"So pleas'd at first the tow'ring mounts we try, Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky; TV eternal snows appear already past, And the first clouds and mountains seem the last. But, those attain'd, we tremble to survey The growing labours of the lengthen'd way ; Th' increasing prospect tires our wand'ring eyes, ' Hills peep o'er hills, and mounts on mounts arise."

Mont Blanc, In Savoy. Narrative of a Journey from the village of Chamouni, to the summit of Mont Blanc, undertaken on August 8, 1787; by Colonel Beaufoy. From the Annals of Philosophy.

"The desire of ascending to the highest part of remarkably elevated land is so natural to every man, and the hope of repeating various experiments in the upper regions of the air is so inviting to those who wish well to the interests of science, that, being lately in Switzerland, I could not resist the inclination I felt to reach the summit of Mont Blanc. One of the motives, however, which prompted the attempt, was much weakened by the consideration that I did not possess, and in that country could not obtain, the instruments that were requisite for many of the experiments which I was anxious to make; and the ardour of uncommon curiosity was diminished, when I learned that Dr. Paecard and his guide, who in the year 1786 had reached the supposed inaccessible summit of the hill, were not the only persons who had succeeded in the attempt; for that, five days before my arrival at the foot of the mountain, M. de Saussure, a professor in the university of Geneva, had gained the top of the ascent.

"But while I was informed of the success which had attended the efforts of M. de Saussure, I was told of the difficulties and dangers that accompanied the undertaking; and was often assured, with much laborious dissuasion, that, to all the usual obstacles, the lateness of the season would add the perils of those stupendous masses of snow which are often dislodged from the steeps of the mountain, together with the hazard of those frightful chasms which present immeasurable gulfs to the steps of the traveller, and the width of which was hourly increasing. M. Bourret, whose name has often been announced to the world by a variety of tracts, and by many excellent drawings, confirmed the account, and assured me that he himself had made the attempt on the next day to that on which M. de Saussure descended, but was obliged, as on many former occasions, to abandon the enterprise. Having, however, formed my resolution, I sent to the different cottages of the vale of Chamouni, from the skirts of which the mountain takes its rise, to inquire if any of them were willing to go with me as my assistants and guides ; and had soon the satisfaction to find that ten were ready to accept the proposal. I engaged them all. Having announced to them my intention of setting out the next morning, 1 divided among them provisions for three days, together with a kettle, a chafing-dish, a quantity of charcoal, a pair of bellows, a couple of blankets, a long rope, a hatchet, and a ladder, which formed the stores that were requisite for the journey After a night of much solicitude, lest the summit of Mont Blanc should be covered with clouds, in which case the guides would have refused the undertaking as impracticable, I rose at five in the morning, and saw, with great satisfaction, that the mountain was free from vapour, and that the sky was every where serene. My dress was a white flannel jacket, without any shirt beneath, and white linen trowsefs, without drawers. The dress was white, that the sunbeams might be thrown off; and it was loose, that the limbs might be unconfined. Besides a pole for walking, I carried with me cramp-irons for the heels of my shoes, by means of which the hold on the frozen snow is firm, and in steep ascents the poise of the body is preserved.

"My guides being at length assembled, each with his allotted burden; one of them, a fellow of great bodily strength and vigour of mind, Michael Cachet by name, who had accompanied M. de Saussure, desired to take the lead. We ranged ourselves in aline, and at seven o'clock, in the midst of the wives, and children, and friends, of my companions, and indeed of the whole village of Chamouni, we began our march. The end of the first hour brought us to the Glacier des Bois-sons, at which place the rapid ascent of the mountain first begins, and from which, pursuing our course along the edge of the rocks that form the eastern side of this frozen lake, we arrived in four hours more at the second glacier, called the Glacier de la Cote. Here, by the side of a stream of water which the melting of the snow had formed, we sat down to a short repast.

"To this place the journey is neither remarkably laborious, nor exposed to danger, except that name should be given to the trifling hazard that arises from the stones and loose pieces of the broken rock, which the goats, in leaping from one projection to another, occasionally throw down. Our dinner being finished, we fixed our cramp-irons to our shoes, and began to cross the glacier; but we had not proceeded far, when we discovered that the frozen snow, which lay in the ridges between the waves of ice, often concealed, with a covering of uncertain strength, the fathomless chasms which traverse this solid sea; yet the danger was soon in a great degree removed by the expedient of tying; ourselves together with our long rope, which being fastened at proper distances to our waists, secured from the principal hazard such as might fall within the opening of the gulf. Trusting to the same precaution, we also crossed upon our ladder, without apprehension, such of the chasms as were exposed to view ; and, sometimes stopping in the middle of the ladder, looked down in safety upon an abyss which baffled the reach of vision, and from which the sound of the masses of ice that we repeatedly let fall, in no instance ascended to the ear. In some places we were obliged to cut foot-steps with our hatchet; yet, on the whole, the difficulties were far from great, for in two hours and a half we had passed the glacier.