64 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



frenzied, painful pang of disappointment. Bat this was 

 not despair. He offered rewards to the peasants of 

 Chamonix for the discovery of the way to the inaccessi- 

 ble summit. There were many whom the hope of gain 

 impelled to perilous endeavors, one whom the spirit of 

 de Saussure had inspired with a noble and strenuous am- 

 bition. The force of soul succeeded where cupidity had 

 failed. Jacques Balmat, in 1786, climbed bravely to the 

 summit, and stood where human foot had never been 

 placed before. It was only during the next year, how- 

 ever, that De Saussure himself was enabled to follow Bal- 

 mat to the summit and institute the lonsf-soui^ht scien- 

 tific observations.* 



I shall not detain the reader with further prelimina- 

 ries. I hope his appetite is keen for the experiences to 

 which I invite him. Will he go with me over those 

 frightful fields of ice, those yawning gulfs, those dizzy 

 cliffs, those glassy slopes'? Will he venture on those 

 broad plateaux of eternal neige; and, braving cold, and 

 clouds, and snows, and lack of breath, aspire to i)lace his 

 feet where Balmat stood, before the eves of four na- 

 tions France and Switzerland, Germany and Italy? 



Let us, then, seek first a panoramic view of the region 

 which is to be the scene of our labors. A hundred sum- 

 mits gaze full in the face of the snowy monarch of moun- 

 tains; but there is none which faces him so squarely and 

 so boldly as the Brevent. This mountain belongs to the 

 range of the Aiguilles Vertes, on the side of the valley 

 opposite the Mont Blanc group, and the visit to it is one 

 of the favorite excursions from Chamonix. If a view 

 more magnificent or awe-inspiring exists on any part of 

 * De Saussure, Voyages 'dans les Alps, 4 vols., 4to, 



