CHAPTER VI 

 TEN YEARS' ALPINE TRAVEL (1774-84) 



THE warmth of the south had done its work in restoring de 

 Saussure to health. For a long interval after his return from 

 Italy we hear no more complaints of any serious or prolonged 

 indisposition. Though he was often in doctors' hands and his 

 digestion remained always difficult and precarious, he was able 

 during the next sixteen years, with but one interruption, to 

 lead a life of various activity as a hard-working Professor, a 

 man of science, a citizen, and a mountain traveller. 



These were the years of his principal Alpine explorations, 

 which culminated in 1787-88 and 1789 in the ascent of Mont 

 Blanc, the stay on the Col du Geant, and the tour of Monte 

 Rosa. It will be on the whole more convenient at this point 

 to abandon chronological order for a time and to give in the 

 following chapters a consecutive account of de Saussure 's career 

 as a scientific mountaineer, reserving for subsequent pages the 

 narrative of his home life and political activities and of the mis- 

 fortunes that clouded his last years . 



The period from 1774 to 1784, covering the middle years of de 

 Saussure 's life (thirty-four to forty-four), was one of continual 

 activity in travel and observation. The available record of it is 

 considerable : in addition to the Voyages, I have had the advantage 

 of reading several of his private diaries and many intimate letters 

 to his wife and family. The diaries were based on rough notes, 

 made in a pocket-book while on the road, and often in the saddle, 

 which he was in the habit of writing out fair but in a hand at times 

 almost illegible every few days. His wife's constant anxiety 

 during his absences, which seems to have diminished but little with 

 years and habit, had this good result. It made her devoted 

 husband an excellent correspondent. His letters not only add 

 to the human incidents recorded in the Voyages, but often bring 

 into relief fresh traits in de Saussure 's character. 



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