80 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



scending from above. The first catastrophe resulting from 

 adventure upon Mont Blanc left three guides buried in 

 the Grand Crevasse. It was in 1820 (August 19). Dr. 

 Hamel, a Russian naturalist, accompanied by two En- 

 glishmen, Messrs. Durnford and Henderson, and eight 

 guides, had imprudently forced his guides to proceed from 

 the Grands Mulcts on the morning of a da}^ threatening 

 stormy weather. They pursued the direct route, and had 

 safely crossed the Grand Crevasse. They were climbing 

 the last ascent. They were pursuing a zigzag course, in 

 single file, about 600 feet above the Grand Crevasse. The 

 freshly fallen snow was about 15 inches deep. Suddenly 

 it began to slide down the steep descent. One of the guides 

 had the presence of mind and muscular strength to force 

 his baton in the old snow underneath the new and main- 

 tain his position, while the avalanche passed by. The oth- 

 ers were thrown from their feet and borne aloncr with 

 accelerating velocity toward the pit which opened at the 

 foot of the slope. Three of the guides were buried there, 

 beneath 200 feet of snow which poured in upon them. 

 The others escaped. 



The unfortunate guides lost in the Grand Crevasse 

 have furnished mournful testimony to the steady march 

 of the glaciers. Forty-one years afterward (in 1861), on 

 the lower part of the Glacier des Bossons, some dark ob- 

 jects were observed in the ice, gradually approaching 

 nearer and nearer the surface. At length they were re- 

 moved and found to consist of a portfolio, a piece of a 

 pocket diary, a fragment of a bottle, the remains of a 

 spiked alpenstock and a lantern. The entries in the diary 

 remained perfectly legible, and testified to a certainty 

 that these debris had belonged to the unfortunate guides 



