238 OBSERVATIONS AT THE SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC. 



The success of tliis journey proved that those glaciers which present 

 to the scientific man such novel and important subjects of research, 

 and to the artist and the poet such sublime scenes, are henceforth not 

 inaccessible to those whose j)hysical forces play the traitor to their 

 wills. 



We may add that a mode of ascent which spares the traveler the 

 extraordinary fatigues of an ascent on foot alone permits him fully to 

 enjoy the beauty of those regions. 



A month later the traveler in question, he who has the honor of 

 addressing you, reported to the Academy of Sciences the circumstances 

 of the ascent and the observations he had made, calling attention to 

 the advantages which meteorology, terrestrial i)hysics, and astronomy 

 would find in this incomparable station, at which he proposed to estab- 

 lish an observatory. 



Scarcely was his reading done when one of his colleagues, the 

 Mecenas of contemporary French astronomy, enthusiastic for the proj 

 ect, desired immediately to inscribe himself as principal cobperator. 

 Shortly after, the project received the spontaneous cooperation of a 

 prince friendly to science, the bearer of a great historic name, and <jiie 

 of the most generous financiers of our age. 



To these supports were soon added others whose importance was due 

 particularly to the high situations of the persons bringing their adhe- 

 sion to the i^lan. 



A society was then formed. The President of the Republic conde- 

 scended to be an honorary member; M. Leon Say, honorary president; 

 M. Janssen, president; M. Bischoffsheim, secretary; M. Ed. Delessert, 

 treasurer; MM. Prince Roland Bonaparte, Baron Alph. de Rothschild, 

 Count Greffiithe, members. 



The scheme was thus incorporated and its realization now only 

 depended upon the good fortune with which natural obstacles miglit 

 be sui-mounted. Yet it could not be denied that the difdculties of the 

 enterprise were great, as I had myself foreseen and emphatically stated. 



Indeed, the people who were the best acquainted with the glaciers of 

 the great mountain deemed the establishment at the summit of a cou- 

 structiou of some importance, capable of aftbrding lodging to tlie 

 observers, to be impossible. On the one hand, it was said, and with 

 great appearance of reason, the icy crust of the sunmiit must have a 

 great thickness, forbidding the establishment of foundations on the 

 rock, and on the other hand the possibility of founding on the snow 

 was denied. In fact, the general opinion was unfavorable. 



On the other hand, M. J. Vallot had just established on the rock of 

 the Bosses, about 400 meters from the summit, a refuge of great utility 

 and an observatory which was to be considerably enlarged and would 

 permit a variety of extremely valuable observations at a high altitude. 

 But those considerations, notwithstanding their Aveightiness, could not 

 arj^st us. 



