and I suspected that the cold current of air had caused the
place to be called a glaciere, with any other qualification on the part
of the cave. One thing was evident,--no snow could reach the fissure. M.
Metrai was determined that I must not attempt the descent, pointing out,
what was quite true, that though the fall was not great, there seemed no
possibility of getting back up the smooth rock. His arguments increased
my suspicions; so, leaving all apparatus behind, I dropped down to join
the candle, rather hoping to have the satisfaction of sending them off
for a rope, in case I could not achieve the last few feet in returning,
and knowing that there was no danger of the fate which once threatened
the chamois-hunting Kaiser Max.[74]

The drop turned out to be a mere nothing, and, taking the candle, I
scrambled on, down the sloping floor of the fissure, towards the heart
of the mountain, expecting every moment that my further passage would be
stopped by solid rock. But, after reaching a part so narrow that I was
obliged to mount by both sides at once in order to get past it, I found
a commodious gallery, opening out into a long and narrow and very lofty
cavern, still only a fissure, the floor of which continued the regular
and rapid slope down which I had so far come. A short way farther down,
an opening appeared to the left; and I turned off the main passage into
a horizontal gallery or chamber, with a floor of ice resting on rock and
stones. This chamber seemed to be 3 or 4 yards wide at the entrance,
narrowing regularly to 4 1/2 feet. It was 40 feet long, and at the
farther end, which would not have been visible from the entrance, on
account of a slight bend in the ice-gallery, even if there had been any
light, it was closed by an ice-cascade 7 yards high and 4 1/2 feet broad
at the bottom. The ice of much of this cascade was so clear, that I saw
the rock upon which it rested, or in some parts did not rest, quite
plainly, and the large air-cavities in the structure were beautifully
shown by the richly-coloured rock behind. None of the current which we
had observed above, and which had nearly baffled my protecting care of
the candle during the descent, came from this gallery; but I find it
written in my notes that the gallery was _very_ cold. Thaw was going on,
rather rapidly; and the water stole out by the entrance, and ran down
the main descent, over ice and among rocks, into the farther darkness.

When I came out