The shape of the glaciere is a rough circle, 60 feet in diameter; and the floor, which is solid ice, slopes gradually down to the farther end.

The immediate entrance is half-closed by a steep and very regular cone of snow, lying vertically under the small shaft we had seen in the rock above.

The snow which forms the cone descends in winter by this shaft; and the formation must have been going on for a considerable time, since the lower part of the cone has become solid ice, under the combined influences of pressure and of _degel_ and _regel_.

I climbed up the side of this, by cutting steps in the lower part, and digging feet and hands deep into the snow higher up; and I found the length of the side to be 30 feet.

I had no means of determining the height of the cave, and a guess might not be of much value.
At first sight, the farther end of the cave was the most striking.