Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IH. THE CnAMOUNIX DISTRICT. 1. THE PASSAGES OF THE GLACIER DU TOUR AND OF THE COL DE MIAGE 2. NARRATIVE OF THE ACCIDENT ON THE COL DE MIAGE. I. THE PASSAGES OF THE GLACIER DU TOUR AND OF THE COL DE MIAGE; OR, A DAY IN A HEALTH-TRIP TO THE GLACIERS. Br J. G. Dodsok, M.P. Every now and then there appears a disposition among certain persons at home to decry those expeditions to the "High Alps," which have become so much the fashion of late years. In the dull season of the year newspaper writers or correspondents, for want of something better to attack, set to work to write down the Alps or the Pyrenees. Ascents of peaks and passages of cols, unless excused by some distinct scientific purpose, are pronounced to be rash and profitless. As a matter of fact, it is not questioned that such adventures are numerous and accidents rare; but, say the wise utilitarians, why run any chance at all of rolling over the edge of a cliff or vanishing down a crevasse? Cui bono? Still, if that were all--"I demeDS, et sscvas cnrre per Alpes, Ut pueris placeas, et declamatio lias." "Break your own neck, if you choose, --be a nine days' wonder, and perhaps arrive at the distinction of a leading article on your death and your folly; but," adds the moralist, "you are worse than foolish if you selfishly tempt poor peasants with your gold to expose their lives to gratify your recklessness or your vanity. Notwithstanding all this excellent advice, Alpine excursions, undertaken with due precaution, and under proper guidance, are not on the average attended with greater danger than other amusements involving physical exertion and the excitement attendant on difficulty or risk, when these are encountered and overcome by skill and activity. Nor is the profession...
