ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 81 



of the Hamel expedition. Two years later some of the 

 remains of the bodies of the victims came to the surface; 

 and from time to time numerous other fragments have 

 appeared and been identified by the clothing which ac- 

 companied them. Thus it appears that these bodies trav- 

 eled from 26,000 to 29,000 feet in forty-one years, or about 

 680 feet a year. As they were buried 200 feet beneath 

 the surface, it seems that 200 feet of ice had been melted 

 from the surface of the glacier in the same interval. 



A similar accident occurred in nearly the same spot in 

 1866 (October 13). Captain Arkwright, of the English 

 army, was ascending Mont Blanc with three guides and a 

 porter. His sister accompanied him to the Grands Mulcts, 

 and there awaited his return. His party was followed 

 by Sylvain Couttet and a German gentleman, Winkart, 

 whom he was guiding to the summit. The two caravans 

 had crossed the Grand Plateau, and were scaling the ter- 

 rible steeps leading up to the crown. Arkwright' s chief 

 guide was in advance, cutting steps in the ice. Couttet 

 insisted on relieving him; and so Winkart and Couttet 

 passed in advance. This change of positions had hardly 

 been effected when a terrific crack was heard in the ice 

 above. Couttet, comprehending the situation, cried out, 

 "Save yourselves! To the right! To the right! Lie 

 down!'' He and Winkart instantly crouched beneath a 

 precipice of ice, while a terrific avalanche of huge blocks 

 of ice, crashing down the slope above, accompanied with 

 clouds of snow and pulverized ice, leaped over them from 

 the brink of the ice-cliff which sheltered them. Couttet 

 and Winkart were safe, but the other four were hurried 

 into an abyss from which no trace of them has ever been 

 recovered. 

 6 



