on the glacier below, and made us
thankful to be well off the ice, and safely quit of a mountain which,
though usually an easy climb, could assert itself seriously in a storm.
Taking Truffer with us, A. B. and I travelled to Dauphiné; we spent
a few hours at Grenoble to see the old church and the Bayard
statue. While at lunch at the Hotel Monnet I admired the oak wine
jugs, which are called there “Brocs.” There is a charming old chateau
at Vizille, with a lovely trout stream in the grounds full of big fish.
The tennis court no longer stands in which in 1788 a memorable
meeting took place to protest against the tax. The late President
Carnot unveiled a statue in 1888 in memory of this Revolutionary
event and slept at the chateau as the guest of Madame Casimir-
Périer. The old soldier who took us round showed an oubliette in the
old part of the building—beneath its horrible shaft he had seen
armour-coated skeletons dug up.

LES ECRINS FROM THE GLACIER BLANC.

We walked up to La Bérarde, a mule carrying our baggage.
Immediately on my arrival I was told of an awkward accident which
had just happened. Two parties were ascending a slope of ice when
the last man of the first caravan slipped out of his step and sent his
iron-shod heel into the jaw of the leader of the second caravan, who
was too near. Poor Maximin Gaspard got a bad torn wound of his
tongue, cut by his teeth, which I had to stitch up with silk and
horse-hair. As he was in fine health the wound healed well, and in a
few days, in fact, as soon as ever he could feed, he was climbing
again. Maximin’s father, Pierre Gaspard, is the fine old fellow who
has made so many first ascents in these districts, and still makes the
great climbs.
The highest mountain in the Dauphiné, is the Pointe des Ecrins,
13,462 feet, its summit is a ridge of several beautiful points of snow
and rock. With Hippolyte Rodier to assist Truffer we started to
traverse this peak. We met on the way to the Challeret hut, a native
with a dead sheep on his shoulders; it had been killed by a stone
falling from the height above, and no doubt was to be made into
“precipice mutton.” After sleeping a few hours at the hut we got off
at 1.30 in the morning, over the glacier to the Col des Avalanches.
Rodier led us to the couloir on the south face, and we began to
crawl up; this was a rock couloir, which at a steep part was iced and
caused some delay. Our leader, however, got up to a firm position
and I followed, but no one else came, and looking down I saw
Truffer wringing his hands and in distress. He explained that his right
hand was frost-bitten and he could not proceed; nevertheless, he
was pulled up by the help of the rope, and finding from the
appearance of the hand and from the pain, which is really a good
sign of reaction, that recovery was sufficient, we decided to proceed,
with some misgiving on my part. We gained the highest part of the
Ecrins about 10 o’clock. There was a great deal of fresh snow on the
arête, and in coming down to the glacier Blanc on the north side we
worked hard for five hours without a halt to reach the Col des Ecrins.
Here we rested and then descended a couloir of 1,000 feet to the
glacier de la Bonne Pierre, with its long and dreary moraine. There is
a measurement station on this moraine to register the movements of
the glacier, and here we found a marmot recently killed, its flesh
almost entirely eaten, the entrails strewn around. An eagle’s feather
on the body suggested the mode of death. The sight of the sheep
killed by a stone, and still more the beautiful furry marmot killed by
an eagle, added in a strange way to the savagery of the scene. In
this wild region stern Nature seems to cry, “I care for nothing, all
shall go.” We had a long walk home, the last half-hour by lantern
light, having been eighteen hours over our expedition.
 We wished next to traverse the Meije from La Bérarde to La Grave,
which neither of our guides had ever done, so it seemed best to let
Truffer go back to Switzerland, lest on a serious expedition his hand
should fail him again and its recovery be delayed. His helpless
condition in the iced couloir was explained by the fact that months
before he had been ill with a bad hand, and its vitality had been
impaired by what was probably a previous attack of frost-bite.
Before his departure we had a lovely day on the Grande Aiguille; on
the top we basked and slept in the sun after a lunch of tinned fruits
and bread and butter. There is a little ice and snow requiring care on
this beautiful peak, but we climbed it up and down without a rope,
and here we passed over the slope where the tongue accident
occurred.
One evening I was aware of a pain in my chest, especially when I
laughed, and I was reminded that at Easter I had broken a rib—in
climbing to the top of a cromlech on Dartmoor called “The Spinster’s
Rock,” but the bone seemed to have mended in spite of some
neglect, and was forgotten until my compass box in the breast
pocket jammed against the hurt in some scramble and found out the
weak point. I was warned by pains in certain movements of the
arms against any attempt to traverse the Meije, and very sadly I had
to see my friend take off our guides for a successful expedition; for
though with a suitable bandage on my chest I was quite active, yet
could not pull myself up by my arms in climbing.
