THE STORY OF

more. Through all these centuries Mont Blanc was regarded as absolutely inacces- sible. It was supposul that the cold was so intense that no living thing could possibly exist. It was mmndul as a white world of death, whose silence would never be broken by anything save the thundering the avalanche. In 1702, however, there was born in the tiny village of Pellarius, at the foot of the Monarch, one Jacques ]mlmut, who was destined to break the spell of mystery that had surrounded the mountain from the beginning of time. Balmat’s parents were the poorest of peasants, very humble and very ignorant. In their wildest dreams — if they indulged 1n dreams —they could never have hoped for tame or wealth. But what was wealth to them was to come through their son ; and 1t was or- daimmed that by his oreat deed the name of DBaimat should go down through the ages, and perlm not until the mountain itselt perishes from the face of the carth. Young Bal- mat was endowed with all the quali- ties that are found in the true moun- taincer. He had the eye of an cagle, the strength and endurance of a lion, and the dauntless courage of a true man. From an early age he showed a love for the glaciers, and a yearning for the moun- tains, As he grew m years he displayed a talent for botamsmg, and in his search for plants he would scale dizzy precipices, while no dweller in the whole of the lovely wvalley had such an intuitive know- ledge where to find the mountain crystals as he had.

roar of

MONT DILANGC,

discouraged. He had in him the stern stuff that makes heroes; and it was death or aglory with him. A little later, in com- pany with some companions, he made

JONT BRLANC. o1

Jacques was only a little more than twenty when he began to make excursions on the upper Glauus and to express a desire to pumhau to Blanc's frozen solitudes. The mountain fascinated him. The more he looked at it the stronger grew the spell. His friends and neighbours told him that 1t were worse than madness, it was a tempting of Providence to even think of recaching those white regions of ice and snow. DBut he was undeterred. That dazzling dome that towered so far up into the thin bluc air seemed to in- vite him to tread 1Its virgin snows, which sometimes looked ghastly in their leaden pal- lor, and at others glowed with such a glory of rose and crimson that it almost seemed as it a light not of carth but heaven streamed straight down upon them, And at last, unable to withstand the fascination any longer, young Bal- mat essayed to reach the lofty height on which the stars in their courses sometimes seemed to rest. But his first at- tempt was a failure, though he was not

another attempt, and succeeded in getting beyvond what is known as the Grand Platcau, but here the courage of the others fEIllCLl and they decided to go back. Utterly undaumcd Balnmt u,tuwd to de- scend with them, and decided on passing the night in the awful wilderness of snow and 1ce.

The Grand Plateau isan immense crque,