"We now, with more ease, and much more expedition, pursued our way, having only snow to cross, and in two hours arrived at a hut which had been erected in the year 1786, by the order, and at the expense, of M. de Saussure. The hut was situated on the eastern side of a rock, which had all the appearance of being rotten with age, and which in fact was in a state of such complete decay, that on my return the next evening, I saw scattered on the snow many tons of its frag ments, which had fallen in my absence ; but the ruin was no*. on the side on which the hut was built. Immediately on our arrival, which was at five in the afternoon, the guides began to empty the hut of its snow, and at seven we sat down to eat; but our stomachs had little relish for food, and felt a particular distaste for wine and spirits. Water, which we obtained by melting snow in a kettle, was the only palatable drink. Some of the guides complained of a heavy disheartening sickness; and my Swiss servant, who had accompanied me at his own request, was seized with excessive vomiting, and the pains of the severest headach. But from these complaints, which apparently arose from the extreme lightness of the air in those elevated regions, I myself and some of the guides were free, except, as before observed, that we had little appetite for food, and a strong aversion to the taste of spirituous liquors We now prepared for rest; on which two of the guides, preferring the open air, threw themselves down at the entrance of the hut, and slept upon the rock. I too was desirous of sleep; but my thoughts were troubled with the apprehension that, although I had now completed one naif of the road, the vapours might collect on the summit of the mountain, and frustrate all my hopes. Or if at any time the rest I wished for came, my repose was soon disturbed by the noise of the masses of snow, which were loosened by the wind from the heights around me, and which, accumulating in bulk as they rolled, tumbled at length from the precipices into the vales below, and produced upon the ear the effect of redoubled bursts of thunder.

"At two o'clock I threw aside my blankets, and went out of the hut to observe the appearance of the heavens. The stars shone with a lustre that far exceeded the brightness which they exhibit when seen from the usual level; and had so little tremor in their light, as to leave no doubt on my mind, that, if viewed from the summit of the mountain, they would have appeared as fixed points. How improved in those altitudes would be the aids which the telescope gives to vision! indeed, the clearness of the air was such as led me to think that Jupiter's satellites might be distinguished by the naked eye; and had he not been in the neighbourhood of the moon, I might possibly have succeeded. He continued distinctly visible for several hours after the sun was risen, and did not wholly disappear till almost eight.

"At the time I rose, my thermometer, which was on Fahrenheit's scale, and which I had hung on the side of the rock without the hut, was 8° below the freezing point. Impatient to proceed, and having ordered a large quantity of snow to be melted, I filled a small cask with water for my own use, and at three o'clock we left the hut. Our route was across the snow; but the chasms which the ice beneath had formed, though less numerous than those that we had passed on the preceding day, embarrassed our ascent. One in particular had opened so much in the few days that intervened between M. de Saussure's expedition and our own, as for the time to bar the hope of any further progress; but at length, after having wandered with much anxiety along its bank, I found a place which I hoped the ladder was sufficiently long to cross. The ladder was accordingly laid down, and was seen to rest upon the opposite edge, but its bearing did not exceed an inch on either side. We now considered that, should we pass the chasm, and should its opening, which had enlarged so much in the course of a few preceding days, increase in the least degree before the time of our descent, no chance of return remained. We also considered that, if the clouds which so often envelop the hill should rise, the hope of finding, amidst the thick fog, our way back to this only place in which the gulf, even in its present state, was passable, was little less than desperate. Yet, after a moment's pause, the guides consented to go with me, and we crossed the chasm.

"We had not proceeded far, when thirst, which, since our arrival in the upper regions of the air, had been always troublesome, became almost intolerable. No sooner had I drank than the thirst returned, and in a few minutes my throat became perfectly dry. Again I had recourse to the water, and again my throat was parched. The air itself was thirsty; its extreme of dryness had robbed my body of its moisture. The guides were equally affected: wine they would not taste, but the moment my back was turned, their mouths were equally applied to my cask of water. Yet we continued to proceed till seven o'clock, when, having passed the place where M. de Saussure, who was provided with a tent, had slept the second night, we sat down to breakfast.

"All this time the thermometer was 4° below the freezing point. We were now at the foot of Mont Blanc itself; for, though it is usual to apply that term to the whole assemblage of several successive mountains, yet the name properly belongs only to a small mountain of a pyramidal form, that rises from a narrow plain, which at all times is covered with snow. Here the thinness of the atmosphere began to affect my head with a dull and heavy pain. I also found, to my great surprise, an acute sensation of pain, very different from that of weariness, immediately above my knees. Having finished our repast, we pursued our journey, and soon arrived at a chasm which could not have existed many days, for it was not formed at the time of M. de Saussure's ascent. Misled by this last circumstance, (for we concluded, that as he had seen no rents whatever from the time that he passed the place where he slept the second night, none were likely to be formed,) we had left our ladder about a league behind; but as the chasm was far from wide, we passed it on the poles that we used for walking, an expedient which suggested to me that the length of our ladder might be easily increased by the addition of several poles laid parallel, and fastened to its end; and that the hazard of finding our retreat cut off from the enlargement of the chasms, might by this means be materially diminished.