oon was rising higher: forced to keep one position, I was growing
stiff and weary, the wind chilled me, and there were ringing noises in
my ears: the enthusiasm that had sustained me grew less. Would they
ever find me? Glancing downward, I tried to discover lights. In
listening I grew numb, the mountains began to reel around me, the moon
and the stars danced before me, my senses began to wander. Should I
attempt to go forward? Would it not be better to throw myself down?
Once more I looked over the precipice, and just then a horn rang out
far below; then a voice apparently nearer. I tried to answer, but no
sound came; I tried to move, but was fast. The next I remember, a
guide was rubbing my breast with his rough hands; while another forced
open my mouth and poured something from a flask. How we got down, I
never knew. But the next day as Dr. Kemper told me of the excitement
of the guides as soon as my absence became known to them, and the fall
of the glacier, of the fear that I was buried beneath it, and of my
state when found, I could only adore still more His goodness that had
preserved me, while a still firmer purpose thrilled my being to live
for Him.

A prisoner in my room, Dr. Kemper told me the manner in which Saussure
made the ascent. A party of guides going up from Chamouni, one of them
by some means was far ahead of the others, when suddenly darkness
enveloped him. Cut off from his companions, he was obliged to pass the
night at the immense elevation of twelve thousand feet above the level
of the sea. Chilled, but not overcome, he had strength sufficient in
the morning to reconnoitre, and thereby found an access to the
mountain-top comparatively easy. On reaching Chamouni, he was seized
with severe illness, and in return for the kind care of his physician,
he told the doctor of the path he had discovered, and that if he felt
a desire to be the first man to stand upon the summit of Mont Blanc,
he would lead him to it. The doctor readily accepted, and on the
seventh of August, 1786, they began the ascent. Twice the physician,
overcome by fatigue and cold, turned his back upon the goal; but the
guide, more accustomed to hardships, urged him on, and at length he
was privileged to set his foot upon the loftiest elevation in Europe,
a triumph never before enjoyed by man.

From Berne To Basle.

Before leaving Lausanne I received an invitation from a friend in the
university at Basle to visit that city. To