228 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



protested that there was no risk. In a moment one of them tied the 

 rope under his arms and the others let him down to the pedestal, which 

 he snatched and brought up in triumph. During this operation I 

 was doubly anxious, first for the guide who was roped, next because, 

 being in view of Chamonix, whence with a telescope our movements 

 could be watched, I feared they would have their eyes fixed on us and 

 be sure to imagine it was one of us who was lost in the crevasse whom 

 we were trying to rescue. I learnt afterwards that at that moment 

 they were fortunately not looking at us.* [Voyages, 1978.] 



Having crossed this obstacle by a perilous bridge, they reached 

 by a steep slope the highest but one of the rocks of the Grands 

 Mulcts chain, which on his return de Saussure named the Rocher 

 de 1'Heureux Retour. Here they arrived at 1.30 and dined in the 

 sunshine with good appetite. Water was wanting, but the guides, 

 by throwing snowballs against the warm rocks, soon procured an 

 adequate supply. 



' This isolated rock surrounded by the snows seemed to the guides 

 a Palace of Delight, a Garden of Calypso ; they could not make up 

 their minds to leave it, and were determined to pass the night here. 

 They had only sought it with that object, for it is off the route. They 

 fancied that during the night the cold on these vast snowfields must 

 be absolutely insupportable, and they were seriously afraid that they 

 would perish. I only persuaded them to go on by promising I would 

 dig a large hole in the snow, in which I would set up the tent, and 

 we would all sleep inside it.' 



Half an hour later they came to the ' First Plateau ' [now 

 known as the Petit Plateau]. On the left de Saussure admired 

 ' the vertical position of the strata in the cliffs of the Aiguille 

 du Midi ; on the right, close at hand, the rounded head of the 

 Dome du Gouter, crowned by a tier of icy cliffs, presented a mag- 

 nificent spectacle. In front was Mont Blanc. 



' The rocks on its left we call [at Geneva] the Staircase of Mont 

 Blanc [the Monts Maudits], supported cliffs of the most brilliant 

 snow. We took twenty minutes to cross this plateau, which seemed 

 to us very long for since the guides' last ascent it had been swept 

 by two enormous ice -avalanches, and we had to cross their debris in 

 fear of being overtaken by another. 1 I noticed that the lowest portion 



1 I have, in three ascents of Mont Blanc, crossed the Petit Plateau, and never 

 without being obliged to traverse the remains of a fairly recent avalanche. This 

 is the chief danger-spot on the ordinary route up Mont Blanc, but accidents 

 have been fortunately rare. In 1891, however, five of a party of seven were 



