Page images
PDF
EPUB

In the year 1806 she was engaged to edit a new edition of the British Theatre, with biographical and critical remarks. This was followed by a collection of farces on the same plan, and the Modern Theatre in ten volumes. Mrs. Inchbald was also no less successful in novel writing than in her dramatic compositions. Her " Simple Story" is characterized by its touches of nature, and spirit of its language and incidents, in which some of the leading circumstances of her life are supposed to be delineated. She afterwards published a novel called "Nature and Art," equally remarkable for the spirit of its composition, but more particularly distinguished for its display, in her own elegant manner, of the principles of civil liberty. Of her conduct through the world, as a woman of honour and correct principles, there is but one opinion among all who knew her. Her manners were artless and fascinating, and she was received

in the best circles of society. In her theatrical engagements she maintained an unblemished character. Her acquaintance, highly esteemed her worth, and her connexion with Mrs. Siddons and lady Derby strengthened into friendship. A short time previous to her death, she delivered to an intimate female friend the only copy she had ever made of her diary, with an injunction that it should be destroyed. It was represented to her that a compliance with this request would be an injustice to her literary fame; but with delicacy she observed, that what she had written, might, if published, hurt the feelings of those who survived her, she therefore insisted on making the sacrifice, and the work was accordingly destroyed. Her remains were deposited in Kensington churchyard, agreeably to her request in her will, by which she bequeathed a respectable property to Coventgarden fund and her friends.

TRAVELS, MANNERS,
STATISTICS, &c.

ASCENT OF MONT BLANC.

EXTRACT from "An Account of Two late Attempts to ascend Mont Blanc, by Dr. Hamel, Counsellor of State to his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias." [From the Annals of Philosophy.]

THE

HE first of the two attempts was undertaken on August 3, the anniversary of the ascent of M. de Saussure. Dr. Hamel, in passing by the baths of St. Gervais, heard that two persons of the country had reached the summit of Mont Blanc, and descended the same day at Prarion, whence they had set out. This report made Dr. Hamel desirous of attempting this new route, which, according to the account given of it, was less difficult, and dangerous, and much shorter, than that by Chamouny, which, since Saussure's time, had always been followed.

It appears, that the same persons, who had already ascended by this route, proposed again to undertake it, in order to remove some doubts which had been entertained at Chamouny with respect to the practicability of the journey. With these persons and the curates of St. Gervais, and St. Nicolas de Verosse,

the attempt was made by Dr. Hamel.

In order to insure success, it was proposed to effect the ascent in two days, passing the night near la Pierre Ronde, the name given to some rocks situated be neath L'Aiguille du Gouté, and at half-past seven, the travellers halted to pass the night, sheltered by the rocks, and not far from a torrent coming from the Glacier de Bionnassay.

The night was beautiful, and at half-past two in the morning, the journey was resumed by moon-light, and at 22 minutes after five o'clock, the travellers reached the base of the Aiguille du Gouté; and after about three hours of very difficult ascent among loose stones, the summit of the Aiguille was attained at 50 minutes after eight; the height of which is upwards of 12,000 feet. After taking rest, and adopting precautions against the cold, and the rays of the sun

reflected by the snow, they set off at a quarter past nine towards the Dôme du Gouté, and arrived at the summit at half-past 11.

The height of this is 13,300 feet, and Dr. Hamel could advance but few steps without waiting to take breath, on account of the rarity of the air; and finding, from the state of exhaustion he was in, that he must have staid at least half an hour before he could resume his journey towards the summit of Mont Blanc, and calculating that it would be impossible to come back to the Aiguille du Gouté before night, he resolved to return by the route by which he had ascended, without attaining his object. The descent is represented as more difficult and dangerous even than the ascent, but it was safely performed, and the party arrived at about nine at night at an inn called Pavillon de Bellevue, situate on the Montagne de la Chaletta between Mont Lacha and Mont Prarion.

Dr. Hamel's account of his second journey, which was attended with great danger to the whole party, and proved fatal to some of the guides, is the following:

"In looking over M. de Saus sure's work, I found that he had tried this same route; but the dangers which he encountered in the ridges of l'Aiguille du Gouté prevented him from proceeding further: he did not even arrive at its summit.

"This induced me to believe that the route by Chamouny, by which he afterwards ascended, must be at least as convenient; and I wished to meet with an opportunity of trying it, so that I might decide which of the two routes was preferable.

"Soon afterwards, I learned that some persons at Geneva were also desirous of ascending Mont Blanc: one of them was M. Selligue, a mineralogist and mechanical artist. He informed me that he had invented a barometer upon an entirely new principle, which he wished to try

on these mountains.

"As the claim of Mont Blanc to be considered the highest mountain of Europe has been lately disputed, and as no travellers who have ascended it since M. de Saussure have taken the trouble to measure it again, I wished to determine its height, with the assistance of several barometers. Prof. de Saussure had the goodness to lend me an excellent walking-stick barometer, made at Turin. The reservoir for the mercury is a glass cylinder, and the level is regulated by a screw and piston. M. Selligue constructed a syphon barometer; and in case these two barometers should be deranged in ascending, I filled with mercury, two glass tubes 18 or 20 inches in length, and bent at one end like a syphon. The mercury having been boiled, I closed the opening, so that no variation in the volume of the mercury might cause air to enter the longer leg of the syphon. On arriving at any height, I had only to remove the cork, and allow part of the mercury to come out, and then to measure the height of the column standing in the tube. I had thus four baro-. metrical instruments to measure the height of the summit.

