THE STORY

level of a peasant to a position of affluence. They have built themsclves a beautiful house 1n the valley of Chamonix, where they permancently reside with their family., A few vears later a man with a wooden lcg attempted to reach the summit, and ncarly succeeded, but became prostrated with cxhaustion, and had to be carried down. Then a blind man went up ; not for the sake of what he could sce, but for the sake of what he could say. De gustibus o ost disputandun” And the most recent thing in the way of cecentricities is the ascent bv a scientist, who, being lame, was taken up by a number of um(lc Oon sort of sledge. A proposition has - been seriously madc ot late years to c stablish an observatory on the summit of the Monarch.

T MER-DE-GLACHE,

But 1t 1s doubtful whether the proposition will ever take practical shape. The mitial engmecring difficultics would probably be overcomec ; but the cnormous accumula- tions of snow would entirely bury any con- struction of the kind, even if the furmentes which rage round that lofty peak did not carry it bodlly away.

At the present day the ascent of Mont Blanc has become very popular, and on an average therc arc about forty ascentsa vear. It has been said in consequence that the mountain 1z vulearised, but that can never be. It i1son too vast and grand a scale, and

Of

JIONT BLANC. Q0 its phy=ical features arce the same now as they were thousands of yearsago. Stupen- dous solitudes of snow and ice, and fearful slopes down which the avalanches thunder, tremendous crevasses, towering Scmu mighty ]nulplu\—thug remain, and pro- bably will remain, for all umc They represent Nature in her sublimest aspect ; and though the mountain were ascended by forty ])coplc cvery day, it could never be vulgarised. The grandeur, the weirdness,

the majesty, the might are there, and no- Owing to the

thing can detract from them. mtimate knowledec that has been gained of the mountain, and the means that have been provided

MONT BLANC,

the ascent mintmum. (On

shelter, the ditheulties of now reduced to a Grands Mulets—to which reference has frequently been made in this paper —a rough hut has long existed, and has recently been mmproved. The Grands Mulets 15 a mass of rock that rises up from a stern wilderness of ice and snow. On a ledge of this rock the cabane has been erccted. It 1s in charge of a man in the summer months, and is provided with primitive sleeping accommodation, while l[imited quantitics of provisions arc obtain- able. The ascent to the Grands Mulets is

for Ad1re the

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