ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 19 



tons descended at once, its momentum would have 

 carried it along the glacier, sweeping everything 

 before it ; and of this occurrence the guides are 

 constantly in dread. 



We rested here nearly half an hour; and it was 

 not until we unpacked some of our cold fowls from 

 the ' Galignanis ' in which they were rolled, that we 

 found our knives and forks had been left behind. 

 Tairraz thought Balmat had them and Balmat had 

 told Carrier to look after them and Carrier had seen 

 them on the bench outside the hotel just as we 

 started, and expected young Devouassoud had put 

 them in his knapsack and so it went on. But 

 nobody in the end had brought them. Most of us, 

 however, had pocket-knives ; and what we could not 

 carve we pulled to pieces with our fingers, and made 

 a famous meal. The morning was so bright, and the 

 air so pure, and the view so grand, and we were 

 already so fatigued or fancied we were that I 

 believe, if the guides had not beaten us up again 

 into marching order, we should have dawdled about 

 this Pierre a 1'Echelle for half the day. So we took 

 our batons and started off again ; and after a trouble- 

 some scuffle over the grimy border of the glacier 

 we reached its clean edge, and bade good-bye to 

 firm footing and visible safety for the rest of the 

 excursion. 



The first portion of the journey across the Glacier 

 des Bossons is easy enough, provided always that the 



