NATURAL HISTORV. 



503 



sent to the different cottagers of 

 the vale of Characuni, from the 

 skirts of whicli the mountain takes 

 its rise, to inquire if any of them 

 were wilhng to go with me as my 

 assistants and my guides, and had 

 soon the satisfaction to find that 

 ten were ready to accept the pro- 

 posal. I engaged them all. Hav- 

 ing announced to them my inten- 

 tion of setting out the next morn- 

 ing, I divided among them pro- 

 visions for three days, together 

 with a kettle, a chaffing-disli, a 

 quantity of charcoal, a pair of 

 bellows, a couple of blankets, a 

 long rope, a hatchet, and a ladder, 

 which formed the stores that were 

 requisite for the jovirney. After 

 a night of much solicitude, lest 

 the summit of Mount Blanc should 

 be covered with clouds, in which 

 case the guides would have re- 

 fused the undertaking as imprac- 

 ticable, I rose at five in the morn- 

 ing, and saw, with great satisfac- 

 tion, that the mountain was free 

 from vapour, and that the sky was 

 every where serene. My dress 

 was a white flannel jacket without 

 any shirt beneath, and white linen 

 trowsers without drawers. The 

 dress was white that the sunbeams 

 might be thrown off; and it was 

 loose, that the limbs might be un- 

 confined. Besides a pole for walk- 

 ing, I carried with me cramp-irons 

 for the heels of my shoes, by means 

 of which the hold of the frozen 

 snow is firm, and in steep ascents 

 the poise of the body is preserved. 

 My guides being at length assem- 

 bled, each with his allotted bvu- 

 then ; and one of them, a fellow 

 of great bodily strength, and great 

 vigour of mind, Michael Cachet 

 by name, who had accompanied 

 M. de Saussure, having desired to 



take the lead, we ranged oiu'selves 

 in a line, and at seven o'clock, in* 

 the midst of the wives, and chil- 

 dren, and friends, of my compa- 

 nions, and indeed of the whole vil- 

 lage of Chamouni, we began our 

 march. The end of the first hour 

 brought us to the Glaciere des 

 Boissons, at which place the rapid 

 ascent of the mountain first be- 

 gins, and from which, pursuing 

 our course along the edge of the 

 rocks that form the eastern side of 

 this frozen lake, we arrived in 

 four hours more at the second gla- 

 ciere, called the Glaciere de la 

 Cote. Here, by the side of a 

 stream of water which the melting 

 of the snow had formed, we sat 

 down to a short repast. To this 

 place the journey is neither re- 

 markably laborious, nor exposed 

 to danger, except that name should 

 be given to the trifling hazard that 

 arises from the stones and loose 

 pieces of the broken rock wliich 

 the goats, in leaping from one 

 projection to another, occasionally 

 throw down. Our dmner being 

 finished, we fixed our ciamp-irons 

 to our shoes, and began to cross 

 the glaciere ; but we had not pro- 

 ceeded far when we discovered 

 that the frozen snow which lay in 

 the ridges between the waves of 

 ice, often concealed, with a cover- 

 ing of uncertain strength, the fa- 

 thomless chasms which traverse 

 this solid sea ; yet the danger was 

 soon in a great degree removed by 

 the expedient of tying ourselves 

 together with our long rope, 

 which being fastened at proper 

 distances to our waists, secured 

 from the pi'incipal hazard such as 

 might fall within the opening of 

 the gulf. Trusting to the same 

 precaution, we also crossed upon 



our 



