DEPARTURE .FROM LEUK.
C O N T I N U A T I O N OF THE UPPER VALLAIS.
ASCENT C ilMPLO
IMPROVEMENT in natural history having been a great object with me in all my
Alpine researches, the reader will pardon me if I inform him, that on my return to
Leuk I immediately began to arrange my journal, and read over the observations I had
made in the course of the day, selecting the different samples of coloured quartz,
schorl, &c. collected during my excursion, in order to number them. No sooner was
this done, and every necessary preparation settled for the continuance of my journey,
which I intended pursuing the next morning, than I most unexpectedly saw an old
acquaintance enter the room,—a Swiss officer in the Sardinian service, with whom I
had been on a most intimate footing in Piedmont. He was now on a visit at his uncle's,
where he had accidentally heard of my arrival, and kindly hastened to bid me welcome.
M y being thus greeted by a friend, in a country where I had not the most distant idea
of being known, afforded me more than usual satisfaction for friendship I regard as
one of the first bounties of Heaven to man, and I receive whatever flows from this
source with sentiments of more than common gratitude. Judge, then, how inexpressibly
delighted I was, in my present circumstances, to hail the countenance of a
friend, who was as willing to extend to me as I to partake of his attentions and kind
offices, and who, from his knowledge of the country, was able to assist me with the
most valuable information relative to my intended trip across the Simplón, Mont St. Gothard,
and the source of the Rhône !
Having, in order to make some little arrangements, spent the evening with my
friend at the inn, in spite of every solicitation on his part to accompany him to his
uncle's, we parted, though not till he had obtained a promise from me to meet and
breakfast with him, the next morning, en famille. Nor had I any reason to repent, for I
was charmed with their society, received every mark of polite attention, and gained