04 THI

The news of the first ascent of the moun- tain that had hitherto been deemed abso- lutely 1naccessible soon spread, and reached the ears of the celebrated savant, e Saussure, then a comparatively young man, and residing in Geneva, his birth plctu. Fired with the desire to accomplish the ascent himself, and make scientific observa- tions from the summit, De Saussure started for Chamonix in July, 1787. For necarly four wecks, however, the weather was atro- cious, and the journcy could not be attempted. DBut at last; on August 1, the great scientist started with a formidable caravan, consisting of a body scrvant and cmhtccn guides. Bestdes numerous meteor- ul()mutl mstruments, a large tent was Lalll(,d and a great qLuntlL\ ol Provisions, The frst mOhL was passed at the foot of the mountain, the sccond night high up in the snows, where some of the guides began to funk, and expressed a fear that they would all perish, owing to the intense cold,

which they said no human being could stand, notwithstanding Balmat and Pac-

card had endured it the preceding year, De Saussure thereupon told them to make a large excavation in the snow, and owver this the tent was placed. IKvery opening was carcfully stopped up, with the result that the cold was not felt. But the saeant himself found the air under the tent in\’up- portable, owing to the heat of the men's bodics and their breath, and in the dead of night he went outside to breathe the un- tainted air of heaven. He says the moon was shining with extraordinary brilliancy, from a \lxy of L,b(my blackness. The scenc was solemn and impressive, and, though the cold was intense, it was not unbearable. Farly the following morning the journcy was resumed, and after many hours of laborious climbing the summit was gained.

It was a proud moment for the enthu- stastic scientist. His wife, two sisters, and a son were in Chamonix, and he had pro- mised them that he would signal his success by hoisting a flag, and ha\/mg done this, hie turned his attention to the study of the panorama. e says :—

A hight vapour was suspended in the lower regions, and obstructed the view over the plains of France and Lombardy ; but | did not much regret this when I saw that all the great summits of the peaks | had so long desired to know were perfectly clear. I could scarcely believe my own eyes. 1 seemed to be m a drecam as I gazed on the majestic and redoubtable pullxs of the

STRAND

M AGAZTN

Midi, the Argentiere, and the Géant, which scemed to be at my very feet.”

While Dec Saussure was surveying the wondrous xcene, his attendants were busy putting up the tent, and arranging the mstruments, and as soon as Lhu were rcady, he got to work to record his im- pressions and to make observations. But, according to his own account, his breathing was so difficult that he was compelled to repeatedly pause in his labours. Respira- tion was short and quick, and the circula- tion of the blood was so accelerated that he scemed to be 1 a fever. All his attendants sullered more or less in the same way.

Three hours and a half were spent on the summit, and preparations were then made for the descent, which was accom- plished without any great dithculty, and it may be said that science was cenriched by the expedition.

[for twenty-seven years, De Saussure says, 1t had been the dream of his life to reach the summit of Mont Blane, and he had accomplished it at last.

Strangely enough, although tourists now began to visit thc \dllcy of Chamonix, Aftecen years passed without an ascent of the great mountain being made. Men could not altogether get over the fear that the “ Monarch” inspired them with, and though Balmat, Paccard, De Saussure and his nine- teen followers had shown the way up, no onc clse was found bold u]uucrh to essay the climb during those fifteen years, until an [ingelishman by the name of Woolley or

Wo (llc_ undertook 1t, and reached the summit, [n 1792 Humboldt was in Chamonix, but

stmnndy cnough showed no dhposmon to follow 1n the footsteps of the cminent Genevors. After Woldley's there does not appear to have been any other ascent until 1502, when two Swiss accomplished it in company with a guide named Victor Tair- raz. Seven years later this guide yielded to the entreaties of a young woman, named Marie Paradis, a native of the v qlh\ She was twenty-two years of age, and for a long time had tried to induce some of the ”U]LlL 5

Lo accompany her up Mont Blanc. But they had resolutely refused, saying that ~he must be mad to dream of such a

thing.

But Maric was not to be daunted, and accompanied by Victor Tairraz, the brave and hardy little woman won the proud dis- tinction of being the first of her sex to scale the snow-clad giant. Therc was another