10 TEAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPORT. 



come from Ouchy on the Lake of Geneva, with the in- 

 tention also of trying the ascent. It was immediately 

 settled that we should unite our caravans ; and that 

 same evening, Jean Tairraz, Jean Tairraz the elder, 

 Jean Carrier, and Gedeon Balmat, met us to settle our 

 plans. The weather had unfortunately changed. It 

 rained constantly : the wind came up the valley 

 always a bad sign and the clouds were so low that 

 we could not even see the aiguilles, nor the top of 

 the Brevent. But so determined were we to go, that 

 at all risks we should have ventured. Every arrange- 

 ment of food, covering, &c., was left to M. Edouard 

 Tairraz, the landlord of the excellent Hotel de 

 Londres ; and it was understood that we were all to 

 keep in readiness to start at half -an -hour's notice. 

 My young friends, who had been in regular training 

 for some time, continued to perform prodigies of 

 pedestrianism. I did as much as I could ; but, un- 

 fortunately, was taken so poorly on my return from 

 Montanvert on the Monday I suspect from sudden 

 overwork, and sitting about in the wet that I was 

 obliged to lie down on my bed for four or five hours 

 on my return to the hotel, and, in very low spirits, I 

 began to despair of success. 



All this time the weather never improved : it rained 

 unceasingly. "We almost rattled the barometer to 

 pieces in our anxiety to detect a change ; and Jean 

 made an excursion with me to the cottage of one of 

 the Balmats the very same house spoken of in my 



