the light of a serious accident, when
Mathieu Balmat cried out that some of the party were lost, and pointed
to the crevass, which had hitherto escaped our notice, into which he
said they had fallen. A nearer view convinced us of the sad truth. The
three front guides, Pierre Carrier, Pierre Balmat, and Auguste Tairraz,
being where the slope was somewhat steeper, had been carried down with
greater rapidity, and to a greater distance, and had thus been hurried
into the crevass, with an immense mass of snow upon them, which rose
nearly to the brink. Mathieu Balmat, who was fourth in the line, being a
man of great muscular strength, as well as presence of mind, had
suddenly thrust his pole in the firm snow beneath, when he felt himself
going, which certainly checked, in some measure, the force of his fall.
Our two hindermost guides were also missing, but we were soon gladdened
by seeing them make their appearance, and cheered them with loud and
repeated hurrahs. One of these, Julien Devoussaud, had been carried into
the crevass where it was very narrow, and had been thrown with some
violence against the opposite brink. He contrived to scramble out
without assistance. The other, Joseph Marie Couttet, had been dragged
out by his companions quite senseless, and nearly black from the weight
of snow which had been upon him. It was a long time before we could
convince ourselves that the others were past hope, and we exhausted
ourselves fruitlessly for some time in fathoming the snow with our
poles." After relating how every effort had been made to recover the
poor fellows, the abandonment of the ascent, and the melancholy return
to Chamonix, he goes on to explain the cause of the accident. "During
two or three days a pretty strong southerly wind had prevailed, which,
drifting gradually a mass of snow from the summit, had caused it to form
a sort of wreath on the northerly side, where the angle of its
inclination to the horizon was small enough to allow it to settle. In
the course of the preceding night that had been frozen, but not so hard
as to bear our weight. Accordingly, in crossing the slope obliquely, as
above described, with the summit on our right, we broke through the
outer crust and sank in nearly up to the knees. At the moment of the
accident a crack had been formed quite across the wreath; this caused
the lower part to slide down under our weight on the smooth slope of
snow beneath it, and the upper part of the wreath,