§80 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC :\IAGAZINE 



seen glittering far below in the ravine 

 at our right. 



To reach the ice we follow a narrow, 

 slippery goat-path, hollowed out in the 

 almost perpendicular face of the cliff, 

 our left shoulders rubbing the rock, 

 while our right feet are on the edge of 

 the precipice, which dips sheer to the 

 glacier hundreds of feet below. Soon 

 we stand on a mound of broken granite 

 fragments mixed with gravel and ice, a 

 lateral moraine, and work our way over 

 this broken and rugged causeway, skirt- 

 ing the bases of the needle-like rocks, 

 the Aiguilles du Midi, du Plan, and de 

 Blaiterie, this part of the route being 

 known as the Plan des Aiguilles. We 

 arrive just beneath the Aiguille du Midi, 

 where we reach another huge granite 

 cliff, called the Pierre a I'Echelle, or 

 Ladderstone, perhaps so named because 

 the descent from it to the ice is here made 

 generally with the use of a ladder. 



dangi:r ]?rom avalanches 



Constant avalanches of stones rolling 

 down from the neighboring Aiguille du 

 Midi make this part of the route dan- 

 gerous. When the stones came down, 

 often no larger than cannon balls and 

 rushing with similar velocity, we would 

 take refuge by crouching down beneath 

 some projecting boulder. 



At length we are on the glacier of the 

 ''Bossons." A wide waste of snow and 

 ice stretching continuously upward, with 

 an apparently easy slope, lies before us. 

 At a distance of two miles, perhaps, are 

 visible two isolated pinnacles of rock ris- 

 ing above the monotonous white waste. 

 These rocks we watch with interest, for 

 they are the ''Grands Mulcts," upon 

 which is the tiny chalet where we are to 

 spend the night (see page 882). 



But the frozen slope before us is not as 

 smooth and level as it seems at this dis- 

 tance, for we soon find ourselves in the 

 midst of fearful, irregular forms of 

 jagged ice walls, yawning chasms hun- 

 dreds of feet deep, huge masses of half 

 consolidated snow, the remnants of older 

 avalanches launched long since from 

 above, and everything mingled in the ut- 

 most confusion (see pages 876 and 877). 



To cross this irregular mass is most 



laborious ; in bad weather there have 

 been occasions when even expert guides 

 were unable to cross. In 1870, for in- 

 stance, when a party of 11 perished near 

 the summit, the rescue-party was de- 

 tained at Pierre a TEchelle several days. 

 The first part of the distance is easy 

 enough, lying merely over broken and 

 fissured ice. But as we approach what is 

 called the "Junction," where the two ice- 

 streams, the glaciers of the "Bossons" 

 (which we have just been traversing), 

 and Taconnaz join, just above the but- 

 tress of rock known as the Montague 

 de la Cote, which causes them to divide 

 again, the ice is fearfully upheaved, and 

 frequently the use of the ice-axe is 

 needed ; hence progress is most tedious 

 and the party is roped together to avoid 

 falling into hidden crevasses. 



Amid the broken ice of the Junction 

 are many lofty and frequently overhang- 

 ing pinnacles of ice, knov/n as seracs (see 

 page 878). To ascend these needles is a 

 very dangerous pastime, as they not in- 

 frequently topple over, and in passing 

 them one keeps as far away from their 

 bases as possible. Huge masses of rock 

 are constantly rolling down upon the ice 

 or into the open crevasses from the 

 heights above. 



fri:aks Q]? aIvPine nature 



These rocks often cause the ice below 

 them to assume most fantastic shapes. 

 As the surface of the ice gradually melts 

 away, perhaps a foot in a week, these 

 huge stones keep the sun's rays from the 

 ice beneath them ; so gradually, as the 

 constant erosion and carving go on, they 

 become like huge granite tables sup- 

 ported by thin crystal stems, which grow 

 longer and thinner day by day, until 

 finally the weight above causes them to 

 topple over. 



But small bodies, such as leaves, have 

 just the opposite effect, for they absorb 

 the sun's heat and communicate it di- 

 rectly to the ice below, and so holes are 

 hollowed out. Though tons of granite 

 are rejected and hoisted up into the air 

 on solid pillars of ice, little flimsy mem- 

 branes, like leaves, wafted over the ice 

 by the summer's breeze and weighing 

 only a few grains, are sucked down into 



