a Traveller on the Glacier of Bud. 57 



In my fecond journey to mount Buet, I was under the 

 ehfagreeable neceflity of being conftantly enveloped by 



clouds 



u This fenfation of profound folitude was one of thofe which we could 

 moft>eafily explain, but it does not explain our fituation. We were on 

 an immenfe extent of fnow, the whitenefs of which nothing altered. The 

 rays of the fun, reflected in a ftraight line from the fnow towards that 

 luminary, fliowed us how fmooth it was ; and this fmoothnefs the imagina- 

 tion extended to every thing around. We faw nothing but this fnow, and 

 the heavens, towards which it was terminated in various folds, delicately 

 rounded like thofe beautiful argentuie clouds which are fometimes feen 

 floating majeftically in the pure atmofphere. This was exactly what pro- 

 duced the extraordinary fenfation which we then experienced. We actu- 

 ally thought ourfelves fufpended in the air on one of thefe clouds. — And 

 what kind of air ? Never had we before feen it of fuch a colour. It was 

 blue, daik and bright at the fame time, which produced an inexpref- 

 fible fenfation of immenfity. 



" It was near noon when we arrived ; and, on raifing our heads above 

 the veil which fo long concealed from us the eaftern part of the horizon, 

 we fuddenly difcovered the immenfe chain of the Alps in an extant of 

 more than fifty leagues. On whatever fide we turned our eyes, the whole 

 horizon was covered with mountains. Its boundary on the weft was no- 

 thing but the thicknefs of the air ; for we overlooked the chain of Jura, 

 diftant about thirteen or fourteen leagues, fo much that we could have feen 

 the plains of Franche-Comte and Burgundy, if the air had been fufficiently 

 tranfparent. On the fouth-weft our view extended as far as Mount Cenis, 

 and on the north-eaft probably as far as Saint Gothard. We were far 

 raifed above all the defiles of the Alps, and only a few of their peaks 

 were elevated above us. 



" In all this vaft fpace, where mountains were accumulated on each 

 other, we could difcover no plain but in a fmail corner to the weft, the 

 middle of which was occupied by Geneva ; and on the north-eaft we faw, 

 almoft from one end to the other, the large valley through which the 

 Rhone flows, from the place where it falls from the mountains, as far as 

 Sion, the capital of the Valais, diftant from the place where we were nine 

 or ten leagues. All the reft was filled with mountains. 



" The details as well as the cnfcmble would have excited the attention 

 of the moft indifferent beholder. A fingle view of the immenfe quantity 

 of ice and (now which covers the Alps will be iufneient to fatisfy 

 the fpeftator refpefting the duratir.n of the Rhone, the Rhine, the Po, and 

 the Danube. It infpires us with an idea that this is their common re- 

 fcrvoir, and that it is fufficient to fupply them with water during feveral 

 years of drought. W« compared, without having need of calculation, 

 their ltrcams with their fources. Thefe fources appeared to us only final! 



Vol. VIII. I ' rills 



