THE MER DE GLACE, SHOWING MONT TACUL AND THE GRANDE JORASSE, WITH OUR CLEFT ABOVE TRÉLEPORTE TO THE RIGHT.]
112. Look up and down this side of the glacier. It is considerably riven, but as we advance the crevasses will diminish, and we shall find very few of them at the other side. Note this for future use. The ice is at first dirty; but the dirt soon disappears, and you come upon the clean crisp surface of the glacier. You have already noticed that the clean ice is white, and that from a distance it resembles snow rather than ice. This is caused by the breaking up of the surface by the solar heat. When you pound transparent rock-salt into powder it is as white as table-salt, and it is the minute fissuring of the surface of the glacier by the sun's rays that causes it to appear white. Within the glacier the ice is transparent. After an exhilarating passage we get upon the opposite lateral moraine, and ascend the steep slope from it to the Montanvert Inn.
[§ 13.] The Mer de Glace and its Sources. Our First Climb to the Cleft Station.
113. Here the view before us is very grand. We look across the glacier at the beautiful pyramid of the Aiguille du Dru (shown in our [frontispiece]); and to the right at the Aiguille des Charmoz, with its sharp pinnacles bent as if they were ductile. Looking straight up the glacier the view is bounded by the great crests called La Grande Jorasse, nearly 14,000 feet high. Our object now is to get into the very heart of the mountains, and to pursue to its origin the wonderful frozen river which we have just crossed.
114. Starting from the Montanvert with, the glacier below us to our left, we soon reach some rocks resembling the Mauvais Pas; they are called les Fonts. We cross them and reach l'Angle, where we quit the land for the ice. We walk up the glacier, but before reaching the promontory called Trélaporte, we take once more to the mountain side; for though the path here has been forsaken on account of its danger, for the sake of knowledge we are prepared to incur danger to a reasonable extent. A little glacier reposes on the slope to our right. We may see a huge boulder or two poised on the end of the glacier, and, if fortunate, also see the boulder liberated and plunging violently down the slope. Presence of mind is all that is necessary to render our safety certain; but travellers do not always show presence of mind, and hence the path which formerly led over this slope has been forsaken. The whole slope is cumbered by masses of rock which this little glacier has sent down. These I wished you to see; by and by they shall be fully accounted for.
115. Above Trélaporte to the right you see a most singular cleft in the rocks, in the middle of which stands an isolated pillar, hewn out by the weather. Our next object is to get to the tower of rock to the left of that cleft, for from that position we shall gain a most commanding and instructive view of the Mer de Glace and its sources.
116. The cleft referred to, with its pillar, may be seen to the right of the preceding engraving of the Mer de Glace. Below the cleft is also seen the little glacier just referred to.
117. We may reach this cleft by a steep gully, visible from our present position, and leading directly up to the cleft. But these gullies, or couloirs, are very dangerous, being the pathways of stones falling from the heights. We will therefore take the rocks to the left of the gully, by close inspection ascertain their assailable points, and there attack them. In the Alps as elsewhere wonderful things may be done by looking steadfastly at difficulties, and testing them wherever they appear assailable. We thus reach our station, where the glory of the prospect, and the insight that we gain as to the formation of the Mer de Glace, far more than repay us for the labour of our ascent.