Girod-Chantrans visited the Glaciere of Chaux
(so called from a village near the glaciere, on the opposite side from
the Abbey of Grace-Dieu), and his account of the visit appeared in the
_Journal des Mines_[187] of Prairial, an iv., by which time the writer
had become the Citizen Girod-Chantrans. He found a mass of
stalactites of ice hanging from the roof, as if seeking to join
themselves with corresponding stalagmites on the floor of the cave;
the latter, five in number, being not more than 3 or 4 feet high, and
standing on a thick sheet of ice. There was a sensible interval
between this basement of ice and the rock and stones on which it
reposed: it was, moreover, full of holes containing water, and the
lower parts of the cave were unapproachable by reason of the large
quantity of water which lay there. The thermometer stood at 35 deg..9 F.
two feet above the floor, and at 78 deg. F. in the shade outside. M.
Girod-Chantrans determined, from all he saw and heard, that the summer
freezing and winter thaw were fables, and he believed that the cave
was only an instance of Nature's providing the same sort of receptacle
for ice as men provide in artificial ice-houses.
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