102 Narrative of a Journey from Chamouni [Fes. 
indulgence. The time of my arrival was half an hour after ten; 
so that the hours which had elapsed from our departure from Cha- 
mouni were only 271, 10 of which we had passed in the hut. The 
summit of the hill is formed of snow, which spreads into a sort of 
plain which is much wider from E. to W, than from N. to S., and 
in its greatest width is perhaps 30 yards. ‘The snow is every where 
hard, and in many places is covered with a sheet of ice. When 
the spectator begins to look round him from this elevated height, a 
confused impression of immensity is the first effect produced upon 
his mind; but the blue colour, deep almost to blackness, of the 
canopy above him soon arrests his attention, He next surveys the 
mountains; many of which, from the clearness of the air, are to 
his eye within a stone’s throw from him; and even those of Lom- 
bardy (one of which appears of an altitude but little inferior to that 
of Mount Blanc) seem to approach his neighbourhood: while on 
the other side the vale of Chamouni glittering with the sunbeams is 
to the view directly below his feet, and affects his head with giddi- 
ness. On the other hand, all objects of which the distance is great, 
and the level low, are hid from his eye by the blue vapour which 
intervenes, and through which I could not discern the Lake of 
Geneva, though at the height of 15,700 English feet, which, ac- 
cording to M. de Saussure, was the level on which J stood, even 
the Mediterranean Sea must have been within the line of vision. 
The air was still; and the day so remarkably fine, that I could not 
discover in any part of the heavens the appearance of a single cloud. 
As the time of the sun passing the meridian now approached, I pre- 
pared to take my observation, I had with me an admirable Hadley’s 
sextant, and an artificial horizon, and I corrected the mean refrae- 
tion of the sun’s rays. Thus I was enabled to ascertain with aceu- 
racy that the latitude of the summit of Mount Blane is 45° 49’ 597 
North. 
I now proceeded to such other observations as the few instruments 
which I had brought permitted me to make. At twelve o'clock 
the mercury in the thermometer stood at 38° in the shade; at Cha- 
mouni, at the same hour, it stood when in the shade at 78°. I tried 
the effect of a burning glass on paper, and ona piece of wood, 
which I had brought with me for the purpose, and found (contrary, 
I believe, to the generally received opinion) that its power was much 
greater than in the lower regions of the air, Having continued two 
hours on the summit of the mountain, I began my descent at half 
an hour after twelve. I found that, short as my absence had been, 
many new rents were opened, and that several of those which I had 
passed in my ascent were become considerably wider. In less than 
six hours we arrived at the hut in which we had slept the evening 
before, and should have proceeded much further down the moun- 
tain had we not been afraid of passing the Glaciere de la Coté at 
the close of the day, when the snow, from the effect of the sun- 
beams, was extremely rotten. Our evening’s repast being finished, 
I was soon asleep; but in a few hours I was awakened with a tor- 
