Ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc, 16th-18th of 9th month September, 1834 / By Martin Barry, M.D.

  • Barry, M. (Martin), 1802-1855.
Date:
[1835]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ascent to the summit of Mont Blanc, 16th-18th of 9th month September, 1834 / By Martin Barry, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    them in a situation from which even these ani- mals could not’ easily extricate themselves; and two or three minutes elapsed before the last of them made its escape. We dined at this spot, and soon afterwards at the foot of the Aiguille du Midi, entered upon the ice, over which, exclu- sively, our course now lay, and which was 7000 feet in perpendicular altitude. The soles of my shoes were here armed with steel points to prevent slipping. While engaged in introducing them, a boy, dispatched from the village of Les Pélérins to the Priory, for some spirit of wine, which I wanted for an experiment on the sum- mit, came breathless towards us; but it was sulphuric acid! not alcohol, that he had brought. Crossing the glacier de Buissons, and ob- liquely ascending, we proceeded in a south-west direction, to the Mulets, an isolatedchain of rocks, on one of which we hoped to pass the night. The difficulties usually met with in crossing the glacier, have been described by several pre- ceding travellers, who have been up the moun- tain.* On this occasion, the great width of the fissures, as had been anticipated, constituted * The following is very descriptive :—‘ It was the avalanche alone that we had hitherto to fear, but now new dangers arose from the