when the ladder has suffered from ubiquitous compound fracture, and the ragged edges catch the unaccustomed petticoats.  It was quite as well the feet were out of sight, for some of the supports to which they were guided were not such as would have commended themselves to her, had she been able to see them.  At length, owing in great measure to the opportune assistance of two of the batons we had brought down with us for repairs, thanks also to the trunk of the fir-tree, we reached the snow; and poor A. was planted there, breaking through the top crust as a commencement of her acquaintance with it, till such time as I could bring M. down to join her.  The experience acquired in the course of A.’s descent led us to call to M. that she must get rid of that portion of her attire which gives a shape to modern dress; for the obstinacy and power of mal-a-propos obstructiveness of this garment had wonderfully complicated our difficulties.  She objected that the guide was there; but we assured her that he was asleep, or if he wasn’t it made no matter; so when I reached the top, she emerged shapeless from a temporary hiding-place, clutching her long hedge-stake, and feeling, she said—­and certainly looking—­a good deal like a gorilla.  The most baffling part of the trouble having been thus got over, we soon joined A., blue already, and shivering on the snow.  The sun now reached very nearly to the bottom of the pit, and I went up once more for thermometers and other things, leaving a measure with my sisters, and begging them to amuse themselves by taking the dimensions of the snow:  on my return, however, to the top of the ladder, I found them combining over a little bottle, and they informed me plaintively that they had been taking medicinal brandy and snow instead of measurements,—­a very necessary precaution, for anyone to whom brandy is not a greater nuisance than utter cold.  We found the dimensions of the bottom of the pit, i.e. of the field of snow on which we stood, to be 31-1/2 feet by 21; but we were unable to form any idea of the depth of the snow, beyond the fact that ‘up to the ancle’ was its prevailing condition.  The boy told us, when we rejoined him, that when he and others had attempted to get ice for the landlord, when it was ordered for him in a serious illness the winter before, they had found the pit filled to the top with snow.

[Illustration:  VERTICAL SECTION OF THE GLACIERE OF MONTHEZY, IN THE VAL DE TRAVERS.]

As we stood at the mouth of the low entrance, making final preparations for a plunge into the darkness, I perceived a strong cold current blowing out from the cave—­sufficiently strong and cold to render knickerbocker stockings a very unavailing protection.  While engaged in the discovery that this style of dress is not without its drawbacks, I found, to my surprise, that the direction of the current suddenly changed, and the cold blast which had before blown out of the cave, now blew almost as strongly in.