EDUCATION AND THE RIVIERA (1772-81) 827 



above the peaks and tinged the summits of Mont Blanc (which was now 

 uncovered) with a beautiful silver tint reflected by some thin, vapoury 

 clouds that hovered in the atmosphere above. Among the rich 

 pictures which moonlight affords, I never saw any to equal this. We 

 hardly knew how to leave it.' 



I might quote further from Mr. Brand's manuscript journal. 

 His taste for scenery is not confined to romantic incidents, such as 

 moonlight on Mont Blanc. He fully appreciates and describes 

 the noble gorges of the lower Val d'Aosta and the beauties of 

 the descent into Italy. 



Next year de Saussure's first family excursion to Chamonix 

 was undertaken with his wife, his three children, and an English 

 lady, a Miss Craft. 1 It was quite an expedition. The party drove 

 in three carriages to Sallanches, where twenty -four mules were 

 ordered to be in readiness. Theodore and his mother went to 

 the Montenvers, and de Saussure took the boy (aged thirteen) for 

 a walk on the Mer de Glace, and records that ' he is pleased with 

 the quickness and force he shows in his first lesson in mountain- 

 climbing.' 



De Saussure left the party at Sallanches on the way back, and, 

 despite feeling out of sorts, went up to sleep at some chalets on the 

 west side of the Col de Voza above Bionnassay. On the following 

 morning he got as far as the Mont Lachat (6937 feet), the grassy 

 spur below the Aiguille du Gouter. There he was taken ill with a 

 serious feverish attack which cut short his mountaineering for 

 the season. For the moment he turned to an endeavour to com- 

 plete his book on hygrometry, but by September found himself 

 well enough to set out with his friend M. A. Pictet for a tour in 

 North Italy and along the Riviera, the principal object of which 

 was to embark on a new series of investigations. 



De Saussure was a precursor in an inquiry which has since been 

 pursued with great assiduity, that into the temperature of the sea at 

 various depths . For this purpose he devised a form of thermometer, 

 capable of resisting subaqueous pressure, which is still in use. 2 Of 



1 Miss Craft went on to Montpellier with an introduction from de Saussure 

 to his sister, and is mentioned in Judith de Saussure's letters as preferring a 

 livelier circle to that in which she lived. 



8 The scientific value of the work accomplished is dealt with separately by 

 Dr. H. R. Mill on pp. 462-5. 



