AMONG THE GLACIEES. 27 



de Lechaud (La-sho), fed by the snow-fields of the Grandes 

 Jorasses. On the east, the Lechaud is reinforced by the 

 broad triangular Glacier de Talefre (Tah-lefr'), in the midst 

 of which, at an elevation of 9,143 feet, is the Jardin, an 

 island of land-surface, walled in on all sides by lofty mount- 

 ains, and adorned in August with a display of several species 

 of Alpine flowers. 



Beyond the Mer de Glace is the Glacier of Argentiere a 

 fine long river of ice, almost equal to the Mer de Glace itself. 

 The bright village of Argentiere lies at its foot. At the very 

 head of the valley of Chamonix comes down from the same 

 direction, the Glacier du Tour. Thus six glaciers descend into 

 the valley, and each contributes its torrent of muddy water 

 to create and swell the Arve. This grand series of ice-rivers 

 and the more majestic mass of the mountains, with their 

 swelling domes and sky-piercing pinnacles, may be contem- 

 plated as a panorama from the .summits which overlook the 

 valley from the north, and put the spectator face to face be- 

 fore the stupendous Mont Blanc range. No person can gaze 

 on this spectacle from the Flegere, which faces the Mer de 

 Glace, or from the Brevent, which faces directly the Glacier 

 des Bossons and Mont Blanc, without feeling a sympathy with 

 Coleridge in his " Hymn in the Vale of Chamonix :" 



" Ye ice-falls ! ye that from the mountain's brow 

 Adown enormous ravines slope amain, 

 Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice, 

 And stopped at once amid their maddened plunge ! 

 Motionless torrents ! silent cataracts ! 

 Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven 

 Beneath the keen full moon ? Who bade the sun 

 Clothe you with rainbow ? Who with living flowers 

 Of loveliest blue spread garlands at your feet ? 

 God ! Let the torrents like a shout of nations 

 Answer, and let the ice-plains echo, God ! " 



The conception of a glacier as a frozen cataract is sugges- 

 tive and truthful. When, from the Montanvert, overlooking 

 the Mer de Glace, De Saussure contemplated the sea of ice, 

 he received an impression thus recorded: "Its surface re- 



