1821.] Two late Attempts to ascend Mont Blanc, 4i 



hoped still to see them come out of the snow which had stoppe4> 

 but Mathieu Balmat cried out that there were still persons in the 

 crevice. I will not attempt to paint what then passed in my 

 >inind. I saw Mr. Dornford throw himself upon the snow in 

 despair, and Mr. Henderson was in a condition which made me 

 fear for the consequences. But our consolation may be judged 

 of when, some minutes afterwards, we saw one of the guides 

 Kjome out of the crevice ; our hurras redoubled at the appear- 

 ance of the second ; and we yet hoped that the three others 

 would also reappear, but, alas ! they were seen no more. 



The guides, fearing a second slipping of the snow, directed 

 «s to remove to a distance, but that was impossible. Mr. Dorn- 

 ford declared that he was ready to sacrifice his life to go and 

 «earch for the unfortunate guides : I offered him my hand, and 

 partly sunk in the snow, still moveable, we advanced in spite 

 of the guides, towards the crevice of unknown depth filled 

 with snow, and to the place in which they must have fallen. 

 There we descended into this gulph, and I sounded the snow 

 every where with a stick without feeling any resistance. Sup- 

 posing it possible that the men might have fallen into some 

 cavity, or upon some projection in the crevice ; and as the air, 

 on account of its rarity, does not convey sound well, I thrust the 

 longest stick quite to the end in the snow; and lying down upon 

 it, 1 applied my teeth to the stick, and calling the men by. their 

 names, 1 listened with great attention to hear any noise ; but 

 all was in vain. The guides came upon us, and forced us, so to 

 express it, to come out of the crevice. They declared our search 

 useless ; they even refused the money that we offered them if they 

 would wait ; they laid hold of MM. Dornford and Henderson ; 

 and while I was still sounding the snow (which had passed the 

 crevice for a great space), they proceeded immediately with them 

 to some distance; so that 1 v/as under the necessity of descend- 

 ing with only Coutet, who had not even a stick ; but absorbed 

 in the horror of the event, I was become insensible to danger, 

 and 1 crossed all the crevices without thinking of them. I did 

 not rejoin my two companions till I arrived at the Grand Mulct, 

 from whence we set off for the Glacier des Bossons,* and at 

 half-past eight in the evening, we returned to the Hotel de 

 r Union at Chamouny, without experiencing any great degree 

 of fatigue. I was the more astonished at this, because, for an 

 hour after the accident, 1 made great efforts in an elevated situa- 

 tion where the least exertion exhausts the strength. 



" I shall here add a few words explanatory of our unfortunate 

 accident. It appeared that the upper stratum of the snow on the 

 acclivity lay upon another stratum, which was very slippery pa 



♦ In crossing the Glacier des Bossons, \re found a young chamois upon an isle of 

 ice, surrounded with •normous crevices, it had probably died from inanition. One of 

 ihe high seracs^ under the shade of which we had reposed in our ascent, had fallen ixv 

 the intenral, and had covered the spot on which we had stopped with its fragments 



