From the position which we had attained, the prospect was exceedingly fine, both of the glaciers and of the mountains. Beside us was the Aiguille de Charmoz, piercing with its spikes of granite the clear air. To my mind it is one of the finest of the Aiguilles, noble in mass, with its summits singularly cleft and splintered. In some atmospheric colourings it has the exact appearance of a mountain of cast copper, and the manner in which some of its highest pinnacles are bent, suggesting the idea of ductility, gives strength to the illusion that the mass is metallic. At the opposite side of the glacier was the Aiguille Verte, with a cloud poised upon its point: it has long been the ambition of climbers to scale this peak, and on this day it was attempted by a young French count with a long retinue of guides. He had not fair play, for before we quitted our position we heard the rumble of thunder upon the mountain, which indicated the presence of a foe more terrible than the avalanches themselves. Higher to the right, and also at the opposite side of the glacier, rose the Aiguille du Moine; and beyond was the basin of the Talefre, the ice cascade issuing from which appeared, from our position, like the foam of a waterfall. Then came the Aiguille de Lechaud, the Petite Jorasse, the Grande Jorasse, and the Mont Tacul; all of which form a cradle for the Glacier de Lechaud. Mont Mallet, the Periades, and the Aiguille Noire, came next, and then the singular obelisk of the Aiguille du Geant, from which a serrated edge of cliff descends to the summit of the "Col." [Sidenote: SERACS OF THE COL DU GEANT. 1857.] Over the slopes of the Col du Geant was spread a coverlet of shining snow, at some places apparently as smooth as polished marble, at others broken so as to form precipices, on the pale blue faces of which the horizontal lines of bedding were beautifully drawn. As the eye approaches the line which stretches from the Rognon to the Aiguille Noire, the repose of the _neve_ becomes more and more disturbed. Vast chasms are formed, which however are still merely indicative of the trouble in advance. If the glacier were lifted off we should probably see that the line just referred to would lie along the summit of a steep gorge; over this summit the glacier is pushed, and has its back periodically broken, thus forming vast transverse ridges which follow each other in succession down the slope. At the summit these ridges are often cleft by fissures transverse to them, thus forming detached towers of ice of the most picturesque and imposing character.[B] These towers often fall; and while some are caught upon the platforms of the cascade, others struggle with the slow energy of a behemoth through the debris which opposes them, reach the edges of the precipices which rise in succession along the fall, leap over, and, amid ice-smoke and thunder-peals, fight their way downwards. [Sidenote: GLACIER MOTION. 1857.]