174 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



that he was the first to determine the height of Mont Blanc with 

 approximate accuracy. He was equally fortunate in several other 

 cases in the same neighbourhood. 1 



1 See Whymper's Guide to Chamonix and the Range of Mont Blanc, and the 

 Phil. Trans, of the Royal Society, vol. Ixvii. part ii. In the Annuaire Meteoro- 

 logique de France, 1851, an interesting paper will be found, Notice sur les Altitudes 

 du Mont Blanc et du Mont Rose, parle Commandant Dekroz. The author devotes 

 several pages to de Sauasure's observations. Developed according to the 

 formula of Laplace and Delcroz's own tables, these give an altitude for the 

 mountain of 4817'3 metres. Delcroz, however, prefers a method by which he 

 gets a result of 4808*1 metres, practically identical with that of the Vallot 

 brothers' triangulation. 



