10 Professor Macaire on the 



beautiful evening, all the eatables disappeared. It seems that 

 they were afraid lest the enthusiasm of the young man should 

 induce his father to prolong his stay in places whose beauties 

 were far from having the same charms for them, and they 

 could not imagine a better means than famine to force them 

 to quit. They were obliged to set out fasting, and it was not 

 without fatigue that the travellers descended to Cormayeur, 

 after suffering a good deal both from the heat and from 

 hunger. 



From this moment the elder Saussure was fully aware of the 

 value of the fellow-labourer nature had given him ; his son 

 henceforth accompanied him in all his journeys. The object 

 of the expedition of the year 1789 was to explore Mont Rosa, 

 of which the naturalists made the tour by extremely difficult 

 paths. This was the first time that men of science visited and 

 described the gold mines of Macugnaga, a spot where the inha- 

 bitants are almost in a state of nature, subsisting on food made 

 from milk, and on rye bread cooked six months before, and 

 which they softened in whey ; and they were obliged to bring any 

 other provision they possessed from a distance of five leagues. 

 The men worked at the mines, the women carried the loads, 

 and became so robust by this exercise, that two of them could 

 carry a sufficient load for a mule. Of this Saussure gives a cu- 

 rious proof. Desirous of sending a heavy case of minerals to 

 a distance of six leagues, that it might be forwarded to Geneva, 

 he asked if a man could be found of sufficient strength to carry 

 it. The reply was that the case was too heavy for any man to 

 carry, but, if it was the same thing to him that a woman 

 should take charge of it, plenty would be found equal to the 

 task. On the Col of Mont Cervin, at an elevation of nearly 

 1800 toises, the travellers found the fortified redoubts of St 

 Theodule, constructed three centuries before by the inhabitants 

 of the Val d'Aoste to guard against an attack of the Valaisans. 

 This is unquestionably the highest point in the old world that 

 has ever been fortified ; and the travellers, on seeing these 

 solid structures, well-preserved and comparatively of easy access, 

 regretted that they were not acquainted with a locality so fa- 

 vourable for their operations of the preceding year, where 

 ithey could have carried them on much more conveniently than 



