It was useless to go to them now, he added, for the owners extracted all the ice early in the year, and stored it in holes in the lower part of the mountain.

He had no idea by what route they were to be approached from Annecy, or on which side of the Mont Parmelan they lay.
I now looked on the local map, and determined that the best plan would be to take the Bonneville diligence as far as Charvonnaz, the point on the road which seemed to lie nearest to the roots of the Mont Parmelan, and then be guided by what I might learn among the peasants.

Everyone said there was no chance of getting to anything by that means; but as the hotel people saw that it was of no use to deny the glacieres any longer, they proposed to take me to a man who knew the M.Parmelan well, and could tell me all about it.

This man proved to be a keeper of voitures,--an ominous profession under the circumstances,--and he assured me that I could make a most lovely _course_ the next day, through scenery of unrivalled beauty; and he eloquently told on his fingers the villages and sights I should come to.

I suggested--without in the least knowing that it was so--that the drive might be all very well in itself, but it would not bring me to the glacieres; on which he assured me that he knew every inch of the mountain, and there was not such a thing as a glaciere in the whole district.