File:Greatest wonders of the world (1906) (14582800590).jpg

Identifier: greatestwonderso00sing (find matches)
Title: Greatest wonders of the world
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Singleton, Esther, d. 1930
Subjects: Curiosities and wonders Landscapes
Publisher: New York, The Christian Herald
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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is is a partof the subject more mournful and less sublime; but suchas neither the poet nor the philosopher should disdain toregard. This morning we departed on the promise of a fine day,to visit the glacier of Montanvert. In that part where itfills a slanting valley, it is called the Sea of Ice. This val-ley is 950 toises, or 7,600 feet above the level of the sea.We had not proceeded far before the rain began to fall, butwe persisted until we had accomplished more than half ofour journey, when we returned, wet through. Chamouni, July 25th.We have returned from visiting the glacier of Montan-vert, or as it is called, the Sea of Ice, a scene in truth ofdizzying wonder. The path that winds to it along theside of a mountain, now clothed with pines, now intersectedwith snowy hollows, is wide and steep. The cabin ofMontanvert is three leagues from Chamouni, half of whichdistance is performed on mules, not so sure footed, but thaton the first day the one I rode fell in what the guides call a
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MONT BLANC AND CHAMOUNI 13 mauvais pas^ so that I narrowly escaped being precipitateddown the mountain. We passed over a hollow coveredwith snow, down which vast stones are accustomed to roll.One had fallen the preceding day, a little time after we hadreturned: our guides desired us to pass quickly, for it is saidthat sometimes the least sound will accelerate their descent.We arrived at Montanvert, however, safe. On all sides precipitous mountains, the abodes of unre-lenting frost, surround this vale: their sides are banked upwith ice and snow, broken, heaped high, and exhibiting ter-rific chasms. The summits are sharp and naked pinnacles,whose overhanging steepness will not even permit snow torest upon them. Lines of dazzling ice occupy here andthere their perpendicular rifts, and shine through the drivingvapours with inexpressible brilliance : they pierce the cloudslike things not belonging to this earth. The vale itself isfilled with a mass of undulating ice, and has an ascent suf-

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