ater; the other, presenting an area of about 14 square
yards, showed more water still. There were no stalactites and columns
such as M. Morin had found in August 1828, nor even the low stalagmite
which Pictet saw in 1822. The summers of 1828 and 1859 were
exceptionally hot, and this fact has been held to account for the
smaller quantity of ice seen in those years. M. Thury found the cold due
to evaporation to be considerably less than 1 deg. F.,[78] and he and M.
Morin both fixed the general temperature of the cave at 36 deg..5; they
also found a current of air entering by a fissure in the lowest part of
the cave, but it did not disturb the whole of the interior, for in one
part the air was in perfect equilibrium. M. Gampert,[79] in the summer
of 1823, found a strong and very cold current of air descending by this
fissure, along with water which ran from it over the ice; he believed
that this was refrigerated by evaporation, in passing through the
thickness of the moist rock.

Two peasants visited this cave three times in the winter season, viz. on
October 22, November 26, and on Christmas Day; and one of them, by name
Chavan, drew up an account of their experiences, which was read by M.
Colladon before the _Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Nat. de Geneve_
in 1824.[80] The peasants found very little ice in columns at the time
of the October visit, and there were signs of commencing thaw. The thaw
was much more pronounced in November, when the ice had nearly
disappeared even from the lowest parts of the cave, and they found the
air within quite warm. On Christmas Day they had great difficulty in
reaching the glaciere, and narrowly escaped destruction by an avalanche,
which for a time deterred them from prosecuting the adventure: they
persisted, however, and were rewarded by finding only water where in
summer all was ice, and a temperate warmth in the cave. They observed
that the roof had fissures like chimneys.

This account was so circumstantial, that the only thing left was to
attempt an explanation of the phenomena reported, and such explanations
have not been wanting. But M. Thury was not quite satisfied, and he
determined to visit the cave in the winter of 1860-1. Accordingly,
accompanied by M. Andre Gindroz, who had already joined him in his
unsuccessful attempt to reach the Glaciere of the Pre de S. Livres, he
left Geneva on the 10th of January, and slept at the Chartreuse in the
Valley of Reposoir. As the party