Glissading is a very pleasant employment when it is accomplished successfully, and I have never seen a place where it can be more safely indulged in than the snowy valley on the right bank of the Glacier de Triolet. In my dreams I glissade delightfully, but in practice I find that somehow the snow will not behave properly, and that my alpenstock _will_ get between my legs. Then my legs go where my head should be, and I see the sky revolving at a rapid pace; the snow rises up and smites me, and runs away; and when it is at last overtaken it suddenly stops, and we come into violent collision. Those who are with me say that I tumble head over heels, and there may be some truth in what they say. Streaks of ice are apt to make the heels shoot away, and stray stones cause one to pitch headlong down. Somehow these things always seem to come in the way, so it is as well to glissade only when there is something soft to tumble into.(201) [Illustration: Glissading] Near the termination of the glacier we could not avoid traversing a portion of its abominable moraine, but at 1.30 P.M. we were clear of it, and threw ourselves upon some springy turf conscious that our day’s work was over. An hour afterwards we resumed the march, crossed the Doire torrent by a bridge a little below Gruetta, and at five o’clock entered Courmayeur, having occupied somewhat less than ten hours on the way. Mr. Girdlestone’s party came in, I believe, about four hours afterwards, so there was no doubt that we made a shorter pass than the Col du Géant; and I believe we discovered a quicker way of getting from Chamounix to Courmayeur, or _vice versa_, than will be found elsewhere, so long as the chain of Mont Blanc remains in its present condition.(202) CHAPTER XVIII. THE FIRST ASCENT OF THE RUINETTE—THE MATTERHORN. “In almost every art, experience is worth more than precepts.” QUINTILIAN. All of the excursions that were set down in my programme had been carried out, with the exception of the ascent of the Matterhorn, and we now turned our faces in its direction, but instead of returning _viâ_ the Val Tournanche, we took a route across country, and bagged upon our way the summit of the Ruinette.