reports of some chamois-bimters .ccustomed to pursue tliat animal among the most
stupendous peaks of the primitive chain, extends upwards of twenty miles northnorth
East. N' XXI gives a representation of that glacier, or rather that part which
lies between the one of La Valsorey and that of La Valtellne, a spot which I have
chosen, in order to subjoin an anecdote which happened to me there the first time of my
crossing the Great St. Bernard, some years ago, and which may likewise tend to show
the hospitable disposition, the urbanity, and slmphcity, of the Vallalsans in general.
Being under the necessity of passing this mount in my way to Switzerland from
Turin, I furnished myself with a guide and mule at the city of Aosta; but, from the
extreme brutality of the former, I was forced to send him back, with his beast, as soon
as I had reached the summit,—a circumstance which, from not knowing what I was to
encounter, and the weather being fair, gave me not one moment's uneasiness i for I
supposed I should be able, without much inconvenience, to walk to the village of
St. Pierre, where it was probable I might meet with some kind of conveyance. But,
alas! he had not left me long, ere I grievously repented of having discarded him, the
descent being, beyond any thing I could conceive, steep, irregular, and almost trackless i
when, at once, the surrounding objects became suddenly intercepted by dark clouds,
which were accumulating most tremendously, while in an instant they expanded, and
I became, as it were, enveloped in them—the wind, during this time, forcing Itself in
violent and frightful gusts over the mountain, chilled my mind with horror. The clouds
were so thick, that for the moment they obscured the ligbt, and prevented my Sndlng
my way, while tbey wetted me so thoroughly, that, had I been soused in a river, I
could not have been in a more deplorable situation. Yet were these only the prelude
or foreninners of a still more dreadful storm; for while the wind, at every gust, increased
and became terrific, so as to carry away or overturn whatever might lie in its direction
(a circumstance which often happens on the top of the Alps), the thunder rolled
and lightning »ashed beneath my feet, and, wonderliil as it may appear, hail, intermixed
with large iakes of snow, fell thick upon me, and seemed to blow firom every
part. Thus chilled and comfortless, I stood unavallingly lamenting my want of pre-
. caution, and was on the point of throwing myself on the earth, and resigning myself to
fate, having never before or since encountered such a storm. Not a tree could I discover
that might afford the least shelter; nothmg but huge and barren rocks, heaped
one on the other to an extreme height, displayed themselves around, and very nearly
¡i'iil
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