ASCENT OF MONT BLANC, BY MADEMOISELLE

D'ANGEVILLE.

BY DR. CHR. MULLER.

In my account of the glacier of Faucigny, inserted some years since in a German periodical, I related how a young female from the valley of Chamouni reached the summit of Mont Blanc, not through her own merit and energy, but through the efforts and perseverance of the guides, who, at her own urgent entreaty-for she was betrothed to one of them took her along with them in an excursion in quest of rock-crystals at the foot of the Dent du Midi, and carried her, when Marie was not able to walk any further, so that they at length arrived with her on the summit of Mont Blanc. She was thence called Marie de Mont Blanc. Not so fortunate were Lady Campbell and her daughter, both courageous females, who proceeded without accident over the Col du Géant to the Piedmontese Allée Blanche, and would fain have undertaken the ascent of Mont Blanc, if they had not been assured by the guides that this was an achievement impracticable for a woman. This impossibility is now, however, rendered possible, I might even say not difficult, through the amour propre, the courage, and the firmness of a French lady accustomed to excursions of this kind.

Near St. Lambert, in the department of the Ain, at the foot of the western declivity of the Jura, where many rugged mountains are linked together, is seated a mansion named Lompuès. Here Mademoiselle d'Angeville was born and brought up. She exercised herself at an early age in long mountain excursions in her own neighbourhood, and on one occasion walked seventy leagues in four days. One would scarcely conceive her to be capable of such an exertion, judging from her slender figure, her small elegant foot, and a handsome hand of corresponding delicacy. Her eye certainly betrays intelligence and firmness, and her language resolution and the tone of good society. In other respects she is no beauty, and just forty-two years old. She assured me that ten years ago, at the first sight of Mont Blanc, glowing as it then was in the rays of the setting sun, she conceived an extraordinary desire to be on the top of it-a feeling which she has ever since cherished, and which was partly the cause of her long visit to Geneva, where there is so magnificent a view of that mountain and its fellows. As Mademoiselle d'Angeville is not rich, it took her several years to save the sum requisite for the enterprise, and last summer she said to herself, "I will now accomplish it."

In the first days of September, she proceeded from Geneva to Chamouni. There, at the “ Union," she immediately made known her intention. Every one, and the guides themselves, joined in remonstrating with and dissuading her. Regardless of all representations, she persisted in her purpose. The guides, therefore, were at length forced to relinquish their opposition, and to enter into negotiation with the adventurous lady. She engaged Joseph Coutet, who had been already seven times on Mont Blanc as chief of the guides, hired five others and two porters; so that the party consisted altogether of nine persons.

On Monday, the 3rd of September, as a serene sky and a cool air announced a fine day, the necessary implements and provisions were collected, and preparations made for starting. Over thick trousers the lady put on a woman's gown of coarse woollen stuff, and over that a goatskin cloak, such as is commonly worn by the girls at the chalets on the Alps in the vicinity, a fur hood coming far over the face, and upon it a large straw hat, without green veil or green spectacles. She had besides, stout shoes, and the indispensable Alpine stick, mounted with chamois' horn. But, before their departure, she deemed it necessary to make a speech to her attendants, which must appear wholly superfluous and out of place to all who are acquainted with those moral, modest, and well-behaved men. Mademoiselle d'Angeville, who is fond of using fine words and phrases, reminded her guides that it was a female whom they were escorting, and therefore she begged them to abstain from all expressions which might shock her délicatesse de femme. The guides looked at one another, and a flush of displeasure was their only reply. The speaker immediately perceived her mistake, and hastened to depart. She might, indeed, have well spared this precautionary address till she found that it was needed, and then a hint to the head guide would have been sufficient. We shall see by and by, that Mademoiselle d'Angeville ceased to be so coy at the height of 15,000 feet above the level of the Adriatic, in sight of three kingdoms and a dozen republics.

Without difficulty or inconvenience, the spirited traveller passed the Torrent de Mimont, the Pierre de l'Echelle, the splendid glacier of Bossons, and the obelisk-like rocks of the Grands Mulets, where she collected plants, and wrote short notes as memorials of the spot to her friends and relations. Here a glorious night awaited her. Flooded by the light of a full moon, the vast fields of snow above, and the sparkling glaciers below her, produced a surprising effect, which was heightened by the avalanches that descended, crashing and thundering from the Dent du Midi past the foot of the rock below.

