The day was externally very foggy, and
the fog had penetrated into the cavern; but as soon as M. Soret began to
descend to the glaciere itself, properly so called, he passed down out
of the fog, and found the air for the rest of the way perfectly
clear.[63]
M. Soret states that he has not absolute confidence in his
thermometrical observations, but as he had more time than I to devote to
such details, inasmuch as he did not pass down into the lowest part of
the cave, I give his results rather than my own, which were carelessly
made on this occasion:--On a stone near the first column of ice,
0 deg..37 C.; on a stick propped against the column on the edge of the great
ice-fall, 2 deg..37 C.; in a hole in the ice, filled with water by drops
from the roof, 0 deg. C. approximately.[64] The second result is
sufficiently remarkable. My own observations would give nearer 33 deg. F.
than 32 deg. as the general temperature of the cave.
Christian was so cold when we had finished our investigations, that he
determined to take his second refreshment _en route_, and, moreover,
time was getting rather short.
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