Accordingly, he made holes in
three of the columns, and established stakes 4, 5, and 10 feet high,
returning on the 22nd of February, after an interval of six weeks, to
observe the result of his experiment. He found the two shorter stakes
completely masked with ice, forming columns a foot in diameter; and the
longest stake, though not entirely concealed by the ice which had
collected upon it, was crowned with a beautiful capital of perfectly
transparent ice. The columns which had no stakes fixed upon them had
also increased somewhat in size, but not nearly in the same proportion
as those which were the subject of Dr. Oudot's experiment. The
thermometer on this day gave 29 deg..5 F. and 59 deg. F. as the temperatures.
It may be remembered that I found one very beautiful column, far higher
than any of those mentioned by Dr. Oudot, and higher than those which M.
Billerez saw, formed upon the trunk and branches of a fir-tree. I have
now no doubt that the peculiar shape of another--the largest of the
three columns which were in the cave at the time of my visit--is due to
the fact of its being a collection of several smaller columns, which
have in course of time flowed into one as they increased separately in
bulk, and that its height has been augmented by a device similar to that
adopted by Dr.
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