after the first burst of enthusiasm and interest had abated, the attention of the party became engrossed in the proceedings of the professor, who, with his assistants, began at once to adjust his theodolite, and fix stakes in the ice. while he was thus engaged, captain wopper regarded the mer de glace with a gaze of fixedness so intense as to draw on him the attention and arouse the curiosity of his friends.
“d’you see anything curious, captain?” asked emma, who chanced to stand beside him.
“coorious—eh?” repeated the captain slowly, without altering his gaze or adding to his reply.
“monsieur le capitaine is lost in consternation,” said nita, with a smile.
“i think, miss horetzki,” said lewis, “that you probably mean admiration.”
“how you knows w’at i mean?” demanded nita, quickly.
“ha! a very proper and pertinent question,” observed slingsby, in an audible though under tone.
“i nevair do put pertinent questions, sir,” said nita, turning her black eyes sharply, though with something of a twinkle in them, on the mad artist.
poor slingsby began to explain, but nita cut him short by turning to lewis and again demanding, “how you knows w’at i mean?”
“the uniform propriety of your thoughts, mademoiselle,” replied lewis, with a continental bow, and an air of pretended respect, “induces me to suppose that your words misinterpret them.”
nita’s knowledge of english was such that this remark gave her only a hazy idea of the youth’s meaning; she accepted it, however, as an apologetic explanation, and ordered him to awaken the captain and find out from him what it was that so riveted his attention.
“you hear my orders,” said lewis, laying his hand with a slap on the captain’s shoulder. “what are you staring at?”
“move!” murmured the captain, returning as it were to consciousness with a long deep sigh, “it don’t move an inch.”
“what does not move?” said lawrence, who had been assisting to adjust the theodolite, and came forward at the moment.
“the ice, to be sure,” answered the captain. “i say, professor, do ’ee mean to tell me that the whole of that there mairdy-glass is movin’?”
“i do,” answered the professor, pausing for a minute in his arrangements, and looking over his spectacles at the captain with an amused expression.
“then,” returned the captain, with emphasis, “i think you’ll find that you’re mistaken.”
“ha! captain weeper—”
“wopper,” said the captain.
“wopper,” repeated the professor, “you are not the first who has expressed disbelief in what he cannot see, and you will assuredly not be the last; but if you will wait i will convince you.”
“very good,” replied the captain, “i’m open to conviction.”
“which means,” said lewis, “that you have nailed your colours to the mast, and mean to die rather than give in.”
“no doubt,” said the captain, paying no attention to the last remark, “i see, and believe, that at some time or other the ice here must have been in a flowin’ state. i’m too well aware o’ the shape of waves an’ eddies, cross-currents and ripples, to doubt or deny that but any man with half an eye can see that it’s anchored hard and fast now. i’ve looked at it without flinchin’ for good ten minutes, and not the smallest sign of motion can i detect.”
“so might you say of the hour-hand of a watch,” observed lawrence.
“not at all,” retorted the captain, becoming argumentative. “i look at the hour-hand of a watch for ten minutes and don’t see it move, but i do see that it has in reality passed over a very small but appreciable space in that time.”
“just so,” said the professor, “i will ere long show you the same thing in regard to the ice.”
“i’ll bet you ten thousand pounds you don’t,” returned the captain, with an assured nod.
“colours nailed!” said lewis; “but i say, captain,” he added, remonstratively, “i thought you were a sworn enemy to gambling. isn’t betting gambling?”
“it is, young man,” answered the captain, “but i always bet ten thousand pounds sterling, which i never mean to pay if i lose, nor to accept if i win—and that is not gambling. put that in your pipe and smoke it; and if you’ll take my advice, you’ll go look after your friend slingsby, who is gambolling up yonder in another fashion that will soon bring him to grief if he’s not stopped.”
all eyes were turned towards the mad artist, who, finding that his advances to mademoiselle nita were not well received, had for the time forsaken her, and returned to his first (and professional) love. in wooing her, he had clambered to an almost inaccessible cliff from which he hoped to obtain a very sketchable view of the mer de glace, and, when captain wopper drew attention to him, was making frantic efforts to swing himself by the branch of a tree to a projecting rock, which was so slightly attached to its parent cliff that his weight would in all probability have hurled it and himself down the precipice.
the remonstrative shouts of his friends, however, induced him to desist, and he sat down to work in a less perilous position.