JOSEPH TURC. PIERRE GASPARD. MATHON. HIPPOLYTE RODIER.
 W. HERR VON RATH. A. B. HERR GRISAR.
We had parted from Truffer with mutual regrets, for he was a very
good fellow, and taken on Joseph Turc, a more experienced man
than Rodier, and they worked well together. This Turc had just come
over from La Grave with a porter named Etienne. The latter, a poor
wizened sun-baked little man, had all his finger tips on each hand
blackened with frost-bite; his thumbs had escaped. It appears that a
Frenchman who could not climb well was taken by Turc to traverse
the Meije from La Bérarde. They got no further than the Pic Central,
there they had to spend the night—next day getting into La Grave.
The poor porter was allowed to sleep with his fingers in this bad
state, and come back over a pass to La Bérarde where in the
afternoon I saw him. He had had some pain in the morning of this
day, and this encouraged me to attempt treatment; so during two or
three hours I rubbed him and watched him, and was assisted by my
friend; it was satisfactory to find a considerable improvement,
especially in his right hand, which next morning was even more
apparently improved when the limits of the black dead portions were
more defined—his nails will probably come off, and there will be
ulcerated surfaces on his finger ends, which will be months in
healing. The aspect of this man presented a pitiable combination of
apathy and patience, reminding me of the wolf-bitten Russian
peasants I saw in Pasteur’s laboratory in the Rue D’Ulm years ago.
The guide with the frost-bitten feet, of whom I wrote in my letter
last year, is only now hobbling about with sticks, the wounds of his
amputated toes still unhealed, so much is the process of repair
hindered in tissues damaged by frost-bite.
What I call determination, but my friends describe as obstinacy,
now induced me, after three days’ rest, to climb the Meije, 13,081
feet. It is a serious rock climb, decidedly stiffer than the Matterhorn,
and I did not attempt the traverse, but it was an error of judgment
to have climbed it in my crippled condition. Doubtless the fine air,
which makes a man laugh so easily, and makes the careworn light-
hearted, steals away the reason like champagne—making the old
man seem young—so the poet writes—
“The plague of guide and chum, and wife and daughter
Is Senex who will climb and didn’t oughter.”
 LA MEIJE FROM THE VAL DES ETANÇONS.
My friend having returned to rest from his expeditions I took off
the guides for the ascent of the Meije. We walked up the valley and
halted at the hut. Joseph Turc wanted to put his skin of wine,
containing over five bottles, into my rücksack, and we had a
difference, as I objected to his claret leaking into my shirts, so he
had to carry it separately; it was quite an easy matter, as I had a
porter to carry my sleeping bag to a rock gîte where the night was
to be passed, a climb of several hours. On reaching the glacier,
Joseph and I being in front of the others, who carried the rope, he
asked me if I was afraid to go over the glacier. Probably he meant
without the rope. I said it was what I had come for; but when we
began to get to steep ice I found he did not cut steps, and as he had
three large spikes in each of his heels he could go where I could not
follow without using my axe vigorously. He then said he could not
cut the steps because of his wine skin, and thus I was left either to
cut on up all the slopes or carry his skin. After a little hesitation I
offered to carry the wine for fear of hurting my rib, and I carried it
up to the sleeping place, though I did not find the steps cut much
better after his burden was removed.
We went to sleep under the stars on a lovely night, but the day
broke dark and gloomy, so that it was half-past four before we could
start. We roped at once, leaving the porter to take the things back,
and Turc led, but instead of placing me second I was left to the last.
With my own rope of 80 feet long it happened frequently that the
men passed out of sight, and I had no sort of communication with
them unless I chose to pull and shout. But this is well enough when
going straight up. It is a difficult corner or traverse where the
position is a bad one; the experts who have been on their own
mountain before, leave the traveller alone to get round his corner as
best he can. “In medio tutissimus ibis,” is a good motto.
I gained the summit at nine o’clock, but just at the final struggle,
where it is necessary to straddle on a sharp red rock ridge, called
the “cheval rouge,” with fine precipices below, my rib gave way, and
went completely broken through. In spite of firm bandaging, the
coming down was a painful experience, for I could feel and even
hear the ends of the broken bone grating together; but I kept at it,
going down steadily and slowly with groans and grunts. The guides
sang and shouted and drowned my feeble exclamations. They had
had a good feed with tinned peaches and plenty of wine on the top
when we rested, and it seemed to make them very happy. They
carried seven bottles of wine on this expedition, besides each man a
flask of brandy, and as I do most of my climbing on cold tea, they
had a good allowance.
Joseph Turc is a real genius at rock climbing, a truly brilliant
performer; but on ice, as he can’t cut steps, another time I should
get spikes or crampons. The guides here use three spikes in each
heel, driven in, fixed by gomphosis, not like the Mummery spikes
with a screw.