1821.] Two late Attempts to asceiid Mont Blanc. 37 



hundred paces from the edge of the Glacier wonders begin whic^i 

 no pen can describe. At every moment we stopped to mak^ 

 each other observe some striking co.:figuration of the ice ; we 

 heard nothing but ' Look to the right I Look to the left ! *■ 

 Sometimes it was a bottomless precipice; at others a tower of ice 

 more than 100 feet in height. The ladder was soon required. 

 How were we to cross a crevice of 20 feet wide, apparently bot- 

 tomless, longitudinally divided into two by a thin wall of ice^ 

 scarcely a foot thick, and 10 feet lower than the sides of the 

 crevice which it divides ? Arrived at the brink the ladder is 

 lowered and supported upon the thin wall of ice in the middle 

 of the crevice. One of the guides descends ; the first traveller 

 follows, and keeps himself upright near the ladder on the wall of 

 ice, one foot broad, or sup <orted by his stick, he stands immov- 

 able, and endeavours to shun the sight of the two blue gulphs 

 ready to swallow him on the least loss of equihbrium. The 

 guide then rests the top of the ladder against the opposite edge 

 of the crevice, and the traveller having mounted it, it is again 

 returned to the first brink in order to let the second traveller 

 descend, and so on with the remainder. When the ladder is 

 some inches longer than the crevice is wide, it is placed across 

 it like a bridge ; and every one goes over on his hands and 

 knees. Sometimes there are crevices which are covered by 

 bridges of snow which are often narrow. Sometimes those who 

 w^alk last find these bridges penetrated by a foot which has pre- 

 ceded them, and it is then necessary to turn the foot a little 

 aside. 



" In spite of all the difficulties and dangers, we crossed the 

 Glacier without the least accident. At a quarter past one we 

 were above the junction of the Glacier des Bossons with the 

 Glacier de Tacconay, and between these two occurs the Mon- 

 tagne de la Cote ; and after having ascended a ridge of snow^ 

 inclined at an angle of 56'^, at precisely three o'clock, we set 

 foot on the base of the Grand Mulct on the western side. These 

 rocks, which project from the middle of the ice, are not more 

 firm than those of the Aiguille du Goute ; and we ascended 

 them so slowly that it was half-past four when we arrived at the^ 

 highest part of the Grand Mulct. A black cloud which formed 

 in the west decided us to stay here for the night. The summit 

 of this rock having the form of the letter L ; that is to say, of a 

 right angle, our ladder and some sticks covered with cloth were 

 so arranged as to form the hypothenuse. A little straw scattered- 

 upon the horizontal part of the rock was the mattrass upon, 

 which we lay down side by side. We were hardly covered 

 when it began to rain ; and soon after the thunder was heard 

 majestically around us. I had scarcely attempted to put the 

 point of the electrometer out of our tent, when its two balls 

 began to move with so much violence that I was alarmed. The 

 whole of the night was stormy. The next morning the raia 



