THE COL DU GfiANT 247 



of the pass he saw an opportunity to cover his repulse on 

 Mont Blanc. If he could manage to cross the Grand Col, as 

 the Chamoniards for the next hundred years called the pass, and 

 write the first account of it, he might proclaim the adventure 

 a mountaineering feat at least comparable to de Saussure's ; in 

 his own phrase, ' a discovery equivalent to the ascent of Mont 

 Blanc.' This unworthy idea he proceeded to put into execution. 

 In order to claim for himself the credit of the first passage by a 

 traveller, he boldly omitted all notice of Exchaquet's previous 

 success. We cannot but feel sorry for the vainglorious Precentor 

 when we find him thus doing his best to diminish with posterity 

 the credit his pluck in this instance fairly entitles him to. 



Accordingly, on 27th August 1787, two months after 

 Exchaquet's expedition, Bourrit set out with his second son, 

 Charles, a boy of fifteen, and four of the best Chamonix guides, 

 including the two men who had so unscrupulously anticipated 

 Exchaquet. The party spent the night at the Montenvers. 

 For the rest Bourrit must be left to narrate his own exploits. 

 The following account is that which he sent to the Hon. Maria 

 Craven, a daughter of the well-known Lady Craven, who, after 

 being divorced from her English husband, married the Margrave 

 of Anspach. 1 Miss Craven, a girl of seventeen, had, while staying 

 at Vevey, heard of de Saussure's ascent and boldly applied to 

 the ' Historiographer of the Alps ' for details. Bourrit, enchanted 

 at an opportunity to pose in that character, readily complied 

 with the request, and characteristically could not resist the 

 opportunity for adding an account of his own recent adventure. 

 It was written, as given here, in the third person. 



' On the morning of the 28th the party passed, by moonlight, Les 

 Pontets, rocks many find so difficult that they look on them as an 

 impassable barrier. At daybreak they entered on the ice. At a 

 quarter to seven they reached the base of the Jorasse, and at eight 

 began to climb the slopes of the Glacier du Tacul. They had a ladder 

 twelve and a half feet long for crossing the crevasses, and they soon 

 had occasion to use it. The water in the cracks was frozen, and the 

 glacier covered with new snow. By nine the work of climbing and 

 crossing the crevasses had doubled in difficulty ; their position was 

 horrible. They found themselves in cavities so narrow, so deep, and 



1 See Dictionary of National Biography, 



