168 Scientific Intelligence. — I^atitral History. 



8. Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences. — The fifteenth session of 

 this patriotic and useful society was held in the month of July last, at 

 the Hospital of the Great St. Bernard. An account of this interest- 

 ing session has been given by Professor A. De La Rive, from v^hich 

 we extract the following. The monks of St. Bernard having offered 

 their convents, at the last meeting of the society, as the place of the 

 annual meeting in 1829, the offer was gratefully accepted, and letters 

 were in consequence addressed to the different members, inviting 

 them to meet at Martigny on the 19th of July. This call was an- 

 swered from all parts of Switzerland, and on the 19th, Martigny wit- 

 nessed the assemblage of compatriots all bending their course to one 

 point, — friends happy in meeting each other, and strangers, ambitious 

 to be present at this society, particularly interesting in the present 

 year, both on account of its objects and of the place of its meeting. 

 Every thing which could facilitate the ascent of the mountain, had 

 been timely and carefully provided by the Valaisans ; — mules, guides, 

 stations, prepared, he. in a word, the society was transported en 

 masse, without accident and with the greatest facility to a height of 

 near 1300 toises ; and held its session in the midst of eternal snows, 

 and surrounded by rocks rising from the surrounding Alps which 

 bordered the horizon on all sides. 



We shall not attempt to describe the reception which awaited the 

 travellers at the summit of the Great St. Bernard : the cares of the 

 most attentive hospitality had been taken in the preparations, and we 

 could not say too much relative to the various precautions and the 

 kind and cordial reception, by which the monks endeavored to make 

 us forget the austerity of the climate into which we found ourselves 

 so suddenly transported. It had snowed a litde on the nights of the 

 19th and 20th, but the weather had somewhat relaxed ; nevertheless 

 it was cold, and the thermometer descended below on the night of 

 the 20th and 21st. It was at 3° above on the day of the 21st, and 

 on the 22d it ascended to 7°. Add to this low temperature a violent 

 and uninterrupted north wind, an atmosphere so rarefied that the ba- 

 rometer hardly stood at twenty one inches, and an idea may be 

 formed of the sojourn at Saint Bernard in the middle of summer, 

 and of what must be the rigor of other seasons with their ice, snows 

 and avalanches. What religious devotion, what profound humanity 

 must be necessary to induce men to live in such a climate, especially 

 ■tvhen another so different exists a few leagues from them. And yet 

 with what simplicity and cheerfulness do they appear to devote them- 

 selves to such a duty. 