meanwhile the professor, having completed his preliminary preparations, ordered his assistants to go and “fix the stakes in the ice.”
it had been arranged that while the scientific experiments were in progress, the young ladies should ramble about the neighbourhood in search of flowers and plants, under the care of lewis, until two o’clock, at which hour all were to assemble at the montanvert hotel for luncheon, captain wopper and lawrence resolving to remain and assist, or at least observe, the professor. the former, indeed, bearing in mind his great and ruling wish even in the midst of scientific doubt and inquiries, had suggested that the latter should also accompany the ladies, the country being somewhat rugged, and the ladies—especially miss emma—not being very sure-footed; but lawrence, to his disappointment, had declined, saying that the ladies had a sufficient protector in the gallant lewis, and that miss emma was unquestionably the surest-footed of the whole party.
lawrence therefore remained, and, at the professor’s request, accompanied the party who were to fix the stakes on the ice.
as this operation was attended with considerable difficulty and some danger, we will describe the process.
finding that the spot which he had first chosen for his observations was not a very good one, the professor changed his position to a point farther down on the steep sloping rocks that form the left bank of the glacier des bois. here the theodolite was fixed. this instrument as even our young readers may probably know, is a small telescope attached to a stand with three long legs, and having spirit-levels, by means of which it can be fixed in a position, if we may say so, of exact flatness with reference to the centre of the earth. within the telescope are two crossed hairs of a spider’s-web, so fine as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye, and so arranged that their crossing-point is exactly in the centre of the tube. by means of pivots and screws the telescope can be moved up or down, right or left, without in the smallest degree altering the flatness or position of its stand. on looking through the telescope the delicate threads can be distinctly seen, and the point where they cross can be brought to bear on any distant object.
having fixed the instrument on the rocks quite clear of the ice, the professor determined the direction of a supposed line perpendicular to the axis of the glacier. he then sought for a conspicuous and well-defined object on the opposite side of the valley, as near as possible to that direction. in this he was greatly helped by captain wopper, who, having been long accustomed to look-out with precision at sea, found it not very difficult to apply his powers on land.
“there’s a good land-mark, professor,” he said, pointing towards a sharply-cut rock, “as like the dook of wellington’s nose as two peas.”
“i see it,” said the professor, whose solid and masculine countenance was just the smallest possible degree flushed by the strong under-current of enthusiasm with which he prosecuted his experiments.
“you couldn’t have a better object than the pint o’ that,” observed the captain, whose enthusiasm was quite as great as, and his excitement much greater than, that of the professor.
having carefully directed the telescope to the extreme point of the “dook’s” nose, the professor now ordered one of his assistants to go on the glacier with a stake. lawrence descended with him, and thus planted his foot on glacier-ice for the first time, as lewis afterwards remarked, in the pursuit scientific knowledge.
while they were clambering slowly down among the loose boulders and débris which had been left by the glacier in previous years, the professor carefully sketched the duke of wellington’s nose with the rocks, etcetera, immediately around it, in his notebook, so that it might be easily recognised again on returning to the spot on a future day.
the assistant who had been sent out with the first stake proved to be rather stupid, so that it was fortunate he had been accompanied by lawrence, and by the guide, antoine grennon, who stirred up his perceptions. by rough signalling he was made to stand near the place where the first stake was to be driven in. the telescope was then lowered, and the man was made, by signals, to move about and plant his stake here and there in an upright position until the point of intersection of the spider’s threads fell exactly on the bottom of the stake. a pre-arranged signal was then made, and at that point an auger hole was bored deep into the ice and the stake driven home.
“so much for number one,” said captain wopper, with a look of satisfaction.
“they won’t fix the other ones so easily,” observed the professor, re-examining the stake through the telescope with great care.
he was right in this. the first stake had been planted not far from the shore, but now lawrence and his party had to proceed in a straight line over the glacier, which, at this steep portion of its descent into the vale of chamouni, was rent, dislocated, and tortured, to such an extent that it was covered with huge blocks and pinnacles of ice, and seamed with yawning crevasses. to clamber over some of the ice-ridges was almost impossible, and, in order to avoid pinnacles and crevasses, which were quite impassable, frequent détours had to be made. if the object of the ice-party had merely been to cross the glacier, the difficulties would not have been great; but the necessity of always returning to the straight line pointed out by the inexorable theodolite, led them into positions of considerable difficulty. to the inexperienced lawrence they also appeared to be positions of great danger, much to the amusement of antoine, who, accustomed as he was to the fearful ice-slopes and abysses of the higher regions, looked upon this work as mere child’s play.
