242 OBSERVATIONS AT THE SUMMIT OF MONT BLANC. 



buried iii the snow, was set iii motion and the sleigh advanced. But, 

 as it approached the machine, two guides took the Hue which had 

 passed the drum, and, furnished with a second windhiss, went to 

 establish a new hauling- station. As soon as the sleigh had reached 

 the first windlass, the latter was disengaged and carried in its turn to 

 a higher station, and this maneuver continued without interruption to 

 the summit of the side to be climbed. 



Thus we climbed the steep slo])es of the Cerisier, of the Petit-Plateau, 

 of the Grand Plateau, of the wall of the Corridor, avid of the wall of the 

 Cote. 



The glacier this year, after the long and hot summer, was stripped 

 of its snow and crevassed everywhere; so tliat it would in the opiniou 

 of the guides have been impossible to accomplish the ascent by meu's 

 arms alone, as was done in 1890. 



We left Chamonix Friday, the Sth of September, and we reached the 

 summit Monday, the 11th, at haif past 2 in the afternoon. 



The ascent had been so difficult that we had to press into serv- 

 ice, besides the men detailed to the sleigh, all the porters of provisions 

 aud instruments. 



I had only taken with me the instruments requh-ed for the jirincipal 

 observation that I had in view, and the provisions had been left at the 

 Rocher Kouge where they were to be sent for the next day. 



IJut the weather suddenly became bad, and we remained Mithout 

 provisions for the two days the gale lasted. 



Thursday at 1 o'clock the wind fell, the sky cleared up, and about 6 

 I Avitnessed a magnificent sunset. The top of Mont Blanc emerged 

 from a sea of clouds extending on all sides to the horizon. The rouuded 

 forms of this surface looked like the waves of an ocean. Here and 

 there fragments of cloud rising above the general level looked like 

 isolated high mountains with strange voutlines. The rays of the set- 

 ting sun lit up the scene with reddish tires and made of it a world too 

 fantastic for Gustaxe Dore to dare to dream. However, little by little 

 the cooling of the atmosphere produced a gradual descent of the 

 cloudy layer, and the great peaks of the chain of Monte Rosa and of 

 the Oberland began to emerge, sowing that sea with new archipelagoes 

 whose glaciers glittered with redder and redder fires as the sun sank. 

 The disk of this sun of blooil I'ed broke into sinister fragments whose 

 tatters were soon lost in that sea. 



Tiien a glacial wind came u}) from the east aud breathed upon the 

 surface of the deep, and the shadows descended. 



ISTothing can convey the impression such scenes x>roduce on those 

 who love the sublime beauties of nature. 



Por my part, in face of this scene which recalled those pictures which 

 show the first ages of the world when the continents first began to rise 

 :ibo\ e the boundless surface of the waters, I was as one turning to 

 stone. My emotions were too strong; to take notes would have been 



