118. For we see the glacier below us, stretching its frozen tongue downwards past the Montanvert. And we now find this single glacier branching out into three others, some of them wider than itself. Regard the branch to the right, the Glacier du Géant. It stretches smoothly up for a long distance, then becomes disturbed, and then changes to a great frozen cascade, down which the ice appears to tumble in wild confusion. Above the cascade you see an expanse of shining snow, occupying an area of some square miles.
[§ 14.] Ice-cascade and Snows of the Col du Géant.
119. Instead of climbing to the height where we now stand, we might have continued our walk upon the Mer de Glace, turned round the promontory of Trélaporte, and walked right up the Glacier du Géant. We should have found ice under our feet up to the bottom of the cascade. It is not so compact as the ice lower down, but you would not think of refusing to call it ice.
120. As we approach the fall, the smooth and unbroken character of the glacier changes more and more. We encounter transverse ridges succeeding each other with augmenting steepness. The ice becomes more and more fissured and confused. We wind through tortuous ravines, climb huge ice-mounds, and creep cautiously along crumbling crests, with crevasses right and left. The confusion increases until further advance along the centre of the glacier is impossible.
121. But with the aid of an axe to cut steps in the steeper ice-walls and slopes we might, by swerving to either side of the glacier, work our way to the top of the cascade. If we ascended to the right, we should have to take care of the ice avalanches which sometimes thunder down the slopes; if to the left, we should have to take care of the stones let loose from the Aiguille Noire. After we had cleared the cascade, we should have to beware for a time of the crevasses, which for some distance above the fall yawn terribly. But by caution we could get round them, and sometimes cross them by bridges of snow. Here the skill and knowledge to be acquired only by long practice come into play; and here also the use of the Alpine rope suggests itself. For not only are the 'snow bridges often frail, but whole crevasses are sometimes covered, the unhappy traveller being first made aware of their existence by the snow breaking under his feet. Many lives have thus been lost, and some quite recently.
122. Once upon the plateau above the ice-fall we find the surface totally changed. Below the fall we walked upon ice; here we are upon snow. After a gentle but long ascent we reach a depression of the ridge which bounds the snow-field at the top, and now look over Italy. We stand upon the famous Col du Géant.
123. They were no idle scamperers on the mountains that made these wild recesses first known; it was not the desire for health which now brings some, or the desire for grandeur and beauty which brings others, or the wish to be able to say that they have climbed a mountain or crossed a col, which I fear brings a good many more; it was a desire for knowledge that brought the first explorers here, and on this col the celebrated De Saussure lived for seventeen days, making scientific observations.
[§ 15.] Questioning the Glaciers.