Part 11 (1/2)
Then we attacked the leg of mutton which my friend had so thoughtfully brought with him, and afterwards raced down, with renewed energy, to La Berarde.
Reynaud and I walked together to St. Christophe, where we parted. Since then we have talked over the doings of this momentous day; and I know that he would not, for a good deal, have missed the pa.s.sage of the Col de Pilatte, although we failed to make it an easier or a shorter route than the Col du Sele. I rejoined Moore and Walker, the same evening, at Venos, and on the next day went with them over the Lautaret road to the hospice on its summit, where we slept.
So our little campaign in Dauphine came to an end. It was remarkable for the absence of failures, and for the ease and precision with which all our plans were carried out. This was due very much to the spirit of my companions; but it was also owing to the fine weather which we were fortunate enough to enjoy, and to our making a very early start every morning. By beginning our work at or before the break of day, on the longest days in the year, we were not only able to avoid hurrying when deliberation was desirable, but could afford to spend several hours in delightful ease whenever the fancy seized us.
I cannot too strongly recommend to tourists in search of amus.e.m.e.nt to avoid the inns of Dauphine. Sleep in the chalets. Get what food you can from the inns, but do not as a rule attempt to pa.s.s nights in them.(123) _Sleep_ in them you cannot. M. Joanne says that the inventor of the insecticide powder was a native of Dauphine. I can well believe it. He must have often felt the necessity of such an invention in his infancy and childhood.
On June 29 I crossed the Col du Galibier to St. Michel; on the 30th, the Col des Encombres to Moutiers; on July 1, the Col du Bonhomme to Contamines; and on the 2d, by the Pavilion de Bellevue to Chamounix, where I joined Mr. Adams-Reilly to take part in some expeditions which had been planned long before.
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST Pa.s.sAGE OF THE COL DE TRIOLET, AND FIRST ASCENTS OF MONT DOLENT, AIGUILLE DE TReLATeTE, AND AIGUILLE D'ARGENTIeRE.
”Nothing binds men so closely together as agreement in plans and desires.”
CICERO.
A few years ago not many persons knew from personal knowledge how extremely inaccurately the chain of Mont Blanc was delineated. In the earlier part of the century thousands had made the tour of the chain, and before the year 1860 at least _one_ thousand individuals had stood upon its highest summit; but out of all this number there was not one capable, willing, or able, to map the mountain which, until recently, was regarded the highest in Europe.
Many persons knew that great blunders had been perpetrated, and it was notorious that even Mont Blanc itself was represented in a ludicrously incorrect manner on all sides excepting the north; but there was not, perhaps, a single individual who knew, at the time to which I refer, that errors of no less than 1000 feet had been committed in the determination of heights at each end of the chain; that some glaciers were represented of double their real dimensions; and that ridges and mountains were laid down which actually had no existence.
One portion alone of the entire chain had been surveyed at the time of which I speak with anything like accuracy. It was not done (as one would have expected) by a Government, but by a private individual,-by the British De Saussure,-the late J. D. Forbes. In the year 1842, he ”made a special survey of the Mer de Glace of Chamounix and its tributaries, which, in some of the following years, he extended by further observations, so as to include the Glacier des Bossons.” The map produced from this survey was worthy of its author; and subsequent explorers of the region he investigated have been able to detect only trivial inaccuracies in his work.
In 1861, Sheet xxii. of Dufour's Map of Switzerland appeared. It included the section of the chain of Mont Blanc that belonged to Switzerland, and this portion of the sheet was executed with the admirable fidelity and thoroughness which characterise the whole of Dufour's unique map. The remainder of the chain (amounting to about four-fifths of the whole) was laid down after the work of previous topographers, and its wretchedness was made more apparent by contrast with the finished work of the Swiss surveyors.
In 1863, Mr. Adams-Reilly, who had been travelling in the Alps during several years, resolved to attempt a survey of the unsurveyed portions of the chain of Mont Blanc. He provided himself with a good theodolite, and starting from a base-line measured by Forbes in the Valley of Chamounix, determined the positions of no less than 200 points. The accuracy of his work may be judged from the fact that, after having turned many corners and carried his observations over a distance of fifty miles, his Col Ferret ”fell within 200 yards of the position a.s.signed to it by General Dufour!”
In the winter of 1863 and the spring of 1864, Mr. Reilly constructed an entirely original map from his newly-acquired data. The s.p.a.ces between his trigonometrically determined points he filled in after photographs, and a series of panoramic sketches which he made from his different stations.
The map so produced was an immense advance upon those already in existence, and it was the first which exhibited the great peaks in their proper positions.
This extraordinary piece of work revealed Mr. Reilly to me as a man of wonderful determination and perseverance. With very small hope that my proposal would be accepted, I invited him to take part in renewed attacks on the Matterhorn. He entered heartily into my plans, and met me with a counter-proposition, namely, that I should accompany him on some expeditions which he had projected in the chain of Mont Blanc. The unwritten contract took this form:-I will help you to carry out your desires, and you shall a.s.sist me to carry out mine. I eagerly closed with an arrangement in which all the advantages were upon my side.
