Hannibal journal. (Hannibal, Mo.) 1852-1853, 1852-03-18
MONT BLANC.
FROM BLAckwOoD's EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
(COntinued.)

FROM BLACKwOoDs EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
(COntiaued.)
My eyelids had felt very heavy for the last
hour; and, but for the absolute mortal necessity
OF keeping them widely open, believe would
nave closed before this; but now sLch strange
and rrepressible desire TO go TO sleep seized hold
oil me that almost fell fast off as sat down for
few minutes on the snow !. TO tie my shoes.
But the foremost guides were on the march sgain,
and was compelled TO go on with the caravan.
From this point, on TO the summit, for space
OF two hours, was in such q strange state Of
mingled unconsciousness and acute observation
OF combined sleeping and waking-that the
old-fashioned word 'bewitched" is the only one
that can apply TO the complete confusion and
.upsetting of sense in which l found myself
plunged. With the perfect knowledge of where
| was, and what was about even with such
caution as was required to plOce my feet on
particular places in the snow--I conured up
such set of absurd and improbable phantoms
about me, that the most spirit-ridden intruder
upon Nayday festival ON the Hartz mountains
was never more beleaguered. am not suifi-
ciently versed in the finer theories of the psy-
cology of sleep to know if such a state might be:
dering period was fast asleep, with my eyes
open, and through them the wandering brain re-
ccived external impressions; in the same manner
as, upon awaking, the phantasms of our dreams
are sometimes carried on, and connected with
objects about the chamber. 1t is very difficult
70 explain the odd state in which was, so to
speak, entanged. A great many people knew
IN London were accompanying me, and calling
after me- as the stones did after Prince Perviz
in the .7rdbidn .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 should
ers; and then literary friend came up, and told
me he was sorry we could not pass over his
gr round on our way TO the summit, but that the
King of Prussia had forbidden il. Everything
was as foolish and uncOLnected as this, but 1t
worried me painfully; and my senses were under
such little control, and | 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-thc terrible Muir dc la Cote-up
which we had to climb, ] sat down again on the
snow, and told Tairraz that would not go any
farther, but that they might leave me there il
they pleased.
The Mont Blanc guides are used to these lit
tie varieties of temper, above the Grand Pla-
tcau. In spite of my mad determination to &c
to sleep, Balmat and another set me up on my
legs again, and told me that if did not exercise
every caution, we should all be lost together
for the most really dangerous part of the whole
ascent had arrived. had the greatest difficulty
in getting my wandering wits into order; but the
risk called for the strongest mental effort; and
with just sense enough to see that our success:
in scaling this awful precipice was entirely dc
pendent upon ''pluck," | got ready for thu
climb. | have said the Muir de Ia Cote is som,
hundred feet high, and is an all but perpendicu
lar iceberg. At one point you can reach /
from the snow, but Immediately after you begil
4 to ascend it, obliqucly, there is nothing below
but chasm in The ice more frightful than any
thing YET passed. Should the foot slip, or th
: baton give way, there is no chance for life-yo
o would glide like lightning from one frozen era
r. TO another. and finally be dashed to pieces, hun
dreds and hundreds Of feet below, in the horr
Q bic depths of the glacier. Were il in the val
ley, simply rising up from glacier noraine, il
n ascent would require great nerve and caution
!. but here, placed fourteen thousand feet abov
IS the level Of the sea, terminating in an icy abys
/ so deep that the bottom is lost in obscurity; e'
o posed, in highly rarefed atmosphere, to viii
M cold and violent beyond all conception: assaile
WIN muscular powers uTeauy taAeu lar Dey Ol
= their strength, and nerves shaken by constant
y increasing excitement and want Of rest--wi
in bloodshot eyes, and raging thirst, and pul'
" leaping rather than beating-with all this,
" may be imagined that the frightful Muir de
;e Cole calls for ordinary determination to mou
I'd Iii.
he OF course, every footstep had to be cut wi
iy the adzes; and my blood ran colder still, as sa
& Inc Trst guides creeping like hies upon
IS, smooth Slistening surface. TAe two Tairri
nd were in front of me, with the fore part of u
ch rope, and Francois Caohat, think, behind.
ne scarcely know what our relative positions wer
Ill for we had not spoken much to one another {
as the last hour;every word was an exertion, al
ut our attention was solely confined TO our ov
ot progress. In spite Of all my exertions, my co
py fusion of ideas and extraordinary drowsine
od increased to such painful degree, that, clin
ling to the hand-holes made in the ice, and ST
sh roundedby all this horror, do believe, If !
W. had halted on our climb for half minute,
to should have gone on asleep. But Tiers was
is pause. We kept progressing, very slowly
- deed, hut still going on--and up so steep pa
he that had 10 wait until the guide before me
wn moved his foot, before ! could put my hand II
Of the notch. l looked down below two or thr
nj times, but was not at all guiddy, although