Edward Whymper

“ I turned to Reynaud, who seemed thunderstruck. "What did he suggest?" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well," we said, after explaining our minds pretty freely to Sémiond, "the sooner we turn back the better, for we have no wish to see your pyramid."
We halted for an hour, and then commenced the descent. It took us nearly seven hours to come down to our rock; but I paid no heed to the distance, and do not remember anything about it. When we got down we made a discovery which affected us as much as the footprint in the sand did Robinson Crusoe: a blue silk veil lay by our fireside. ”

“ As I looked at this young limb, I thought of my own; but Reynaud, who knew everything about everybody in the village, said there was not a better one, so off we went with it, leaving the official staggering in the road and muttering, "France! 'tis the first nation in the world!"
The 3d of August came, but Macdonald did not appear, so we started for the Val Louise; our party consisting of Reynaud, myself, and a porter, Jean Casimir Giraud, nicknamed "little nails," the shoemaker of the place. ”

“ We shouted—"The Pic des Arcines!" and inquired of Sémiond if he knew whether that peak had been ascended. As for him, he knew nothing, except that the peak before us was called the pyramid, from the cairn he had, etc. etc., and that it had not been ascended since. "All right then—face about," and we immediately turned at right angles for the cone, the porter making faint struggles for his beloved pyramid. Our progress was stopped, in the sixth of a mile, by the edge of the ridge connecting the two peaks, and we perceived that it curled over in a lovely volute. We involuntarily retreated. ”

“ So I walked away, and shortly afterwards, as it was getting dark, encamped in a lovely hole—a cavity or kind of basin in the earth, with a stream on one side, a rock to windward, and some broken pine branches close at hand. Nothing could be more perfect: rock, hole, wood, and water. ”

“ The snow was very soft; we were always knee-deep, and sometimes floundered in up to the waist; but a simultaneous jerk before and behind always released one. By this time we had arrived at the foot of the final peak. The left-hand ridge seemed easier than that upon which we stood, so we curved round to get to it. Some rocks peeped out 150 feet below the summit, and up these we crawled, leaving our porter behind, as he said he was afraid. ”

“ I have not attempted to conceal that the ascent of Mont Pelvoux is of a rather monotonous character; the view from its summit can, however, be confidently recommended. A glance at the map will show that with the single exception of the Viso, whose position is unrivalled, it is better situated than any other mountain of considerable height for viewing the whole of the Western Alps. ”

“ The finest distant view of the pass is seen after crossing the Col, near Monêtier. A mountain, commonly supposed to be Monte Viso, appears at the end of the vista, shooting into the sky; [11] in the middle distance, but still ten miles off, is Briançon with its interminable forts, and in the foreground, leading down to the Guisane, and rising high up the neighbouring slopes, are fertile fields, studded with villages and church spires. The next day I walked over from Briançon to La Bessée, to my worthy friend Jean Reynaud, the surveyor of roads of his district. ”

“ It is dangerous to approach too near them, and one has to study the wind, so as to get on their weather-side: in spite of all such precautions my unfortunate companion and myself were being rapidly devoured alive. We only expected a temporary lull of our tortures, for the interiors of the inns are like the exteriors of the natives, swarming with this species of animated creation. ”

“ I myself saw in this and in the previous season several small companies round about the Viso. It is perhaps as favourable a district as any in the Alps for a sportsman who wishes to hunt the chamois, as the ground over which they wander is by no means of excessive difficulty. ”

“ All the peaks of Mont Pelvoux are well seen from La Bessée, the highest point, as well as that upon which the engineers erected their cairn. Neither Reynaud nor any one else knew this. The natives knew only that the engineers had ascended one peak, and had seen from that a still higher point, which they called the Pointe des Arcines or des Ecrins. They could not say whether this latter could be seen from La Bessée, nor could they tell the peak upon which the cairn had been erected. ”

“ The next morning, after walking up the valley to examine the Viso, I returned to Abries, and engaged a man from a neighbouring hamlet, for whom the ex-harbour-master had sent; an inveterate smoker, and thirsty in proportion, whose pipe never left his mouth except to allow him to drink. ”

“ The inns, when they exist, are filthy to an indescribable extent; rest is seldom obtained in their beds, or decent food found in their kitchens, and guides there are none. The tourist is thrown very much on his own resources, and it is not therefore surprising that these districts are less visited and less known than the rest of the Alps. ”

