200 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSTJRE 



The party slept at the usual bivouac on the Montagne de la 

 Cote, but on the following morning the weather broke ; Bourrit 

 did not venture on the ice at all, and the others were soon forced 

 to turn back. 



On this occasion a new figure appears for the first time in 

 the annals of Mont Blanc. Michel Gabriel Paccard, who joined 

 Bourrit in this expedition, was the son of the Public Notary at 

 Chamonix, a man of sufficient means and intelligence to give his 

 children a good education. 



As in most of the Chamonix families five Devouassouds and 

 four Balmats went up Mont Blanc with de Saussure the Paccards 

 formed a clan. One of the doctor's brothers was an Abbe, 

 another an avocat. 1 



Sent to the University at Turin, Michel Gabriel had obtained 

 there a medical degree and had subsequently studied in Paris, 

 where he and Bourrit, who was also in his youth in the French 

 capital, had frequently spent their evenings together. On his 

 return to his native valley he set up as a doctor. He had a taste 

 for science and studied botany. He made frequent geological 

 notes on his excursions, and applied to de Saussure for help in 

 securing instruments for the measurement of heights, and he more 

 than once contributed papers to the scientific journals of the day. 2 

 He was now in the full vigour of manhood, and in the habit of 

 making mountain expeditions. In the year following his attempt 

 with Bourrit he made two serious reconnaissances of the approaches 

 to Mont Blanc. With Pierre Balmat, he slept on the rocks beside 

 the Glacier de Tacul and penetrated its upper basin to a certain 

 distance. The climbers, however, soon got into difficulty in the 

 icefall and, from what they could see of the range beyond, came 



1 Paccard had also a cousin, a guide, Frat^ois Paccard, whose name appears 

 from time to time in Alpine history. He was for some years banished from Savoy 

 on the ground that he had acted as guide to the famous bandit and smuggler 

 Mandrin, who was executed at Valence in 1755. F. Paccard was allowed to 

 return as a reward for procuring some live bouquetins (Rupicapri) for the Count 

 de Caylus. Subsequently, in 1786, he got into trouble again with Bourrit, who 

 procured his temporary arrest on a charge of libel and abusive language. The 

 date suggests that the quarrel must have arisen out of the unfortunate part 

 played by Bourrit in the dispute over the first ascent of Mont Blanc. 



* See the Journal de Physique, vol. xviii. 1781, ' Extrait de quelques lettres 

 du Docteur Paccard sur les causes de 1' arrangement en arc, en feston, en coin, etc., 

 et de la direction oblique, perpendiculaire, horizontale des couches vraies et 

 apparentes, etc.' 



