or an attempt upon Mont Blanc in the beginning of the next week,
and an incipient bilious fever, with a painful lameness of one leg,
warned me that my powers were coming to an end, and that another day
such as the last had been would put a total stop upon the proposed
ascent; and so I determined to take the fever and the leg to Geneva, and
submit them to medical skill. This determination was strengthened by the
exhortations of a Belgian, who called himself a _grand amateurdes
montagnes_, on the strength of an ascent of the Mole and the Voiron, and
in this character administered Alpine advice of that delightful
description which one meets with in the coffee-rooms at Chamouni. This
Belgian was the only other guest of the Hotel des Balances; and his
amiability was proof even against the inroads of some nameless species
of _vin mousseux_, recommended to me by the waiter, which supplied
_mal-a-propos_ wine-sauce to the various dishes from which the Belgian
was making his dinner, and did not leave his face and waistcoat free
from stain. He had but one remark to make, however wild might be the
assertions advanced from the English side of the table, '_Vous avez
raison, monsieur, vous avez parfait-e-ment raison_!' It is not quite
satisfactory to hold the same sentiments, in every small particular,
with a man who clips his hair down to a quarter of an inch, and eats
haricots with his fingers; but it was impossible to find any subject on
which he could be roused to dissentience. This phenomenon was explained
afterwards, when he informed me that he was a flannel-merchant
travelling with samples, and pointed out what was only too true, namely,
that the English monsieur's coat was no longer fit to be called a coat.

Professor Pictet read a paper on these glacieres before the _Societe
Helvetique des Sciences Naturelles_ at Berne, in 1822, which is to be
found in the _Bibl. Universelle de Geneve._[77] M. Pictet left Geneva in
the middle of July to visit the caves, but found himself so much knocked
up by the first day's work, that he sent on his grandson to the Glaciere
of the Brezon, and gave up the attempt himself. The young man found it
to be of small dimensions, 30 feet by 25, with a height of 10 or 12
feet. The ice on the floor was believed by the guide to be formed in
summer only, and was placed too irregularly to admit of measurement.
Calcareous blocks almost choked the entrance, and an orifice in the
shape of a funnel admitted th