60 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



is disappointing. The entire landscape has been spread 

 before us for hours before attaining the highest dome. 

 There is something in standing where so few feet have 

 stood before; and one can enter fully into the ambi- 

 tion of the Englishwoman who compelled her guides to 

 hoist her on their shoulders, that her head might be 

 higher than any other mortal's who ever stood on the 

 summit. There is a fullness and completion in the sat- 

 isfaction felt by one who has reached the very dome; 

 but all which thrills, all which swells, all which enno- 

 bles the soul, is met and felt long before the final con- 

 summation of the ascent. The summit, therefore, brings 

 a flush of disappointment. The landscapes beneath are 

 distant, and flat, and dim. The object which inspired 

 your veneration and fixed your ambition no longer 

 rises before you; it has ceased to exist; your ardor sub- 

 sides, and you feel almost impatient to descend. De 

 Saussure relates that such was his own chagrin, on 

 reaching the summit after years of effort, that he 

 stamped his foot in a sort of anger. Forewarned, we 

 shall not be disappointed. 



Mont Blanc, I have said, is a sort of fashion; but, 

 to say it is the fashion, is to say it has not been long 

 in vogue. As a fashion, it may be said to have taken 

 its rise in 1861; though the first ascent was three-fourths 

 of a century earlier; and the first tour of the Alps for 

 the observation of Nature was in 1741. The Alps, 

 indeed, have been imperfectly known since the time of 

 the Romans, who have left many traces of their occu- 

 pancy in the form of tunnels, and excavations for high- 

 ways, and half obliterated exploitations for the useful 

 metals, and even a single inscription found in the de- 



