160 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



finally decided.to place his building on tlie rocks called Les Bosses, 

 about 1,400 feet below the actual summit. He did this for two reasons, 

 the first being that he was afraid of movement if he erected his observ- 

 atory on the cap of snow, which is really glacial snow covering the sum- 

 mit; the second, that it seemed to him the highest spot where he could 

 find a rocky foundation of sufficient size. In addition to these reasons 

 a resting place and shelter were much needed by those overtaken by 

 bad weather in making the ascent, and this latter consideration induced 

 the guides and others in Chamounix not only to bear a large portion 

 of the expense, but to carry up free of cost the various materials and 

 instruments for the building. 



In the summer of 1890 M. Vallot collected his materials and got 

 them successfully transported to the "Bosses" rock, where he put up 

 a tent for the workmen and another for himself. He suffered much 

 from mountain sickness, but he had provided himself with a remedy in 

 a steel tube full of compressed oxygen, of which he breathed several 

 quarts, and then found himself with an appetite for food, and all was 

 well. A storm came on, but by extreme exertion the workmen managed 

 to put up the walls in one day, although at last it was so cold that 

 they could scarcely work even in thick woolen gloves. Of course the 

 porters had brought their burdens up as they best could, and M. Yallot 

 says that by an unhappy fate all the useless things arrived first, and 

 he sought in vain for the means of making a cup of coffee, though he 

 was abundantly supplied with thermometers and other apparatus. 

 For want of a coffee mill they spread the grains of coffee on a little 

 table and ground them to powder by means of an empty bottle. He 

 says that on this table were emptied coffee, soup, petroleum, and other 

 things, so that to this day he does not know what mixture he then 

 swallowed. They spent some fearfully cold nights, and some of the 

 workmen fell ill, and M. Yallot had to revive them by giving them 

 some of his compressed oxygen to breathe. 



• By the third day they got the roof on, and lit a triumphal bonfire at 

 night to tell the folks at Chamounix that the enterprise was a success. 



M. Vallot recounts how, in the dead of night, to his great surprise, 

 he heard violent knockings at his door, and on answering them he 

 found some of his porters, who had ascended with lanterns, to inform 

 him that two of his scientific friends were ill with mountain sickness 

 and sunstroke at the Grands Mulets rocks, 3,000 feet below. 



He tells us that he immediately got up, filled an india rubber bag 

 with three liters of oxygen, and descending to the Grands Mulets in 

 one hour (though it had taken them six hours to ascend), he arrived at 

 the cabin, gave his friend the oxygen gas, which enabled him to 

 descend with a firm step to Chamounix. 



Here M. Yallot found many of his packages detained, and after a suc- 

 cessful forage among them says he emerged, brandishing as trophies 

 a sphygmograph, a coffee mill, and a broom, the two latter things being 



