1801.) Account of a Fourney te the Summit of Mount Perdu. 209 
day, they took the route of the valley of 
Eftaubé, and were not long in diftinguith- 
ing the fummit of Mount Perdu,which ap- 
peared above enormous rocks, cut perpen- 
dicularly like walls; but foon it difap- 
peared behind thofe very walls, which 
_feemed to rife higher in proportion to their 
nearer approach. At length, after four 
hours: journey, they found themfelves at 
the foot of an intermediate glacier, covered 
with fnow, and confequently acceffible ; 
this glacier, which conduéted to a breach 
or opening that feemed to face Mount 
Perdu, they refolved to attempt by efca- 
lade. At length, after many attempts, 
the leffening of the cleft or breach, the 
ice concealed under fnows of a pure white, 
the finking of the highlimits ot the dell or 
valley, and the cold wind which ruthes 
through the vaft aperture of the cleft, again 
vifible under gigantefque proportions, indi- 
cated the fummit of thecreft, and their ar- 
rival at the defired end; or, at leaft, the 
creft which they afcended is only feparated 
from the fummit of Mount Perdu by the 
erofion, or falling off, of a part of its 
flanks: this f{ummit was before them, a lit- 
tle to the left,white, but thaded with grey, 
and envelopped in the bofom of a high 
cloud, which circulates flowly about it. 
Here, after a cry of joy, which announced 
the change of fcene, a folemn filence fuc- 
ceeds, at the afpect of a new world, 
at the vaft depth which feparates the tra- 
vellers from it, the glaciers which gird it 
round, and the fnow which covers it; al- 
together prefenting a frightfui and fublime 
f{peftacle, with which all their faculties 
were overwhelmed. At their right, ftood 
detached the Cylizder (another peak of the 
Marboré) more fombrous than the fnow, 
more menacing than Mount Perdu itfelf, 
ereét upon its bafe, and fo near them, that 
it feems to touch Mount Perdu by the 
hand. At the foot of thefe two fummits 
is a Jake, (till remaining iced, from whence 
rifes a band of rocks, which form here a 
Jong promontory ; the figure of this band 
indicates a perfeét fimilitude between its 
ftructure, and that of the platform of the 
Cylinder. On their reaching the promon- 
tory, which was eafily done, Citizen Ra- 
mond found its rock divided into horizon- 
tal ftrata, like thofe of the Marboré, and 
like the Cylinder and its platform. But 
were thefe ftrata or fifflures? The firft 
firoke of the hammer refolved the -quef- 
tion: they were fiffures, and the ftrata were 
vertical. All thofe which he had pafled by, 
in mounting towards the creft, were more 
or lefs in the fame dire&tion: and now all 
the doubts of Cit. Ramond, with regard to 
-Monruiy Mac, N°. 78, 
the exiftence of fhells, and other marine- 
fubftances, in the upper regions of the 
Pyrenees, were fhortly to be removed ; 
he was preparing to {trike a fecond firoke 
into the heart of the rock, when he per- 
ceived, on its furface, a reddifh projeétion; 
he looks at it more narrowly, and finds it 
to be a broken off piece of the polypus 
kind (“x trongon de polypier) which he mif- 
took at firft for the ceilular millepora, He 
examines further, and he fees the fuperior 
valve of an oyfter filled with orthoceratiies, 
afterwards he finds fragments of a fafvicu 
lar madrepora; then other bruifed or bat 
tered zoophytes, which he could not deter~ 
mine ; and laftly fome portions of échinites, 
which it was no lefs difficult to refer to. 
their fpecies. Here, an avalanche, or great 
drift of fnow, falling from the fummit of 
the mountain, with a formidable noife, de- 
termined the departute of the voyagers. 
It was neceffary to defcend ; but to defcend 
here—hoc opus, hic labor efi—the very idea 
of returning over the fnow, by which 
they had mounted, made them fhudder. 
They fearch for an iffue or egrefs at 
the eaftern extremity of the bafin; they 
turn the graduations of Mount Perdu; 
they flide, one after another, along a 
narrow cornice, fufpended over abyfics ; 
from thence, they glide into a ravines 
from that into another, and fo from 
ravines to ravines, from precipices to 
precipices, they at length arrive at 
the bottom of the valley of Eftaube. 
Shortly there burfts forth one of thole 
ftorms fo terrible in the mountains ; 
by the glare of the lightning they 
fearch for an afylum to pafs the night; 
they arrive at a fhepherd’s hut, but toa 
{mall to contain all the travellers. The 
weakeft find a lodging here, and the molt 
robuft take fhelter under the excavation of 
a rock, Towards the end of the fame 
fumimer, Citizen Ramond refolyed to revi- 
fit the fame objects, under new appear- 
ances, and by anotherroute. ‘The glacier 
was then much changed; the fnow was 
no more; but a field ef ice, furrowed in 
all dire€tions by large and vaft crevices, 
where the foot could not reitona fingle point; 
rocks lengthened into walls, curved into 
amphitheatres, cut out into graduations, 
rifing into towers, to which the hand of 
giants feems to have applied the plumb and 
line, prefented new and ftrange afpects to 
ravifh the contemplation, at leaft, where 
the charm of enthufjafm is not wanting, 
which alone can conduc the traveller, 
(through fo many fubverfions, ftorms, tor- 
rents, avalanches, wrecks, and heaps of 
ruins ; the revolutions of the earth, of the 
€ elements 