"In my first ascent I was surprised at the action which the. sun's rays had upon the skin;, and I intended to make some experiments on the power of these

rays

concentrated by lenses. Col. Beaufoy had previously paid some attention to this subject, and I think, as he does, that these experiments may become interesting in the theory of light and heat.

"I purposed also to make observations upon myself and my companions as to the effects of rarefied air upon animal organization; and after what I had already observed during my first ascent, I flattered myself that I should obtain results which would be useful in physiology.

"I procured a bottle of limewater to determine the presence, and by approximation, the quantity of carbonic acid in these elevated regions, and to discover whether air which had been respired contained the same quantity of carbonic acid as it does in those regions in which at each inspiration one-third more oxygen enters in the same volume of atmospheric air. I intended also, when high up, to bleed some animal, in order to observe by the colour of the blood whether it was or was not sufficiently decarbonized.

"I filled four bottles with spirit of wine, which, when poured upon a sponge, was intended to be used for combustion; and I proposed to bring back some of the air of the summit in these bottles for analysis.

"A Papin's digester, of very simple construction, was intended to prove the possibility of cooking meat at great heights. The monks of the grand St. Bernard complain that they are unable to dress their food sufficiently. The reason of it is, that water in large open vessels, being less compressed by the atmosphere at

great heights than in plains, boils at a lower temperature. A separate apparatus was prepared to measure the exact temperature at which water boils at different heights.

A small table, with a camera lucida, was furnished by M. Selligue, to sketch a panorama from the summit of Mont Blanc.

"Prof. Pictet supplied me with the instruments requisite to observe and measure the temperature, the electricity, and the moisture of the atmosphere, &c. &c.

"Mr. Joseph Dornford, and Mr. Gilbert Henderson, two English gentlemen, and both of the University of Oxford, were anxious to join us; the former of them had, when in England, formed the project of ascending Mont Blanc. We set out on Aug. 16, at three o'clock in the afternoon from Geneva for Chamouny. We arrived the next day at le Prieuré, reaching the excellent hotel de l'Union, kept by M. Charlet, at two o'clock.

We

"We applied to Joseph-Marie Coutet et Mathieu, son of Pierre Balmat, whom M. Pictet had recommended to us as guides who were equally robust and trusty. They advised us to take 12 guides, or three for each traveller. referred the choice to them; and our obliging hostess undertook to prepare all that was necessary for the journey. The next morning at a quarter past five o'clock, we set out in the finest possible weather. We went at first in the direction of the Glacier des Bossons, but before we reached it, we turned to the left, and began the ascent in a forest. At seven o'clock, we had got above the forest, and reached the chalet,

inhabited by Pierre François Fav. ret, formerly one of Saussure's guides, who had ascended, and his son was with us.

"Here one of our guides, Julien Devouassou, son-in-law of D. Paccard, was nearly poisoned. He supposed that he had bought some syrup of vinegar at Chamouny; and arriving at a stream, he tried the syrup before he mixed it with water: he swallowed a little of it. It was concentrated sulphuric acid, which burned his stomach and mouth in a terrible manner. His sufferings were great, and he vomited much. Fortunately this accident happened near a chalet, where I found some wood asbes, and these I made him swallow mixed with water; the alkali neutralized the acid instantaneously, and the guide having recovered, continued the journey with us.

"From the chalet, the ascent is continued zig-zag in the direction of the Aiguille du Midi; at half-past eight, we rested at la Pierre-pointue, where the mountain projects between the Glacier des Bossons and the Glacier des Pelerins, but nearest the former. From hence the summit of Mont Blanc is for the first time visible, and le Prieuré is still in sight. From thence we turned a little to the right, and at nine o'clock we crossed the torrent called l'Eau Noir, but which, instead of water, was filled with enormous blocks of granite, rolled down from above: the Aiguille de la Tour is on the left. A quarter of an hour afterwards, we passed to Nant Blanc; and at a quarter before 10 o'clock we halted to breakfast round a great stone between the Glacier des Bossons and Mount Basselache.

The guides call it "la pierre de l'echelle," because they usually leave the ladder there which is used to cross the Glacier. At ten minutes past 11 o'clock we recommenced our journey, and in five minutes we reached the Glacier des Bossons, which must be crossed obliquely in the direction of the Grand Mulet. At a hundred paces from the edge of the Glacier wonders begin which no pen can describe. At every moment we stopped to make each other observe some striking configuration of the ice; we heard nothing but "Look to the right! Look to the left!" Sometimes it was a bottomless precipice; at others a tower of ice more than 100 feet in height. The ladder was soon required. How were we to cross a crevice of 20 feet wide, apparently bottomless, longitudinally divided into two by a thin wall of ice, scarcely a foot thick, and 10 feet lower than the sides of the crevice which it divides? Arrived at the brink the ladder is lowered and supported upon the thin wall of ice in the middle of the crevice. One of the guides descends; the first traveller follows, and keeps himself upright near the ladder on the wall of ice, one foot broad, or supported by his stick, he stands immovable, and endea. vours to shun the sight of the two blue gulphs ready to swallow him on the least loss of equilibrium. The guide then rests the top of the ladder against the opposite edge of the crevice, and the traveller having mounted it, it is again returned to the first brink in order to let the second traveller descend, and so on with the remainder. When the ladder is some inches longer than the cre

« PreviousContinue »