54 Fatal Accident which happened to 



danger: T fliall, however, refer to the end of this article the 

 cautions in this refpect which have been fuggefted to me by 

 experience, and (hall proceed to an account of that event 

 which induced me to take up my pen on the prefent fubje6f.. 



C. d'Eymar, prxfect of Leman, an enlightened lover of 

 the arts, and a paffionate admirer of the beauties of nature, 

 having lately propofed to vifit the glaciers of Chamouni, a 

 canton which at prefent forms the eaftern boundaries of the 

 department under his adminiftration, invited me to accom- 

 pany him ; and I readily embraced his obliging offer. We 

 fet out on the 7th of Auguft, and flept the firft night at Sal- 

 ienches, as travellers do in general. 



Next morning, during our firft hour's march, we met a 

 young man on foot, accompanied by a peafant who was 

 carrying a valife. We were itruck with the melancholy and 

 dtjecled air of this peafant. When we arrived at Servoz, 

 three leagaes from Sallenches, we learned from Deville, a 

 very intelligent and experienced guide who attended us, that 

 the morning of the day before, a ftranger, the companion of 

 the young man we had met, being with his friend and a 

 guide on the glacier of Buet, had fuddenly difappeared, at the 

 diftance of fome paces before them, in a crevice of the gla- 

 cier covered with (now, which had given wav under his feet. 

 When they reached the mouth of the crevice, the bottom of 

 which they could not perceive, the two fu rvivors called out 

 a great number of times, but in vain, to their unfortunate 

 companion fwallowed up ir. the abyfs ; and they did not quit 

 the place till they had lolt all hope of his fafetv. M. Zimpf- 

 fen, the young man whom we met, when he arrived at Scr- 

 voz, had given Deville a commtffion in writing,. to endeavour, 

 if poffible, to difcover the body of M. Efchen, his friend, and 

 to ( lie it to be interred. 



As Icarcely twenty-four hours had elapfed fince the event, 

 the fenfible mind of d'Eymar was ftruck with a ray of hope, 

 and he immediately and officially enjoined Deville (fur he 

 hefitated,and not without reafon) to furniih himfelfwith the 

 neeeffary means, to fet out in the utmoft hafte, accompanied 

 bv fuch a number of men as he prefimied mieht be ne-cei- 



J i o 



Cary, and to gi 1 him an account of whatever fhould be' the 



fefult« 



