1l2 memoir of auguste bravais. 



outline of their crests, and, finally, the effect of tlie laws of perspective, 

 causing: all these lines to converge toward one another and toward the 

 retlected summit of Mont Blanc, where our own shadows might also be 

 snpposed to find a place ; still but an incomplete idea can be formed of 

 the grandeur of the meteorological phenomenon whieh, for those few in- 

 stants, displayed itself before us. It might seem as if some invisible 

 being, seated on a throne edged with fire, received the homage of bright- 

 winged angels who, on their knees, bent in adoration toward him. 



"At the view of so much magnificence, our arms and those of our 

 guides remained inactive, and cries of enthusiasm bnrst from our lips. 

 I have seen the splendid auroras of the north, with their zenith-crowns 

 of variegated and moveable colnmns, not to be equalled in effect by the 

 richest displays of pyrotechny ; but the sight of the shadow of Mont 

 Blauc on the sky appears to me more august by far. After indulging 

 for ten minutes in the contemplation of this spectacle, we were forced 

 again to think of returning. Fortunately, the full moon, rising Ijrightly 

 above the eastern horizon, sufiiced for that stage of our jonrney which 

 conducted us again to our tent, where we arrived after fifty minutes 

 of very rapid descent." 



This })oetic sally enables us to judge whether the cold of twelve de- 

 grees, which then existed on Mont Blanc, and the management of grad- 

 uated instruments, had chilled the imagination. We may be sure that 

 observers who, at the close of the day, remained accessible to such vivid 

 impressions, had neglected, during its course, nothing which formed the 

 special object of their toilsome and perilous ascent; and we may say, 

 without further commentary, that skillful ])hysicists who have em])loyed 

 fifteen hours of assiduous labor to conduct, on the top of IMont Blanc, 

 the operations of the best instruments known, who, moreover, have oc- 

 cupied four days in following their action on the plateau near the sum- 

 mit, could not fail to have put us in possession of scientific documents 

 of high value, before which a multitude of doubts and uncertainties 

 must disappear. 



Having completed, at their tent on the grand plateau, the four days 

 of observation, the travelers descended, September 1, to Chaniouni. 

 Here they rejoined M. Camille Bravais, who had been meanwhile en- 

 gaged in making, every two hours, corresponding observations at the 

 same point where M. Theodore de Saussure, since so celebrated for his 

 investigations in vegetable physiology, had co-operated in like manner 

 in the labors of his distinguished father, while the latter was operating 

 on Mont Blanc. Nor were otliers indifferent to the issue of the ascent. 

 For a month the father and sister of M. Bravais had gone, every day, 

 to seat themselves at a spot, in the entrance of the Vale of Annouay, 

 whence Mont Blanc and the snowy crests of the Alps maybe seen, and 

 whence he had himself in chiklhood often contem])lated them. They 

 had not failed to be there on the 29th of August, but the zone of vapors 

 which, from Mont Blanc, obscured the plains, hid everything from their 

 view. The same disappointment existed at Lyons. With the l)est tele- 

 scopes the adventurers could not be perceived on the top of the great 

 mountain, and the preparations made by learned colleagues, MM. Ta- 

 bareau, Fournet, Lortet, and other eminent physicists, with a view to 

 cooperate in the enterprise by their own observations, remained for the 

 most part unfruitful. 



The professor of astronomy had secured for himself, through the 

 amenities of intercourse, a large share in the affection of the faculty. 

 Lively, though reflective, in disposition, full of kindness, of (U'licacy, 

 and disinterestedness, M. Bravais knew how to enjoy the success of 



