or with withered pines. Neither words nor the pencil can faithfully describe this scene, but he who has once seen At last it can never forget it more. the river turns to the left, and the road following it, descends from a considerable eminence, into the valley of Chamounix, a very few miles up which, but beyond the village and glacier of Les Bossons, stands the town of Le Prieuré. So that considering the range of which Mont Blanc forms a part, as lying (to speak generally) at right angles to the direction of the road from Cluse, the ascent from St. Gervais would begin rather from the right end of the ridge, and that from Le Prieuré more directly from a point in the

middle.

Dr. Hamel, as we have said before, made his first attempt from St. Gervais; he had long, he says, felt a great desire to reach the summit of Mont Blanc, and being informed that two persons of the country had succeeded in ascending from Mount Prairion,* and returning in one day, the project seemed to be rendered so much more feasible than it had been usually considered, that he determined on making the attempt. If we are not mistaken, De Saussure made one or two unsuccessful attempts also in this direction, which presents the most inviting appearance, but which he found really full of the most obstinate difficulties. The people of Chamounix, jealous both for the honour and the profit of the route from their valley, discredited the story of the two men of the valley of Mont Joie, and they therefore announced their intention of repeating their attempt, and exhibiting themselves from the summit to their neighbours in Chamounix. Dr. Hamel joined them, together with the clergyman of St. Gervais, as well as the clergyman of St. Nicholas, an adjoining parish. Accordingly on the 3d of August last, the anniversary of De Saussure's ascent, they passed the villages of Bionnay and Bionnassay, and halted for the night -between seven and eight o'clock under

Mount Prairion is, we believe, a vernacular name for the whole or part of the range of the Fordar, which separates the valley of Chamounix and Montjoie.

the shelter of some rocks not far from the glacier of Bionnassay.

The night was beautiful-the writer of these remarks well remembers passing a night in a somewhat similar situa tion on Montanvert; it was a glorious moonlight, and the sublime beauties of the scene made an impression on his mind, which can never be effaced. Immediately at his feet lay the sea of ice; before him and far upon the right rose towering up the pointed and glittering spires of the mountains; the bells of the cattle feeding near, sounded; and the wind moaned, from time to time, through the straggling and uncherished pines, that are thinly scattered near the hut; now and then was heard the dull, deep,and distant sound of an avalanche; while the varying but ceaseless roar of several watertfalls filled up all the breaks and pauses, and was, as it were, the ground-work or under-song of this assemblage of sublime sights and sounds. Dr. Hamel and his companions continued their route at half after two in the A morning, by the light of the moon. little before five, he observed the sun' beginning to light up, in succession, the peaks of the mountains over Sallenche "who

"they seemed to us," says he, were still in darkness, as if a number of torches were lighted one after another beneath us. About nine o'clock the party had mounted to the top of the Aiguille du Gouté, a height of 1980 toises :* here they rested for half an hour, and in two hours more they gained the summit of the Dôme du Goute, 2200 toises, or 13,200 feet high. No difficulties had it seems been encountered, nor any dangers of serious magnitude; but Dr. Hamel suffered a good deal from the effect of the rarity of the atmosphere; his pulse was much accelerated, his respiration difficult, and he could not walk forty paces without

* Dr. Hamel neglects to state from what level he measures his altitudes; we believe, however. that he means either the Lake of Geneva, or the Lakes of the four Cantons; this will only make a difference of 200 feet. The Aiguille du Gouté, and the Dôme du Gouté, are so called vernacularly with reference to the meal corresponding to our tea, and the position of the sun at the time of the day, when it is usu ally taken, with respect to these mountains.

stopping for two or three minutes to take breath.

They were now on the next highest point to the top of Mont Blanc, probably indeed not 300 feet below it; yet here the Doctor found himself so exhausted, and unable to proceed except at so slow a rate, that it would have been impossible to reach the object of their journey, and again descend to the bottom of the Goute, before night fall. Whether, therefore, there was no other safe place to pass the night, or the party was unprovided for a second encampment, they determined to return without accomplishing their object. A cloud was observed to be gathering about the top of Mont Blanc, which made them come to their resolution the more quickly; they commenced their descent, and reached a small inn, the Pavillon de Bellevue, about nine at night. The difficulties and dangers of the descent were greater than those of the ascent; the melting of the ice, by the heat of the sun, had loosened the stones, on which they trod firmly in the morning; while walking on most precipitous slopes, the rocks constantly slid from under them, and they were exposed, from time to time, to the rolling down of others from above, which came, he says, with a swiftness, that made a whistle in the air. To escape from this imminent risk they resolved to launch on the snow of a glacier, that of Bionnassay, and slid down nearly to the spot on which they had slept the preceding night. This process of sliding down on the snow is rather striking to a stranger; the guide leans back on his spiked pole, which is placed behind him, and setting himself on his keels closed together, he descends with a rapid and even motion any distance down an inclined plane, however steep or long. Dr. Hamel mentions a fact strongly indicative of the danger in which they were:-one of the guides, he says, wept through fear like a child, when they began the descent; we should have rather expected him to cry from disappointment. For the interests of science, it is scarcely to be regretted that Dr. Hamel failed in this first at tempt, for it seems to have been made so unadvisedly, that he was not pre

