THE COL DU GfiANT 259 



in order to make it impossible for us to remain any longer, had destroyed 

 all our provisions, so that we have been forced to make the descent in 

 great haste and some suffering, with nothing to eat from seven in the 

 morning to seven in the evening. And you know I cannot walk 

 unless I have some food. But for this, we should have come down 

 very gallantly. Jacques Balmat du Mont Blanc will bring you this 

 letter ; he has taken no part in this proceeding. 1 I am well pleased 

 with him. Good-bye. I am delighted to feel myself once more nearly 

 at your level and out of all the trials of the last enterprise of the kinc] 

 I shall ever undertake.' 



And yet he set off next year to Macugnaga, Val Tournanche, 

 and the St. The'odule ! Well might Madame de Saussure distrust 

 her husband's promises and protestations ! 



In the account in the Voyages de Saussure refers to the absence 

 of any difficulties in the descent to Courmayeur, which, he says, 

 ' has been wrongly compared to the rocks of the Aiguille du Gouter.' 

 This is the only reference he makes to Bourrit's bombastic narrative. 

 The rebuke thus given, while complete, is in form characteristic of 

 de Saussure 's consideration for his former companion. The party 

 returned by the Col Ferret, Martigny, and the Col de Balme. 

 Charles Bourrit, who was at Chamonix on their return, noticed that 

 they had all grown beards while on the mountain. 



A letter to his wife, written from Chamonix on the way home, 

 completes the story : 



* 24th July. 



4 At last here I am at Chamonix. M. de la Rive, the artist, whom 

 I have had the luck to meet, will bring you my news. 



' Arrived here yesterday, I remain two days, sleep Sunday at 

 Sallanches and rejoin you Monday evening. ... I have completed 

 my journey back with the finest weather in the world. I started so 

 exactly at the right moment that Couttet, who returned to the cabin 

 [on the Col du Geant] to get the planks of my bed, which had been 

 left behind, found it full of snow which had come in through the gaps 

 in the walls and roof. You see I have a happy star, first because you 

 are my wife, next because everything succeeds with me, and I always 

 extricate myself happily. . . . Poor de la Rive is not so fortunate. 

 He came with his wife and the dowager Mme. de Prangins. They 

 were wetted to the skin in coming. As soon as they were dry they 



1 The word in the copy of de Saussure's letter which I translate is * expedi- 

 tion.' But the sentence seems to require the sense given above. See also 

 p. 253. 



