THE BUET 179 



of one of these men was, indeed, most reprehensible. ' Fatigued 

 with the labour he had undergone and in a fit of laughter at the 

 folly of taking all this trouble to boil a little water, he threw 

 himself, unluckily, with all his weight on Jean Deluc's foot and 

 badly sprained it.' The ' author of the misfortune ' then aban- 

 doned his employers, in order to go down and milk his cows. 

 Jean Deluc was equal to the occasion, both as a philosopher and 

 as a mountaineer. He candidly imputed the man's behaviour 

 to his mistaken sense of duty to his master (the owner of the 

 cows) rather than to want of feeling. Further, he contrived to 

 slide upon his back 'down 1500 perpendicular feet.' Night 

 then came on, and the climbers were compelled to sleep out, 

 making a barricade to prevent themselves from rolling down 

 the steep. Next morning Deluc's foot was less painful, and he 

 was able to descend to Sixt. 



On the following day the village fair was held, and the Delucs 

 learnt from some of the assembled peasants that the snowy dome 

 they were in search of was known as the Buet, a name derived, 

 they were told, from Bo vet, an upper pasturage, near the snow. 



A month later, in company with a hunter, they ascended to 

 the hamlet of Les Fonds, now well known from the description 

 of the late Sir Alfred Wills, who built himself a house in this 

 lovely spot, and wrote of it with an owner's appreciation. 1 No 

 raptures, however, can exceed those of the Delucs on this ' most 

 superb amphitheatre,' ' delightful plain,' ' romantic solitude,' 

 which ' they could not cease admiring.' Rain drove the brothers 

 back to Sixt, but at the instance of the monks they waited until 

 a fine day enabled them to return with better prospects to Les 

 Fonds. Next morning they were off at daybreak, and by 7 A.M. 

 had reached the ' Plain de Lechaud,' where they saw three of the 

 ' native burghers ' of the country that is to say, chamois. ' Pro- 

 ceeding, they enjoyed for two hours the sensible succession of new 

 objects without any other inconvenience than that of walking up 

 an exceeding steep slope, which was nothing to their spirits and 

 resolution.' 



In plain language, they were drawing near the snow, and 

 the upper slopes were still hard from the night's frost. Having 

 had experience of the difficulty of using crampons, ' which 

 1 See The Eagle's Nut (London, 1868). 



