190 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



reference to an old photograph proves that there was in the 

 sixties of the last century a cornice of dimensions equal to that he 

 represents on the mountain. 



This is the description Bourrit gave in a letter written to de 

 Saussure of an attempt to sketch the panorama made on his 

 second ascent, a fortnight after the Professor's : 



' Next, in order to make good use of my time, I got out my instru- 

 ments or rather yours and set to work to draw : at first the snow 

 came up to my calves, but insensibly I sank up to the belt, while the 

 foot of the quadrant sank also. I tried to change my position, but 

 it was useless, the wind was violent, and so was the cold ; my com- 

 panions beat themselves like madmen to get warm while I felt my 

 powers abandon me and my blood freeze in my veins. One of my 

 companions noticed it and rescued me from my situation. I descended 

 to the first rocks, where I fell senseless on my guides ; they placed me 

 in the shelter of some rocks and gave me something to drink, while 

 Favret held me stretched in his arms ; this rest and the sun's warmth 

 restored me.' 



Bourrit's endeavours as an Alpine artist call for sympathy. 

 He was one of the first draftsmen of his time to try to draw 

 mountains as they are. His predecessors, like the ' aesthetic 

 critics ' of the present day, had looked on them as rude masses, 

 whose lines required to be reduced to simplicity and symmetry 

 by the ' man of taste.' Few of Bourrit's paintings still exist ; l 

 they were numerous. The fourteen sketches intended to have 

 been etched as illustrations to the English edition of the Journey 

 to the Glaciers are said to have passed into the hands of a ' gentle- 

 man in England.' All we know about them is from Bourrit 

 himself, who, in the preface, tells us how they came to be made. 

 He observes 



' that the first time he went into this romantic country the number 

 and immensity of the objects which struck his sight at the same time 

 presented difficulties it was impossible for him then to surmount, not 

 having formed the least idea of them before he set out. His second 

 attempt was more successful, when he not only determined his choice 

 of the prospects, but was enabled to invent a new method of taking 

 them with greater exactness. 



1 There are two in the Art Gallery at Geneva but they are kept in a cup- 

 board and one in the rooms of the Club Alpin Suisse. 



