A Week among the Glaciers. 283 



The attempt to ascend Mont Blanc was to me quite unexpect- 

 ed, for I did not wish to risk for myself the dangers of an 

 ascent, and much less the lives of the guides necessary to such 

 an excursion. But being in company with two English gentle- 

 men, who determined to attempt it, I was persuaded to make it 

 with them. 



Having made known our intentions to the hotelier, he imme- 

 diately sent for COuttet, who selected from the most trustworthy 

 of the guides, eighteen for us ; and six more, after seeing the pre- 

 paration of eatables and drinkables the landlord had prepared for 

 our journey, volunteered to accompany us, for the privilege of 

 free access to our haversacks. Every thing being arranged the 

 night previous, we breakfasted the following morning, July 15th, 

 at 4 o'clock. The hotel presented at this early hour a lively 

 scene, while the guides were depositing in the different hav- 

 ersacks the provisions which had been prepared, and which 

 were truly in amount enormous for the time we anticipated be- 

 ing absent. 



One hour later and we were already skirting the base of the 

 mountain, myself and two friends on mules; and in this way we 

 proceeded, till we entered the thick growth of pines that clothes 

 the mountain side, through which we wound our way, until the 

 broken fragments of rocks and the trunks of fallen trees prevent- 

 ed the further progress of the mules, when we dismounted and 

 sent them back, while we proceeded on foot through the pines, 

 which now becoming less and less thrifty, soon ceased alto- 

 gether, and nothing but the barren rocks, with only here and 

 there a scraggy shrub, till about 9 o'clock we arrived at the point 

 of perpetual snow, where we halted to take a second dejeuner a 

 la fourchette, (breakfast.) 



It was at this point we determined to enter upon the Glacier 

 des Bossons, and crossing it, to ascend the mount on the opposite 

 side, which would, we conceived, be easier and less dangerous 

 than continuing our course up the glacier to the Grandes Mulets, 

 which was the point we wished to gain as a resting place for 

 the night. 



Here I made an experiment to test the diurnal advance of the 

 glacier. A took three large blocks of stone, with the smoothest 

 faces I could find, and having placed them in a straight line 

 about ten feet distant from each other, I sighted (in the usual 



