MONTE ROSA 269 



steep snow-slopes, and ended in a ridge of rocks which gave neither 

 firm foot nor hand hold. At the close of five hours the party 

 found themselves on a point, but not the highest point, of the 

 mountain. This still rose some 250 feet above them, and was cut 

 off by a snowy gap. De Saussure confesses to having been some- 

 what poor-spirited in resisting his son's desire to complete the 

 ascent. His comments on the view in the Voyages are those of an 

 orographer ; he confines himself to remarks on the mountain 

 structure, but a letter to his wife shows that he appreciated the 

 wonderful extent and grandeur of the panorama. On his return 

 to camp he wrote home : 



' From the Pedriolo Alp July 30, 1789. We are just back, Th6o 

 and I, very well, but a bit tired from an excursion we have been making 

 on one of the lower summits of Monte Rosa. I said nothing to you 

 about this mountain, although the wish to visit it was the chief motive 

 of my journey, because I was afraid that you would imagine that I 

 wanted to reach the highest peak, which is still virgin, and will, I 

 expect, remain so eternally, like your friend Mile. M. I never thought 

 of it ; I did not even attempt another of the accessible summits, higher 

 than that on which I was, because the climb was said to be somewhat 

 risky. I chose a charming peak, not higher than the Buet ; we ascended 

 it to-day ; we had on one side Italy, Lago Maggiore, Ticino, the 

 Naviglio Grande (a canal), all the kingdoms of the world and the 

 glory of them, but the cities of Milan and Pavia were not visible, on 

 account of the vapour. On the other side we had the circle of Monte 

 Rosa, and by looking at it I have learnt its etymology. It is formed 

 exactly like a single rose ; lofty summits ranged round a great space 

 occupied by beautiful pastures. 1 I will not inflict on you more details 

 as to its structure ; they interested me deeply, and confirmed entirely 

 the theory I have put forward of the formation of granite. In this 

 sense it is, perhaps, the most instructive excursion I have made. 



' We are in our tents, where we slept last night, not, as on the Col 

 du Geant, in a distressful cold-harbour, but among the most delightful 

 meadows, the grass finer and shorter than in the best-kept English 

 garden ; but enamelled literally enamelled with the most brilliant 

 flowers. Yesterday, when our tents were put up, and before the grass 

 had been trampled, it resembled one of those English carpets with 

 a green ground enlivened with flowers.' 



1 De Saussure missed the connection of ' Monte Rosa ' with the Monts 

 Roeses of Piedmont and the Ruize de Miage of Courmayeur. Roesa or Ruize 

 is the term for glaciers in the patois of Val d'Aosta. 



