ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 55 



good-bye to the Grands Mulets, most probably for 

 ever. 



In five minutes we found that, after all, the greatest 

 danger of the undertaking was to come. The whole 

 surface of the Glacier des Eossons had melted into 

 perfect sludge ; the ice-cliffs were dripping in the sun, 

 like the well at Knaresborough ; every minute the 

 bridges over the crevices were falling in ; and we 

 sank almost to our waists in the thawing snow at 

 every step we took. I could see that the guides 

 were uneasy. All the ropes came out again, and we 

 were tied together in parties of three, about ten feet 

 distant from one another. And now all the work of 

 yesterday had to be gone over again, with much more 

 danger attached to it. From the state of the snow, 

 the guides avowed that it was impossible to tell 

 whether we should find firm standing on any arch 

 we arrived at, or go through it at once into some 

 frightful chasm. They sounded every bridge we 

 came to with their poles, and a shake of the head 

 was always the signal for a detour. One or two of 

 the tracks by which we had marched up yesterday 

 had now disappeared altogether, and fresh ones had 

 to be cautiously selected. We had one tolerably nar- 

 row escape. Tairraz, who preceded me, had jumped 

 over a crevice, and upon the other side alighted on a 

 mere bracket of snow, which directly gave way beneath 

 him. With the squirrel -like rapid activity of the 

 Chamouni guides, he whirled his baton round so as 



