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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



ice of the ''junction'' above; but, discour- 

 aged at finding they could not go up and 

 down in one day and afraid of spending 

 a night on the ice, they gave up the at- 

 tempt. 



Eight years more elapsed before three 

 other chamois hunters, in 1783, tried the 

 same route. They spent the night at the 

 top of the Montague de la Cote, just be- 

 low the ice fields, and at daybreak started 

 bravely up the glacier ; but they soon gave 

 it up, owing to the overpowering desire 

 of one of their party to sleep. 



The great heat of the sun, which is ex- 

 perienced even at high altitudes on the 

 glaciers, seems also to have greatly per- 

 plexed these peasants, as well as the su- 

 perstition, which is yet prevalent in some 

 parts of the Alps, that it is fatal to give 

 way to sleep at such altitudes. They 

 seemed to fear that their companion 

 would succumb to sunstroke, and one of 

 these hardy mountaineers greatly amused 

 de Saussure by declaring that if ever he 

 ventured up again he would carry only a 

 parasol and a bottle of smelling-salts ! 



"When I picture to myself," wrote the 

 Professor, ''this big and robust moun- 

 taineer scaling the snows, holding a little 

 parasol in one hand and a bottle of smell- 

 ing-salts in the other, nothing gives me a 

 better idea of the difficulty of the under- 

 taking and its impossibility to people who 

 have neither the heads nor the limbs of a 

 good Chamonix guide." 



They returned with swollen lips and 

 blistered skins, showing that the Chamo- 

 nix guides of those days were unaccus- 

 tomed to high elevations, as otherwise 

 they would have prepared themselves to 

 resist the effects of the sun, even in the 

 snow fields ; for often while the feet are 

 nearly frozen the face is badly burned, 

 necessitating the use of a cap drawn over 

 the face or the application of burnt cork 

 to the skin. 



Later, in the same year, a Geneva artist 

 named Bourrit, a great lover of moun- 

 tain scenery, attempted the same route, 

 camping out as the others had and start- 

 ing up the glacier at daybreak. How- 

 ever, a cloud hovering around the sum- 

 mit soon scared his party out, and they 

 bolted for Chamonix as fast as they 



could go. The next year Bourrit tried it 

 again from another side of the mountain, 

 by the glacier of Bionnassay, behind the 

 great ridge or arm descending from the 

 Dome du Goiiter ; but the weather proved 

 too cold and only two of his men reached 

 the Bosses du Dromadaire, the two knobs 

 or camel-like humps just beyond the 

 Dome du Gouter, the highest point prob- 

 ably so far gained ; finally they came 

 down like all the rest. 



THE BUII^DING OF mt FIRST HUT 



De Saussure heard of the new route 

 and had a hut built far up on the Bion- 

 nassay side in order to make the start 

 from a higher level. In September of 

 1785 he made the attempt himself, but 

 the lateness of the season made the as- 

 cent impossible. Doubtless his presence 

 on the mountain stimulated the guides to 

 fresh endeavors to win the prize offered 

 a quarter of a century before. 



The Geneva scientist had a second hut 

 built, still higher up, for he was con- 

 vinced that the summit could only be 

 reached from this side, as crossing the 

 ice fields of the "junction" above the 

 Montague de la Cote seemed to him im- 

 practicable. Not all the Chamonix guides, 

 however, were of this opinion, some still 

 clinging to the old route. 



So the two factions got to betting on 

 the respective merits of the two routes, 

 until it was finally arranged that one 

 party should try the old route and the 

 other the new one and see which would 

 first arrive below the summit. The start 

 was made June 30, 1786, there being 

 three guides in each party. The three 

 ascending by the Montagne de la Cote 

 arrived at the ridge just beyond the 

 Dome du Gouter long before the party 

 coming up from the west. They at- 

 tempted to go higher by the ridge of the 

 "Bosses," but this route proved to be so 

 precarious — being flanked on each side 

 by precipices — that even these practiced 

 mountaineers gave it up ; indeed, the as- 

 cent by this ridge would be impossible 

 without the use of the ice-axe, with which 

 the Chamonix guides were not yet fa- 

 miliar. 