At the time that Mr. Reilly was carrying on his survey, Captain Mieulet was executing another in continuation of the great map of France; for about one-half of the chain of Mont Blanc (including the whole of the valley of Chamounix) had recently become French once more. Captain Mieulet was directed to survey up to his frontier only, and the sheet which was destined to include his work was to be engraved, of course, upon the scale of the rest of the map, viz., 1/80000 of nature. But upon representations being made at head-quarters that it would be of great advantage to extend the survey as far as Courmayeur, Captain Mieulet was directed to continue his observations into the south (or Italian) side of the chain. A special sheet on the scale of 1/40000 was promptly engraved from the materials he acc.u.mulated, and was published in 1865, by order of the late Minister of War, Marshal Randon.(124) This sheet was admirably executed, but it included the central portion of the chain only, and a complete map was still wanting.
Mr. Reilly presented his MS. map to the English Alpine Club. It was resolved that it should be published; but before it pa.s.sed into the engraver's hands its author undertook to revise it carefully. To this end he planned a number of expeditions to high points which up to that time had been regarded inaccessible, and upon some of these ascents he invited me to accompany him. Before I pa.s.s on to these expeditions, it will be convenient to devote a few lines to the topography of the chain of Mont Blanc.
At the present time the chain is divided betwixt France, Switzerland, and Italy. France has the lion's share, Switzerland the most fertile portion, and Italy the steepest side. It has acquired a reputation which is not extraordinary, but which is not wholly merited. It has neither the beauty of the Oberland, nor the sublimity of Dauphine. It attracts the vulgar by the possession of the highest summit in the Alps. If that is removed, the elevation of the chain is in nowise remarkable. In fact, excluding Mont Blanc itself, the mountains of which the chain is made up are less important than those of the Oberland and the central Pennine groups. The following table will afford a ready means of comparison.(125)
Metres. Eng. feet(126) 1. Mont Blanc 4810 = 15,781 2. Grandes Jora.s.ses 4206 . 13,800 3. Aiguille Verte 4127 . 13,540 4. Aiguille de Bionna.s.say 4061 . 13,324 5. Les Droites 4030 . 13,222 6. Aiguille du Geant 4010 . 13,157 7. Aiguille de Trelatete, No. 1 3932 . 12,900 Aiguille de Trelatete, No. 2 3904 . 12,809 Aiguille de Trelatete, No. 3 3896 . 12,782 8. Aiguille d'Argentiere 3901 . 12,799 9. Aiguille de Triolet 3879 . 12,726 10. Aiguille du Midi 3843 . 12,608 11. Aiguille du Glacier 3834 . 12,579 12. Mont Dolent 3830 . 12,566 13. Aiguille du Chardonnet 3823 . 12,543 14. Aiguille du Dru 3815 . 12,517 15. Aiguille de Miage 3680 . 12,074 16. Aiguille du Plan 3673 . 12,051 17. Aiguille de Blaitiere 3533 . 11,591 18. Aiguille des Charmoz 3442 . 11,293
The frontier-line follows the main ridge. Very little of it can be seen from the Valley of Chamounix, and from the village itself two small strips only are visible (amounting to scarcely three miles in length)-viz. from the summit of Mont Blanc to the Dome du Gouter, and in the neighbourhood of the Col de Balme. All the rest is concealed by outlying ridges and by mountains of secondary importance.
Mont Blanc itself is bounded by the two glaciers of Miage, the glaciers de la Brenva and du Geant, the Val Veni and the Valley of Chamounix. A long ridge runs out towards the N.N.E. from the summit, through Mont Maudit, to the Aiguille du Midi. Another ridge proceeds towards the N.W., through the Bosse du Dromadaire to the Dome du Gouter; this then divides into two, of which one continues N.W. to the Aiguille du Gouter, and the other (which is a part of the main ridge of the chain) towards the W. to the Aiguille de Bionna.s.say. The two routes which are commonly followed for the ascent of Mont Blanc lie between these two princ.i.p.al ridges-one leading from Chamounix, _via_ the Grands Mulets, the other from the village of Bionna.s.say, _via_ the Aiguille and Dome du Gouter.
The ascent of Mont Blanc has been made from several directions besides these, and perhaps there is no single point of the compa.s.s from which the mountain cannot be ascended. But there is not the least probability that any one will discover easier ways to the summit than those already known.
I believe it is correct to say that the Aiguille du Midi and the Aiguille de Miage were the only two summits in the chain of Mont Blanc which had been ascended at the beginning of 1864.(127) The latter of these two is a perfectly insignificant point; and the former is only a portion of one of the ridges just now mentioned, and can hardly be regarded as a mountain separate and distinct from Mont Blanc. The really great peaks of the chain were considered inaccessible, and, I think, with the exception of the Aiguille Verte, had never been a.s.sailed.
The finest, as well as the highest peak in the chain (after Mont Blanc itself), is the Grandes Jora.s.ses. The next, without a doubt, is the Aiguille Verte. The Aiguille de Bionna.s.say, which in actual height follows the Verte, should be considered as a part of Mont Blanc; and in the same way the summit called Les Droites is only a part of the ridge which culminates in the Verte. The Aiguille de Trelatete is the next on the list that is ent.i.tled to be considered a separate mountain, and is by far the most important peak (as well as the highest) at the south-west end of the chain. Then comes the Aiguille d'Argentiere, which occupies the same rank at the north-east end as the last-mentioned mountain does in the south-west. The rest of the aiguilles are comparatively insignificant; and although some of them (such as the Mont Dolent) look well from low elevations, and seem to possess a certain importance, they sink into their proper places directly one arrives at a considerable alt.i.tude.