On the way, I found one of
the large brown flies which we had seen in the Glaciere of La
Genolliere, and in the Lower Glaciere of the Pre de S. Livres.
Rosset now told me he was so cold he could stand it no longer; but,
after a little pressure, and a declaration on my part that he should not
have a candle for going up again, he consented to remain with me while I
explored the remaining chamber, the lowest of all. This chamber may be
called a continuation of the main passage. It is of about the same width
as the highest of the three chambers, and the floor descends rapidly,
the cold current of air becoming very strong and biting as we penetrated
into the darkness. As the Genevese _savans_ seemed to believe in 'cold
currents' as the cause of underground ice, I was naturally anxious to
see as much as possible of the state of this gallery, from which every
particle of the current seemed to come. We very soon reached a narrow
dark lake, and, exclaiming that here was ice again, I stepped, not on
to, but into it, and found that it was water. When our solitary candle
was brought to bear upon it, we saw that it was so clear as not in any
way to impede our view, producing rather the effect of slightly-clouded
spectacles upon the stones at the bottom.
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