Show I 1 the th aline traveler I 1 an english tourist who ishee wisher to an fn anke ike the ascent of mout mont st bernard alone thus speaks ot his journey in in a communication to piza cooks journal some so me of my frienda in england had strongly urged me not to attempt the st bernard without a guide aide because of the danger experience has however taught me that the services of a guide are needed less lebs often than most people imagine and I 1 like to be alque alone on th this i s mountain too f you cannot go wrong you yoa have only to follow the road which is an excellent one as far as st pierre and is practicable for cars to within two hours of the hospice the road makes maker a sadden plunge in the forest of st pierre and is so rugged and tortuous you see at once wily why this portion of tho th route gave more trouble and loss to bonaparte in his celebrated passage than all the reat the skeletons skeleton of unhappy I 1 frenchmen are still sometimes discovered in crevices of the rocks I 1 be beyond yond S st t pierre you leavette lea leave the valley and the pine trees be bobin hinand iWand come upon a broad br level of alpine pastie Tre abounding abo abounding as u usual sual in flowers and enlivened by the bells blu so of f the numerous grazi grazing rag kind herd hera the rhododendron i grows in profusion at the end of I 1 the pastures stands a big white house bouse known as the cantine often used by travellers trav ellers who I 1 arrive lat late e or are caught in a storm here the car road terminates terminate s and the hardest I 1 work of climbing climbing b begins egins i the sky vi aich g lower down I 1 had found rather too to I 1 clear became overcast and the large heavy precursor drops of a thunder I 1 storm beman began to fall as I 1 commenced the ascent i of tte the rocks which rise black and steep from the verge vere of the soft green turf the rugged path follows the windi windings of the I 1 drause dranse here diminished to a noisy noila y brook I 1 as it frets and f boama bams in a tortuous course s among the splintered masses of granite that I 1 here their gray heads in savage savage 0 confusion vegetation becomes scantier at every step and at length nothing but hardy I 1 mosses and lichens are to be seen AIM 4 abs tbs e mi I 1 and lay thick and heavy in every nook and angle not exposed to the direct rays of the sun sum to the right and left waste of snow and looking upward the scene was sti more m snow lay not in patches but in vast white slopes I 1 aub unbroken sava by the scattered summits of I 1 the rocks it was one of those marvellous marcellous marv ellous contrasts for which switzerland is so remarkable and he who had not traversed the green pastures I 1 lying ting i b but u t a short d istance distance below might well weft doubt of th their air existence more and more sullen grew the scene as I 1 climbed the craggy steep heavy clouds sank lower and lower the wind howled dismally as i it si swept ep t down from the heights the rain seemed to have made up its mind for a settled pour and lightning flashed and thunder bellowed with wih a vividness and power that i might well be deemed the shri ekings of the spirit of the mountains against the d daring ar ing in intruder t ru der the clouds we were re so 0 o near dearmy my head bead that I 1 feared to keep my umbrella a up so sheltering myself under some overhanging crags I 1 watched the sounding 15 war it was view viewing inc nature in a new aspect in the very workshop and headquarters of storms the clouds rolled slowly away and in I 1 about twenty minutes the storm moderated I 1 to a fitful shower and I 1 again 0 toiled upward the C walking ha had d become more irksome than before i the rain having made stone and snow alike slippery and when when foothold f fails ails at al almost most every step the fatigue of clim climbing bino C i an ascent is painfully increased here the i path began to rise again and so frequent i and exhausting were my slips that I 1 was wasa compelled I 1 to stop every thirty paces to ve te 1 cover breath it began to rain again agaid the I 1 wind howled and shrieked more dismally than before the clouds swoope swooped 1 and so deepened the night seemed seamed to have come I 1 looked at my watch it I 1 was half past four so there were yet some hours to ta sunset still the difficulty of fao fac ing the wind and the rain made me doubtful doubty ul of getting to the summit of the pass and I 1 11 wa was beginning beg ining to discuss the possibilities of i a return to the cantine Oa ntine when another turn i showed me the hospice 1 1 I 1 though still far off the si sight re animated me and in the hope of leaon reaching the friendly bh shelter iter I 1 again trudged onward another quarter ho hour r brought me to the foot of the slope of all where the convent was to ho longer in view and from which the mule tracks diverged a considerable distance to the left while bile a single trail of f footsteps oot steps led directly upward I 1 preferred to follow theae as th the e shortest routed route though ahad to tise my hands as ag well as ab to secure my foothold in inthis this way I 1 had mounted about one ichird of the bei height t another storm burst buist compared with which the first vas a zephyr the rain fell in spouts and astrea streams me dashing like a shallo wiver down the snow hissing as it went intermingled with rattling hail that beat mercilessly upon me for keeping in my umbrella tim brella of the question liow now the lightning flashed again and the thaw thunder der roared laid and deadly BOi chill were the screaming blasts blis ts that I 1 was speedily benumbed as well as drenched T and for the first time in my life k 6 what aid it was to be cold to the bones bonea every time abent I 1 bent for warda dagmy dile way hands into tae J i afie rain ran downs down my back babki till I 1 lma at tat temperature when chez I 1 sieb some booko on haf eft awil ma ae toward them for fbi the sake offa firaga 40 aing for a few imputes iM iii no sooner had Fiesel I 1 readied Ced them than a strange giddiness giddio esa seized nie od 1 1 I feu fell down jo in in a I 1 I 1 half unconscious state and lay for a time till the pelting of the storm roused me again to hear the at my tars ears rolling round and round and aven even under me I 1 could not help looking up the clouds lay close upon the rocks I 1 leaving baving i no r room oom for the lightning to dart down downward wardi and it seemed to me that a lurid fire flashed through them from time to time in a horl horizontal contal direction and tore them asunder hs as it t passed would there be no danger in st standing ahding upright whether or no if I 1 did not n ot make an attempt to go on the increasing increasing i cold J would soon incapacitate me alto altogether getler I 1 ra rose se to my feet and crawled a little higher i i on the rock when the giddiness again seized me and there came a sense of sullen sallen leo len pleasure at the pelting of the adin rain and indifference to the result minutes are long under such cirou circumstances instances and three or f four ou r minutes may have passed passed bhea a almost involuntarily 1 up looked around and shouted no answer came cama but mocking echoes the shout had dis heartened me it 1 seemed a confession of weakness 1 I 1 however I 1 saw dimly through the a I 1 lutge large black cross on the top of the slope if that could ber I 1 there would be a hope I 1 of scein seeing the so mustering rink all my streng strength t lil I 1 succeeded in climbing up to it and putting my arm round it I 1 I 1 wiped swiped my i eyes for a 4 fresh survey earrey heaven be P praised rai sa d othere there is the convent and nearer than L thou thought ht 1 between me and itlay an i I 1 I 1 I 1 bank of snow in the hollosi of the rock I 1 it was deep and might be treacherous but II 11 lied had become 1 desperate and rushed ac across isas it laughing find and shouting 0 under some wild uncontrollable impulse to the open door of t I 1 1 tha hospitable building HO how w I 1 did it with outfall out falling inZ has been ever since a mystery to me but it was done I 1 leaped up the steps 1 I 1 and in anether moment was in the long passage which runs from one end of the edifice to the other and in safety I 1 |