The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1859-10-29
From 6alignani's Messenger
Ascent Of Mont Blanc

toned about ten days back. The rapidity
7; with which the excursion was effected, and
n the small sum it cost formerly the expen
, ses was about e40) are worthy OF notice
= The writer gives the account as he heard
d it from the lips of the pedestrian himself
= Mr.. Jearrad of Greenstreet green, neal
Bromley, Kent
Son Friday, the 9th September, left
Chambunix, at five in the morning, Edou-
: ard Tournier, surnamed LOlseau, son OF
one of De Saussure's ancient guides. We
; proceeded to the Brevent to witness the as
. cent by brakes party They reached the
e summit about II After this, we crossed
to the Flegere, where we stayed till half
n past four and then decended to Chamou-
> nix. Aswe were walking down, the guides,
+. observing | was not at all tired. proposed
, an excursion to the summit of Mont Blanc
the same evening. He offered to accom-
pany me with three porters, to find all the
provisions and undertake the Whole ex-
pense for 230 francs; to this ] agreed. At
six p. m, we reached Chamounix, by sew
en- all our arrangements were made, and
we started, no one being aware of our pur-
pose, except the banker and the landlord
of the hotel The guide provided me with
every article Of clothing, including CATERS,
shoes, spectacles, etc. We took three
' wine, one Of brandy, and small quantity
y of various other provisions, including cho-
colate and dried plans, which are an cx-
cellcnt remedy for thirst The guide Tour
nler had already been seven times on Mont
Blanc the porter Auguste Couttet once,
the two other men had never been beyond
) the Grand Mulets Before setting out, as
the shoes We're too large, / enveloped my
. feet, las de the stockings, with brown pa
per. and never felt the slightest effect Of
cold in them. IS the spec.acles did not
tit ne, ! made ~ use OF them on tie as
cent, and in the hurry of departure had
, taken no veil 10 guard my face from the
reflection OF the sunbeams on the snow
We enjoyed splendid moonlight all the
way. After reaching the Glacier des Bos-
: sons. one of the porters was SO fatigued
that took his knapsark for an hour and
. half At two in the morning, we arrived
at the Grande Mul"t-, where we found an
Engli. i.hman, one of Mr. Drake party who,
after having been on the top of Mont
Blanc with the others. had felt too i'll 10
90 down into the valley. and had remained
for the night with three guides. Here We
2 put on our warm clothing. and having col
lccted some ice and snow made rea which
, we all drank and found excellent Tour
= Licr and had intended to 20 up alone,
bUt here toutt"t volunteered to accompa-
ny u, and from prudential motives we ac-
ceDted hl- offer. The morning was spleu-
did We set oil again at four. The sun
seemed very red and four times it, usual
size. An hour before our arrival on the
grand plateau. it had been swept by an i'm
d meuse avalanche of ice. snow. and rocks
= We passed among the debris. About half
: past -iX We reached the grand plateau, and
at Its upper extremity, observed a party
\ ahead. who proved To be Russiaa gentle
man, NJ Victor Basieusky, of ST Peters
:, burg. and his guides. They had left Cha
mounix the morning before, while We were
still on the Brevcnt We felt stimulated
to get ahead of them the guides partook
OF the enthusiasm. In haste We partooll
: OF bottle al, wine. and seen COS fe-t, 10
the a~toniShnlent Of the party, wSa won
dcrcd whence we arrived II. p7@s5,t, we
- Offered the Russian a handful Of plurn>
and learnt from him that he had seen the
fall of the great avalanche. lie and his
guides looked quite black in the face; uhey
Were attached To- each other with ropes,
and appeared alMo-t exhausted
Passing on. we mounted the second and
tlird plassaUx without suffering from any
OF the usual painful symptoms except cold
About eight, we entered the narrow pas
sage called the Corridor, without once-hav
ing halted OH the road Here we had to
cat steps up very steep ice bank, for the
drifting snow had already filed up the tra-
ceS left by Dir. Drakcs party We now
sealed the 3iur de la Cote, passing the las /
small rocks She Petits NuletS. without ma
king one &gzag, up TO oar mid,lles in snow.
At about ten minutes to ten we stood on
the top amid a keen SHOW drift and an aw-
ful wind. We could hardly keep our feet,
and here for the only time attached our
/ selves together with ropes. Ny eyes wera
so inHamed, from the absence of a veil and
>pectacl&s, that | could not enjoy the view
The sky seemed black as ink In the vast
prospect could distinguish but two other
colors. the snowy white Of the noun tains
the deep brown Of the little hills and val
leys. We stayed here very shor: time,
drank our bottle of champagne and gave
three cheers for Queen Victoria. On de-
scending, we kept close together and slid
down very rapidly Below the Petits Mu-
lets we met our Russian friend, supported
by two guides They were in great difficult
ty, but still plucky We gave them a pud
at our brandy bottle and they reached the
top about half-past twelve. 1t had been
our intention to return over the Bosse de
la Dremedaire, where only one guide has
Yet passed; we We're not iatigued, and had
strength and courage enough for it, but
the wind was too strong
At the Grands Mulets we rested half an
hour and arrived at the Priory of Cha
mounix at six p. NJ. where we found all the
population waiting our arrival, and Were
received with salute of twelve guns.
should observe that we had robbed the
Russian gentleman of his volley, usually
fired when the traveller arrives on the top
os Mont Blanc, as the Chamounix people,
his party.
In conclusion, cannot sufficiently COM
!, mend the honesty, strength and activity Of
the guides, Tournier and Couttet. Au-
guste Balmat prof Forbes companion and
gude) and in fact all the inhabitants of
Chamounix say that ours was the most re-
markable ascent ever made in point of rs-
pdity and moderate expense, besides the
diticuity of walking by night My eyes
We're very painful aud face peeled, but l
, did not feel particularly tired We had a
! pleasant party till twelve that night, and,
after resting the Sunday, went off to Ge-
neva at six on Monday morning, and got
back to Vevey at seven on Tuesday morn
ing.
i The WHEAT CRor.-The New York Co,-
e rier and Enquirer of the 10th has the fol-
. lowing:
. There appears to be a marked difference
in the production of wheat in the various
States this year. Throughout almost all
. commonly well before harvest, but upon
i