3. Extracts from a Letter from E. Blackwell, Esq., containing Observations on the Movement of Glaciers of Chamouni in Winter

Extract

“The accessibility of the glaciers, even up to a considerable height, is at this season a question of mere physical force. I have made within the last few days two excursions into the region of perpetual snow. The first of these was on the 6th of January, and was to the summit of the glacier of Blaitière, several hundred feet above the point where I had noted the line of the névé in September and October; the second was on the 13th, when I succeeded in reaching the junction of the glaciers of Bossons and Tacconaz, near the Grands Mulets. This junction is exactly at the commencement of the névé, as I remarked between the months of August and October, on six different occasions, when I passed there on my way to and from Mont Blanc, the Dôme de Gouté, &c.