in 1822, when the depth of the glaciere was less than 30 feet.  Indeed, the floor had sunk considerably since my previous visit, when it was all at the same level down to the further end of the cave; whereas now, as will be seen in the section, there was a platform of stones resting on ice at that end.  There are two large fissures passing into the rock, one only of which can be represented in the section, and these were full of white ice, not owing its whiteness apparently to the admixture of air in bubbles, but firm and compact, and very hard, almost like porcelain.  Small stalactites hung from round fissures in the roof, formed of the same sort of ice, and broken off short, much as the end of a leaden pipe is sometimes seen to project from a wall.  With this exception, there was no ice hanging from the roof, though there were abundant signs of very fine columns which had already yielded to the advancing warmth:  one of these still remained, in the form of broken blocks of ice, in the neighbourhood of the open hole in the roof, immediately below which hole the stones of the floor were completely bare, and the thermometer stood at 50 deg..  At the far end of the cave, the thermometer gave something less than 32 deg.; a difference so remarkable, at the same horizontal level, that I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the figures, though they were registered on the spot with due care.  The uncovered hole, it must be remembered, is so large, and so completely open, that the rain falls freely on to the stones on the floor below.

By far the most striking part of this glaciere is the north-west wall, which is covered with a sheet of ice 70 feet long, and 22 feet high at the highest part:  in the neighbourhood of the ladders, this turns the corner of the cave, and passes up for about 9 feet under the second ladder.  The general thickness of the sheet is from a foot to a foot and a half; and this is the chief source from which the fermier draws the ice, as it is much more easily quarried than the solid floor.  Some of my friends went to the cave a few weeks after my visit, and found that the whole sheet had been pared off and carried away.  On some parts of the wall the sheet was not completely continuous, being formed of broad and distinct cascades, connected by cross channels of ice, and uniting at their upper and lower ends, thus presenting many curious and ornamental groupings.  On cutting through this ice, it was found not to lie closely on the rock, a small intermediate space being generally left, almost filled with minute limestone particles in a very wet state; and the whole cavern showed signs of more or less thaw.

[Illustration:  THE GLACIERE OF S. GEORGES.  VERTICAL SECTIONS OF THE GLACIERE OF S. GEORGES.]