90 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



pation. Even a less impulsive and less sentimental trav- 

 eler than De Saussure would feel moved to stamp his 

 foot in a sort of impatient disappointment. 



But the situation, though less abounding in spectacu- 

 lar interest than we may have anticipated, is plentiful 

 in suggestions and reminiscences. This spot has been 

 the goal of a great deal of ambition. Besides the idle and 

 fruitless ambition of the mere curiosity-hunter, science, in 

 the person of De Saussure, labored a quarter of a century 

 to accomplish what is now accomplished by not less than 

 50 tourists and 100 guides annually. De Saussure made 

 a sojourn of two weeks on the rocks of the Col du Geant 

 for the purpose of scientific observation. MM. Charles 

 Martins, Bravais and Lepileur, more daring, planted their 

 tent upon the snow-fields of the Grand Plateau, at an ele- 

 vation of 13,000 feet, and there passed several days. They 

 improvised a floor of fir boards laid upon the snow. One 

 may form an idea of what devotion to science means 

 when informed tliat in that situation the rarefaction 

 of the atmosphere is such that charcoal ceases to burn 

 the moment one ceases to blow it, and that consequently 

 these men, assailed by a terrific snowstorm, had only the 

 flame of a spirit-lamp to keep them company during the 

 night. Their example was followed by Dr. Pitschner, in 

 1859 and in 1861; but he placed his tent at the Grands 

 Mulcts 3,000 feet lower. In 1859 Tyndall and Frank- 

 land, also, spent twenty hours upon the summit, including 

 one entire night. They slept with six porters and three 

 guides under a light tent upon the snow, the tempera- 

 ture of which was but five degrees above zero. Tyndall 

 tells us that though the north wind blev/ fiercely, they 

 sufiered nothing from cold during the night. They had 



