Besides, the food of
Dauphine rather takes the energy and love of adventure out of an
unaccustomed visitor.
Without long delay, then, we bade farewell to the _patron_, not
returning to the inhospitable chalet, and started on our way for Die,
each carrying a large block of ice slung in a network of string.
Liotir's purpose was to convince some mysterious female friend that he
really had seen ice in summer, within five or six hours of Die; and
mine, to apply the ice to the butter which I had specially ordered the
landlady to have ready for me, that so I might be able to get through
the night, and leave Die by the diligence the first thing next morning.
It was remarkable how well the ice bore the great heat. For long the
bulk of the masses we carried seemed scarcely to diminish; and if it had
not been for a course of heavy falls as we descended through the
brushwood, we should have succeeded in getting a large proportion of it
safely to Die. The precision of the prismatic structure also showed
itself in a very marked manner; and when we came to a crisis of thirst,
which happened at shorter and shorter intervals as the afternoon wore
on, we separated the prisms with our fingers from the edges of the ice
without any difficulty, and made ourselves more hot and thirsty by
eating them.
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