In 1783 (August 6), M. Girod-Chantrans visited the Glacière of Chaux (so called from a village near the glacière, on the opposite side from the Abbey of Grâce-Dieu), and his account of the visit appeared in the _Journal des Mines_[187] of Prairial, an iv., by which time the writer had become the Citizen Girod-Chantrans. He found a mass of stalactites of ice hanging from the roof, as if seeking to join themselves with corresponding stalagmites on the floor of the cave; the latter, five in number, being not more than 3 or 4 feet high, and standing on a thick sheet of ice. There was a sensible interval between this basement of ice and the rock and stones on which it reposed: it was, moreover, full of holes containing water, and the lower parts of the cave were unapproachable by reason of the large quantity of water which lay there. The thermometer stood at 35°·9 F. two feet above the floor, and at 78° F. in the shade outside. M. Girod-Chantrans determined, from all he saw and heard, that the summer freezing and winter thaw were fables, and he believed that the cave was only an instance of Nature's providing the same sort of receptacle for ice as men provide in artificial ice-houses. He was fortunate enough to obtain by chance the notes of a neighbouring physician, who had made careful observations and experiments in the glacière at various seasons of the year, and a _précis_ of these notes forms the most valuable part of his account. Dr. Oudot, the physician in question, found ten columns in January 1778, the largest of which was 5-1/2 feet high. The flooring of ice was nowhere more than 15 inches thick, and the parts of the rock which were not covered with ice were perfectly dry. The thermometer--M. Girod-Chantrans used Réaumur, so I suppose that he gives Dr. Oudot's observations in degrees of Réaumur, though some of the results of that supposition appear to be anomalous--gave 22° F. within the cave, and 21° F. outside. In April of the same year, the large column had increased in height to the extent of 13 inches; and the floor of ice on which it stood was 1-1/2 inch thicker, and extended over a larger area than before; the thermometer stood at 36°.5 F. and 52° F. respectively in the same positions as in the former case. In July, the large column had lost 6 inches of its height, and the thermometer gave 38°.75 F. and 74°.75 F. In October, the large column was only 3 feet high, and many of the others had disappeared, while their pedestal had become much thinner than it had been in the preceding months. There was also a considerable amount of mud in the cave, brought down apparently by the heavy rains of autumn. The thermometer gave 37°.6 F. and 63°.5 F. On the 8th of January, 1779, there were nine columns of very beautiful ice, and one of these, as before, was larger than the rest, being 5 feet high and 10 feet in circumference. The temperatures were 21° F. and 16°.15 F. in the cave and in the open air respectively.