Page:Whymper - Scrambles amongst the Alps.djvu/281

into the engraver's hands its author undertook to revise it carefully. To this end he planned a number of expeditions to high points which up to that time had been regarded inaccessible, and it was upon some of these ascents he invited me to accompany him.^[1]

Before I pass on to these expeditions (which will be described very briefly, as I hope that Mr. Reilly himself will publish an account of his remarkable explorations), it will be convenient to devote a few paragraphs to the topography of the chain of Mont Blanc.^[2]

At the present time the chain is divided betwixt France, Switzerland, and Italy. France has the lion's share, Switzerland the most fertile portion, and Italy the steepest side. It has acquired a reputation which is not extraordinary, but which is not wholly merited. It has neither the beauty of the Oberland, nor the sublimity of Dauphiné. But it attracts the vulgar by the possession of the highest summit in the Alps. If that is removed, the elevation of the chain is in nowise remarkable. In fact, excluding Mont Blanc itself, the mountains of which the chain is made up are less important than those of the Oberland and the central Pennine groups. The following table will afford a ready means of comparison.^[3]

1. Mr. Reilly's map was published on a scale of 1/80000 in 1865, at the cost of the Alpine Club, under the title The Chain of Mont Blanc.
2. See the map of the chain of Mont Blanc at the end of the volume.

   This map has-been drawn after the surveys of Mieulet, Dufour, and Reilly. To assist in its production, the Depot de la Guerre at Paris most liberally furnished me with special copies of Captain Mieulet's map. These were reduced, by photography, to the scale of $\scriptstyle {\frac {1}{100000'}}$, which is the same as that of Dufour's map. The Swiss portion of the chain was then fitted on to the reduction. Photographic reductions of the basin of the Glacier du Tour and of the whole of that portion of the chain which lies to the west of the southern Glacier de Miage and to the south of the Glacier de Trélatête were then added from Mr. Reilly's map. The nomenclature of these authorities has been strictly followed. It may be remarked, however, that Captain Mieulet has departed, in many instances, from the spelling in common use.

3. The heights (in mètres) are after Captain Mieulet.