The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-07-29
A VISIT TO MONT BLANC.

We were making a long and arduous
ascent towards Chamouny, when / left
the horses and company resting behind,
and soon found myself alone, on foot, in
the most solemn and sublime circum-
stances imaginable. On each side of me
the mountains rose abruptly to an en-
ormous height; at my feet rolled the
rapid waters of the Arveiron; and. di-
rectly before, seen through an openine
vista, the bald, hoary head of Mont Blanc
lowered upward to the very vault of
heaven.
Where | was, the sun had long since
gone down, leaving me in almost pitchy
darkness, while his brilliant beams still
fingered and played Enthusiastically upon
the white pinnacle of the mountain. 1t
seemed like huge, shining dome. sus-
pended from the upper world During
our stay at Chamouny, the sky was per-
fectly clear,-a favor not often enioyed.
But upon the grand summit, while not a
speck of cloud appeared elsewhere, a
thin, gauze-like veil almost continually
lowered, rejecting the delicate tints of
vermilion, yellow, and amethyst; giving
the appearance of some mysterious fairy
chamber of the skies, on which nature
had hung her richest drapery. I gazed
and gazed on the glorious object, forgetful
of my way, and almost in doubt whether
| was in this world or some other, till the
sharp crack of the Positions whip and
the sound of human voices broke the
enchantment.
We walked out to enjoy an evening
view of the scenery. Not cloud dark
ened hand-breath of the sky;-the
moon was walking up the zenith, in full
orbed lustre; and every star, save those
eclipsed by the moon, seemed ambitious
to put forth its most brilliant rays. Be
meath our feet, and directly around us,
summer had spread her green mantle,
and the fields were then waving with ripe
harvest; while, within fourth of a mile
from us, lay massive banks of ice and
snow, projected from the mountains,
which rose on each side to enormous
heights.
1t was strange, indeed, to be walking on
the verdant carpet and through the luxu-
RANT foliage Of midsummer, surrounded
by the scenery, and enveloped by the
atmosphere of midwinter When one
feels the piercing chills of the night air
and beholds the wintry aspect Of these
regions, by moonlight, he is puzzled to
conceive how the grass and grain con-
trive to grow. Far, far up, in the deep,
clear, and,-contrastde with the snowy
cliffs,-dark sky, rose the "bald, awful
head" of Mont Blanc, looking down on
all Europe. There it seemed to sit, silent
calm, majestic, wearing the shining and
changeless crown of everlasting winter.
1t required little effort of imagination to
conceive, with Coleridge, that it held
lordly intercourse with the orbs of heayen,
and had power to arrest them in their
courses. Indeed, the poets entire des-
cription came fresh to our thoughts, with
all the quickening power of perceived
and felt reality.
The Mer de Glace is a solid mass of ice,
two Or three miles broad, extending from
the source Of the Aryeiron, up the wind
ing valley of the mountains, some twenty
or thirty miles and how many hundreds
or thousands of feet deep, no mortal
knows. 1t is by far the greatest inland
body of ice in all Europe. Those who
do not choose to enter upon it, should at
| least visit the source of the ArYeiron, al
its foot. The stream issues from beneath
magnificent canopy of ice. The arch
opens from fifty to hundred feet, and
| is of Unreasonable depth. Visitors some
times enter it; but the experiment is
dangerous; as masses Of ice suddenly
disengage themselves and fall. Several
persons have thus been killed.
We did not enter the arch but a full
impression of the grand and beautiful is
realized without. Above you, the trans
lucent canopy Of ice, with its brilliant
azure gradually softening into deeper
shades, and the interminable depths of
darkness, with the tumult of hidden
waters, far up the awful believing
cavern beneath you, stupendous piles of
enormous rocks, launched from the
mountain SUBMITS, and projected over
the glaciers into the bed of the Arve,
overlaid and surrounded with heaps on
heaps of shivered timber together with
a literal sea of ice, and jagged mountains
all white with winter stretching beyond
the limits of vision, on the one side and
forests of waving pines, green meadows,
and the gentle flow Of their meandering
streams, on the other-conspire to
awaken the deepest, strongest, most rev.
erential emotions of which the human
soul is susceptible.