1857 .]

THE CLEFT STATION.

47

We worked in concert for a few clays to familiarize ourassistant with the mode of proceeding, but afterwards itwas my custom to simply determine the position where ameasurement was to be made, and to leave the execu-tion of it entirely to Mr. Hirst and our guide.

On the 20th of July I made a long excursion up theglacier, examining the moraines, the crevasses, the struc-ture, the moulins, and the disintegration of the surface.I was accompanied by a boy named Edouard Balmat,* andfound him so good an iceman that I was induced to takehim with me on the following day also.

Looking upwards from the Montanvert to the left ofthe Aiguille cle Cliarmoz, a singular gap is observed inthe rocky mountain wall, in the centre of which stands adetached column of granite. Both cleft and pillar areshown in the frontispiece, to the right. The eminence tothe left of this gap is signalised by Professor Forbes as one°f the best stations from which to view the Mer de Glace,a nd this point, which I shall refer to hereafter as the CleftStation, it was now my desire to attain. From the Mon-tanvert side a steep gully leads to the cleft; up thiscouloir we proposed to try the ascent. At a considerableheight above the Mer de Glace, and closely huggingthe base of the Aiguille de Charmoz, is the small Gla-cier de Tendue, shown in the frontispiece, and fromwhich a steep slope stretches down to the Mer de Glace.This Tendue is the most talkative glacier I have everknown; the clatter of the small stones which fall from itls incessant. Huge masses of granite also frequently fallupon the glacier from the cliffs above it, and, being slowlyborne downwards by the moving ice, are at length seentoppling above the terminal face of the glacier. Theice which supports them being gradually melted, they are

* “ Le petit Balmat” my host always called him.