The maire was sunning himself on the rock, out of reach of
the cold current; but he came in, and let down the case, and I quickly
rejoined the schoolmaster. At first, it would have been impossible to
move about without a light; but our eyes had now become to some extent
accustomed to the darkness, and I had learned the difficulties of the
way.
When the thermometers were suspended in the water, Rosset asked how long
they must stay there. I rashly answered, a quarter of an hour; on which
he demanded indignantly whether I supposed he meant to stay in that cold
for a quarter of an hour. He had now the candle in his own possession,
and I was propped on a stone and an alpenstock in the lake, so he turned
to go, vowing that he would leave me alone in the dark if I did not come
out at once. There was no help for it, as the thermometer would have
been of no use without a candle, and a step in the dark is not pleasant
when all around is water, so I slowly drew up the thermometer and read
33 deg. F. In making final arrangements for departure, I let it lie in the
water for a few seconds longer, and it fell to 321/2 deg.
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