nd, which was itself invaded by
icicles from the lower part of the sloping roof, and by stubborn
stalagmites of ice rising from the floor.[61] The details of this
central cluster of icicles, and in fact of every portion of the
interior of the strange grotto, were exceedingly lovely, and I crushed
with much regret, on hands and knees, through fair crystal forests and
frozen dreams of beauty. In making the tour of this grotto, contorting
my body like a snake to get in and out among the ice-pillars, and do
as little damage as might be, but yet, with all my care, accompanied
by the incessant shiver and clatter of breaking and falling ice, I
came to a hole in the ground, too dark and deep for one candle to show
its depth; so I called to Christian to come in, thinking that two
candles might show it better. He asked if I really meant it, and
assured me he could be of no use; but I told him that he must come,
and informed him that he, being the smaller man, would find the
passage quite easy. It was very fortunate that I had not waited a
minute longer before summoning him, for just as he had dropped into
the hollow, and was beginning his journey to the side where I now was,
a drop of water and a simultaneous icicle came upon my candle, and
left me in darkness, curled up like a dormouse in a nest of ice, at
the edge of the newly discovered shaft; while my troubles were brought
to a climax by an incursion of icy drops, which had me at their mercy.
If all this had happened while Christian was still outside, he would
probably have staid there wringing his hands till it was time to go
home, and I should certainly not have liked to move without a light.
As it was, I did not inform him of the catastrophe, but let him come
toiling on, wondering audibly what madness could drive Herrschaft into
such places; and when he arrived, we cut off the wet wick, and lighted
the candle again. We could make nothing of the hole, so he returned by
the way he had come, and I completed the tour of the grotto, finding
the same difficult passage, and the same ice beauties, all the way
round.

Having squeezed ourselves out again through the narrow hole, we now
passed between the two gigantic columns, and found that the sea of ice
became still broader and bolder. I much regret that I neglected to take
any measurements in this part of the cave; but farther down, where it
was certainly not so broad, I found the width of the ice to be 75 feet.
It was throughou