380 Capt. UndrelVs Account of an [Ma¥, 



France was distinctly visible, with the most distant range of the 

 Swiss mountains, and beneath, in a manner under our feet, the 

 Mer de Glace with its glaciers, and the vale of Charaouny, 

 whose inhabitants were clearly seen through a telescope. The 

 Alps had a very singular appearance. The height from which 

 they were beheld seemed to rob them of their character as 

 mountains ; and the relative elevations of the greater number 

 were hardly perceptible. Except Monte Rosa, which towered 

 with nearly rival grandeur, and a few others, the whole looked 

 like a vast expansion bristled with rugged inequalities, whose 

 tops almost invariably ended in a point. These pinnacles ran in 

 various directions, but in lines parallel to each other, forming 

 between rhem ranges of hollows covered with snow. This 

 needle-like termination appeared universal, as except that upon 

 which I stood, and Monte Rosa, I scarcely perceived an excep- 

 tion in the wide extent of Alpine region, which lay under my 

 view. The clouds were all far beneath, and quite at rest. Many 

 were below the mountain-summits ; some up n them, and others, 

 altogether detached. Their forms were wholly semiglobular, or 

 rather a continuation of segments of circles, the extremities of 

 which were defined with perfect exactness. A few that were 

 nearly separated from the larger bodies were completely round, 

 and seemed like small globes resting upon one of their poles. 

 These clouds were all nearly opaque, and appeared of a dusky 

 white, luminous at the edges ; but, just before I left the top of 

 the mountain, when the sun had considerably dechned, some of 

 the more distant, particularly towards the east, began to assume 

 that bright empurpled rose-hue tint, so frequently attendant upon, 

 and I beheve peculiar to, an Alpine sun-set. The sky was of a 

 dark, deep blue, many shades more intense than when viewed 

 from below. This colour, which approached to black at the 

 zenith, diminished gradually to the horizon, where it had a kind 

 of violet tinge. Nothing can be fancied so beautiful as the 

 ethereal concave, arching out, if I may so express it, into infi- 

 nity, without any exhalation or impurity of earth to intercept its 

 magnificence. There was a something in the scene and the 

 situation-^a feeling of high-wrought enthusiasm, to which the 

 mind willingly lent itself, seeming to stretch beyond the wonders 

 it contemplated towards Him who formed them. 



I remained upon the top of Mont Blanc three hours and a 

 half. During this time, the alterations of temperature were 

 continual. The wind in general blew strongly from the SW, but, 

 at intervals, it died away, and a milder atmosphere was tlie- 

 immediate consequence. 



When we first arrived, the thermometer in the sun was 33°; 

 placed upon the snow with the same aspect, it sunk in five 

 minutes to 25°. Suspended towards the N in a cold current of 

 air, it was 14° ; and in the same spot, with the bulb in the snow, 

 fell to 9°. All these changes took place before mid-day. The 



