1822.] 
Plateau, near the Déme du Gouté. We 
were in the region of those masses of snow 
which are formed into enormous parallelo- 
pipedons, called serocs. Thence ascend- 
ing to the left, we from time to time pro- 
ceeded along the edge of the clefts, one of 
which was perhaps the grave of the victims 
of 1820. All the company, except ove of 
the guides, P. M. Faveret, and myself, 
were more or less incommoded by the 
rarefaction of the air; three of them, in 
particular, who ascended Mont Blanc for 
the first time, lost their strength to such a 
degree, that they considerably delayed 
our progress. If it had not been impru- 
dent to separate, I should certainly have 
attained the summit before night. We 
arrived about seven in the evening at the 
Petit Mulet, a rock situated beyond the 
Rocher Rouge, the nearest to the top of 
all those that are seen from Chamouny, 
We had reached it at half past six; the 
Petit Mulet, being higher, and to the left, 
is not visible from below. As we had not 
time to reach the summit before night, we 
descended again to the Rocher Rouge, 
near which we made a pit in the snow, 
four feet deep, five broad, and six long. 
We placed: at the bottom some pieces of 
wood, on which we spreada rather thin 
quilt, on which we all seven lay down, co- 
vered with a light sheet, which was by no 
meaus sufficiently large for the purpose. 
Some puffs of wind, which now and then 
blew into our faces some of the light snow 
drifted from the surface, might have been 
a bad omen of the fate that awaited us if 
the wind had risen. We slept, however, 
about four hours. We could not observe 
the thermometer for the want of light; 
but the night was cold enough to produce 
icicles in a bottle of Hermitage wine, and 
thoronghly to freeze some lemons among 
our provisions, The right foot of one of 
my guides (David Coutet) was frozen, as 
were the extremities of my own fingers 
and toes, But this had no bad conse- 
quences, as the usual remedy (rubbing 
them with snow) was at hand. We left 
our cold couch at four o'clock in the morn- 
ing ; the day was beginning to break, and 
the first rays of dawn gave a silver tinge 
to the summit, from which we were not 
far distant. In proportion as the sun ap- 
proached the horizon, the tint changed, 
and became entirely golden when he rose. 
It made the most striking contrast with 
the nearly black return of the sky, which 
served as a back-ground, All the difficul- 
dies were now surmounted: we sunk but 
little in the snow, and now and then halted 
for ashort time to take breath; we soon 
came to the Petit Mulet, which we had 
visited the day before, and at half past five 
we were on the summit. We began by 
making the signals agreed on with our 
friends in the Plain, who easily distinguish. 
ed them, 
Lilerary and Philosophical Intelligence. 
4d 
This summit is not so confined as it 
seems to be at a distance. It forms a 
small plain, nearly horizontal, which is in 
the shape of a triangle, the base of which 
is towards Chamouny; one side is towards 
the Allée Blanche, and the other the pas- 
sage of Bonhomme. It took me four mi- 
nutes te walk from the apex of the trian- 
gle, in the perpendicular drawn, to the 
base. 
The sky was without clouds; the sun, 
which had risen below eur horizon, de- 
luged with light the region from which it 
seemed to issue, and in the direction of 
which we could distinguish nothing ; every 
where else we perceived a vast number of 
summits, some covered with shining ice, 
others more or less rent or threatening ; 
others again of roundish forms, and cover- 
ed with pasture, Jura bounded the hori- 
zon in the north-west; more to the north 
we saw the lake, but not Geneva. To the 
south-east the eye penetrated beyond the 
plains of Lombardy, as far as the Appen- 
nines, which bounded the horizon in the 
form of a blue line, or of the dense fog of 
a winter's morning; the sun, both at set- 
ting the preceding evening and at rising in 
the morning, seemed more or less enveloped 
in this vapour. I had bronght no instre- 
ment with me but a thermometer. At 
sun-set the day before, near the Rocher 
Rouge, it was at 26° Famenheit. We 
forgot to observe it when we set out in the 
morning : but Coutet, who is used to make 
observations at great heights, thinks that 
the cold, even in windy weather, seldom 
exceeds 18° F. (63 R. below zero.) But 
on the summit at eight o’clock, at the 
Grands Mulets the day before at nine, and 
the Grand Plateau ihe same day at three ; 
lastly, at the Grand Mulets the next day 
(Tuesday, about three in the afternoon, ) 
at all those stations the thermometer, 
observed by Contet, and one at four or 
five feet from the ground, was at 70° 
(162 R.) 
Some of the guides picked up specimens 
of the highest rocks near the summit, 
which L bring back with me. After stop- 
ping three hours on the summit, where I 
felt myself very well, except that I had 
lost my appetite since leaving the Grands 
Mulets, though the guides had preserved 
theirs, we set out to descend : it was half 
past eight o'clock. At eleven we came to 
the Grand Plateau, and at half past one to 
the Grands Mulets. When we arrived 
there, we heard something like the rolling 
of thunder, which was nothing bat the 
noise of an enormous avalanche, which 
was seen fiom below, and even from the 
Co} de Balme, to cover a part of the space 
which we had crossed in our descent; a 
few hours sooner, and we should have all 
been enveloped and destroyed, 
We quitted the Grands Mulets at three 
o'clock, 
