Entertaining Follow-Up

LAST year I told how a £1.99 purchase in an Oxfam shop in Darlington turned out to be "one of the most entertaining books I have read in a long time."

I am far from being a mountaineer, but I do like travel and especially hiking, so Edward Whymper's Scrambles Amongst The Alps proved a great read.

It prompted me to hunt down his other major tome, Travels Amongst The Great Andes Of The Equator.

The format is much the same - pioneering derring-do, mixed with scientific reportage and a generous helping of dry humour.

My edition of Whymper's Ecuadoran travelogue comes with an appreciation by a modern mountaineer, Eric Shipton, which is a pleasure to read in itself

There is much of interest from a historical perspective, including on page 60, where Whymper refers to an Ecuadorian wearing "a so-called Panama hat."

Now I knew such hats originated in Ecuador, but I understood they received their name after they became commonplace in photos of workers digging the Panama Canal.

But construction of the canal began in 1904 - 24 years after Whymper's South American travels.

On looking into the matter, it seems Panama hats did originally come from Ecuador, and their popularity was boosted by photos of the canal works.

However, Panama was a trade hub long before the canal, and it was the exporting of hats through Panama over many decades that led to their acquiring the name.