1821.] Ascent to the Summit of Mont Blanc, 379 



and without cavities ; but though it looked attainable with little 

 trouble, scarcely any part of the journey was more painful. I 

 had not before been very much incommoded by the rarity of the 

 air ; but now I felt it so severely, and was obliged to make such 

 frequent halts, that it was almost an hour and a half, although 

 the distance is trifling, before we conquered it. The inconve- 

 nience seemed chiefly attendant upon progressive motion ; for 

 mere exercise, without change of place, did not much affect me. 

 The surface of the snow toward the top is completely waved, hke 

 water ruffled by a slight breeze, or rather, perhaps, like a heap 

 of sand furrowed by frequent showers ; yet it is the opinion of 

 the Chamounese that it never rains upon Mont Blanc, as they 

 observe, whenever this takes place below, that the highest rock 

 visible to them is covered with snow. At so many thousand 

 feet above the curve of congelation, it cannot indeed be other- 

 wise ; yet a cursory glance would almost induce one to think 

 the contrary, as, independent of the appearances before men- 

 tioned, a portion of the ascent was strewed with thin shining 

 plates of ice, like water arrested in its passage by the hand of 

 frost. It was half-past 11, a. m. exactly 10 hours after leaving 

 the Grand Mulet, that I had the pleasure to find myself upon the 

 summit of the ancient continent. The highest part of Mont 

 Blanc has been said to resemble in form an ass's back. It 

 is a narrow and almost level line of little extent, running nearly 

 E and W, and somewhat higher at the western end, curving 



fradually towards the N to the vertical snows above the Grand 

 'lateau ; and in the same way to the S, to the prodigious preci- 

 pices over the valley of Entreves. The prospect from this 

 colossal height was, as may be expected, immense, and only 

 bounded by the imperfection of human vision. The weather 

 was beautiful, the air quite clear, and the wind between the S 

 and W, which is what generally produces or accompanies those 

 optical illusions so frequent in the Alps, when distance seems 

 annihilated, and objects the most removed appear, as it were,, 

 within the grasp. To the E the eye stretched over the Mila- 

 nese ; to the SE, to the Parmesan and adjacent countries ; and 

 S, towards Genoa, and, perhaps, to the Mediterranean ; but of 

 this last, 1 cannot speak with certainty. The Apennines inter- 

 cept the view ; and 1 might be, and probably was, deceived in 

 what I took for that sea.*' A large portion of the south of 



€very portion of rock the snow has not covered. A ridge near the Rocher Rouge, they 

 term the Petit Mulet. The east shoulder is properly Mont Maudit. " - 



* In Ebell's " Manuel du Voyageur en Suisse,'' it is stated that Mons. Bourritt, 

 irith his son and three guides, reached the summit of Mont Blanc in 1788, " malgre 

 la grele^^'' which had dispersed the rest of the party ; and that, descending for shelter to 

 the SE, Mons. B. had from thence fancied he saw the Mediterranean. The ascending 

 Mont Blanc in such weather as described, I conceive to be physically impossible, and 

 useless, from obvious reasons, were it otherwise. In fact, it is denied at Chamouny that 

 Mons. B. ever was at the top of Mont Blanc, or at any part of it, whence, from the form 

 of the mountain, the IMediterranean could be visible. The whole history is much, 

 laughed at by Dr. Paccard, and the old guides of Chamouny. 