The magnificence of the scene allowed her not a moment's sleep, though she felt quite well. She observed in the moonlight, how Munier, one of her porters, had composed himself to sleep on a narrow ridge of rock, in such a manner that either leg hung down over a tremendous abyss, into which he must have fallen on the slightest movement. She stepped softly to him and wakened him: he eyed her at first in amazement, and then, smiling, quieted her with the assurance that he should be very glad if he could always find so good a bed in his mountain excursions.

About three o'clock the party pursued their route. The guides had previously made a hearty breakfast; but Mademoiselle d'Angeville, having no appetite, contented herself with five dried plums and snow, and she took nothing but this frugal meal between Chamouni and the summit of Mont Blanc, for it was not till she reached that point that she felt any inclination for eating. While the guides were breakfasting, she changed her dress in the tent, putting on thick, warm, man's apparel, instead of the woman's gown, which was an obstruction to her.

Continuing her journey, Mademoiselle d'Angeville crossed the Taconnaz glacier, the Petites Montées, the Petit Plateau, the Grandes

Montées, and the Grand Plateau, with an ease that filled all her guides with astonishment, and occasioned the repeated remark that they had seldom seen a man walk, climb, and leap over abysses, with such firmness, safety, and resolution. Owing to her experience in climbing mountains, she found no difficulty in the ascent of Mont Blanc as far as Mur de la Côte; and she is surprised at all preceding travellers, who have described it as so formidable, and represented it as being attended with such terrific circumstances, which she considers the more incomprehensible, inasmuch as the traveller is always held by a strong rope tied round the body, or steps upon poles held in form of a bridge between two of the guides, so that real danger is quite out of the question.

It was not till she had passed the Petits Mulets that Mademoiselle d'Angeville began to be fatigued, and her weariness increased the nearer she came to the Mur de la Côte. This is the last but likewise the most difficult acclivity, on account of its slope of from eighty to eighty-two degrees, that you have to climb before you reach the top of Mont Blanc. It is true that all the guides had begun to flag excepting the chief, who always went on before her, and with his little axe cut broad steps in the frozen snow. Had there been a telescope in Geneva that would enable the observer to distinguish persons at the distance of fourteen leagues, one might have watched Mademoiselle d'Angeville climbing the sharp eastern border of the Calotte, and seen how her motions gradually became slower, and indicated more and more exhaustion, and how she sat down every fifty paces to rest and to take breath. The otherwise lively and courageous traveller was now seized with an increasing despondency, accompanied by a painful oppression of the chest, and a feeling as if molten lead was circulating in her veins. She assured me herself, that she had mustered and exerted all the energies of her mind, that she might not lose all courage for proceeding further. This state she calls an agony. Several times she sank down in spite of herself, and in one of these moments-incapable of uttering a word-she heard her conductor say, "Jamais je ne menerai plus de femme sur le Mont Blanc."

To facilitate her progress, Coutet pulled by a rope fastened round her waist; and, but for this assistance, she would probably not have had strength to reach the summit. When she afterwards rallied him on his ungallant expression, he replied that her situation, owing to the extreme tension of the nerves and muscles at that height, was such as to threaten death; that her face was quite distorted, like that of a person who has expired in convulsions; and that he was every moment afraid lest he should see her drop down dead. Fortunately, with his assistance, her strength just sufficed to reach the top, after inexpressible exertions, on Tuesday, the 4th of September, at fifty-five minutes past twelve o'clock.

The moment the air of the summit entered her lungs, she felt cured and invigorated-just the reverse of all the male ascenders of Mont Blanc, who were always weak and relaxed on the top. Not only did her bodily ailments forsake her, but she felt as it were incorporeal, all spirit, and all gaiety. The female who the day before had been so concerned about her modesty was here transformed into a thoroughly natural and joyous creature: for, when the chief guide remarked that

he had a right to a kiss on that spot, she made no resistance, but laughingly presented her cheek for the salute. This remarkable change is probably to be ascribed to a hitherto-unknown meteorological influence of the atmosphere of the loftiest mountains in Europe upon the female constitution. Of course de Saussure, with all his experiments, had no opportunity of arriving at such a conclusion fifty-two years ago; but it is now an established axiom that ladies who are coy and prudish in the plain become kind and complying on the top of Mont Blanc.

After the salute, Coutet, who had before been very grave, grew extremely gallant, and said to Mademoiselle d'Angeville, "Il faut qu'en revanche Mademoiselle monte plus haut que la cime du Mont Blanc, et qui n'est encore arrivé à personne."

