[Footnote 19: My sisters made a two-days' excursion from Arzier to this
glaciere in the autumn of 1862, and found no snow in the bottom of the
pit. They took the route by Gimel to Biere, intending to defer the visit
to the glaciere to the morning of the second day; but being warned by
the appearance known locally as _le sappeur qui fume_, a vaporous cloud
at the mouth of a cavern near the Dent d'Oche, on the other side of the
Lake of Geneva, they caught the communal forester at once, and put
themselves under his guidance. The distance from Biere is two hours'
good walking, and an hour and a half for the return. There was no ladder
for the final descent, and the neighbouring chalet could provide nothing
longer than 15 feet, the drop being 30 feet. Two Frenchmen had attempted
to make their way to the cave a week before; but the old 30-foot ladder
of the previous year broke under the foremost of them, and he fell into
the pit, whence he was drawn up by means of a cord composed of
rack-ropes from the chalet, tied together. However useful a string of
cow-ties may be for rescuing a man from such a situation, A. and M. did
not care to make use of that apparatus for a voluntary descent, so they
were perforce contented with a distant view of the ice from the lower
edge of the pit.]

[Footnote 20: See the section of this cave and pit on page 41.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER IV.

THE UPPER GLACIERE OF THE PRE DE S. LIVRES.

We now put ourselves under the guidance of the accomplice, Louis, who
began to express doubts of his ability to find the upper glaciere,
administering consolation by reminding us that if he could not find it
no one else could.

As we walked on through the mist and rain, it became necessary to
circumvent a fierce-looking bull, and Mignot and the accomplice told
rival tales of the dangers to which pedestrians are exposed from the
violence of the cattle on some montagnes, where the bulls are allowed
to grow to full size and fierceness. Mignot was quite motherly in his
advice and his cautions, recommending as the surest safeguard a
pocket-pistol, loaded with powder only, to be flashed in the bull's
face as he makes his charge. When informed that in England an umbrella
or a parasol is found to answer this purpose, he shook his head
negatively, evidently having no confidence in his own umbrella, and
doubting its obeying his wishes at the critical moment; indeed, it
would req