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serious matter than I did myself, and for fiveminutes I underwent a series of rather severe opera-tions of very violent friction. After a while thenumbness partially went away; but even as I nowwrite, my little finger is without sensation, and on theapproach of cold, it becomes very painful. However,all this was nothing: we had succeeded, and weresitting altogether, without hurt or harm, on thesummit of Mont Blanc . We did not feel muchinclined to eat, but our vin ordinaire was perfectnectar; and the bottle of champagne brought up onpurpose to be drunk on the summit was considered afiner wine than had ever been met with. We allshook each other by the hand, and laughed at suchsmall pleasantries so heartily, that it was quitediverting; and a rapid programme of toasts w r entround, of which the most warmly drunk was “ Her/’according to each of our separate opinions on thatpoint. We made no “scientific observations/’—theacute and honest De Saussure had done everythingthat was wanted by the world of that kind; andthose who have since worried themselves during theascent about “ elevations” and temperatures, haveadded nothing to what he told us sixty years ago.But we had beheld all the wonders and horrors ofthe glacier world in their wildest features; we hadgazed on scenery of such fantastic yet magnificent