“you’ll come to have a different notion of crevasses, sir,” he said, with a quiet smile, “after you’ve bin among the seracs of the grand mulet, and up some of the couloirs of monte rosa.”
“i doubt it not, antoine,” said lawrence, gazing with feelings of awe into a terrible split in the ice, whose beautiful light-blue sides deepened into intense blackness as they were lost to vision in an abyss, out of which arose the deep-toned gurgling of sub-glacial streams; “but you must not forget that this is quite new to me, and my feet are not yet aware of the precise grip with which they must hold on to so slippery a foundation.”
it was in truth no discredit to lawrence that he felt a tendency to shrink from edges of chasms which appeared ready to break off, or walked with caution on ice-slopes which led to unfathomable holes, for the said slopes, although not steep, were undoubtedly slippery.
after much clambering, a ridge was at length gained, on which the second stake was set up, and then the party proceeded onwards to fix the third; but now the difficulties proved to be greater than before. a huge block of ice was fixed upon as that which would suit their purpose, but it stood like a peninsula in the very midst of a crevasse, and connected with the main body of ice by a neck which looked as sharp as a knife on its upper edge, so that none but tight-rope or slack-wire dancers could have proceeded along it; and even such performers would have found the edge too brittle to sustain them.
“you’ll have to show, monsieur, some of your mountaineer skill here?” said the man who carried the stakes to antoine.
he spoke in french, which lawrence understood perfectly. we render it as nearly as possible into the counterpart english.
antoine at once stepped forward with his alpine axe, and, swinging it vigorously over his head, cut a deep notch on the sloping side of the neck of ice. beyond it he cut a second notch. no man—not even a monkey—could have stood on the glassy slope which descended into the abyss at their side; but antoine, putting one foot in the first notch, and the other in the second, stood as secure as if he had been on a flat rock. again he swung his axe, and planted his foot in a third notch, swinging his axe the instant it was fixed for the purpose of cutting the fourth. thus, cut by cut and step by step, he passed over to the block of ice aimed at. it was but a short neck. a few notches were sufficient, yet without an axe to cut these notches, the place had been absolutely impassable. it was by no means a “dangerous” place, according to the ideas of alpine mountaineers, nevertheless a slip, or the loss of balance, would have been followed by contain death. antoine knew this, and, like a wise guide, took proper precautions.
“stay, sir,” he said, as lawrence was screwing up his courage to follow him, “i will show you another piece of alpine practice.”
he returned as he spoke, and, unwinding a coil of rope which he carried, fastened one end thereof round his waist. allowing a few feet of interval, he then fastened the rope round lawrence’s waist, and the assistants with the stakes—of whom there were two besides the man already referred to—also attached themselves to the rope in like manner. by this means they all passed over with comparative security, because if any one of them had chanced to slip, the others would have fixed the points of their axes and alpenstocks in the ice and held on until their overbalanced comrade should have been restored to his position.
on gaining the block, however, it was found that the line communicating with the theodolite on the one hand, and the dook’s nose on the other, just missed it. the professor’s signals continued to indicate “more to the left,” (his left, that is) until the stake-driver stood on the extreme edge of the crevasse, and his comrades held on tight by the rope to prevent him from falling over. still the professor indicated “more to the left!”
as “more to the left” implied the planting of the stake in atmospheric air, they were fain to search for a suitable spot farther on.
this they found, after some scrambling, on a serrated ridge whose edge was just wide and strong enough to sustain them. here the exact line was marked, but while the hole was being bored, an ominous crack was heard ascending as if from the heart of the glacier.
“what was that?” said lawrence, turning to the guide with a quick surprised look.
“only a split in the ice somewhere. it’s a common sound enough, as you might expect in a mass that is constantly moving,” replied antoine, looking gravely round him, “but i can’t help thinking that this lump of ice, with crevasses on each side, is not the best of all spots for fixing a stake. it isn’t solid enough.”
as he spoke, another crash was heard, not quite so loud as the last and at the same moment the whole mass on which the party stood slid forward a few inches. it seemed as if it were about to tumble into the very jaws of the crevasse. with the natural instinct of self-preservation strong upon him, lawrence darted across the narrow ridge to the firm ice in rear, dispensing entirely with that extreme caution which had marked his first passage over it. indeed the tight-rope and slack-wire dancers formerly referred to could not have performed the feat with greater lightness, rapidity, and precision. the stake-drivers followed him with almost similar alacrity. even the guide retraced his steps without further delay than was necessary to permit of his picking up the stakes which their proper custodians had left behind in their alarm—for they were not guides, merely young and inexperienced porters.
