274 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



the obvious route by the Valais, and the party set out once more 

 for the familiar Col de Bonhomme and Val d'Aosta. Instead, 

 however, of taking the Col de la Seigne, they turned off at Chapieu 

 and crossed the Little St. Bernard, which was new to de Saussure, 

 to Pr6 St. Didier. 



The account of this journey, the eighth and last of those recorded 

 in the Voyages, contains relatively little of general interest apart 

 from the visit to the St. Thodule and the ascents of the Little 

 Mont Cervin and the Th6odulehorn. It is mainly a transcript of 

 a geologist's notebook. There is not much description of scenery, 

 beyond a mention of a ' truly romantic site ' in Val Tournanche, 

 and of the view of the Matterhorn from above Breuil. The 

 Corner Glacier again fails to attract the travellers' attention. 

 Here and there, however, a touch of human interest is thrown in : 

 de Saussure had a taste for homely scenes, such as reminded him 

 of Hogarth's drawings or Dutch pictures. We are introduced 

 to a farmer's family at Chapieu, the mother, a woman ' with a 

 classical figure,' teaching her child to repeat hymns, the grand- 

 father giving its supper to another infant, and both children 

 falling equally fast to sleep. In Val Tournanche he encounters a 

 wealthy peasant, 'a man of very good conversation who seemed 

 to take an interest in my researches and desired to possess a copy 

 of my Voyages' This rare character was claimed as his uncle by the 

 late Chanoine Carrel of Aosta, who was himself a singular instance 

 of what may be done with limited means by a man of intelligence 

 to develop his own district. He corresponded with Forbes on 

 scientific matters, and the early visitors to Cogne owed much to 

 his friendly advice and publications, which included complete 

 panoramas of the Pennine and Graian Alps taken from the Becca 

 di Nona. I possess copies he presented me with in 1860. 



One of de Saussure's companions gave him a curious experience. 

 He had brought with him from Geneva a neighbouring peasant 

 who had heard a great deal about glaciers and wanted to see some 

 specimens. 



' Knowing him,' writes de Saussure, ' to be handy, robust, and very 

 much in the habit of climbing the mountains near Geneva to collect 

 plants and shrubs for amateurs, we consented without difficulty to 

 his request. He bore the fatigues of the road very well, though bur- 

 dened with our hammers and the instruments we wanted to have 



