YOUTH AND EARLY TRAVELS 67 



as possible, and above all on the alps to sit down from time to 

 time, even to lie down, so as to get a close view of the growing 

 plants. A league traversed thus slowly will bring you a better 

 return than two hurried over.' In a later letter de Saussure 

 alleges as an excuse for his slender booty, the relative poverty of 

 the flora of the Chamonix valley. 



De Saussure has given no separate account of this his first 

 excursion to the snows, and his experiences have to be collected 

 from different passages in the Voyages. At an age when walking 

 for walking's sake is a pleasure to vigorous youth, he tramped 

 alone all the fifty miles from Geneva. Up to Sallanches the road 

 was excellent, for the rest of the way to the top of the defile 

 of Les Montets there was only a rough cart-track hardly possible 

 for wheels and liable to be interrupted by dangerous torrents. 



But the young collector found more than compensation by 

 the roadside : 



' It is on these rocks,' he writes, ' that the first really Alpine 

 plants one meets on the way to Chamonix grow. After the frosts and 

 the occupations of winter have kept me for several months far from 

 the High Alps, when I am at last able to return to them, the first 

 Alpine plants, the moment that I recognise them, always give me a 

 thrill of delight ; I feel then that I am in my element, in possession 

 of the liveliest pleasures that the study of nature can give to its lovers. 

 I rejoice to see again the Rhododendron ferrugineum, that charming 

 bush whose ever-green branches are crowned by ruddy blossoms, the 

 smell of which is as sweet as their colour is exquisite ; the Auricula of 

 the Alps, which in our garden has gained richer hues, but fails to pre- 

 serve its delicate perfume, is spread over these rocks, with the Astrantia 

 alpina, the Saxifraga cotyledon, and many others.' [Voyages, 608.] 



De Saussure 's first impression of the glaciers follows : 



' On issuing from this wild and narrow defile [Les Montets] the 

 traveller turns to the left, and enters the valley of Chamonix, the 

 aspect of which is in contrast absolutely soft and smiling. The floor 

 of the valley, which is in the form of a cradle with gently sloping sides, 

 is covered with meadows between which the road passes, protected by 

 low palings. The different glaciers which fall into the valley catch 

 the eyes in succession. At first one notes only that of Taconnaz, which 

 seems as if hanging on the steep slope of a narrow ravine, of which 

 it occupies the bottom. But soon the eyes are drawn to the Glacier 