“for shame, lads,” said antoine, laughing and shaking his head, “you’ll be but bad specimens of the men of chamouni if you don’t learn more coolness on the ice.”
one would have thought that coolness on the ice was an almost unavoidable consequence of the surrounding conditions, yet lawrence seemed to contradict the idea, for his face appeared unusually warm as he laughed and said:—
“the shame lies with me, antoine, for i set them the example, and all history goes to prove that even brave men are swept away under the influence of a panic which the act of one cowardly man may produce.”
as lawrence spoke in french, the porters understood and appreciated his defence of them, but antoine would by no means encourage the fallacy.
“it is not cowardly, sir,” he said, “to spring quickly out of a danger that one don’t understand the nature of, but the young men of chamouni have, or ought to have, a good understanding of the nature of ice, and the danger should be great indeed that would necessitate the leaving of their tools behind them.”
a roar like that of a bull of bashan, or a boatswain, here interrupted the conversation.
“don’t plant your post the–r–r–re,” shouted captain wopper from the banks of the ice-river, “the professor says the ice ain’t firm enough. heave ahead—to where its ha–a–ard an’ fa–a–ast.”
“ay, ay, sir,” shouted lawrence, with nautical brevity, in reply.
the next stake was accordingly fixed on a part of the ice which was obviously incapable of what might be called a local slip, and which must, if it moved at all, do so in accordance with the movements of the entire glacier.
thus one by one the stakes were planted in a perfectly straight line, so that when captain wopper was requested by the professor to look through the telescope—which he did with a seaman’s readiness and precision—he observed that all the stakes together appeared to form but one stake, the bottom of which was touched on one side of the mer de glace by the centre-point of the crossed threads, and, on the other, by the extreme point of the “dook” of wellington’s nose. the last stake had been fixed not many yards distant from the opposite bank of the glacier.
“now,” said the professor, with a deep sigh of satisfaction when all this was accomplished and noted, “we will go have our luncheon and return hither to-morrow to observe the result of our experiments. but first we must fix the exact position of our theodolite, for unless it occupies to a hair’s-breadth to-morrow the same position which it occupies to-day, the result will be quite inconclusive.”
so saying, the man of science took a little line and plummet from his pocket, which he hung under the theodolite, and the spot where the plummet touched the ground was carefully marked by a small stake driven quite down to its head.
thereafter an attempt was made to gather together the scattered party, but this was difficult. owing to various causes several members of it had become oblivious of time. emma had forgotten time in the pursuit of wild-flowers, of which she was excessively fond, partly because she had learned to press and classify and write their proper names under them, but chiefly because they were intrinsically lovely, and usually grew in the midst of beautiful scenery. nita had forgotten it in the pursuit of emma, of whom she had become suddenly and passionately fond, partly because she possessed a loving nature, but chiefly because emma was her counterpart. lewis had forgotten it in pursuit of nita, of whom he had become extremely fond, partly because she was pretty and pert, but chiefly because he—he—well, we cannot say precisely why, seeing that he did not inform us, and did not himself appear clearly to know. slingsby had forgotten it in the ardent effort to reproduce on paper and with pencil, a scene so magnificent that a brush dipped in the rainbow and applied by claude or turner would have utterly failed to do it justice; and last, as well as least, gillie white had forgotten it in the pursuit of general knowledge, in which pursuit he had used his alpenstock effectively in opening up everything, stabbing, knocking down, uprooting, overturning, and generally shattering everything that was capable of being in any degree affected by the physical powers and forces at his command. there can be no doubt whatever that if gillie white had been big and strong enough, mont blanc itself would have succumbed that day to his inquiring mind, and the greatest ice-reservoir of europe would have been levelled with the plain. as it was, he merely levelled himself, after reaching the point of exhaustion, and went to sleep on the sunny side of a rock, where he was nearly roasted alive before being aroused by the shouts of captain wopper.
