183 



" And I will get to some far off land, 

 Where higher mountains under heaven stand, 

 And touch the blue at rising of the stars, 

 Whose song they hear, and no rough mingling mars 

 The great clear voice." 



Leaying Geneva you have a charming drive by dihgence to 

 Chamouni, the roadsides being shaded here and there with walnut, 

 chestnut and fruit trees. The scenery gradually gets wilder and 

 more picturesque until the climax is reached on entering the 

 Valley of Chamouni with the monarch of European mountains, 

 and the Aguilles surrounding. 



Chamouni is now quite a large Alpine village or town, 

 situated in a lovely valley, on one side pine-clad rugged rock- 

 capped mountains, on the south and west side Mt. Blanc, with 

 white dome-like summit, in the far background, and the Aguilles 

 piercing the blue sky, rivers of ice or glaciers descending from the 

 snow-line into the valley, dark pine forests, and below Alpine 

 pastures dotted with chalets on both sides of the river. 



After describing the interest taken at Chamouni in watching 

 through telescopes the struggling attempts of mountain climbers ; 

 the reader went on to state that Mt. Blanc is not a difficult 

 mountain to attack if the snow is firm and in good condition, — 

 the great danger on Mt. Blanc as on any other mountain is the 

 weather, if a storm arise during an ascent, the cold is extreme — ■ 

 many have been frost bitten, and many lives lost in dense snow 

 storms on this comparatively easy mountain. Among the adjoin- 

 ing peaks which make the Aguilles of Chamouni, there is none 

 equal in grandeur to the Aguille Dru as seen from Montanvert, 

 it resembles a great spire of rock rising with unbroken cliffs for 

 some thousands of feet above hardly less steep slopes of rock 

 and snow, its form as striking as the Matterhorn, behind it is the 

 Aguille de Vert, also an imposing mountain, and amongst the 

 other Aguilles of Chamouni is the Midi, which faces into the 

 valley of Chamouni. Graphic descriptions of rambles in the Tete 

 Noire and St. Bernard Passes were given, and the paper con- 

 cluded as follows : — As to mountaineering, volumes might be and 

 are written about it, there is great caution required, it is perilous, 

 and proper precautions and rules must be observed and also good 

 guides engaged by the inexperienced. Mountaineering is fascin- 

 ating — starting in the lovely star-lit nights of July or August, 

 the sky of a deep turquoise blue color, and the floor of heaven 

 thickly inlaid with patines of bright gold, first through the silent 

 pine woods, in the soft stillness of the night, the rushing 

 river in the distance giving a musical harmony to the scene, then 

 the weird white moon-lit glaciers surrounded with spire-like 

 precipices and crags, exhilarated with the crystal air, the morning 

 flush of gold and rose, and last, the finishing climb up the sharp 

 ridge of the final peak, and from it a glorious view; — a sea of peaks 

 and vast expanse of mountain land ! 



