MONT BLANC 215 



' Four times the snow covering crevasses failed under their feet, 

 and they saw the abyss below them, but they escaped a catastrophe 

 by throwing themselves flat on their poles laid horizontally on the 

 snow, and then, placing their two poles side by side, slid along them 

 until they were across the crevasse. He thinks it would be an excellent 

 idea to take a ladder. The place where they met the most crevasses 

 was near the rocks on which my second cabin stands. He told me he 

 owed his success in part to the observations I made on the Buet on 

 the periodicity of fatigue and recovery. When they reached a con- 

 siderable height he noticed that he was obliged to take breath and 

 allow his strength to recover about every hundred paces, and as they 

 advanced more often, down to every fourteen paces ; but after a rest 

 his strength immediately came back, as I have also noted. 



* It was midday before they were opposite my second cabin, although 

 they had started at 4 A.M. from the first, so if one starts from the 

 second one would gain greatly, and might reach the summit early in 

 the day. A curious observation on sunburn and snow-blindness is 

 that they did not come on till the next morning. They did not 

 descend without a halt, as has been alleged. They stopped before 

 midnight on the top of the Montagne de la Cote ; and up to that 

 point they did not suffer any inconvenience, but next morning, when 

 at dawn they set out to return to the Priory, the Doctor could not see 

 enough to find his path, and had to be led by the guide. He says it 

 may prove one of the inconveniences of sleeping en route that it may 

 lead to the eyes being weak on awaking. Anyhow, it is a suggestion 

 that one should take precautions against the brilliancy of the sun- 

 shine. He confirmed the statement that the ink in his bottle was 

 frozen in his pocket, and also some meat the guide had in his sack. He 

 thinks his hand was frozen at a relatively moderate temperature 

 because his skin glove had been wetted by his leaning on the ice. 

 His hand became black and insensible. He got rid of the blackness 

 by rubbing it with snow. He adds that his finger-tips are still numb. 

 He changed gloves with Balmat, who had a pair of fur gloves, and 

 the latter then also had his hand frozen ; it turned pale and was cured 

 by the same method of rubbing it with snow. 



' He agrees with Pierre and Jacques Balmat in thinking that the 

 best time for ascents would be the beginning of June, because the 

 crevasses are choked and the winter snows are firmer than those 

 which fall in the summer months. The long days are another advan- 

 tage. The distant objects were not clear ; the accumulated vapour 

 seemed to form and settle on the horizon. When they reached the 

 plain which I have mentioned at the foot of Mont Blanc, they endured 



