1 Soon after, I entered the valley of Chamounix.
2 I spent the following day roaming through the valley.
3 My wanderings were directed towards the valley of Chamounix.
4 Still, as I ascended higher, the valley assumed a more magnificent and astonishing character.
5 This valley is more wonderful and sublime, but not so beautiful and picturesque as that of Servox, through which I had just passed.
6 Mont Blanc, the supreme and magnificent Mont Blanc, raised itself from the surrounding aiguilles, and its tremendous dome overlooked the valley.
7 I knew that I ought to hasten my descent towards the valley, as I should soon be encompassed in darkness; but my heart was heavy, and my steps slow.
8 I stood beside the sources of the Arveiron, which take their rise in a glacier, that with slow pace is advancing down from the summit of the hills to barricade the valley.
9 It was during an access of this kind that I suddenly left my home, and bending my steps towards the near Alpine valleys, sought in the magnificence, the eternity of such scenes, to forget myself and my ephemeral, because human, sorrows.
10 I looked on the valley beneath; vast mists were rising from the rivers which ran through it and curling in thick wreaths around the opposite mountains, whose summits were hid in the uniform clouds, while rain poured from the dark sky and added to the melancholy impression I received from the objects around me.