The only current of air we could detect was exceedingly slight, and came from the deeper of the two pits in the ice.

It was so slight, that the flame of the candle burned apparently quite steadily when we were engaged in determining the depth and shape of the pit.
The sun had by this time produced such an effect upon the slope of snow outside the glaciere, that we found the ascent sufficiently difficult, especially as our hands were full of various instruments.

The schoolmaster was not content to choose the straight line up, and in attempting to perform a zigzag, he came to a part of the slope where the snow lay about 2 inches thick on solid ice, and the result was an unscholastic descent in inverted order of precedence.

He got on better over the rolling stones after the snow was accomplished, but the clumsy style of his climbing dislodged an unpleasant amount and weight of missiles; and though he was amiable enough to cry '_Garde_!' with every step he took, it will be found by experiment that it is not much use to the lower man to have '_Garde_!' shouted in his ears, when his footing is insecure to begin with, and a large stone comes full at his head, at the precise moment when two others are taking him in the pit of the stomach.
We found the maire, as was said, asleep under a bush near the mouth of the pit; and he pronounced himself completely recovered from the effects of the cold, and ready to guide us to a second glaciere.

He told us that the amount of ice he sold averaged 4,000 _quintaux metriques_ a week, for the three months of July, August, and September; but the last winter had been so severe, that the lake had provided ice for the artificial glacieres of Annecy, and no one had as yet applied to him this year.