F.:
a rough French thermometer gave 1/2 deg. C. The extreme wall of the cavern
was completely covered by a layer of stalagmitic material, and some of
the forms the substance assumed were sufficiently striking. In contact
with the wall, though standing clear of it in parts where the wall fell
inwards, stood a thick round column of the same material, shaped like
the ordinary ice-columns of the glacieres, with a cavity near the base,
and in all ways following the usual laws of such columns. Considering
that I had observed a layer of limestone-paste collecting on one of the
ice-columns of the Glaciere of La Genolliere, I could not help imagining
that this stalagmitic column had been originally moulded on a norm of
that description. It had a girth of 12 feet in the part where we were
able to pass the tape round it. Its surface was smooth; but when we
drove a hole through this, with much damage to the _pic_ of my axe, we
found that the interior was in a crystalline form.
There was, on the whole, very little to be seen in the glaciere. Had it
been my first experience of an ice-cave, it would doubtless have seemed
very remarkable, as it did to Liotir, who, by the way, had steadily
disbelieved the possibility of natural ice in summer except in the
glaciers; but as I had now seen so many, several of them much more
wonderful than this, I did not care to stay longer than was absolutely
necessary for measurements and investigation.
Pages:
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361