i857 MONT BLANC 157 



wife is safe and well. Offer her my warmest congratulations 

 and good wishes. I have made one matrimonial engagement 

 for Noel already, otherwise I would bespeak the hand of the 

 young lady for him. 



It has been raining cats and dogs these two days, so that 

 we have been unable to return to our headquarters at the 

 Montanvert which we left on Wednesday for the purpose of 

 going up Mont Blanc. Tyndall (who has become one of the 

 most active and daring mountaineers you ever saw — so that we 

 have christened him " cat " ; and our guide said the other day, 

 " II va plus fort qu'un mouton. II faut lui mettre une sonnette ") 

 had set his heart on the performance of this feat (of course 

 with purely scientific objects), and had equally made up his 

 mind not to pay five and twenty pounds for the gratification. 

 So we had one guide and took two porters in addition as far as 

 the Grands Mulets. He is writing to you, and will tell you him- 

 self what happened to those who reached the top — to wit, him- 

 self. Hirst, and the guide. I found that three days in Switzer- 

 land had not given me my Swiss legs, and consequently I re- 

 mained at the Grands Mulets, all alone in my glory, and for 

 some eight hours in a great state of anxiety, for the three did 

 not return for about that period after they were due. 



I was there on a pinnacle like St. Simon Stylites, and nearly 

 as dirty as that worthy saint must have been, but without any 

 of his other claims to angelic assistance, so that I really did not 

 see, if they had fallen into a crevasse, how I was to help either 

 them or myself. They came back at last, just as it was growing 

 dusk, to my inexpressible relief, and the next day we came down 

 here — such a set of dirty, sun-burnt, snow-blind wretches as 

 you never saw. 



We heartily wished you were with us. What we shall do 

 next I neither know nor care, as I have placed myself entirely 

 under Commodore Tyndall's orders ; but I suppose we shall be 

 three or four days more at the Montanvert, and then make the 

 tour of Mont Blanc. I have tied up six pounds in one end of 

 my purse, and when I have no more than that I shall come back. 

 Altogether I don't feel in the least like the father of a family ; 

 no more would you if you were here. The habit of carrying a 

 pack, I suppose, makes the " quiver full of arrows " feel light. 



115 Esplanade, Deal, Sept. 3, 1857. 

 My dear Tyndall — I don't consider myself returned until 

 next Wednesday, when the establishment of No. 14 will reopen 



