MONT BLANC 229 



of the ice-cliff next to the rocks is ice, harder and more compact than 

 that of glaciers in ordinary, and I recognised all the gradations between 

 snow and ice, for the top of each block is snow. Some blocks not less 

 than twelve feet in diameter had travelled far without breaking up. 

 One cannot but reflect in passing on the danger from these avalanches, 

 a danger one would not naturally anticipate, as the foot of the cliff 

 is at some distance and the slope below it gentle. The violence and 

 mass of the fall must be enormous to carry the blocks so far.' 



An hour's march up a slope of 34, broken by a splendid 

 crevasse, brought the party to the lower verge of the second, 

 now called the Grand Plateau. It was four o'clock, and with 

 many misgivings as to hidden crevasses, they began to look about 

 for a site for a camp. They finally fixed on a spot a hundred 

 yards from the top of the slope. 



Directly the guides set to work to dig a platform in the snow 

 they began to suffer from the rarity of the air, and had to rest 

 after every five or six spadefuls had been lifted. De Saussure 

 found himself exhausted by making some barometrical observa- 

 tions. While waiting for the tent to be pitched they were all very 

 wretched : those who worked felt sick, those who rested suffered 

 from the cold. All were exceptionally thirsty, but had to wait 

 till some snow had been melted on the fire that was successfully lit. 



The plateau on which they found themselves led to a cul-de-sac. 

 To the east were the rocks passed in the ascent, to the west a 

 gentle slope leading to the Dome du Gouter. The morrow's 

 route and the very steep slope to be climbed were full in view. 1 



De Saussure describes the scene, the complete environment 

 by dazzling snows, the whiteness of which contrasted with the 

 dark blue of the heavens, the cold and the silence. He takes the 

 occasion to pay a tribute to his predecessors. 



' When I pictured to myself Dr. Paccard and Jacques Balmat 

 arriving in the decline of day in this desert without shelter, without 

 hope of succour, without even the assurance that man could live at 

 the height they were aiming at, and yet persevering undaunted in 

 their adventure, I admired their resolution and their courage.' 



swept by an avalanche into a crevasse, and two of them perished. Whymper's 

 assertion that avalanches seldom, if ever, extend right across the plateau must 

 therefore, not be trusted. 



1 De Saussure writes of three plateaux. Whymper failed to recognise that 

 he divides what is now called the Grand Plateau into a second and a third plateau. 

 There is a rise of some 160 feet in the middle of the Grand Plateau. 



