From this
it would seem that people flocked from all sides to the glaciere with
waggons and mules, and conveyed the ice through the various parts of
Burgundy, and to the camp of the Saone; not thereby diminishing the
amount of ice, for one hot day produced as much as they could carry away
in eight days. The ice seemed to be formed from a stream which ran
through the cave and was frozen in the summer only. The writer of this
second account saw vapours in the glaciere (the editor of the _Histoire
de l'Academie_ does not say at what season the visit to the cave took
place), and was informed that this was an infallible sign of approaching
rain; so much so, that the peasants were in the habit of determining the
coming weather by the state of the grotto.
In 1712, M. Billerez, Professor of Anatomy and Botany in the University
of Besancon, communicated to the Academy[177] an account of a visit made
by him to this cave in September 1711. He found 3 feet of ice on the
floor of the cave, in a state of incipient thaw, and three pyramids,
from 15 to 20 feet high and 5 or 6 feet in diameter, which had been
already considerably reduced in size by thaw.
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