and lofty, when he said we must be near
our point. Still we went on and on without seeing any signs of it, and
our guide seemed in despair; and I, for one, entirely gave up the third
cave to the same fate as the second, and became very sulky and
remonstrative. The entrance to the glaciere, the maire told us, was a
hole in the face of the highest rocks, 3 or 4 yards only above the
grass; and as we had now reached a part of the mountain where the rock
springs up smooth and high, and we could command the whole face, and yet
saw nothing, the schoolmaster came over to my side, and told the maire
he was a humbug. However, we were then within a few yards of the desired
spot, and half-a-dozen steps showed us a small _cheminee_, down
which a strong and icy current of wind blew. The maire shouted a shout
of triumph, and climbed the _cheminee_; and when we also had done the
necessary gymnastics, we found a hole facing almost due north, all
within being dark. The current blew so determinedly, that matches were
of no use, and I was obliged to seek a sheltered corner before I could
light a candle; and, when lighted, the candle was with difficulty kept
from being blown out. No ice was visible, nor any signs of such a
thing,--nothing but a very irregular narrow cave, with darkness at the
farther end. As we advanced, we found that the floor of the cave came to
a sudden end, and the darkness developed into a strange narrow fissure,
which reached out of sight upwards, and out of sight below; and down
this the maire rolled stones, saying that _there_ was the glaciere, if
only one could get at it without a _tourneau_. Considering the
persistency with which he had throughout declared that there was no
possible need for a rope, I gave him some of my mind here, in that
softened style which his official dignity demanded; but he excused
himself by saying that the gentleman who owned the glaciere, and
extracted the ice for private use only, was now living at his summer
chalet, a mile or two off, and he, the maire, had felt confident that
the _tourneau_ would have been fitted up for the season.

On letting a candle down from the termination of the floor, we found
that the perpendicular drop was not more than 12 feet, and from the
shelf thus reached it seemed very possible to descend to the farther
depths of the fissure; but I had become so sceptical, that I persisted
in asserting that there was no ice below. The maire's manner, also, was
strange,