At the very entrance of the grotto, they found beautiful stalactites of
clear ice; and here they paused, till such time as they should be cool
enough to enter, for the thermometer stood at 70 deg. in the sun, and their
climb had made them hot. On penetrating to the farther recesses of the
cave, where the true glaciere lies, they found an abundance of
stalactites, stalagmites, and columns of ice, with flooring and slopes
of the same material: not a drop of water anywhere. The stalagmites were
very numerous, but none of them more than three feet high; some of the
stalactites, fifteen or so in number, were six or seven feet long, and
there were many others of a smaller size. M. Thury was particularly
struck by the milky appearance of much of the ice, one column in
particular resembling porcelain more than any other substance. This is a
not unusual character of the most beautiful part of the decorations of
the more sheltered ice-caves, as for instance the lowest cave in the
Upper Glaciere of the Pre de S. Livres; the white appearance is not due
to the presence of air, for the ice is transparent and homogeneous, and
the naked eye is unable to detect bubbles or internal fissures.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326