CHAPTER X.
THE GLACIERE OF GRAND ANU, ON THE MONTAGNE DE L'EAU, NEAR ANNECY.
M.Thury's list contained a bare mention of two glacieres on the M.
Parmelan, near Annecy, without any further information respecting them, beyond the fact that they supplied ice for Lyons.

Their existence had been apparently reported to him by M.Alphonse Favre, but he had obtained no account of a visit to the caves.

Under these circumstances, the only plan was to go to Annecy, and trust to chance for finding some one there who could assist me in my search.
After spending a day or two in the library at Geneva, looking up M.
Thury's references, with respect to various ice-caves, and trying to discover something more than he had found in the books there, I started for Annecy at seven in the morning in the banquette of the diligence.

On a fresher day, no doubt the great richness of the orchards and corn-fields would have been very striking; but on this particular morning the fields were already trembling with heat, and the trees and the fruit covered with dust; and there was nothing in the grouping of the country through which the road lay to refresh the baked and half-choked traveller.

The voyage was to last four and a half hours, and it soon became a serious question how far it would be possible to face the heat of noon, when the earlier morning was so utterly unbearable.
Before very long, a counter-irritant appeared in the shape of a fellow-traveller, whose luggage consisted of a stick and an old pair of boots.