WESTERN SIDE OF THE COL DE TALEFRE.

X •rfrient&^

CHAPTEK XVII.

THE FIRST TASS.VGE OF TIIE COL I)E TALEFRE.

“ ’Tis more Ly art than force of numerous strokes.”

IIomer.

The person who discovered the Col du Geant must have been ashrewd mountaineer. The pass was in use before any other wasknown across the main chain of Mont Blanc, and down to thepresent time it remains the easiest and quickest route from Cha-mounix to Courmayeur, with the single exception of the pass thatwe crossed upon the 3d of July, for the first time, which liesabout mid-way between the Aiguille de Triolet and the Aiguille deTalefre, and which, for want of a better name, I have called the Colde Talefre.

When one looks toward the upper end of the Glacier de Talefrefrom the direction of the Jardin or of the Couvercle, the ridge thatbounds the view seems to be of little elevation. It is overpoweredby the colossal Grandes Jorasses, and by the almost equally magni-ficent Aiguille Verte. The ridge, notwithstanding, is by no meansdespicable. At no point is its elevation less than 11,000 feet. It