There is another opening near the original entrance to the cave, a sort
of fissure covered with elegant forms of ice, leading to a steep shaft.
The imperial forester of Topfanalva was bold enough to let himself down
the slope of ice which formed the edge of the shaft, on a rope ladder 60
feet long, notwithstanding the difficulty of grasping the iron steps
which of course lay pressed on to the ice; but when he had descended
about 30 feet, the shaft became perpendicular, and stones thrown in
showed a very considerable depth. There appeared to be no sound of water
in the abyss below.
Both entrances, that to the shaft as well as that to the second chamber,
were ornamented with delicate ice crystals, which occurred both on the
limestone stalactites and on the walls, and presented almost the
appearance of plants of cauliflower. The ice-floor of the first chamber
is described as consisting of a 'coarse-grained' material.
In the south-east of Servia, on the western slope of Mount Rtagn, is a
pit 20 feet in diameter, and 40 or 50 feet deep, the bottom of which is
reached by a succession of trunks of trees with the branches lopped off,
a sort of ladder called _stouba_ by the natives.
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