at last, however, the party assembled at the montanvert, where, amid interjectional accounts of the various incidents and adventures of the forenoon, strength was recruited for the subsequent operations of the day. these, however, were only matters of amusement. the professor, remarking jocosely that he now cast science to the dogs and cats (which latter he pronounced cawts), sent his instruments back to chamouni, and, with the zest of a big boy let loose from school, crossed the mer de glace to the chapeau.
this feat was by no means so difficult as that which had been accomplished by lawrence. it will be remembered that the spot selected for measurement had been at the steep and rugged part of the ice-river styled the glacier des bois, below the montanvert. the ordinary crossing-place lay considerably higher up, just opposite to the inn. the track had been marked out over the easiest and flattest part of the ice, and levelled here and there where necessary for the special benefit of tourists. still man—even when doing his worst in the way of making rough places plain, and robbing nature of some of her romance—could not do much to damage the grandeur of that impressive spot. his axe only chipped a little of the surface and made the footing secure. it could not mar the beauty of the picturesque surroundings, or dim the sun’s glitter on the ice-pinnacles, or taint the purity of these delicate blue depths into which emma and nita gazed for the first time with admiration and surprise while they listened to the mysterious murmurings of sub-glacial waters with mingled feelings of curiosity and awe.
full of interest they traversed the grand unfathomable river of ice,—the product of the compressed snows of innumerable winters,—and, reaching the other side in less than an hour, descended the chapeau through the terminal moraine.
those who have not seen it can form but a faint conception of the stupendous mass of débris which is cut, torn, wrenched, carried, swept, hurled, rolled, crushed, and ground down by a glacier from the mountain-heights into the plain below. the terminal moraine of the mer de glace is a whole valley whose floor and sides are not only quite, but deeply, covered with rocks of every shape and size, from a pebble the size of a pea, to a boulder as large as a cottage, all strewn, piled, and heaped together in a wild confusion that is eminently suggestive of the mighty force which cast them there.
“to me there do seem something dreadful as well as grand in it,” said nita, as she sat down on a boulder beside emma, near the lower end of the chaotic valley.
“it is, indeed, terrible,” answered emma, “and fills me with wonder when i think that frozen water possesses power so stupendous.”
“and yet the same element,” said the professor, “which, when frozen, thus rends the mountains with force irresistible, when melted flows through the land in gentle fertilising streams. in both forms its power is most wonderful.”
“like that of him who created it,” said emma, in a low tone.
the party stood on the margin of a little pond or lakelet that had collected in the midst of the débris, and which, by reflecting the clear sky and their figures, with several large boulders on its margin, gave point and a measure of softness to the otherwise confused and rugged scene. while they stood and sat rapt in silent contemplation of the tongue of the mer de glace, at whose tip was the blue ice-cave whence issued the arveiron, a lordly eagle rose from a neighbouring cliff and soared grandly over their heads, while a bright gleam of the sinking sun shot over the white shoulders of mont blanc and lit up the higher end of the valley, throwing the lower part into deeper shade by contrast.
“there is a warning to us,” said lewis, whose chief interest in the scene lay in the reflection of it that gleamed from nita horetzki’s eyes.
“which is the warning,” asked slingsby, “the gleam of sunshine or the eagle?”
“both, for while the sun is going to bed behind the snow, the eagle is doubtless going home to her eyrie, and antoine tells me that it is full three miles from this spot to our hotel in chamouni.”
it did not take them long to traverse that space, and ere long, like the eagle and the sun, the whole party had retired to rest—the younger members, doubtless, to dreamless slumber; the professor and the captain, probably, to visions of theodolites and ice.
although, however, these worthies must needs await the coming day to have their scientific hopes realised, it would be cruel to keep our patient reader in suspense. we may therefore note here that when, on the following day, the theodolite was re-fixed, and the man of science and his amateur friend had applied their respective eyes to the telescope, they were assured beyond a doubt that the stakes had moved, some more and some less, while the “dook’s nose,” of course, remained hard and fast as the rock of which it was composed. the stakes had descended from about one to three feet during the twenty-four hours—those near the edge having moved least and those near the centre of the ice-river’s flow having moved farthest.
of course there was a great deal of observing with the theodolite, and careful measuring as well as scrambling on the ice, similar to that of the previous day; but the end of the whole was that the glacier was ascertained to have flowed, definitely and observably down its channel, there could be no doubt whatever about that; the thing had been clearly proved, therefore the professor was triumphant and the captain, being a reasonable man, was convinced.
