THE COL DU GEANT 249 



revealed some of the peaks. They saw clearly that the field of snow 

 on which they were sloped downwards before them. This raised 

 their hopes, and a second gust, while obscuring the crag they had just 

 noticed, revealed another to their right but a short way off. Cries of 

 joy gave the news to the more distant guides, all ran together, and 

 this rock, which formed the crest of the mountain, was named the 

 Roc Sauveur. It proved so in effect, for from it they had, under their 

 eyes, all the valley of Aosta, and at their feet the village of Courmayeur. 

 The sun shone brightly, throwing shafts of light in every direction, 

 and principally on the summits of the Great and Little St. Bernard. 

 Thus from a situation of the greatest anxiety they passed suddenly to 

 the top of their hopes. They exchanged congratulations, and the 

 youth whose courage had not failed him, who had shared the sufferings 

 of the guides without adding to them by useless complaints, became 

 the object of the tenderest caresses. They had been on the ice for 

 twelve hours. 



* By the avowal of the guides, who had all four been on Mont Blanc 

 with M. de Saussure or Mr. Beaufoy, 1 the difficulties of that mountain 

 do not approach those of this expedition. The most dangerous part 

 of Mont Blanc is the Glacier de la Cote, which can be crossed in less 

 than an hour and a half, while the obstacles and difficulties met with 

 by our travellers on the Tacul lasted six hours. The crevasses ex- 

 ceeded those of Mont Blanc in horror as well as in size, and if snow 

 avalanches were to be feared on Mont Blanc, there was no less danger 

 of the fall of the seracs of the Tacul, which were like towers, thin 

 and hollow at the base. These towers, these broken walls, often rose 

 to a height of three or four hundred feet. The guides admitted, it is 

 true, that a month earlier the glacier did not present such great 

 horrors. 



' The guides further declared that, except for the pleasure of find- 

 ing oneself on the actual summit of Mont Blanc, the Tacul offered 

 beauties quite as remarkable. The rocks of the Geant, of the Charmoz, 

 of Mont Blanc itself, the glaciers which flowed from it, the icefall of 

 the Tacul, its gigantic towers, its needles, the bridges thrown, as it 

 were, into the air, the frozen vaults, the corridors and labyrinths of 

 the glacier, the boldness of their formation, their superb outline, the 

 play of light across these transparent masses of naked ice, form objects 

 beyond description and surpass all the richest imagination can conceive 



' The descent to Courmayeur proved long and difficult. It took 

 them five and a half hours. They followed ridges resembling those 

 of the Aiguille du Gouter. The descent is in part dangerous either 



1 Cachat le Geant, Tournier 1'Oiseau, Charlet, and one other. 



