ASCENT OF MOST BLAXC. 39 



frosted silver, threw a cold gleam over the plateau, 

 sufficient to show its immense and ghastly space. 

 High up on our right was the summit of Mont 

 Blanc, apparently as close and as inaccessible as 

 ever ; and immediately on our left was the appalling 

 gulf, yawning in the ice of unknown depth, into 

 which the avalanche swept Dr Hamel's guides, and 

 in whose depths, ice-bound and unchanged, they are 

 yet locked. Tairraz crept close to me, and said, 

 through his teeth, almost in a whisper " C'est ici, 

 Monsieur, que nion frere Auguste est peri en 1820, 

 avec Balmat et Carrier : les pauvres corps sont encore 

 la bas ! ca me donne de peine, toujours, en traver- 

 sant le Plateau ; et la route est encore perilleuse. " 

 " Et les avalanches 1 " I asked " tombent elles tou- 

 jours 1 " " Oui, Monsieur, toujours nuit et jour. 

 Le plutot passe, mieux pour nous ! " 



In fact, although physically the easiest, this was 

 the most treacherous part of the entire ascent. A 

 flake of snow or a chip of ice, whirled by the wind 

 from the summit, and increasing as it rolled down 

 the top of the mountain, might at length thunder on 

 to our path, and sweep everything before it into the 

 crevice. Everybody was aware of this ; and for three 

 quarters of an hour we kept trudging hurriedly for- 

 ward, scarcely daring to speak, and every now and 

 then looking up with mistrust at the calotte, as the 

 summit is termed, that rose above us in such cold 

 and deceitful tranquillity. Once or twice in my life 



