100 Historical 



sion with one of my friends, I was suddenly seized by unconquerable 

 sleepiness as I was crossing the vast plateau south of the Breithorn, 

 where a guide had had to stop the year before. I was sleeping as I 

 walked, no matter what efforts I made to stay awake; one of the two 

 guides had the same experience, the other and my travelling com- 

 panion felt nothing of the sort. As we returned to the Saint-Theodule 

 pass (3,410 meters), after a light meal taken with good appetite, we 

 all slept in the sunshine for about an hour. When he awoke, my 

 travelling companion was nauseated and vomited what he had eaten 

 an hour before. I must note that the second night before, we had 

 slept little and badly, and that after a walk of eight hours, we had 

 had only three quarters of an hour of sleep on the night before our 

 excursion. Several times, in Paris, I have found myself thus over- 

 powered by sleep so that I slept and even dreamed while I was 

 walking. Moreover, none of us felt any other discomfort during this 

 excursion. 



In July, 1844, while climbing the slope of the Couvercle, at an 

 elevation of about 2,500 meters, I felt a distress and a difficulty in 

 climbing like that I had experienced in 1835 on Buet. This condition 

 lasted about twenty minutes. I was not forced to stop, but I suffered, 

 and my strength seemed much lessened; at last, without any percep- 

 tible cause, for I continued to ascend, the discomfort suddenly ceased, 

 I could climb without trouble the height of about 150 meters, which 

 separated the point where I was from the Jardin. When I reached the 

 Jardin, I ate with considerable satisfaction; but I was soon satisfied. Dr. 

 Noel de Mussy, one of my companions on this walk, who was in the 

 mountains for the first time, was only a little out of breath; at the 

 Jardin, he ate with a good appetite. And yet, in the evening, while we 

 were returning, he was much more tired than I. Another traveller 

 who accompanied us felt no distress. 



Finally, in the month of September, M. Camille Bravais, who 

 ascended with me to the rock of the Echelle, when we had reached 

 an elevation of about 2,300 meters, had to stop every twenty steps 

 to get his breath. It is true that M. C. Bravais, affected no doubt by a 

 slight hypertrophy of the heart, was never able to climb a steep 

 grade without experiencing severe palpitations. (P. 33 et seq. of 

 the separate printing.) 



Now let us turn to the ascents of Mont Blanc. In the first 

 attempt with MM. Bravais and Martins, July 30, 1844, they exper- 

 ienced some effects on the Grand-Plateau (3911 meters), where 

 they set up their tents for the night, and beyond which they could 

 not go: distaste for food, diarrhea, prostration. M. Lepileur was 

 seized by violent shivering, recurring eight or ten times an hour; 

 M. Martins had a similar attack. They had helped their guides in 

 setting up their tent, and had become much fatigued. 



August 7, all three set out again, and camped at the Grand- 

 Plateau: the shivering attacked M. Lepileur there again; M. 

 Martins was quite ill, Bravais felt nothing but an irresistible desire 



