Blanc can be climbed has tempted hundreds of persons totally unused to and unfitted for mountaineering to go up it, while the tariff for the guides-￡4 each-has called into existen

e few have survived. On a rocky mountain there are landmarks which are of the utmost value in time of fog, but when all is snow and the track

ing. Stimulated rather than deterred by the account given by two climbers who had just come down from the mountain, and had had a narrow escape owing to bad weather, these three men, with their guides, who were "proba

as the mountain was constantly hidden by driving clouds. At last they were observed close to the rocks known as the Petits Mulets not far below the summit. It was then a quart

now, may help to give some faint ide

there was no trace of footsteps. Seriously alarmed, Sylvain hurried back to Pierre-Pointue, sent a man who was there to Chamonix in order that a search party might be held in readiness, and accompanied by the servant of the little inn he went up the Grands Mulets. Sylvain had arranged that if no one was there he would put out a signal and the search party would then ascend without delay. On reaching the hut at the Grands Mulets his wors

ctims. On the 16th, with twenty-three other guides, Sylvain spent the night at the Grands Mulets. The 17th, they mounted to the spot they had examined with the telescope, and there they found the bodies of Mr M'Corkindale and two porters. Three hundred feet higher was Mr Bean, with h

ade for the remaining six members of the party, but without success. Probabl

is "the most lamentable catastrophe ever

etic part of the

ad made notes of what was happening, and they t

comfortable shelter, and I was ill all night. 7th September, morning.-Intense cold-much snow, which falls uninterruptedly. Guides restless. 7th September, evening.-We have been on Mont Blanc for two days in a terrible snowstorm; we have lost our way, and are in a hole scooped out of the snow at a height of 15,000 fe