Ferber says, the island of Elba is re markable, on account of its iron-mines, the mountains of which consist of granite, generally of a violet colour and very fine, as the feld-spath lies in large oblong cubes of the above tint. The ore is not found in veins, but in an enormous mass surrounded by the mountains of granite ; it is besides a fact, that several mountains in Sweden, Lapland, and Siberia, wholly, consist of iron-ore; and some bills in Campiglia, and other places in Tuscany, are etcher entirely, or in a great measure, of the same nature.
Further particulars of the probable con tents of mountains in other parts of the globe will be found as we proceed in this investigation, but it will next be neces. sary to mention the changes observable in the state of the atmosphere by those who have ascended to the summits of the highest portions of our earth ; several attempts have been made to attain the most elevated points of Mont Blanc by the guides of Chamouny, and by Messrs. de Saussu re and Bourrit; the first underta ken by the guides wits on the 13th of July, 1776, when three of them accompanied by M. Conteran departedirom the Priory, at some distance from the mountain, at eleven in the night; those persons passed through the interval between the glaciers of Bosson and Tacono, and were fourteen hours employed in ascending a most rug ged way, crossing extensive vallies of ice, and plains of snow, before they reached the vast elevation opposite to Mont Blanc, which then appeared as if very near them, but on a more attentive examination of the relative situation of the places, they found they had been deceived by the clearness of the air, and the brightness of the snow, and that it would require at least four hours of additional exertion to reach the summit, which they considered impracticable for many reasons, and par ticularly as the clouds gathered on the sides of the mountain, and threatened a tempest ; they therefore returned with precipitation, which had nearly been fatal to one of the party, who, in leaping over a chasm in the ice, slipped and tell into it, but fortunately retaining his grasp of the pole with which he performed the spring, and that falling across the chasm, he was extricated by his companions ; the man fainted, and remained insensible for some time, but they reached Chamouny without further accident, after twenty-two hours of incessant labour. Sir George Shuck burgh calculated that they had attained the height of 13,000 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea.
The failure of this arduous undertaking discouraged other attempts for some years, and till M. Bourrit prevailed upon six guides to accompany him on Septem ber this gentleman pursued his journey with great ardour and enthusi asm, but was arrested in his progress by the intenseness of the cold, which com pelled him to return; the guides were less affected, and two that hail preceded the rest reached the dome of Coute, situated about 9,400 feet in a horizontal direction from the summit. On the fourth of Sep tember, in the following year, Marie Con tet and James Lambat ascended to a great height, and passed the night under the shelter of a rock ; advancing with the dawn of day, they reached the dome, just mentioned, about seven o'clock, and would have proceeded, with every pros pect of success, had not a dreadful storm of hail rendered further exertion imprac ticable.
On the 18th of September, the same year, Messieurs de Saussure and Bourrit, and twelve guides, bearing a variety of instruments intended for observations, left Bionsay, and after some time arrived at a hut which they had ordered to be constructed at Pierre Ronde, 7,808 feet above the level of the sea ; they passed the night at this uncomfortable elevation, and proceeding in the morning, they reached the hitherto decided boundary of rise arch, the dome of Goute ; there a fresh fall of snow lay in so &treat a depth, as to prevent the possibility of wading through it, and the party returned. M. de Saussure imagined he had ascended to 8,256 English feet, and he found that the barometer sunk eighteen inches and a half. The guides, those hardy sons of the Alps, were not deterredby the hard ships endured on these occasions, and six once more entered upon an unsuccessful ascent in July, 1786; James Balma, a young man of great strength, and possess ed of an excellent constitution, one of the number, having missed his way in wan dering upon the ice, was under the ne cessity of passing the night on a spot above the dome ; this he accomplished in safety, and in the morning he had the re solution to examine the mountain, in or der to ascertain whether a more favour able path might not be discovered for as cending on any future occasion ; the re sult was according to his wishes, and he descended to Chamouny without acci dent, where he was afflicted with a very severe indisposition, the united effects of extreme cold and fatigue ; Dr. Paccard, resident physician, attended Balma dur ing his illness, to whom he related his ob servations on the practicability of ascend ing Mont Blanc, and offered to attend him on his recovery, as a mark of grati tude for that event. Paccard, inspired by the hope of performing a task not hitherto accomplished, accepted the proposal, and they departed from Chamouny on the 7th of August ; they reached La Cote before dark, and passed the night there ; at three the following morning they recommenced their dangerous excursion, ascended to the dome of Gontc, and at length arrived on the ridge of rocks seen from Geneva on the left of the summit ; when there, the cold became almost intolerable, and their fatigue was such, that Paccard was inclin ed to return ; hut Balma encouraging him by example and persuasion, he followed the courageous each walking side ways, to avoid, as much as possible, the piercing effect of the wind ; at six in the evening they accomplished their wishes, and stood with triumph on a pinnacle ne. ver before visited by man ; they remained half an hour on the summit, exposed to a degree of cold which froze the provisions they carried in their pockets, and the ink in their inkhorns. The difficulties of de scending were almost as considerable as those they experiencd in the ascent, but they returned to Chamouny without any other unpleasant occurrence than blis tered faces, swelled lips, and eyes injured by the brilliancy of the snow.