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where we could see the others re-appear, as ⟨if⟩ to receive them. The whole number having thus gained the top of Mont Blanc, the ⟨highest⟩ point in Europe, perhaps the highest point on earth, the insignificant power of man has ever enabled him to reach (which, though often ⟨attempted⟩, has, it is said, not been reached ⟨before⟩ above six times—often attended with loss ⟨of⟩ lives, and only succeeded in once before by ⟨an⟩ Englishman). A short half hour seemed to satisfy them with their unwonted elevation when we saw them begin to descend.
26th.—To day all was expectation; and ⟨at⟩ nine o’clock, after 40 hours’ absence, the ⟨two⟩ Englishmen, with their nine guides, and a boy who had gone with them, arrived.
They had, on the 24th, reached the usual resting-place, La Grande Mullee. This is ⟨a⟩ black ridge of rocks at the head of the Glaciers, by the side of which they ascended, and which they had much fatigue and risk in crossing to obtain. At the Grande Mullee, they stopped for the night, under a tent, which they took with them, in which, with blankets, &c., they were warm and comfortable, disturbed only by the noise of avalanches falling all around them. On the 25th, at day-break, they proceeded up a valley of snow, then took a new route, by which they had escaped the dangers which had destroyed those men who had made a similar attempt before. As they got towards the top their fatigue and weakness became extreme; their pulses beat high, some were seized with head-ache, spitting of blood and bleeding at the
