THROUGH GLOOM TO THE TACUL.

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drove in the stake, and descended without injury. Duringthe whole operation however nay guide growled audibly.

On the following morning we commenced the ascent ofMont Blanc, a narrative of which is given in Part I.We calculated on an absence of three days, and estimatedthat the stakes which had just been fixed would he readyfor measurement on our return; but we did not reachChamouni until the afternoon of Friday, the 14th. Heavyclouds settled, during our descent, upon the summits be-hind us, and a thunder-peal from the Aiguilles soonheralded a fall of rain, which continued without inter-mission till the afternoon of the 16th, when the atmo-sphere cleared, and showed the mountains clothed to theirgirdles with snow. The Montanvert was thickly covered,and on our way to it we met the servants in charge ofthe cattle, which had been driven below the snow-line toobtain food.

On Monday morning, the 17th, a dense fog filled thevalley of the Mer de Glace. I watched it anxiously. Thestakes which we had set at the Tacul had been oftenin my thoughts, and I wished to make some effort tosave the labour and peril incurred in setting themfrom being lost. I therefore set out, in one of the clearintervals, accompanied by my friend and Simond, deter-mined to measure the motion of the stakes, if possible,or to fix them more firmly, if they still stood. As wepassed, however, from l’Angle to the glacier, the fogbecame so dense and blinding that we halted. At my re-quest Mr. Hirst returned to the Montanvert; and Simond,leaving the theodolite in the shelter of a rock, accom-panied me through the obscurity to the Tacul. We foundthe topmost stake still stuck by its point in the ice; butthe two others had disappeared, and we afterwards dis-covered their fragments in a snow-buttress, which reareditself against the base of the precipice. They had been