231. To reach the position occupied by the theodolite at the end of our second line, I had to wade breast-deep through snow which seemed as dry and soft as flour. The toil of the men upon the glacier in breaking through the snow was prodigious. But they did not flinch, and after a time the leader stood behind the farthest stake, and cried, _Nous avons fini_. I was surprised to hear him so distinctly, for falling snow had been thought very deadening to sound. The work was finished, and I struck my theodolite with a feeling of a general who had won a small battle. 232. We put the house in order, packed up, and shot by glissade down the steep slopes of _La Filia_ to the vault of the Arveiron. We found the river feeble, but not dried up. Many weeks must have elapsed since any water had been sent down from the surface of the glacier. But at the setting in of winter the fissures were in a great measure charged with water; and the Arveiron of to-day was probably due to the gradual _drainage_ of the glacier. There was now no danger of entering the vault, for the ice seemed as firm as marble. In the cavern we were bathed by blue light. The strange beauty of the place suggested magic, and put me in mind of stories about fairy caves which I had read when a boy. At the source of the Arveiron our winter visit to the Mer de Glace ends; next morning your deputy was on his way to London. § 33. _Winter Motion of the Mer de Glace._ 233. Here are the measurements executed in the winter of 1859:-- Line No. I. Stake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Inches 7 11 14 13 14 14 16 16 12 12 7 Line No. II. Stake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Inches 8 10 14 16 16 16 18 17 15 14 234. Thus the winter motion of the Mer de Glace near the Montanvert is, in round numbers, half the summer motion. 235. As in summer, the eastern side of the glacier at this place moved quicker than the western. § 34. Motion of the Grindelwald and Aletsch Glaciers. 236. As regards the question of motion, to no other glacier have we devoted ourselves with such thoroughness as to the Mer de Glace; we are, however, able to add a few measurements of other celebrated glaciers. Rear the village of Grindelwald in the Bernese Oberland, there are two great ice-streams called respectively the Upper and the Lower Grindelwald glaciers, the second of which is frequently visited by travellers in the Alps. Across it on August 6, 1860, a series of twelve stakes was fixed by Mr. Vaughan Hawkins and myself. Measured on the 8th and reduced to its daily rate, the motion of these stakes was as follows:-- MOTION OF LOWER GRINDELWALD GLACIER. Stake 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Inches 18 19 20 21 21 21 22 20 19 18 17 14 237. The theodolite was here planted a little below the footway leading to the higher glacier region, and at about a mile above the end of the glacier. The measurement was rendered difficult by crevasses.