served effects in society, may be illustrated more shortly than explained. The humorous man may be compared to one, who guards his grain with powder only; he kills none of the fowls who forage in his fields, but he flashes, and blazes, and scares, and irritates all. The worldly man, on the contrary, arms himself with an air-gun, which neither lightens nor thunders, and stings only the enemies whom it strikes. But the abstract unpopularity of the humorous man, who offends even those who need not or cannot fear him, must be found in a deeper source, and may be traced to a cause which seems to pervade all animal nature. Singularity is in itself an offence through all the orders and species into which this is distinguished. Put a paper neckcloth about a sparrow, turn him out, and he will become the victim of his irritated companions. Let but a dog bark in a town more loudly than ordinary, no matter whether in rage or in merriment, and every one makes common cause against the offender. The expediency, indeed, of avoiding this ground of offence has been chronicled by the proverbial wisdom of most nations; as in the Pappa Tace of the Italians, and the Eat your pudding and hold your tongue, of the English. Observe this maxim in all its latitude, and every thing will be permitted to you. A dignitary of the church, who had made hunting the amusement of his youth, asked an old and respected member of his order, whether he might pursue his favourite sport after being elevated to the prelacy? His counsellor answered in these memorable words, which may indeed serve as a rule of life,-My Lord, you may hunt, but you must not holla. I have been sometimes tempted, like the Eastern Prince in the story, to have this maxim of worldly wisdom engraved on every piece of plate, and burnt into every piece of porcelain in my possession; that at every hour of the day I may have presented to my eyes, the memento of, 66 you may hunt, but you must not holla.”

MONT BLANC.

To the Editor of the New Monthly Magazine.

MY DEAR SIR.-THE following account of a late attempt to reach the summit of Mont Blanc may, perhaps, be interesting to some of your readers. It is the only original account públished in this country, and contains the substance of a narrative drawn up, soon after my return to England, for the satisfaction of my friends.

Oriel College, Oxford.

I remain, &c.

J. D.

ABOUT the middle of last August I arrived at Geneva, accompanied by my friend H- of Brazenose, whom I had fallen in with at Bern, and who was, like myself, devoting a part of the long vacation to a Continental tour. I had, before leaving England, set my heart upon ascending Mont Blanc, and found no difficulty in prevailing on my companion, who had already made the tour of the greater part of Switzerland, to accompany me. Having called on a gentleman of Geneva, to whom I had an introduction, with a view of making the necessary enquiries, I learnt from him that a small party were then on the point of setting out with the same intention. I lost no time in finding them out, and proposing to share in their undertaking; and the following afternoon, August 16, we set off together, in a hired calêche, for the valley of Chamounix. Our party consisted of four persons. Our new acquaintances were Le Chevalier Hamel, a Russian, then employed by the Emperor in making some philosophical observations in the neighbourhood, and M. Sellique, an optician of Geneva, and native of Paris, a man of considerable attainments in various branches of natural philosophy. His grand object in accompanying us was to make trial of a new barometer, of his own construction, in measuring the height of Mont Blanc, the accuracy of some former observations for the same purpose having been recently called in question. Dr. Hamel had already made, ten days before, an unsuccessful attempt to reach the summit by a different route, being the same which Saussure attempted in 1785 with no better success *.

We reached St. Martin, the place for which we had engaged our calêche, at one o'clock in the morning of the 17th, and having engaged two sharabandst for the journey through the valley, we arrived at Chamounix at two o'clock in the afternoon. From a balcony of the house where we slept, we had the first distinct view of Mont Blanc; and Dr. Hamel pointed out to us the formidable Aiguille de Gouté which he had lately succeeded in scaling. H. and myself set off from St. Martin on foot through the valley, being desirous of preparing ourselves a little for the fatigues of the following day. We walked nearly seven miles before we were overtaken by our party with the sharabands, and took the opportunity of visiting a beautiful fall of water, at a short distance on our left, which amply repaid us for the fatigue

* An account of this has already appeared in an article of the Bibliothéque Universelle, a monthly publication edited at Geneva, in which Dr. Hamel has given a minute account of his two attempts, and of the observations which he intended to have made on the summit.

+ Sharaband is the name for a very low narrow car on four wheels, drawn by one or more mules, which is the only kind of vehicle in use in the valley. Indeed the road, if it may be called one, is frequently so rugged as to oblige the traveller to descend, which he may do with a single step, and support his carriage with the hand.

which it occasioned. From this spot the road becomes the most romantic that can be conceived; and when our companions overtook us, they found us reposing on the green margin of a small transparent lake, surrounded by a group of beautiful peasantgirls and boys, who were pressing upon us beakers of a most delicious water, drawn from a fountain at some short distance.

On our arrival at Chamounix, at the excellent hotel de l'Union, we immediately sent for Mathieu Balmat, and Joseph Marie Couttet, guides of the valley, to whom we had been recommended to apply ourselves. After a good deal of bargaining, which we were glad to leave to Dr. Hamel, we finally agreed with twelve guides, who were to receive forty-eight francs apiece: the choice of the ten others was left to the two leaders, who appointed them all to muster in marching order at four o'clock the following morning. We found a large and genteel party at the table d'hôte, and spent a very pleasant afternoon. The rumour of our intended expedition was soon spread abroad, and we found ourselves treated with something of that kind of respect, which is paid to the leaders of the forlorn hope on the eve of the storming of a town. Many jokes were interchanged about making our wills, which we afterwards reflected upon with very different feelings.

