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Common terms and phrasesAiguille du Goute Aiguille du Midi Albert Smith alpenstock appeared arrived Ascent of Mont avalanche BIRKENHEAD Bosses du Dromadaire Bossons and Taconnaz bottle Bourrit Brevent brink Cabane climbing clouds Cote crevasses danger descended diadem of snow difficulties distance elevation feeling feet felt following morning Forclaz formed Francois Geneva Glacier des Bossons glissading Grand Plateau Grands Mulets guides and porters half-past Hotel d'Angleterre hundred ice-axe Impromptu Ascent inclination journey Jules Lausanne look Marie Couttet Martigny Mathieu Balmat Mauvaise Arete minutes Mont Blanc Mont Maudit Montagne mountain mule nearly night o'clock Paccard party passed patois Petit Plateau Pierre Balmat Pierre Pointue rarified air reached the foot reached the Grands reached the summit remarked returned to Chamonix rock rope route Saussure scenery seracs side slopes of snow soon steep steps stood storm Tacul torrents traversed valley of Chamonix walking weather whilst Woodley Popular passagesPage 25 - Having at length attained its greatest width and extension, commanding admiration by its beauty and power, waste predominates over supply, the vital springs begin to fail ; it stoops into an attitude of decrepitude — it drops the burdens, one by one, which it had borne so proudly aloft— its dissolution is inevitable. But as it is resolved into its elements, it takes all at once a new, and livelier, and disembarrassed form ; from the wreck of its members it arises Page 64 - I was thrown instantly off my feet, but was still on my knees and endeavouring to regain my footing, when, in a few seconds, the snow on our right, which was of course above us, rushed into the gap thus suddenly made, and completed the catastrophe by burying us all at once in its mass, and hurrying us downwards towards two crevasses about a furlong below us, and nearly parallel to the line of our march. The accumulation of snow instantly threw me backwards, and I was carried down, in spite of all... Page 24 - The world is all before me; I but ask Of Nature that with which she will comply — It is but in her summer's sun to bask, To mingle with the quiet of her sky, To see her gentle face without a mask, And never gaze on it with apathy. Page 25 - On its surface it bears the spoils which, during the progress of its existence it has made its own; often weighty burdens devoid of beauty or value — at times precious masses, sparkling with gems or with ore. Having at length attained its greatest width and extension, commanding admiration by its beauty and power, waste predominates over supply, the vital springs begin to fail; it stoops into an attitude of decrepitude; it drops the burdens one by one, which it... Page 24 - Poets and philosophers have delighted to compare the course of human life to that of a river ; perhaps a still apter simile might be found in the history of a glacier. Heaven-descended in its origin, it yet takes its mould and conformation from the hidden womb of the mountains which brought it forth. At first soft and ductile, it acquires a character and firmness of its own as an inevitable destiny urges it on its onward career. Page 69 - ... is the only one that I can apply to the complete confusion and upsetting of sense in which I found myself plunged. With the perfect knowledge of where I was, and what I was about; even with such caution as was required to place my feet on particular places in the snow; I conjured up such a set of absurd and improbable phantoms about me, that the most spirit-ridden intruder upon a Mayday festival on the Hartz mountains was never more beleaguered. I am not sufficiently versed in the finer theories... Page 65 - Balmat, who was fourth in the line, being a man of great muscular strength, as well as presence of mind, had suddenly thrust his pole into the firm snow beneath, when he felt himself going, which certainly checked, in some measure, the force of his fall. Our two hindermost guides were also missing, but we were soon gladdened by seeing them make their appearance, and cheered them with loud and repeated hurrahs. One of these, Julien... Page 25 - Jostled and constrained by the crosses and inequalities of its prescribed path, hedged in by impassable barriers which fix limits to its movements, it yields groaning to its fate, and still travels forward seamed with the scars of many a conflict with opposing obstacles. Page 65 - I was still inclined to treat the affair rather as a perplexing though ludicrous delay, in having sent us down so many hundred feet lower, than in the light of a serious accident, when Mathieu Balmat cried out that some of the party were lost, and pointed to the crevasse, which had hitherto escaped our notice, into which, he said, they had fallen. A nearer view convinced us all of the sad truth. The three front guides, Pierre Carrier... Page 65 - I was so far from being alive to the danger of our situation, that on seeing my two companions at some distance below me, up to the waist in snow, and sitting motionless and silent, a jest was rising to my lips, till a second glance showed me that, with the exception of Mathieu Balmat, they were the only remnants of the party visible. Two more, however, being those in the interval between myself and the rear of the party, having quickly reappeared, I was still inclined to treat the affair rather... Bibliographic information
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