Patrick,
I'm confused as to your point.
First, you take great pains to educate me in the use of the semi-colon, claiming that due to punctuation fluency that the "early writers" possessed, Lesley was not referring to the large cross bunker in saying the hole resembles an "Alps".
Then, perhaps you can tell me exactly
what he's referring to that makes the hole "resemble an Alps"? Is it the "tee back in the woods"? Is it the "green background with a high hill covered with grass" that you claimed was identical to the 17th at Prestwick" (which is what you stated
before I posted the picture that showed absolutely NO such feature on the Alps at Prestwick)? No, of course he's talking about the large fronting cross bunker in making his comparison!
Then, you refer to the old 14th at Garden City, and ask why that hole wasn't considered an Alps hole if Lesley's definition is adequate. First, Lesley never declared the old 10th at Merion an "Alps" hole. He said the front bunker
RESEMBLED the same on the Alps at Prestwick.
Second, I'm not sure if Lesley ever wrote anything at all about Garden City, so I can't say whether he would have found any similarities between the front cross bunker at GCGC and the front cross bunker at Prestwick...maybe..maybe not.
Finally, you give up on Lesley altogether in trying to make your points, calling him not only incorrect, but incompetent, as well.
Patrick, I do get your point and agree with you that a true Alps hole, like the 3rd at NGLA, really does need a high hillock intervening between the approach area and the green, and it also needs the large cross bunker, which that one has, similar to 17 at Prestwick in both respects. We AGREE!!
However, not everyone back in the early days, including Raynor, were quite so rigid in their definitions. Many of the "Alps" holes that Raynor built not only didn't cross some large hillock, but weren't blind at all!!
That's why Mr. Lesley, rather than being a complete imbecile, chose to compare the old 10th at Merion with some features of the Alps hole at Prestwick. By most accounts, it was a blind approach, and it featured a large crossing bunker that "resembled" the one at Prestwick... Simple.
From Ran's writeup of Yeaman's Hall;
5th hole, 420 yards, Alps; Yeamans Hall was built at the end of Raynor's career and indeed, Raynor died before the course opened for play. By 1925, though, Raynor had already heard the complaints from a number of memberships about the blind aspect of his Alps holes to the point where here at Yeamans, he merely put in the front Alps bunker (bold mine) and didn't bother with the blind aspect of a conventional Alps hole. Still, this central hazard between the tee and green helps create interest for this flat hole just as the Bottle bunker configuration originally did at the 4th. 
Also, I think George Bahto makes the distinguishing features and their historical usage quite clear during his interview on this site;
Alps' was a term describing a blind shot throughout the British Isles - the original was the 17th at Prestwick. The 3rd at National is an awe-inspiring version. A 'mountain' must be carried on the approach shot to a green fronted by a deep cross bunker. National's Alps is considered an anachronism to some, but students of the classics consider it a wonderful tribute to days gone by. It was the end of the era of blind shots, but C.B could not resist when he found a natural Alps site when building his Ideal Golf Course. Seth Raynor built an Alps on most courses, but they were generally identified as having 'Alps bunkering' - meaning some cross-bunkering in front of the green. Instead of a blind approach over a 'mountain,' Raynor customarily positioned his Alps renditions just over the crest of a rising fairway - then cross-bunkering the green complex. Sadly, many clubs covered in the cross bunker because they did not understand the origin and concept. Alps greens usually had a spine of sorts running through the green to compound putting problems.The bottom line, Patrick, is that any blind shot to a green fronted by a deep cross bunker was called an Alps back then. It later morphed to sometimes mean even holes with just the fronting bunker, as total blindness fell out of fashion.