32 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



charges are uniform, and when we aggregate all the par- 

 ticulars, are rather high. The business of the guides is 

 also reduced to system, uniformity and certainty. Charges 

 for various trips, with and without mules, are specifically 

 regulated by law, and the Chief of the Guides is charged 

 with its execution. There is, even here, however, one un- 

 certain element in all calculations, and that is the " pour 

 boire," or gratuity which the employ^ always expects in 

 addition to the legal allowance. The lavish practices of 

 American travelers have swollen this tax from a few 

 centimes to one, two or five francs, and has educated the 

 guides to a degree of trained ingenuity in devising pre- 

 texts for extra charges. About three-fourths of the vis- 

 itors to Chamonix come from Great Britain and America, 

 the remainder are mostly French with an admixture of 

 Italians, Russians and Spaniards. The English language 

 is quite universally spoken in the hotels, though the 

 French is the language of domestic intercourse, and, 

 strangely enough, the exclusive dialect of the guides. I 

 did not meet a person in Chamonix who was able to trans- 

 act business in the German language. 



The snowy summits of the high Alps now hedge us in 

 on every side. On the southeast is the Mont Blanc range, 

 rising from our very door-steps, with Aiguille du Gouter 

 and Dome du Gouter resting on the shoulder of Mont 

 Blanc. Dome du Gouter, from our position, simulates the 

 character of the monarch himself, for it stands between 

 us. On the northwest side stand the Flegere (5,957 feet) 

 and the Bre"vent (8,284 feet), bold buttresses of the 

 Aiguilles Rouges, which rear their red pinnacles in the 

 distance behind these mountains. 