pared with the means of taking any measurements, or making any one of the numerous experiments, which it would be desirable to try, at so great a height, as the summit of Mont Blanc. On the top of the Dôme du Goute he found his barometer useless, the reservoir being not large enough to contain all the descending quicksilver.

The second attempt was made in the same month, and with more consideration; the design was announced at Geneva, and he found there persons of science, both able and willing to suggest all the desirable preparations, and to facilitate the making of them. Among those who assisted him was Theodore de Saussure, a descendant of the Alpine traveller; as also one whose name we should have been indeed surprised to kave missed on such an occasion, the liberal and amiable Professor Pictet. One of his companions was to be a M. Selligue, whose object was to try a new barometer of his own invention; Mr. Henderson (Fellow we believe) of Brazenose College, and Mr. Dornford, Fellow of Oriel College, also joined him. They were furnished with a considerable supply of different philosophical instruments; and were prepared to make various experiments upon the atmosphere to ascertain its action both on the lungs and blood. Being, too, we suppose epicuri de grege, the Doctor armed himself with a Papin's digester, to prove the possibility of sufficiently boiling animal food, even at the_great height of the summit of Mont Blanc. Our untravelled readers may not be aware, that it is among the mortifications of the hospitable monks of the Great St. Barnard, that they cannot boil their meat enough; and our unscientific readers may be equally ignorant that the reason is, that the air being very light at such a height, compresses the water so slightly, that it boils before it is thoroughly hot, and is therefore unsuited to the purposes of the kitchen.

On the 16th of August the party set out from Geneva, and reached Le Prieure the following afternoon; the first object was to engage the proper number of guides, and to prepare the requisite viaticum for the expedition.

Joseph Maria Coutet, and Mathieu Balmat had been recommended to them, by M. Pictet, for the leaders of their band: and it was left to them to select ten other guides, so that each stranger was under the especial care of three, and the whole troop consisted of sixteen. At a quarter past five in the morning of the 18th, they commenced their journey, and first took a direction down the valley, towards the glacier des Bossons. This is the first object which strikes the eye upon entering the vale from the Geneva road; and to those who have never seen a glacier before, the first and distant view is somewhat disappointing. In the middle of a green valley, and between dark green pine woods, a snow white arm seems to extend itself almost across to the opposite mountain; the features cannot well be distinguished, but the contrast of colours is felt to be too violent and abrupt. But this disappointment ends on a nearer approach, when the traveller comes to the gigantic features, the large masses, the deep intervals, the beautiful cærulean colour of the ice against the light, the ceaseless and varied noises of water dripping, streams pouring, masses detaching, avalanches descending-associated with these, the sublimity of the surrounding scenery acts strongly upon the mind, and few travellers, we believe, find any thing more overpowering than the impressions which a glacier gives. Dr. Hamel gives a lively description of the feelings which he and his companions gave vent to when they began to cross the Glacier-yet we think the one in question by no means the most striking in the neighbourhood. There is a vastness, and a desolate solitariness in the sea of ice, as it is called, which almost appals the human mind; supposing it to be the intention of the traveller to cross the

sea, he descends to the shore, at a point some considerable way up the valley; his mind is prepared for adventure, by the nature of that descent, which is at once beautifully picturesque, and hazardous; yet it is not without difficulty that he steps on the ice when he has reached the shore. Every one has seen the line of straws, sticks and weeds, which a retiring torrent, or the

