LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



evening to Courmayeur. His object was not to cross the chain, 

 but to ascertain the chances of approach to Mont Blanc from 

 this side. De Saussure, we shall see, refers to this excursion 

 in one of his letters written from the Col. It has been through 

 a confusion, or combination, of these two explorations from 

 opposite sides of the pass that several writers have been led to 

 give our countryman the credit of having been the first traveller 

 to cross it. 



Early in the following summer (1787), M. Exchaquet resolved 

 to make a fresh attempt to carry out his project. He told Marie 

 Couttet and Jean Michel Cachat of his plans, and they promised to 

 accompany him . But three days later, on 27th June , he found that 

 Cachat and a comrade, Alexis Tournier, had slipped off nominally 

 to look for crystals. He lost no time in filling the former's place, 

 and, starting next morning at 2.15 A.M. from Chamonix itself with 

 Marie Couttet and Jean Michel Tournier, reached Courmayeur at 

 8 P.M. the same day, a very creditable performance for that date. 

 The party had fine weather, and Exchaquet, who was obviously 

 not, like Bourrit, a writer for the press, frankly stated that ' they 

 met with no difficulties ' in the passage. On the snowfields 

 above the seracs they noticed footsteps, and on their arrival at 

 Courmayeur they found that Cachat and his companion had 

 anticipated them by twenty-four hours, and had been at pains 

 to secure a certificate of their exploit from the local authorities. 

 In the account the two guides gave of the passage they reported 

 that the first shepherds they met on the Italian side fled from them 

 in dismay, and that the villagers of Entreves were equally 

 astonished at their appearance by a route held from all times 

 inconmie et impraticable. 



The facts relating to the two earliest crossings of the Col 

 du Geant given above are derived from an anonymous letter 

 from Chamonix in the Journal de Lausanne (8th July 1787), and 

 a narrative sent by M. Exchaquet to his friend Henri A. Gosse. 1 

 They have been frequently distorted. Bourrit appears once 

 more as the principal author of the mischief. In the opening 



1 It was used by Gosse as foundation for a Precis historique sur le passage 

 de la Vattee de Chamonix a Cormayeur (sic) nouvellement retrouvee par les Glaciers 

 des Bais et du Tacul. It will be printed for the first time by Mr. Montagnier 

 (Alpine Journal, vol. xxxiv.), who has also supplied me with the report of 

 the guides. 



