326 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAXJSSUEE 



between two cloud -belts from the Col de Balme. I quote the 

 former : 



* It grew darker as we drew near and at last entered the Vale of 

 Chamonix. Only the great masses were visible. The stars shone out 

 one by one, and we noticed over the summits of the range immediately 

 in front of us a light that we could not account for. Clear without 

 sparkle, like the Milky Way, but denser, almost like the Pleiades only 

 larger, it held us long in wonderment, until at last, as we changed our 

 position, like a pyramid illumined by an internal mysterious light 

 that may best be compared to that of a glow-worm, it rose supreme 

 over all the other mountains and we recognised Mont Blanc. 



' The scene was of extraordinary beauty ; since the mountain 

 shone not with the same vivid light as the stars that surrounded it, 

 but as a broad, single mass which appeared to the eyes to belong to 

 a higher sphere ; it was difficult for the mind to realise that it had 

 its roots in the earth.' 



Goethe was doubtless the most famous of the early visitors to 

 Chamonix, but he was only one of a number, many of whom shared 

 his appreciation of mountain scenery. Our countryman, Mr. 

 Brand, who was tutor to Sir James Graham, the father of the 

 statesman, may be taken as a typical specimen of the average 

 traveller of his day. Writing in 1786, he tells his sister : 



' During the whole summer one is sure to find Englishmen here 

 [that is, on the road to Chamonix] at every stage, some with their 

 wives and daughters, others with their mistresses, but the most 

 part like ourselves, raw youth and sedater manhood.' 



In the previous year there had been fifteen hundred ' visitors 

 to the glaciers.' Mr. Brand's enthusiasm for Alpine scenery is not 

 less than the poet's, if it is less eloquently expressed. Here is his 

 description of the view from Sallanches : 



' We returned to our inn just as the moon was rising behind the 

 chain of Mont Blanc. Sometimes it was entirely eclipsed by one of 

 those pyramidal summits which they call Aiguilles or Needles, at 

 other times the sharp point of an aiguille passed across its surface, 

 and the outline was marked with all the exactness of one of Mr. 

 Harrington's profiles. Once we saw only two small points of the 

 moon's disk at about two inches asunder, and they shone with a 

 brilliant light like two new splendid planets, till at length she rose 



