36 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



Glacier, whicli stretches five and a half miles to the sum- 

 mit of Mont Maudit, gathering into itself all the snows 

 over a vast expanse. The tributary from the left bifur- 

 cates again into Glacier de Lechaud, whose axis is nearly 

 a prolongation of that of the Mer de Glace, and Glacier 

 de Talefre, in the midst of which rises a soil-covered 

 mass of rock (9,143 feet) nine thousand one hundred and 

 fifty feet above the sea, walled in on all sides by moun- 



ft 



tains, and adorned in August with a display of several 

 species of Alpine flowers. It is hence named the Jardin, 

 or Garden. 



From our position we now take a more contemplative 

 survey of the features of the Mer de Glace. " Its surface," 

 says de Saussure, " resembles that of a sea which has 

 become suddenly frozen, not during a tempest, but at 

 the instant when the wind has subsided, and the waves, 

 although very high, have become blunted and rounded. 

 These great waves are nearly parallel to the length of 

 the glacier, and intersected by transverse crevasses, the 

 interior of which appears blue, while the ice is white on 

 its external surface." Montanvert has always been a favor- 

 ite point of observation and study of this glacier. The 

 illustrious Goethe visited the spot in 1779; and he men- 

 tions in his Journal the fact that an Ensflishman named 

 Blaire erected here a hut, from the window of which he 

 and his guests could survey the sea of ice. This hut 

 still exists, and affords accommodation for the guides. A 

 projecting rock is still shown where two other English- 

 men, Windham and Pococke, as early as 1740, found shel- 

 ter durincf the nit^ht. 



We are now rested from our weariness, and, follov/ing 

 the established fashion, we should proceed to cross the 