At a signal from him, all the other guides lent a hand, and fairly lifted the lady upwards of four feet above the surface of the snow. After this supplementary ascent, the provisions were unpacked, especially as the lady had recovered her appetite where all other travellers lose theirs. She ate with great relish, and, as a loyal Frenchwoman, drank a glass of champagne to the health of the Count de Paris. Immediately afterwards, she fell to work upon her correspondence, and wrote four or five short letters to her relatives and friends in Geneva and its environs, as Napoleon formerly dated decrees from the Kremlin. In this there was to be sure something of affectation. The short time that she passed here she might have employed to better purpose than in writing letters; for now she had but a very brief interval for examining the prospect in all its parts. It was not till she had finished her correspondence that she directed her attention to the view, favoured by a perfectly clear and serene sky, such as few have met with on Mont Blanc.

Here then stood Mademoiselle d'Angeville, upon a lofty island, amidst an ocean of immense mountain waves. Overlooking the mighty chains of the Cattian, Grajan, Pennine, and Lepontine Alps, and the Alps of Glarus, Uri, Unterwalden, and Berne, which lay at her feet, like huge dragons, with scales, horns, and teeth, she must have been amply compensated for what she did not see, for the view which other travellers profess to have obtained of Milan, the Mediterranean, Venice, and the Adriatic Sea. She declared that she could not discover the slightest trace of any of these objects, notwithstanding the sharpness of her sight, and the serenity of the atmosphere, since at this distance, even with a good telescope, the whole scene is blended into an undefined mass, of an ash-gray. On this point, however, we shall not insist. With rapid and practised hand she made several sketches, and was only prevented from taking more by a cold of 8° Reaumur. What other travellers relate concerning great debility, sleepiness, disposition to vomit, bleeding at the nose, pain in the eyes, faintness of sounds, &c., she did not find confirmed by her own experience. In short, Mont Blanc appeared to her in many respects totally different from what it had done to preceding travellers.

After a stay of fifty minutes she commenced her descent, which was performed without accident, and of course much more rapidly than the That metereological influence on feminine delicacy to which we have alluded, still continued to prevail in all its force, for Mademoi

ascent.

selle d'Angeville made no scruple to glide down over the mirror-like surface of the snow in the same manner as male travellers, that is to say seated, the guide sitting between her legs, of which he took fast hold. Within half an hour after they had left the top it was enveloped in a dense fog, which did not clear away for above a week.

It is a remarkable circumstance that two other successful attempts to ascend Mont Blanc were made at the same time with Mademoiselle d'Angeville's. M. Stoppe, of Posen, with six guides, and M. Eisenkrämer, the landlord of the Union, at Chamouni, with his guides and porters, started shortly after her, passed the night not far from the lady, on the Grands Mulets, and reached the summit of the mountain very soon after her. Thus then were for a moment twenty-four persons at once on the top of Mont Blanc. Stoppe and Eisenkrämer congratulated the lady on her successful ascent, but stayed on the summit a much shorter time than she did, and saw scarcely any thing, for they left it again in five minutes, as though they had come merely for the sake of saying that they had been there.

In a few hours, Mademoiselle d'Angeville had passed the places which it had cost such labour to ascend, and reached the station of the Grands Mulets. The days were too short, and the lady too much fatigued, for her to think of returning the same day to Chamouni, as Eisenkrämer did, after resting a while on the rock. She again passed the night there, made several sketches in the morning, and arrived about noon at Chamouni, where she was received with great rejoicing, with songs, and the firing of guns, both by natives and foreigners. She dined at the table d'hôte of the Union. On the following day she gave the guides their usual treat, which had a peculiar interest. At the head of the table sat Marie de Mont Blanc, no longer handsome and blooming, but lively and full of spirits, and who even drank so freely at the dessert that her tongue became very loud. Mademoiselle d'Angeville, the other female ascender of Mont Blanc, was seated at the lower end of the table, and did the honours in the genuine French style.

It was some days before Mademoiselle d'Angeville returned to Geneva, where she immediately fell to work to prepare for the press an account of her ascent, with six designs.

What will be the consequence of all this? The ascent of Mont Blanc, which, since Dr. Paccard's attempt has been accomplished by twenty-nine travellers, and at least one hundred guides, and in which not one has lost his life or sustained any considerable injury-for Dr. Hammel's three guides would not have been overwhelmed by an avalanche if the too adventurous traveller had not persisted in pushing on in spite of their warning-this ascent will now probably become as common an excursion from Chamouni as that to the Grands Mulets and the Jardin, especially for the chivalrous and wealthy English ladies, fond of riding and fox-hunting. I say wealthy, for such an excursion cannot cost much less than fifteen hundred francs (upwards of 657.), whether the attempt succeeds or not.