CLOUDS AND RIVERS, ICE AND GLACIERS. 41 



iceman would find himself defeated in any attempt to 

 get along it. 



109. We reach a place called the Chapeau, where, if 

 we wish, we can have refreshment in a little mountain 

 hut. We then pass the Mauvais Pas, a precipitous 

 rock, on the face of which steps are hewn, and the un- 

 practised traveller is assisted by a rope. We pursue 

 our journey, partly along the mountain side, and partly 

 along a ridge of singularly artificial aspect — a lateral 

 moraine. We at length face a house perched upon an 

 eminence at the opposite side of the glacier. This is 

 the auberge of the Montanvert, well known to all 

 visitors to this portion of the Alps. 



110. Here we cross the glacier. I should have told 

 you that its lower part, including the broken portion 

 we have passed, is called the Glacier des Bois ; while 

 the place that we are now about to cross is the be- 

 ginning of the Mer de Glace. You feel that this term 

 is not quite appropriate, for the glacier here is much 

 more like a river of ice than a sea. The valley which 

 it fills is about half a mile wide. 



111. The ice may be riven where we enter upon it, 

 but with the necessary care there is no difficulty in 

 crossing this portion of the Mer de Glace. The clefts 

 and chasms in the ice are called crevasses ; we shall 

 make their acquaintance on a grander scale by and by. 



112. Look up and down this side of the glacier. Tt 

 is considerably riven, but as we advance the crevasses 



