Around it are other peaks that elsewhere would be considered very high, but compared with this giant they are pigmies. Mt. Blanc is not to be described. Descriptions and pictures can convey no idea of it. One must stand under the shadow of that eternal snow, must feel the presence of the grand old mountain, to fully appreciate it.
From the streets of Chamonix the sides seem to be as smooth as a frozen pond, as the sun glistens on the ice and snow; but viewed through the powerful telescope great crags are seen. Wide chasms, no one knows how deep, yawn on every side. Blank, inaccessible walls shoot straight up in the air, hundreds of feet. There are impassible glaciers and great gullies where, centuries ago, a great landslide occurred. All this can be seen through the telescope, but not till one attempts the ascent can he realize the nature of Mt. Blanc’s formation. Then he finds his path beset with dangers he never dreamed of. He sees the glaciers, which by the glass seemed only rough places, are full of deep crevices hundreds of feet wide. He hears the rumbling of wild streams of water far down in the ice, as they swirl and swish round and round in the cavities formed by the everlasting action of the water against the flinty ice. He comes upon solid mountains of ice, around or over which it is next to impossible to go. He finds bridges of ice, where one misstep would launch him down a crevice, so far that his body could never be recovered. In short, he finds that Mt. Blanc is only smooth and safe and pleasant when seen at a distance through a telescope.
CHAPTER XXXV.
GOING UP THE MOUNTAIN.
I CANNOT see why any one should desire to ascend Mt. Blanc. It is a trip of great danger, is very fatiguing, and, it is said, even when the summit is reached the view is unsatisfactory, on account of the great distance from all objects save the jagged peaks of the big mountain. Yet there are quite a number of ascents made every year.
THE PRESUMED CHAMOIS HUNTER.