He was assured that this ice never melts, and
that its thickness is greater in summer than in winter. M. Helmersen
adds, that to the best of his belief no one has investigated the cavern
of Illetzkaya Zastchita since Sir R. Murchison's visit.
_The Ice-Cavern of the Peak of Teneriffe_.[118]
This cave is at a height of 11,040 feet above the sea, and is therefore
not far below the snow-line of the latitudes of the Canary Isles. The
entrance is by a hole 3 or 4 feet square, in the roof of the cave, which
may be about 20 feet from the floor. The peasants who convey snow and
ice from the cave to the lower regions, enter by means of knotted ropes;
but Professor Smyth had caused his ship's carpenter to prepare a stout
ladder, by which photographic instruments and a lady were taken down.
On alighting on a heap of stones at the bottom, the party found
themselves surrounded by a sloping wall of snow, 3 feet high, and 7 or 8
feet broad, the basin in which they stood being formed in the snow by
the vertical rays of the sun, and by the dropping of water from the
edges of the hole[119].
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