ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 63 



have been inherited in him. From gathering wild flowers 

 to soothe the weary hours of a sick mother, the child be- 

 gan to stroll to the neighboring mountains. He had 

 looked upon them with an inspiration, a longing, a wor- 

 ship. While yet a boy, he had scaled the cliffs of the 

 Great and Little Saleve; he had wandered over the ranges 

 of the Voirons; at nineteen, he spent fifteen days among 

 the loftiest summits of the Jura, and, the same year, as- 

 cended the Mole. From all these altitudes, the majestic, 

 snow-covered summits of the Mont Blanc range were ever 

 before him, and he burned with a desire to scale them. 

 In 1760, at twenty years of age, he proceeded on foot 

 to Chamonix. Thereafter, for many years, he performed 

 an annual pilgrimage to the Alps. He ascended most of 

 their lofty summits, as well as those of the Apennines, 

 the Jura, the Cevennes, the Cote d'Or, the Vosges, the 

 mountains of Sicily, the Auvergne, England and Germany. 

 But Mont Blanc impressed him more profoundly than 

 all these. And yet its dazzling dome had repelled all at- 

 tempts to scale it. De Saussure was a scientist. What 

 aid might be derived from its summit in determining the 

 general configuration of the Alps! What interesting 

 studies of the world of glaciers! of the temperature, 

 and the effects of atmospheric rarefaction at such an al- 

 titude! De Saussure felt that he must reach the summit 

 of Mont Blanc. He cherished the purpose for twenty- 

 seven years. He made repeated efforts to overcome the 

 obstacles of nature, but always failed. And yet, from 

 every hill- top from his very study window at Geneva 

 the calm, mild visage of the unsubdued monarch smiled 

 triumphantly upon him. He nourished his defeated am- 

 bition till he gazed upon Mont Blanc with a sort of 



