rISCONSIN FARMER.



In childhood, and often since, I had read,
with wonder, accounts of Mont Blanc and the
Mer de Glace, until I half feared I might be
disappointed when I should come to look upon
them with my own eyes. But there they were,
before and above me, even grander than I had
dreamed, and peerless in their eternal sublim-
ityl For a half hour I stood almost breathless,
and silently worshipped; then with a bound and
a shout of inarticulate joy, went down from
the hights of Montanvert to the Mer de Glace,
a distance of a few hundred feet, and dashed
out upon the billowy ice, clambering over its
huge, piled-up blocks, and leaping its deep,
yawning fissures as if I were a chamois and not
a man. The guides, thinking me a mad man,
came hallooing after me. and offering for sums
unprecedentedly small, to conduct me across
the sea. More from a feeling of pity for them
than from any felt need of aid, I engaged a
couple of them and pursued my way, coming,
however, in a very short time to gaps so fear-
fully wide and of such unknown depth, that to
have attempted to have mmde my way over
them without the forerunners with pick and
ladder, would have justified their conviction of
my insanity, and doubtless made me a martyr
to my own ungoverned zeal. Hlaf way over
was an immense block of granite, which had
fallen from the lofty aguillc or needle-like
peak which rises almost perpendicularly to the
bight of probably half a mile, just the other
side. This mass of rock was as large as an
ordinary dwelling house, and must have been
lying there for years, as by the disintegration
of the granite a little soil had been formed on
one side; and there, within a few inches of
the ice, were nestled some half a dozen or
more varieties of most beautiful flowers=But-
ter Cups, Forget-me-nots, Violets, A ndromedas,
Coronillas, Potentillas. and others. This little
natural garden was so delightful a surprise
and so touched my heart with the evidence it
brought of the infinite tenderness of the beauty.
loving soul of the All-Father, that I named it,
improptu, Le .ardin de Diem (the Garden o1
God.) Butter-Cups, Violets and Forget-me.
note blossoming in the very bosom of thii
frozen sea, and in. the midst of mountain peak.



white with eternal snow I Beauty in the lap
of Sublimity I Could there be a more striking
display of the Creator's infinitude ?
  From the further side of the Mer de Glace
the view of the giant peak of Mont Blanc-
the mountain embraces a long range of peaks,
some miles in extent-is the tinest that can be
had. You are already so far above the vale
that the houses of Chamouny look like chil
dren's toys, and yet, there is the summit of
Mt. Blamc, nearly two miles higher still, and,
in time, seventeen hours above you, and quite
beyond the clouds.
   -Did you go to the very pinnacle  No: it
 was perilous and expensive, and she who is to
 be my companion when the summit is climbed
 Was then in the lesset mountains of Virginia,
 five thousand miles away. Very Jew persors
 have ever ventured to the top. One must have
 six guides, unfailing muscles, an unlimited
 supply of courage, extraordinary fortitude,
 and about one thousand francs in money. If
 any of these prerequisites are lacking, he had
 better do as I did-postpone the attempt.
   The Mer de Glace, so often mentioned,'is, as
 the name indicates, a literal sea of ice, appear-
 ing upon the surface as though it had been
 suddenly frozen while lashed into fury by a
 storm.  It is one-fourth to a half mile in
 breadth and some miles in length, sloping
 gradually toward the plain, until it reaches
 Montanvert, where it drops off like Niagara
 and becomes a frozen cataract, known as Gla-
 cier des Bois. It was formerly supposed to be
 stationary forever, but investigations have
 shown that the particles of ice have a slow,
* imperceptible motion among themselves, so that
the whole body of the sea, as if enemi-fluid, is
gradually moving towards the valley. Alto-
gether it presents some of the most interesting
phenomena in the natural world, and, while
* the Alps endure, will be an object for the won-
der and study of man.
    It was my desire to spend the night a; Le
IJardin, a mile or more above Montanvert, on
*the Mer de Glace, where dwells a family in
i cozy icy quarters, from year to year, but my
iself-preecribed limit of time would not allow,



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