The shape of the glaciere is a rough circle, 60
feet in diameter; and the floor, which is solid ice, slopes gradually
down to the farther end. The immediate entrance is half-closed by a
steep and very regular cone of snow, lying vertically under the small
shaft we had seen in the rock above. The snow which forms the cone
descends in winter by this shaft; and the formation must have been going
on for a considerable time, since the lower part of the cone has become
solid ice, under the combined influences of pressure and of _degel_ and
_regel_. I climbed up the side of this, by cutting steps in the lower
part, and digging feet and hands deep into the snow higher up; and I
found the length of the side to be 30 feet. I had no means of
determining the height of the cave, and a guess might not be of much
value.
At first sight, the farther end of the cave was the most striking. The
water which comes from the melting snow down which we had passed in
reaching the glaciere, had cut itself deep channels in the floor, and
through these it coursed rapidly till it precipitated itself into a
large pit or _moulin_ in the ice, at the lowest point.
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