222 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Blanc appeared only in fleeting and splendid visions of sunset 

 rose, soon to wrap himself up again in his mantle of clouds. At 

 night a long mist -banner would float out from the summit, which, 

 when the moon rose behind it and shone through, showed white 

 and transparent in the centre with an orange ring. De Saussure 

 recognised that the particles of this apparently stationary cloud 

 were always changing, that it was formed by the condensation 

 caused by the chill of the snows rendering visible the moisture 

 carried by a warm wind. 



Despite the frequent rainstorms which cut short their ex- 

 cursions, the three sisters seem to have behaved bravely. 

 ' Madame de Saussure,' writes Madame Tronchin, ' had never 

 been in such high spirits.' The wet days were lightened by 

 the arrival of interesting travellers, or of parcels of books and 

 delicacies from friends at Geneva, which, de Saussure notes, 

 cheered up ' nos dames.' He could employ his time in testing 

 and improving instruments, or in getting himself into training 

 and ascertaining his pace by assiduously pacing measured distances 

 on the hillside opposite the hotel. He found 1500 feet an hour 

 was the most he could hope to keep up. When it was too wet, 

 which it generally was, he turned to the classics. Here is the 

 entry for one day : 



' Tuesday, IQth. I start with enthusiasm to read the Iliad, which 

 I had never read right through. I run over the Latin translation, 

 and when I come on a fine passage I look it up in the original, copy 

 it out, and even learn it by heart. About 11 I go with my son for 

 a walk under the Brevent to test myself and my boots on some steep 

 slopes, and return pleased with both. After dinner we drive to the 

 source of the Arveyron and find the glacier much advanced and its foot 

 very difficult of access.' 



Between the storms de Saussure and his two sisters-in-law 

 would ride to the Glacier des Bossons, or walk to the source of 

 the Arveyron, at that time and up till 1860 an ice-cave on the level 

 floor of the valley . They even , greatly daring , made an expedition 

 to the Montenvers and enjoyed a gay picnic at Blair's cabin, 

 though the ladies could not be induced to go on the ice. They 

 took no less than four and a half hours to descend from the 

 Montenvers to Chamonix, and were terribly tired. But it must 

 be borne in mind that it was not till later that a mule -path was 



