On this occasion Paccard p&re, the village notary, invited de 

 Saussure to dine with the family. This dinner is an incident of 

 historical importance in the annals of Mont Blanc, for if we have not 

 Dr. Paccard's printed Voyage, we get here a detailed account of 

 his expedition taken down from his own lips by de Saussure, a fort- 

 night after the events took place. De Saussure showed the value 

 he attached to the record by mentioning in his diary that he sat 

 up late in order to put it down in writing the same evening. I 

 give a literal translation of his notes, now published for the 

 first time : 



' We discussed at length the Doctor's ascent of Mont Blanc. He 

 says that he found near the top large hailstones embedded in the 

 snow ; l that fresh snow is far more fatiguing to the eyes than the 

 old, and that this has been the cause of more than one failure. I 

 grasped Us route perfectly. After crossing the glacier he left well to 

 his left the chain of dark rocks [the Grands Mulcts], on which is my 

 second cabin, and swerved towards the foot of the Dome du Gouter, 

 called here the Gros Mont. He kept close to its foot, leaving it always 

 on the right. After a long ascent he found himself on a great plain, 

 or at least a very gently inclined snow-slope, and, turning to the left, 

 reached a kind of snowy bank planted between two lofty and per- 

 pendicular rocks, bare of snow. He passed over the top of the left- 

 hand rock, 2 skirting the base of the summit of Mont Blanc and, having 

 thus borne a good deal to the east, turned again southwards to climb 

 the last slope, which is very steep and fairly hard. Still on the top 

 the snow seemed loose (tendre). It was easy to plant the barometer 

 as deeply as was desirable. 



' From the top it is possible to descend the gentle slope on the 

 Val d'Aosta side and reach some rocks which rise in a sharp crest 

 [the Mont Blanc de Counnayeur]. He looked there for a possible 

 sleeping-place, but the wind was everywhere equally strong and cold. 

 He found at the foot of the last slope some loose stones on the snow 

 and higher up the two little rocks one sees from Chamonix, perhaps 

 some hundred paces below the top. 



1 Compare L. da Vinci's note on his ascent of Mon Boso (see p. 7). The 

 occurrence is not uncommon. It is produced by the granular structure of the 

 ice and the melting produced by recent sunshine. 



1 This passage fe conclusive as to the point hitherto, I believe, unnoticed 

 that in the first ascent Balmat and Paccard passed between the two Rochera 

 Rouges, while in de Saussure's ascent the route taken lay to the right of, and 

 over, both. This was obviously the easier passage Balmat in his letter of June 

 1787 reported to de Saussure that he had discovered (see p. 219). 



