290 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



Saleve and my eyes enjoyed its panorama. At the age of eighteen (in 

 1758) I had already made several excursions among the mountains 

 nearest Geneva. In the next year I passed a fortnight in one of the 

 highest chalets of the Jura, in order to explore in detail the Dole and the 

 mountains near it, and in the same year I went up the Mole for the 

 first time. But these relatively low mountains could only imperfectly 

 satisfy my curiosity. I was burning with the desire to see close at 

 hand the High Alps, which from the crest of the lower ranges looked 

 so magnificent. At length, in 1760, I started alone and on foot 

 for the glaciers of Chamonix, then little frequented, and said to be 

 difficult and dangerous of access. I revisited them in the following year, 

 and since that date I have not let a single year pass without making 

 some serious excursions, and even journeys, with the object of study- 

 ing mountains. In this period (1760-1779) I have crossed the main 

 chain of the Alps fourteen times by eight different passes, and made 

 sixteen other excursions to the centre of the chain. I have explored 

 the Jura, the Vosges, the mountains of Switzerland, those of a part 

 of Germany, of England, of Italy, and Sicily and the adjacent islands. 

 I have visited the extinct volcanoes of Auvergne, part of those of the 

 Vivarais, and several mountains of Forez, Dauphine, and Burgundy. 1 

 I made all these journeys, a miner's hammer in my hand, with no aim 

 except that of physical research, climbing all the accessible peaks 

 which promised me interesting observations and always collecting 

 specimens from the mines and the mountains above all, those which 

 promised to afford some fact useful for the Theory, so that I might 

 examine them at leisure. I also imposed on myself the severe rule of 

 first setting down on the spot the notes of my observations and then 

 writing them out in a fair copy within twenty-four hours, as far as 

 was possible. 



One precaution in my opinion, a very useful one which I employed, 

 was to prepare in advance for each journey a systematic and detailed 

 agenda of the inquiries to which the journey was dedicated. As a 

 geologist observes and studies, as a rule, on the road, the least dis- 

 traction may make him miss, perhaps for ever, an interesting observa- 

 tion. Even without distractions, the objects of his study are so 

 varied and so numerous that it is easy to pass over something ; often 

 an observation that appears important absorbs all his attention and 

 makes him let slip others. Again, bad weather discourages him, 

 fatigue lessens his power of observation, and the neglected oppor- 



1 The eight passes crossed previous to 1779 were the Mont Cenis, the 

 Col Ferret, the Col de la Seigne, the Great St. Bernard, the Simplon, the Gries, 

 the St. Gotthard, and the Splugen. In later years de Saussure added to his 

 list the Col du Geant, St. Th6odule, and Little St. Bernard. 



