' It needed long negotiations through the keyhole before she could 

 make up her mind to let us in, as she was alone. At last she opened, 

 and even rendered us all the little services in her power. She is really 

 as pretty as Albertine, and talks Savoyard as well as Albertine does 

 French ; she described everything, the farm, the cows, the goats, 

 the names of the mountains ; she had been once on a very steep 

 glacier one sees from the chalet. I had time enough to make friends 

 with her, since we were forced to spend the day and sleep there. But 

 you need not be anxious, my dear angel, about my food. I had an 

 excellent stew in a pot which Jeanne had made for me. Charles, who 

 is very good in the kitchen, made me a soup and cooked some eggs. 

 And as to sleeping, I had a good bed and slept better than I have 

 ever slept in my life. The mountain hay has a delicious smell that of 

 the best tea, and I have been parfumi au thi for two days. In the 

 evening the rain stopped, and I took some strolls about the chalet 

 which gave me several interesting observations. 



' On Wednesday morning we set out to cross the Bonhomme ; it 

 is a mountain-pass closed at its head by a lofty ridge with pointed crags 

 on either side, which look like the horns one makes when playing at 

 horns with the fingers. The local wits say that it is from these horns 

 that the name of Bonhomme comes. 



' Our passage was extremely fortunate, the snow, of which we had 

 two leagues, 1 was of exactly the right consistence, neither too soft 

 nor too hard. The weather was beautiful ; no sun (which I should 

 have been glad of for observations), and a few clouds on the peaks. 

 But it was excellent weather for travel and for observing rocks. I had 

 a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction ; this one day gave me more 

 ideas on the structure of our globe than all the work I did between the 

 College Prize Day and my start. The descent of the mountain is very 

 easy ; it is over a pasturage four leagues in extent, on what, for these 

 mountains, is a gentle slope without a single mauvais pas. I did it 

 all on foot and without fatigue. From the top of the pass the village 

 where one sleeps is visible at such a depth beneath one's feet that 

 one would say it was at the bottom of hell, and yet when one gets 

 there and consults the barometer, one is surprised to find one is still 

 at the height of the Dole. It is only inhabited in summer. This place 

 is called Chapieu ; it is perhaps of all the inhabited places in the world 

 the most savage and terrible. It consists of a dozen miserable huts 



1 Leagues with de Saussure is a vague measure. It appears generally to be 

 equivalent on the mountains to an hour's walk. There must, anyhow, have 

 been a very unusual amount of snow for the middle of July. I have, however 

 found an hour's snow on the pass in August. 



