hat he had happily got so far
down. I worked his best and his worst feelings with equal want of
success; even national jealousy failed, and he was content to know that
a French maire had not pluck to face three-quarters of an hour of
climbing, when an English priest was ready to lead the way. The
schoolmaster declined to go alone with me, on the ground that neither of
us knew the mountain, and threatening clouds were gathering all around.
When, at last, I proposed to go by myself, they became menacingly
obstructive, and declared that I should certainly not be allowed to
face the intricacy of the mountain in a fog. Besides, as the maire put
it, he was sure of the way to the third glaciere; and if I were to go up
alone to look for the second, I should lose a certainty for a chance, as
there was not time to visit both. So with an ill grace I continued the
descent with them, being restored to good humour before long by the
beauty of the Lake of Annecy, as seen from our elevated position.

It is so impossible to accept in full the accounts one picks up of
natural curiosities, that I give the maire's description of the stray
glaciere only for what it is worth. It was not extracted without much
laborious cross-examination--_sais paw vous le dire_ being the average
answer to my questions. The entrance to the cave is about twice as high
as a man, and is in a small shallow basin of rock and grass. The floor
is level with the entrance, and the roof rises inside to a good height.
In shape it is like a Continental bread-oven; and at the time of the
maire's visit, the floor was a confused mass of ice and stones, the
former commencing at the very entrance. There was no ice except on the
floor, the area of which might be as large as that of the surface of the
ice in the Glaciere of Grand Anu. No pit was to be seen, and not a drop
of water. Snow could have drifted in easily, but they saw no signs of
any remaining. If this account be true, especially with respect to the
position of the entrance and the horizontal direction of the floor, I
have seen no glaciere like it.

We descended for a time through fir-woods, and then again down steep and
barren rocks, till we reached the sharp slope of grass which so
frequently connects the base of a mountain with the more civilised
forests and the pasturages below. The maire led us for some distance
along the top of this grass slope, towards the west, skirting the rocks
till they became precipitous