Mountain Journeys 103 



to carry out the motions of locomotion for a certain time and then 

 it would be all over; in a word, I was like a man who, at the end of 

 a long day of walking, perfectly exhausted, feels that he can reach a 

 point not very far away, but that he must give up going any further. 

 I could walk only with my head lowered and my chin nearly touching 

 the sternum. This was the attitude of us all, and when we were 

 getting our breath, it was also with the neck stretched out and the 

 body leaning forward during the first seconds. Clissold had observed 

 the same thing. I felt a slight desire to sleep several times and yawned 

 occasionally. What added greatly to the discomfort was a rather keen 

 thirst or rather a dryness and a sticky condition of the mouth; a little 

 snow melted on the tongue while I chewed a raisin quenched the 

 thirst for a few moments. This uncomfortable condition developed 

 gradually, and it was quite endurable when at about 4,560 meters a 

 violent wind from the northwest struck us. At once we felt as if our 

 hands, our faces, and the part of our heads which the head covering 

 did not protect were freezing. The side of the body which the wind 

 blew upon was also very cold, especially in MM. Bravais and Martins, 

 whose clothing was rather thin. As we were climbing in a zigzag, 

 when we had the wind in our faces during a squall, I experienced 

 then in the highest degree the sensation which I described in connec- 

 tion with our first ascent to the Grand-Plateau. It was in vain that 

 I covered my nose and my mouth with my hand, stooped, turned aside 

 my head; I could not breathe any more than if I had been under 

 water. I felt the distress of asphyxia, my head whirled, and I felt 

 slightly nauseated. When I turned my back to the squall, it seemed 

 as if the wind made a vacuum around me, and I had difficulty in 

 breathing. I was the only one to feel this effect of the wind, both on 

 the first and on the third trip. This increase of discomfort lasted without 

 stopping for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, I asked myself 

 whether I could reach the summit, I felt sure that I should succeed; 

 but I had to use all the mental strength I possessed to actuate my 

 physical powers. Sometimes too I advanced mechanically, without 

 thinking, so to speak. No one talked, everyone, like me, had but one 

 thought, that of advancing a few steps more. So the distance one tra- 

 verses between the Rochers Rouges and the summit, although it took 

 us nearly two hours to cover it, did not leave many details in my 

 memory, and returns to me as a vague recollection, rather painful 

 and very short, no doubt because of its uniformity. The same thing 

 was true for MM. Bravais and Martins, for we were all three surprised 

 when we had to admit from our notes that it took us nearly two hours 

 to go from the Rochers Rouges to the summit. We remembered only 

 two or three incidents of this ascent, which, although painful, was 

 however made without interruption and without the excessive fatigue 

 and exhaustion experienced by some travellers. It is, I think, to the 

 blank left in the memory by this part of the ascent to Mont Blanc 

 that we should attribute the mistakes and the confusions so frequent 

 in the accounts of travellers when they speak of this passage. 



When we halted, after two or three seconds I was in perfect 

 condition; I felt no discomfort except a slight thirst and cold feet 

 and hands. We did not find, as De Saussure observed in himself, that 



