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nose—others with loss of appetite, and one even with vomiting; all breathed with difficulty and required frequent rests. Mr Hawes who is a stout little fellow, of 20 years, was the only one nearly exempted from the symptoms. On the top the air was cold beyond belief; but the view seemed to comprehend every thing—they appeared high above every object; saw on one side of the lake Geneva, Neufchatel, and the Jura mountains; but the clearest and most beautiful was on the side of Savoy and Italy; the Appenines, the Mediterranean, and France, known to be in sight from Mount Blanc, were not then visible.
At three o’clock they began to descend—a matter of facility, compared with the ascent. At six they gained their resting-place on the Grande Mullee. They here remained for the night, which was wet and cold; and the noise of the avalanches, always most frequent in rain, had much the effect of continued thunder. This morning they had again to cross the glaciers, to facilitate which they were tied, two or three together, in a chain of ropes, to secure them in crossing the deep crevices between the ice; and the danger being thus past, they reached Chamouny to breakfast, having finished the
journey without loss, without hurt, and apparently without over-fatigue; but which, they said, they would never advise any one again to attempt. Every circumstance was favourable, but they thought neither the view nor the fame could at all compensate for the danger and pain of the undertaking.
