62 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



glacier which flows at its feet. Windham, in a subse- 

 quent account, compared its surface to that of an ice- 

 floe in a Greenland sea; and from that time it has been 

 known as the Mer de Glace. This company, it amazes us 

 to learn, now felt their curiosity gratified, and marched 

 back to Geneva. Another expedition was made the follow- 

 ing year, by Martel of Geneva, who effected an approxi- 

 mate measurement of the height of Mont Blanc. 



The apathy of some souls in the presence of Nature's 

 sublimities is to me as incomprehensible as the darkest 

 of Nature's mysteries. Windham had discovered a new 

 world, I had almost said he might have become the 

 apostle of a new worship. But he goes home from the 

 august presence of Mont Blanc and its gigantic glaciers 

 and writes: "However savage these regions may be, one 

 does not fail to find here at times some very beautiful 

 landscapes." I quote from one of Durier's lectures on 

 Mont Blanc, delivered in Paris, the comment of a suscep- 

 tible mind on such a degree of coldness. " Clearly," he 

 says, " this is not the tone which the subject demands. You 

 feel that, at this distance. There exist here many shabby 

 glaciers, of villainous aspect; rocks which reveal nothing 

 of value; precipices to make one shudder; torrents on 

 whose borders one cannot hear himself speak. But, God 

 have mercy! you find here and there some villages agreea- 

 bly situated; fine meadows; fields well cultivated, and 

 clusters of trees producing happy effects. Ah ! my friends, 

 I have waters, and meadows, and hamlets and woods at 

 my very door, why go so far to seek them ? " 



In Horace Benedict de Saussure was a different soul. 

 Born in Geneva, the spirit of the Mountains seems to 



* Durier, Hlstoire du Mont Blanc, p 3i. 



