Some of the fissures contain water and some snow,
while others are apparently unfathomable. From one of the largest of
these, a strong and cold current blows in summer, and in this fissure is
the ice-hole. Sartori found _crimpons_ necessary for descending the
frozen snow which led from the entrance to the floor of the cave, where
he discovered pillars and capitals and pyramids of ice of every possible
shape and variety, as if the cave had contained the ruins of a Gothic
church, or a fairy palace. At the farther end, after passing large
cascades of ice, his party reached a dark grey hole, which lighted up
into blue and green under the influence of the torches; they could not
discover the termination of this hole, and the stones which they rolled
down into it seemed to go on for ever. The greatest height of the cave
is about 36 feet, and its length 192 feet, with a maximum breadth of 126
feet. Towards the end of autumn, the temperature of the ice-hole rises
so much, that the glacial decorations disappear, and various wild
animals are driven by the cold of winter to take shelter in the
comparative warmth of the cave.
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