6 Professor Macaire on the 



present itself for a young man making his first appearance in 

 the fields of science. Of this he was not insensible. Horace 

 Benedict de Saussure expresses himself to the following effect 

 on this point, in his Travels in the Alps ; and, it may be 

 mentioned in passing, that this is the first time he makes any 

 mention of his son : — *'My eldest son was desirous of accom- 

 panying me, but I was apprehensive that he was not yet suf- 

 ficiently robust or practised in exertions of this nature. I 

 therefore required him to abandon the idea. He remained at 

 the Piieure, where he made with much care observations corre- 

 sponding to those which I myself made on the summit." In 

 fact, Theodore de Saussure was left at Chamouny with his 

 brother, mother, and aunts. He there established his meteoro- 

 logical observatory, and directed telescopes to watch the dan- 

 gerous route of the adventurous traveller. A great number of 

 individuals, attracted by curiosity on hearing the report of this 

 bold undertaking, surrounded the young natural philosopher. 

 Dr Odier, who had accidentally come to Chamouny on that 

 same day to visit a patient, and who, having left Geneva in 

 haste, found himself iu the midst of the Alps in his silk dress 

 and his small doctors' hat under his arm, also came to watch 

 the traveller through a telescope, and jocularly compared the 

 great naturalist and his guides traversing the eternal snows 

 to flies struggling among milk, Theodore de Saussure, on per^ 

 ceiving that the party had reached the summit, hoisted a flag, 

 according to his father's directions, and the latter expressed 

 the lively satisfaction he derived from this family signal, which 

 he immediately saw through a glass from the top of the 

 gigantic observatory which he had reached. 



Horace Benedict de Saussure had remarked that the meteo- 

 rological observations made by himself and others on elevated 

 summits had always been taken nearly at the same hours, that 

 is to say, about mid-day. These expeditions, in general, must 

 indeed be accomplished within the space of a day, since the 

 summit of high mountains affords no shelter to the traveller. 

 The ascent being always fatiguing and sometimes dangerous, 

 the travellers set out as early in the morning as possible, in 

 order to reach the highest elevation in sufficient time to allow 

 them to descend before night. The desire of prosecuting 