“ The longest night must end, and ours did at last. We got down to our rock in an hour and a quarter, and found the lad not a little surprised at our absence. He said he had made a gigantic fire to light us down, and shouted with all his might; we neither saw the fire nor heard his shouts. He said we looked a ghastly crew, and no wonder; it was our fourth night out.
We feasted at our cave, and performed some very necessary ablutions. The persons of the natives are infested by certain agile creatures, whose rapidity of motion is only equalled by their numbers and voracity. ”

“ We mounted the slopes and quickly got above the trees, then had a couple of hours' clambering over bits of precipitous rock and banks of débris, and, at a quarter to seven, got to a narrow glacier—Clos de 1'Homme—which streamed out of the plateau on the summit, and nearly reached the glacier de Sapenière. We worked as much as possible to the right, in hopes that we should not have to cross it, but were continually driven back, and at last we found that it was necessary to do so. ”

“ Les habitants de la ville, affligés de déplorables habitudes, y entrent incessament sans scruple et sans pudeur, et rarement les propiétaires ou les locataires s'associent entre eux pour faire disparaître les ordures qui déshonorent leur demeure. ”

“ The poor only eat new bread now and then, and do so because they are unable to make it at once for a whole year. But they are ashamed of their poverty, and when they are making it, hide from the sight of their neighbours."—Elisée Reclus, Tour du Monde, 1860. ”

“ They were frequently rotten, and would have been difficult for a single man to pass. The uppermost men were continually abused for dislodging rocks and for harpooning those below with their batons. However, without these incidents the climbing would have been dull—they helped to break the monotony.
We went up chimneys and gullies by the hour together, and always seemed to be coming to something, although we never got to it. The outline sketch will help to explain the
BUTTRESSES OF MONT PELVOUX. situation. We stood at the foot of a great buttress—perhaps about 200 feet high—and looked up. ”

“ These natural pillars are among the most remarkable examples of the potent effects produced by the long-continued action of quiet-working forces. They are found in several other places in the Alps, [28] as well as elsewhere.
The village of Ville Vieille boasts of an inn with the sign of the Elephant; which, in the opinion of local amateurs, is a proof that Hannibal passed through the gorge of the Guil. ”

“ The men and women dress in sheepskins,—which have been dried and scoured with salt, of which the feet are used as clasps, the fore feet going round the neck, and the hinder ones round the loins. Their arms are naked, and the men are only distinguished from the women by the former wearing wretched drawers, and the latter a sort of gown, which only covers them to just below the knees. ”

“ The natives have an almost childish dread of venturing upon snow or glaciers, and hence the period of minimum snow seems to them to be the most favourable time for excursions. ↑ "The model institution of the kind in France is admitted to be the 'Association Alimentaire' of Grenoble."—Ten years of Imperialism in France; Blackwood, 1862. ↑ "Les maisons sont beaucoup plus malpropres que les rues. La plupart des allées et des escaliers ressemblent a des dépôts publics d'immondices. Dans la vieille ville, les maisons n'ont pas de concierge. ”

“ This great range of climate has a marked effect on the flora of these valleys: sterility reigns in some; stones take the place of trees; débris and mud replace plants and flowers: in others, in the space of a few miles, one passes vines, apple, pear, and cherry trees, the birch, alder, walnut, ash, larch, and pine, alternating with fields of rye, barley, oats, beans, and potatoes. ”

“ It is not easy for the stranger to understand the dialects, either written or spoken; and this will be readily perceived from the samples given below, which are different versions of the parable of the prodigal son. ”

“ Apres qu'aou lague tout deipensa, larribe una grand famina diens iquaou pais ilai, et aou cheique diens lou besoign."—Ladoucette's Histoire des Hautes-Alpes, pp. 613, 618.
↑ See p.22. ↑ There are three cols or passes close to Monte Viso on its northern side, which lead from the valley of the Po into that of the Guil. The deep notch spoken of above is the nearest to the mountain, and although it is by far the lowest gap in that part of the chain, and would seem to be the true Col Viso, it does not appear to be used as a pass. ”

“ In this neighbourhood, and indeed all round about the Viso, the chamois still remain in considerable numbers. They said at St. Veran that six had been seen from the village on the day I was there, and the innkeeper declared that he had seen fifty together in the previous week! ”

“ Un home avas dou bos. Lou plus giouve de isou disse à son pere:—'Moun pere, moun pere, douna-me soque me duou reveni de vatre be.' Et lou pere lour faze ou portage de soun be. Paouc de giours apres, lou plus giouve deiquelou dou bos, apres aveira amassa tout so que aou lavie, sen ane diens un païs etraugie ben leigu, aount aous dissipe tout soun be diens la grande deipensa et en deibaucha. ”