THE ASCENT OF MONT BLANC 



upright, one of the guides often hes down 

 at full length — of course tied to the rest 

 of the party — and manages to wriggle 

 across, and then pulls the next one over 

 laid flat on his back. Sometimes ladders 

 are used, but of late years it is seldom 

 that a" cumbersome ladder is carried. 

 Sometimes by making a long detour a 

 way across is finally found. As a last 

 resort, steps are hewn in the faces of the 

 crevasse, down on one side and up the 

 other, descending as far as necessary in 

 order to cross the chasm easily (see page 

 88i). 



TRAGEDIES O? TI-IE CREVASSES 



Perhaps some of you have read that 

 weird tale entitled "Mrs. Knollys," by 

 Mr. F. J. Stimson; how a young bride 

 lost her husband in a crevasse on a Swiss 

 glacier, and how, 40 years later, the then 

 gray-haired lady returned to the scene of 

 her grief, and, the requisite time for the 

 movement of the glacier having elapsed, 

 greeted the body of her husband, still in 

 the same flush of youth as on the day of 

 his disappearance, at the base of the 

 glacier. 



This story, seemingly so fantastic, has 

 a basis of scientific truth in it, for there 

 are many instances of bodies, which have 

 been lost in crevasses, appearing again 

 years later, for the glacier flows on irre- 

 sistibly in a straight and steady course 

 which no force can stem ; whatever falls 

 upon it moves with it, and whatever falls 

 into the gaping mouths of its crevasses 

 is carried down with it. 



As an illustration of this movement, 

 may be cited the terrible Hamel accident, 

 in 1820, at the upper end of the Grand 

 Plateau. After passing the last crevasse 

 and starting up the slope of the "Ancien 

 Passage," the snow beneath the party be- 

 gan to slip, all of them were hurled down 

 in the suffocating mass to the edge of a 

 huge crevasse, and three guides were 

 swept into it. 



In 1861, 41 years later, the dismem- 

 bered remains of their bodies began to 

 reappear at the lower end of the glacier 

 of the "Bossons," more than four miles 

 in a direct line from where the accident 

 occurred. The bodies must have trav- 



eled downward at the rate of 500 feet 

 per annum. 



One of the surviving guides was still 

 living when the remains of his old com- 

 rades were found. He remarked, "Who 

 could have thought I should have shaken 

 once more the hands of my brave com- 

 rade?" 



Fragments of skulls, a forearm and 

 hand, bits of a knapsack, a felt hat, tin 

 lantern, shreds of clothing, and even a 

 cooked leg of mutton, were among the 

 various articles which first came to light, 

 and a year later many other things were 

 found. 



In 1866 a Captain Arkwright and three 

 others were also caught in an avalanche 

 and hurled from the "Ancien Passage" 

 into a crevasse at its base, on the Grand 

 Plateau. The Captain's body was found 

 in 1897 on the lower part of the glacier 

 of the Bossons, miles away, and his watch 

 and some other things appeared two 

 years later. 



MEASURING THE MOVEMENTS OE THE 

 GEACIERS 



The movements of these glaciers have 

 been carefully studied by Professor 

 Forbes, in 1832, and by Professor Tyn- 

 dall, in 1857 and 1859. Forbes first 

 proved that they were in perpetual mo- 

 tion. He watched holes, dug into vari- 

 ous parts of the huge glacier known as 

 the Mer de Glace, through a small tele- 

 scope furnished with a graduated circle 

 and planted on the glacier's rocky bank. 

 He found these marks were carried 

 downward faster when on the lower part 

 of the glacier than on the upper, and 

 faster in the middle of the stream than 

 at the sides. He calculated the daily 

 progress to be about 10 inches near the 

 top, whereas it was about 25 near the 

 bottom in the center and 16 at the sides. 



In 1832 he discovered some fragments 

 of wood in the ice, which were identified 

 as pieces of a ladder which de Saussure 

 had left at the upper end of the glacier in 

 1788 when descending the Col du Geant. 

 So the ice had moved some 16,500 feet 

 in 44 years, or about 375 feet per annum, 

 somewhat slower than the glacier which 

 starts from the Grand Plateau. 