ebbing tide, leaves behind it; something of this nature, but formed of immense rocks, averaging thirty or forty feet in height, forms the immediate boundary of the ice; these rocks, however, are left there, not by a retiring, but a swelling sea, rolled down at first from mountains much higher up the valley; a fact proved by their difference of composition from those at the foot of which they lie, and ceaselessly advancing with the ceaseless advance of the gla cier. This ceaseless advance is in itself a most striking and sublime fact; it is awful to think that a mass, so enormous as to fill a large valley, to the depth of two or three hundred feet, should be constantly descending, inaudibly, invisibly, but steadily and surely, upon the cultivated and peaceful valley be low; the thought, too, would be very alarming; for vegetation withers before it, and one might expect, that a few years would suffice to turn all Chamounix into a large sea of ice; but the increasing weight above, which presses the glacier on, is compensated by the greater influence of the sun at the extremity, where the side as well as surface is exposed to its rays; perpetual streams flow from it, and immense masses detach, and thundering down on the beach below, soon melt away and flow into the Arveyron. The sur face of the sea of ice itself is full of interesting objects; furrowed every where with deep crevices, and in many parts reared up into lofty ridges, it requires no very quick imagination to fancy it a troubled sea, arrested at once, and turned to stone, in the very fury of the storm at different depths in many of the crevices are seen enormous rocks, by the compression from below gradu ally forcing their way upwards to the surface; here and there snow bridges cross them, narrow, shelving, and thin, but which the guides fearlessly, though rapidly, pass over. In the summer, streams of considerable breadth flow upon the surface, and these in general find their way, and discharge themselves, into what the guides call, not inappro priately, "Moulins." These are circular apertures in the ice, down which the water precipitates itself, two or three hundred feet, without a break; a

break, indeed, in the nature of things, it can hardly have; for the material being ice, of course yields to the action of the water; and all the circle is, perhaps, as glassy smooth as the lips of the crater itself. There is something very appalling in these unseen cascades; the dark unfathomable depth to which a single false step might precipitate you, and the thought occurring that you are standing on the slippery surface, where a false step may so easily be made. As you advance up the valley on the ice, another very striking object arrests the attention: the transition from the granite to the schistous rock; this takes place not in any gradual or obscure way, but in a straight line down the open side of a mountain, all on one side is primitive, on the other secondary. Nor yet is the glacier without its softer beauties; the path by the rock down to it is thick set with wild flowers and flowering shrubs; here and there on the surface, you find beautiful crystals sparkling on the snowy ice, and every where the sides of the crevices present a soft pale blue light to the eye. Even the freaks of nature are mighty in this sublime valley; every one has heard of the beautiful cavern at the foot of the sea of ice, out of which the Arveyron issued on the valley; it was the most appropriate dwelling-place imaginable for the nymph of a glacier stream; cærulean, transparent,fantastic, yet grand. Something occurred in the hidden channel above; probably a granite rock was forced into it, and stopped the passage; immediately the cavern was deserted, and from above there issued out an immense cascade, more fine and large, though less beautiful, than that of Chede, and creating a perpetual roar in the valley; we think we have heard that a winter or two since, the cascade ceased, and the river returned to its old, or found some new vent for its white and foaming waters.

(To be continued.).

Visit to a Greek Family. (From Williams's Travels in Italy, &c,) FROM Delphi Mr. Williams proceeded over the ridge of Parnassus to Li vadia, where he was entertained by a

Greek of high rank and authority, a gentleman in his manners, and familiarly acquainted with both the French and Italian languages, which he spoke with equal fluency. After this preface our readers will be disappointed, but not the less amused, at the following account of our noble host's family arrangements.

the

'At dinner, we found a table with a cloth upon it, dirty and disgusting, and darned in a thousand places. A miserable rusty knife and fork were placed for each person. Before dinner the Archon washed his hands in our presence, the boy kneeling who held the ewer. His daughters and two Greek gentlemen dined with us. The eldest girl was about sixteen years of age, youngest eight. Dinner came in dish after dish, and consisted of boiled rice and goat's milk, with new cheese, lamb'shead, and paste in the shape of pancakes, kid's bones stewed with onions, paste containing minced meat, and rice rolled in spinage, rost ribs of miserable lamb, and other parts of the animal laid together, liver, lights, and windpipe; eggs dyed and boiled hard. During the whole time of dinner we had the same knife and fork, which were never wiped. Our Greek friends, men and girls, dispensed entirely with that convenience. The little miss ate enormously, and took abundance of oil to her food. Her sister sitting squat on the divan or sofa, stretched over the table, and put the spoon with which she eat into every dish, licked it, and rolled the cheese about upon her palate, showing it occasionally on the tip of her tongue, and looking as stupid and vacant as an ideot. Sometimes, too, she would put her hand into a dish, and take out a bone, which she would gnaw without ceremony; she yawned, too, and belched abominably: the men did the same.

'After dinner, a boy came with a porcelain basin and ewer, when each person washed his hands over the same basin, the boy kneeling and pouring water over them, and the water passing under a perforated cover. The young lady placed the basin before her, washed and scrubbed a considerable time, and used the same towel which the men