was, so to speak, entangled. A great
many people I knew in London were accompanying me, and calling after me,
as the stones did after Prince Pervis, in the Arabian Nights. Then there
was some terribly elaborate affair that I could not settle, about two
bedsteads, the whole blame of which transaction, whatever it was, lay on
my shoulders; and then a literary friend came up, and told me he was
sorry we could not pass over his ground on our way to the summit, but
that the King of Prussia had forbidden it. Everything was as foolish and
unconnected as this, but it worried me painfully; and my senses were
under such little control, and I reeled and staggered about so, that
when we had crossed the snow prairie, and arrived at the foot of an
almost perpendicular wall of ice, four or five hundred feet high--the
terrible Mur de la Cote--up which we had to climb, I sat down again on
the snow, and told Tairraz that I would not go any further, but they
might leave me there if they pleased."

Having stayed on the summit for half an hour, they retraced their steps,
reaching the Grands Mulets at one o'clock, and Chamonix in the evening.

One of the most remarkable things in connection with this memorable
ascent was the vast quantity of liquids and solids consumed, viz:--

93 Bottles of wine,
3 Cognac,
7 Lemonade and syrup,
20 Loaves,
10 Cheeses,
8 Joints of mutton,
6 " veal,
46 Fowls;

besides packages of raisins, prunes, sugar, salt, and wax candles! The
cost of this amounted to 456 francs, which, added to 1881 francs for the
guides' fees, &c., brought up the sum total to 2337 francs, or L93 10s.,
which sum, divided by four--the number of tourists--gives L23. 7s. 6d.
each. Thanks to the enterprising individual who manages the "Cabanes" at
Pierre Pointue and the Grands Mulets, it is no longer necessary to take
provisions; therefore, reader, should you ever visit those stations, do
not grumble at the bill, but remember Albert Smith![A]

[Footnote A: This and the foregoing ascents are condensed from Albert
Smith's "Mont Blanc."]

1866.--Sir George Young, with his brothers James and Albert, succeeded
in reaching the Summit without guides or porters. Shortly after
commencing the descent one of the brothers fell a depth of twenty feet
and broke his neck. The survivors managed to reach the Grands Mulets at
two in the morning. An hour later six guides arrived from Chamonix, and
although Sir Geo