At length, the long-expected morn arrived: at four o'clock we were summoned from our beds, where we had not enjoyed much sleep, and about five we all set off on foot, making with the guides a party of sixteen. These latter were each furnished with a knapsack pretty well loaded, in which were placed provisions for three days for the whole party, mathematical instruments, additional clothing for ourselves on the following day, four blankets, and a variety of other things, among which were a carrierpigeon from Bonneville, to convey to that place the earliest tidings of our arrival on the summit, and a live fowl destined to be cooked at the same height. We had also with us some rockets and Bengal-lights, which we had promised the ladies below to exhibit from our halting-place for the night. This was to be the summit of a rock called by the guides Le Grand Mulet, which is a very conspicuous object from the hotel. After returning on the road to St. Martin for nearly a league, we began the ascent in a wood, which skirts the mountain for some distance. But previous to this we stopped for a few minutes at the cottage of Joseph Marie Couttet, which is at the base of the mountain, to provide ourselves with spiked-poles; and at his suggestion I exchanged an ordinary hat for one of the kind usually worn by the peasants, and which, he informed me, had already been twice on the summit of Mont Blanc. Our caravan now assumed a most romantic appearance; the costume of the guides, each with a French knapsack, and one or two with old pelisses, being de

cidedly military. It reminded me strongly of a party of Guerillas in the Pyrenees, where uniformity either in dress or appointments was considered as an unnecessary refinement. We had each a large straw hat tied under the chin, and a spiked-pole, about eight feet long, in our hands. Besides this, our shoes were furnished with short spikes at the heels to assist us in the descent. We were clothed as lightly as possible, that the motion of our limbs might not be impeded, for we were told to expect a march of eleven or twelve hours, the latter half of which was to be spent in climbing.

The ascent, at first, is so far from being laborious, that the guides were constantly obliged to repress our ardour, and compelled us to halt every ten minutes, lest we should not husband our strength sufficiently. In about two hours, we reached the last human abode, being a chalet or summer-cottage, inhabited by François Favret, who had been one of Saussure's guides, and whose son was in our party. A few minutes before, one of our guides pointed out to us Mademoiselle Favret, reclining fearlessly on a very precipitous part of the pasture, where her goats were feeding, and singing with the greatest apparent unconcern. During a halt of five minutes, which we made at the chalêt for the purpose of taking a draught of goat's-milk, Julien Devouossoux, one of our guides, son-in-law to Dr. Paccard*, swallowed a mouthful of sulphuric acid, which he had bought at Chamounix by mistake for acetic acid, which on these excursions the guides ordinarily drink diluted with water. He suffered acutely for some minutes, until Dr. Hamel thought of making him swallow a quantity of wood-ashes and water, which were fortunately at hand. The alkali neutralized the acid, and he was soon in a condition to enter into the railleries of his companions, who, on his informing them in answer to their numerous enquiries, that a young woman had served him at the shop, and had mistaken the one acid for the other, were very merry on the occasion, and insisted on its having been intentional on her part, and proceeding from malice prepense. When we resumed our march, the veteranmountaineer, Favret, accompanied us about three hours higher up to the edge of the glacier, to carry his son's knapsack, and then followed us with his eyes till we disappeared in one of the awful fissures, with which it is every where intersected. He was accompanied by his dog, over whom no one but his master seemed to possess the least influence, being as wild in appearance as the goats, which he amused himself occasionally with pursuing. These animals, however, as we were told, were all under com

* An inhabitant of Chamounix, who, in 1786, first succeeded in reaching the summit of Mont Blanc. His sole companion was Jaques Balmat, who derived from that circumstance the cognomen of Mont Blanc.

mand, and at the approach of winter were recalled to the more sheltered spots nearer the base of the mountain.

Since our departure from the chalêt, we had been ascending, in a zig-zag direction, towards the Aiguille du Midi, a mountain to the left of Mont Blanc, and which, for a long time, appears to rival it in height. We had left the wood behind us just before we reached the chalêt, and the ascent was now considerably steeper. We trod for some time a very precarious path along the brink of an awfully deep and precipitous ravine, where I occasionally felt some tendency to dizziness. This feeling, however, I concealed so successfully, that I believe neither the guides nor my companions had any suspicion of it; and, by following Saussure's advice, in the published account of his ascent, and fixing my eyes steadfastly upon the precipice, I gradually accustomed myself to the view, and was soon enabled to pursue my path with the greatest confidence. This was a very necessary preparatory discipline, to fit us for the infinitely more formidable passage of the glacier, during the whole of which I was perfectly cool and collected. I mention this for the purpose of encouraging those, who may shrink from such an undertaking, from a distrust of the strength of their nerves. It was my first attempt at climbing for several years; and yet, by the time we reached the Pierre de l'echelle, a large round stone, where we halted for breakfast, on the edge of the glacier, I felt quite at home, and resigned myself completely to the delightful sensations, which our situation inspired.

In a cavern below this rock, our guides found a ladder, which they had left there the year before, and which they employ in the passage of the glacier de Bossons, now close before us." It was about half-past nine when we reached this resting-place, and we felt disposed to do justice to a couple of cold fowls, which were produced from the knapsack of one of the guides. These were soon dispatched, together with a bottle of light French wine, and in twenty-five minutes we resumed our march. The baggage was adjusted afresh; one of the guides had charge of the ladder, and another carried a load of straw, which we had procured at the chalêt, and which was destined to furnish our bed for the night. The view became now more and more sublime; we had left far beneath us all human abodes, and were now in regions where no animal but the chamois could tread securely. We had a distinct view of the summit of the mountain, though the Aiguille du Midi, from the base of which we were now diverging towards the right, still appeared to equal it in height. Our steps had been long encumbered by fragments of this latter mountain, rent probably by lightning from its summit. Behind us, at a great depth, lay the valley of Chamounix and the village of the Prieuré, the white walls of the hotel