212 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



snows, and the progress of the climbers during the final ascent 

 was followed and eagerly watched by the whole village. 1 

 Amongst the watchers was Baron de Gersdorf, a German 

 traveller of scientific reputation, who fortunately happened to 

 be at Chamonix at the moment. Mr. Brand, an English 

 visitor, whose letters have been preserved, tells us the climbers 

 were seen by many people from Chamonix and other parts 

 of the valley with ordinary small telescopes. The Baron de 

 Gersdorf observed them through a good achromatic glass, so 

 as to be able to distinguish the identity of their persons. The 

 Baron made notes and drawings on the spot illustrating the 

 climbers' route. These notes have only recently been made 

 public, and provide very valuable evidence in the case. 2 For, 

 strange as it may seem, no full and satisfactory report of the first 

 ascent of Mont Blanc from either of the two men who took part in 

 it had, until de Saussure's diary came to light, ever appeared. 

 Dr. Paccard shortly after his climb visited Lausanne and issued a 

 printed prospectus asking for subscribers to a narrative of the 

 expedition. A copy of this prospectus has survived and was repro- 

 duced in the Alpine Journal (vol. xxvi., 1912), but the promised 

 work has of late years been sought for in vain in every library in 

 Europe, and it is now generally assumed that it never reached 

 the printing-press. 



The news that Mont Blanc had been climbed was promptly 

 sent down to de Saussure at Geneva by J. P. Tairraz, the Chamonix 

 innkeeper, by a special messenger, while Balmat himself arrived a 

 few days later (13th August) to claim his promised reward and to 

 offer his services for the future. He would appear on this occa- 

 sion to have placed himself at the disposal of Bourrit as well as of 

 de Saussure, for in June of the following year we find him writing 

 to Bourrit that the mountain is open, and urging him to hasten his 

 arrival. Immediately on receiving the great news de Saussure 

 instructed Tairraz to send a party of guides to build two huts 

 one at the bivouac on the top of the Montagne de la Cote, the 

 second on the higher of the two Grands Mulcts crags to make 

 smooth the rough places at the entrance to the glacier, and to 



1 On his return Balmat learnt that his infant child had died during his absence. 

 This sad incident, which had escaped notice, is attested by the Register of Le 

 Prieure. 



* See Dr. Diibi's work, Paccard wider Balmat (Berne, 1913). 



