Wherever the flooring rose slightly towards the edges of the sea of ice, the usual structure appeared again.
There were no currents of air in the cave, the candles burning steadily through the whole time of our visit.

Excepting for the purpose of detecting disturbance in the air, there is no need of candles, as the two holes in the roof supply sufficient light.

Some account of the careful observations made here by M.Thury, at different seasons of the year, will be found in other parts of this book.

We passed, on our return, by the source of water which springs from the foot of a rock at some distance from the glaciere, and is supposed to form the outlet for the drainage of the cave; but it is difficult to understand how this can be the case, considering the form and character of the intervening ground.
The two ice-caves so far described are the least interesting of all that I have visited; but a peasant informed me, a day or two after, that if we had penetrated to the back of the pyramid of snow which lay half under the open hole, being the remains of the large collection which is formed there in the winter, we might have found a deep pit which is sometimes exposed by the melting of the snow.

He had some idea that its depth was 30 feet a few years ago, and that its sides were solid ice.