The entrance to the glacière was in a wall of rock, set at an angle of
some thirty-five degrees; at the bottom of this there was some grass.
An easy chimney some fifteen meters high led up to the glacière. Up
this chimney we climbed. At the top we entered a little cave about
two meters deep, by a sort of portal about two meters wide. The cave
made an elbow to the right, and passing this we found that it turned
to the left and pointed directly into the mountain. The rock went
down vertically in front of us, but the boy said we could get down,
so having first lowered a candle by a string to see the depth, which
turned out to be a perpendicular drop of some four or five meters,
with the help of the rope we all climbed down. We were already almost
entirely away from the daylight and a few steps took us into complete
darkness, except for the light we had from the candle each of us held
in his hand.
The fissure led straight into the mountain. It was a couple of meters
wide at places, and there we moved along the bottom. In one place it
narrowed below to a wedge, and there we progressed either by climbing
along one side or by placing one foot on one side and the other
foot on the other. The fissure led downwards as well as inwards. It
would have been nothing in daylight to go through it; but in the
semi-darkness it was not easy.
After a descent of some twenty-five meters or thereabouts, we arrived
at the glacière, and I have certainly never seen a weirder place. There
was a great arched rock dome, perhaps six meters in height, and some
twelve in diameter; the floor was a sheet of smooth, slippery ice, at
one end curling over, gently at first, afterwards more steeply, to a
lower depth; and on the sides were seven or eight ice columns streaming
from cracks in the rocks to the floor. Each of these columns was some
three or four meters high, and, small at the top and in the middle,
spread out at the base into the shape of fans. In the dim candle light
and the cold damp atmosphere, the columns loomed up like so many
ghosts, and the landscape impression was strange and solemn. The air
here seemed perfectly still.
There was another curiosity. The fissure we had come down, at this
point some three meters wide, was filled, just beyond the glacière,
with pure, transparent water, which formed a little lake: this was
perhaps one meter deep, and extended across the fissure, barring
further progress. It certainly seems strange that in the same cavern,
under nearly the same conditions of temperature, there should be one
place covered with a flooring of ice and another filled with water. The
explanation, however, is perhaps not far to seek. Over the lake there
was a distinct draught of air. The draught probably melts the ice in
summer, if indeed it does not prevent any from forming in winter. There
are, so far, no winter observations reported of this cave, yet it would
seem to be one which would well repay the trouble.
THE GLACIÈRE DE CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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