290 A Week among the Glaciers. 



in the discharge of ordnance, near our dwellings. It may be 

 more perfectly exemplified, by taking a bottle and corking it tight- 

 ly, and discharging at a short distance, twenty or thirty feet, a 

 musket or a rifle, so that the ball shall pass about one inch over 

 the cork ; the velocity of the projected bullet produces a vacuum, 

 and the cork leaps from its place of confinement, in consequence 

 of the atmospheric pressure being thus suddenly removed, and by 

 the expansion of the air within the bottle. 



The Grand Millets are two rocks which project from the Glacier 

 des Bossons, whose summits are so pointed, and their sides so 

 perpendicular, that the snow does not rest upon them. Here we 

 halted for the night. 



They had loaded a cannon in the valley previous to our depar- 

 ture, and were to discharge it when they saw us (through their 

 telescope) arrive at this point, (Grand Millets,) which they did, 

 but neither myself nor the guides heard the report, although some 

 of our guides said they saw the smoke. 



I had taken up with me six old pigeons, the strongest and 

 shyest I could find in the pigeon-house of the hotel, and now de- 

 termined to let two of them off from the rock; the time being 

 marked on a small piece of parchment, and attached by a string 

 to one leg. I had desired the landlord to note the time when the 

 pigeons made their appearance at Chamonix. I then tossed one 

 of them a few feet in the air, that he might see to take his direc- 

 tion, when to my surprise, he fluttered a little, and came down 

 nearly as rapidly as I had thrown him up. When we then at- 

 tempted to catch him, he endeavored to fly, but being unable 

 to rise, he fluttered about, ran with his wings extended a iew 

 yards, and was easily taken. I presumed he might have been in- 

 jured by the confinement in the basket, and so I made the same 

 experiment with three others, the result being the same ; proving 

 that the rarity of the air was too great to admit of their supporting 

 themselves. But the next day in descending we let them off 

 about half way down between the Grand Millets and the upper 

 point of vegetation, and they took their courses directly for Cha- 

 monix, and were doubtless safely at home long before we reached 

 the perpetual snow line. 



After resting here twenty minutes, and previous to eating, the 

 average pulsations and respirations of the whole party stood at 

 one hundred and twenty eight of the former and thirty of the 



