[Footnote 1: In this neighbourhood, the _montagne_ of any _commune_ is represented by the feminine form of the name of the village: thus, _L'Arzière_ is the _montagne_ of Arzier, and _La Bassine_ of Bassin. This has a curious effect in the case of some villages--such, for instance, as S. Georges--one of the landmarks of the district between the lakes of Joux and Geneva being the _Châlet de la S. Georges_, a grammatical anomaly which puzzles a stranger descending the southernmost slope of the Jura from the Asile de Marchairuz. This law of formation is not universal; for the _montagnes_ of Rolle and S. Livres are called the _Prè de Rolle_ and the _Prè de S. Livres_, while the _Fruitière de Nyon_ is the rich upland possession of the town of that name.] [Footnote 2: Probably a relic of the time when the earlier Barons of Coppet possessed this district. The families of Grandson, Lesdiguières, and Dohna successively held the barony; and in later times the title _de Coppet_ hid a name more widely known, for on the Châlet of _Les Biolles_, some distance to the east of La Baronne, the name of _Auguste de Staël de Holstein de Coppet_ is carved, after the fashion of Swiss châlets. This was Madame de Staël's son, who built Biolles in 1817; it was afterwards sold to the commune of Nyon, and finally purchased by Arzier two or three years ago.] [Footnote 3: 'Cornhill Magazine,' June 1863, 'How we slept at the Châlet des Chèvres.'] [Footnote 4: This is only a guess, made from a comparison with the ascertained heights of neighbouring points.] [Footnote 5: The patois of Vaud has a prettier name for this kind of stone--_le sex_ (or _scex) qui plliau_, the weeping-stone.] [Footnote 6: I brought one of these to England, and am told that it is the _Stenophylax hieroglyphicus_ of Stephens, or something very like that fly.] [Footnote 7: Since writing this, I have been told that some English officers who visited the cave in the August of 1864 found no ice in any part.] [Footnote 8: See also p. 231.] [Footnote 9: P. 145.] [Footnote 10: P. 301.] [Footnote 11: It is possible that the freezing of the surface may play a curious part in the phenomena of the spring season in such caves. Supposing the surface to be completely frost-bound, all atmospheric pressure will be removed from the upper surface of the water in the long fissures, and thus water may be held in suspension, in the centre of large masses of fissured rock, during the winter months. The first thorough thaw will have the same effect as the removal of the thumb from the upper orifice in the case of the hand-shower-bath; and the water thus rained down into the cave will have a temperature sufficiently high to destroy some portion of the cold stored up by the descent of the heavy atmosphere of winter, or at least to melt out the ice which may have blocked up the lower ends of the fissures.] * * * * * CHAPTER II. THE GLACIÈRE OF S. GEORGES, IN THE JURA.