IN CLOUDS AND RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS. 95 



gcends a steep gorge, and in doing so is riven beautiful pyramid of the Aiguille du Dru 

 and broken in the most extract dinary man- (shown in our frontispiece) ; and to the right 

 ner. Here are towers, and pinnacles, and at the Aiguille des Charrnox, with its sharp 

 fantastic shapes wrought out by the action pinnacles bent as if they were ductile. Look- 

 of the weather, which put one in mind of ing straight up the glacier the view is bound 

 rude sculpture. From deep chasms in the cd by the great crests called La Granao 

 glacier issues a delicate sh:mmer of blue Jorasse, nearly 14,000 feet high. Our object 

 lin-ht. At times we hear a sound like Hum- now is to get into the very heart of the 

 der, which arises either from the falling of a mountains, and to pursua to its origin tne 

 tower of ice or from the tumble of a huge wonderful frozen river which we have just 

 stone into a chasm. Thw * lacier maintains crossed. 



this wild and chactic cbaiaeler for some 114. Starting from the Montanvert with 

 time: and the best iceman would find him- the glacier below in to our left, we soon 

 self defeated in any attempt to get along it. reach some rocks resembling the Mauvais 



109. We reach a place railed i"ne Cbapeau, Pas ; they are called tea Ponts. We cross 

 where, if we wish,, we can have Refreshment them and reacli I 'Annie, where we quit the 

 in a little mountain hut. We then pass the l:md for the ice. We walk up the glacier, 

 MauwiiaPo*, a precipitous rock, on the face but before i caching the promontory called 

 cf which steeps are hewn, and the utiprac- Trfilaporte, we take once more to the moun- 

 tiscd traveller is assisted by a lope. \V<- par- tain-side ; for though the path here has been 

 sue our journey, partly along the mountain- forsaken on account of its danger, for the 

 side, and partly along a ridge of singularly sake of knowledge w; are prepared to incur 

 art.ficial aspect a lateral moraine. We at danger to a reasonable extent. A little gla- 

 lungth face a house perched upon an emi- cier reposes on the slope to our right. Wq 

 nonce at the opposite side of the glacier. may see a huge boulder or two poised on the 

 This is the auberge of the Moritanveit, well CQ d of the glacier, and, if fortunate, also see 

 Known to all visitors to this portion of the the boulder liberated and plunging violently 

 Alps. down the slope. Presence of mind is all that 



110. Here we cross the glacier. I should is necessary to render our safety certain ; but 

 have told you that its lower part, including travellers do not always show presence of 

 the broken portion we have passed, is called mind, and hence the path which formerly 

 the Glacier des Bois ; while the place that led over this slope has been forsaken. The 

 wo are now about to cross is the beginning whole slope is cumbered by masses of rock 

 of the Met de Glace. You feel that this which this little glacier has sent down, 

 term is not quite appropriate, for the glacier These I wished you to see ; by and by they 

 here is much more like a riser of ice 'than a sna11 be fully accounted for. 



sea. The valley which it fills it about half a H5. Above Trelaportc to the right you see 

 mile wide. a most singular cleft in the rocks, in the 



111. The ice maybe riven where we en- middle of which stands an isolated pillar, 

 ter upon it, but with the necessarv care there hewn out by the weather. Our next object 

 is no difficulty in crossing this portion of the is to get to the tower of rock to the left of 

 Mer de Glace. The clefts and chasms in the tn ^t cleft, for from that position we shall 

 ire aie called crevasses; we shall make their gain a must commanding and instructive 

 acquaintance on a grander scale by and by. view of the Mer de Glace and its sources. 



li'2. Look up and down this bide of the 116.. The cleft referred to, with its pillar* 

 glacier. It is considerably riven, but as we maybe seen to the right of the above engrav- 

 advance the crevasses will diminish, and we ing of the Mer de Glace. Below the cleft 

 *h\\ find ven* few of them at the other side, is also seen the little glacier just referred 

 Note this for' future use. The ice is at first to. 



diily ; but the dirt soon disappears, and you 117. We may reach this cleft by a steep 

 come upon the clean crisp suiface of the gla- gully, visible from our present position, and 

 cier. You have already noticed that Ihe leading directly up to the cleft. But these 

 clean ice is while, and thai fiom a distance gullies, or couloirs, are very dangerous, be- 

 it resembles snow rather tlu.n ice. This is ing the path ways,of stones falling from the 

 caused by the breaking up of the surface by heights. We will therefore take the rocks to 

 the solar heat. When you pound trans- the left of the gully, by close inspection as- 

 parent rock-salt into powder it. is as white certain their assailabl'3 points, and there at- 

 as table-salt, and it is the minute fissuring tack them. In the Alps as elsewhere won- 

 </f the surface of the glacier by the sun's rays derful things may bo dona by looking stead- 

 that causes it to appear white. Within the fastly at difficulties, and testing them wher- 

 glacier the ice is transparent. After an ex- ever they appear assailable. We thus reach 

 hilarating passage we get upon the opposite our station, where the glory of tlie prospect, 

 lateral moraine, and ascend the steep slope and the insight that we gain as to the forma- 

 from it to the Montanvert Inn. tion of the Mer de Gl ice. far more than re- 



13. THE MER DE GLACE AND ITS pay us for thy labor of our ascent. 



SOURCES. OUR FIRST CLIMB TO THE I 18 - For we see, the glacier below us, 



CLEFT STATION stretching its frozen tongue elownward past 



the Montanvert. And we now rind this sin- 



113. Here the view before us is very le glacier branching out into three others, 

 grand. We look across the glacier at the som e of them wider than itself. Regard the 



