‘On either side of the cave was a grand column of ice, forming the portal, as it were, through which we must pass to further beauties. The ice-floor rose to meet these columns in a graceful swelling curve, perfectly continuous, so that the general effect was that of two columns whose roots expanded and met in the middle of the cave. Convinced that internal investigations would prove interesting, I began to chop a hole in one of the pillars about two feet from the ground, and having made an entrance sufficiently large, proceeded to get into the cavity which presented itself. The flooring of the dome-shaped grotto in which I found myself was loose rock, at a level of about two feet below the surface of the ice-floor, on which my guide Christian still stood. The dome itself was not high enough to allow me to stand upright, and from the roof, principally from the central part, a complex mass of delicate icicles passed down to the floor, leaving a narrow burrowing passage round, which was itself invaded by icicles from the lower part of the sloping roof, and by stubborn stalagmites of ice rising from the floor. The details of this central cluster of icicles, and, in fact, of every portion of the interior of the strange grotto were exceedingly lovely, and I crushed with much regret, on hands and knees, through fair crystal forests and frozen dreams of beauty. In making the tour of this grotto, contorting my body like a snake, to get in and out among the ice- pillars, and do as little damage as might be, I yet, with all my care, was accompanied by the incessant shiver and clatter of breaking and falling ice. Having squeezed myself out again through the narrow hole, I now passed between the two gigantic columns, and found that the sea of ice became still broader and bolder, until we came to the edge of a glorious ice-fall, round and smooth and perfectly unbroken, passing down like the rapids of some river too deep for its surface to be disturbed, and plunging majestically into a dark gulf, of which we could see neither the roof nor the end.’ We will now follow Mr. Browne to the Upper Glacière of St. Livres, where the interesting discovery was made that the ice-stream which filled the cave, instead of terminating with the wall of rock at its end, turned off to the right, and was lost in darkness. By tying a candle to a long stick, and thrusting it down the slope of ice, it was further found that the stream passed down at a very steep incline, and poured under a narrow and low arch in the wall of the cave, beyond which nothing could be seen. Steps were now cut down the slope by one of the party, who was carefully let down, and, his work being completed, the others followed him through the arch—a rather awkward undertaking, for, on pushing through, their breasts were pressed on to the ice, while their backs scraped against the rock which formed the roof.