x.] ALPINE TRAVELS, 1846. 319 



his property, and was left at the MontaDvert for the 



purpose of carrying provisions for the small number of 



travellers who then visited the Jardin. Auguste Balmat 



it that time servant to Couttet, and had very often 



carried that identical knapsack on his back. The figured 



stripe of green and purple on the shoulder-straps was very 



marked, and could not easily be mistaken. ... I also 



i"d this statement by questioning Jullien Michel 



ouassoud himself the man by whom the knapsack 



had been 1< 



'The accident occurred thus. On" the 29th of July, 



>u<l accompanied a stranger to the Jardin, 



taking. a> usual, the knapsack from the Montanvert with 



!>plv of bread, cheese, and wine. Having gained the 



the top of the Couvercle, the guide, to shorten 



the t tempted to take an oblique course to the 



.iurdin, instead of following the usual track on firm 



ground round the foot of the Aiguille de Moine, so 



as to make the passage of the glacier as short as 



possible. 



Tli ice waa covered with snow, and also full of con- 



s : into one of these the guide suddenly 



dropped, leaving the astonished traveller alone in this 



wilderness of rocks and ice. After vainly calling to his 



iid obtaining no answer, he left the place in 



pair, Mini returned to the Montanvert by the way he 



had come. Ddvouassoud, however, having reached the 



bottom of the crevasse but little hurt, managed, by the 



f his pocket-knife, to cut steps in the walls of ice, 



finally, with <^reat exertion and suffering, to make 



hi> escape, leaving behind him his knapsack, of which, of 



96, he had at first disembarrassed himself. Aston i>h- 



ing fact ! that the yet imd caved vestiges, together with 



apart of tin- bottle which formed his I and en, should be 



ight to light on the surface of the ice after ten ye 



nn-nt !' 



knapsack 1 M carried in the interior of (he 



and down a 

 vity. tin- which was 14 . r ). r >' ; the mean 



