g below us,
shut out the valley from our view. The guides appeared to be all
asleep, and the only interruption to the silence of death, was the
occasional avalanche, rolling with the sound of distant thunder from
the highest part of the surrounding glaciers, and heightening the
feelings of awful sublimity, which our situation was so calculated to
inspire.

As our lodging was extremely uncomfortable in every respect, we were
under no temptation of lying till a late hour in the morning. On the
contrary, we hailed with joy the first appearance of the dawn, which
enabled us to substitute the warmth of marching, for the cold
inactivity from which we had suffered all night. We set out at three
o'clock, leaving most of our provisions and other articles on the
rock. Four hours of laborious, but not dangerous walking, brought us
to a large plain, called the 'Grand Plateau,' which is nearly
surrounded, (on the one hand) by a spur of Mont Blanc, and the
Aiguille du Midi; on the other, by the Montagne de la Cote, while Mont
Blanc presents itself directly in front. These mountains form a steep
amphitheatre around this plain. Here we stopped an hour to breakfast,
and to recruit strength for the last and most difficult part of the
ascent. We were now more than 12,000 feet above the level of the sea,
and only 3,000 feet lower than the summit, which was in full view
before us. But I looked around, in vain, for any part of its steep
sides that seemed to offer a possibility of being scaled, and when the
guides pointed out the route we were to take, among and over
precipices, and huge broken masses of snow, and up almost
perpendicular steeps, I involuntarily shrunk at the prospect, and
could not forbear casting my eye wistfully at our road back. But it
would not have done to be deterred at this time by a few difficulties;
and a moment's reflection, on the skill and experience of our guides,
renewed our confidence, and we began cheerfully to mount the first
steep before us. We here began to feel more seriously an effect, that
is always experienced at considerable heights, and which had not much
incommoded us before. It was impossible for the strongest of us, to
take more than twenty or thirty steps, without stopping to take
breath, and this effect gradually increased as we continued to ascend;
insomuch, that when near the summit, even the stoutest of our guides,
who could run for leagues over the lower mountains without panting,
could not