16 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



here I was glad to quit my mule, and proceed with 

 the rest on foot. From this point the vegetation 

 gradually became more scanty, and at last even the 

 fir-trees no longer grew about us. The hillside was 

 bare and arid, covered with the debris of the spring 

 avalanches amongst which tufts of alpine rhodo- 

 dendron were blowing and some goats were trying 

 very hard to pick up a living. Our caravan was now 

 spread about far and wide ; but at half-past nine we 

 came to an enormous block of granite called the 

 Pierre Pointue, and here we reunited our forces and 

 rested a while. During our halt the porters readjusted 

 their packs ; and some who had carried or dragged 

 up billets of wood with them, which they found on 

 the way, chopped them into lengths and tied them 

 on to their knapsacks. The weight some of these 

 men marched under was surprising. Hitherto we 

 had been on the ridge of one of the mighty buttresses 

 of Mont Blanc, which hem in the glaciers between 

 them : we had now to cling along its side to gain the 

 ice. This part of the journey requires a strong head : 

 here, and towards the termination of the ascent, 

 dizziness would be fatal Along the side of the 

 mountain, which is all but perpendicular, the goats 

 have worn a rude track, scarcely a foot broad. On 

 your left your shoulder rubs the rock ; and on your 

 right there is a frightful precipice, at the bottom of 

 which, hundreds of feet below you, is that confusion 

 of ice, granite blocks, stones, and dirty roaring water, 



