110 Fatal Accident which happened to 



intereft, refpecling their expedition to the glaciers, and the 

 following account is drawn up from minutes written down 

 at the time : 



(e In confequence of the order of C. d'Eymar, praefect of 

 Leman, C. Jofeph Maria Deville, after caufing a harpoon to 

 be forged, and providing ropes, fet out, accompanied by his 

 two fons John Claude and Bernard, and Jofeph Ettle, inn- 

 keeper at Servoz, in order to proceed to the glacier of Buet 

 in fearch of the ftranger fwallowed up by a fiffure in the 

 fnow. They left Servoz at feven in the evening, and tra- 

 velled the whole night. 



" Having arrived on the glacier at day-break, they imme- 

 diately repaired to a hut built of flate in the neighbourhood, 

 called Caftle Pi&et, near which, as they were informed, the 

 accident had taken place. They obferved fouie figns of a 

 fiffure covered by the fnow, but there was no aperture. They 

 however continued their fearch, and about two in the after- 

 noon Deville found in the fnow a hole almoli fquare, about 

 two feet in extent each way, but of which they could not 

 diftinguifh the bottom. In the neighbourhood there ap- 

 peared fome figns of the exiftence of a fiffure beneath the 

 fnow. 



" By means of a ftone tied to the end of a rope in the form 

 of a founding-line, they were able to difcovcr in this hole, 

 at the depth of more than a hundred feet, the prefence of a 

 body of a nature different from fnow or ice. They then let 

 down the harpoon, which feemed to have laid hold of fome- 

 thing, but which brought up only a fingle hair. Bernard the 

 ion then propofed to defcend attached to a rope, which he 

 accordingly did ; and when he arrived at a depth where there 

 were only eight inches diftance between the fides of the fif- 

 fure, he was able to touch, with a ftaff five feet in length, 

 the head of the dead body below him. He then caufed him- 

 ielf to be hoified up, becaufe he found his pofition exceed- 

 ingly confined, without having power to move any of his 

 limbs. 



" The harpoon was again employed, but it brought up 

 nothing except fragments of the clothes and a hat. Night 



came 



