I now rejoined Christian, and we worked our way upwards to the mouth of the cave, penitently desisting from stoning a remaining raven.  We observed at the very mouth, by watching the flame of the candles, a slight current outwards, extremely feeble, and on our first arrival I had fancied there was a current, equally slight, inwards, but neither was perceptible beyond the entrance of the cave.  M. Soret was fortunate enough to witness a curious phenomenon, at the time of his visit to the Schafloch, in September 1860, which throws some light upon the atmospheric state of the cave.  The day was externally very foggy, and the fog had penetrated into the cavern; but as soon as M. Soret began to descend to the glaciere itself, properly so called, he passed down out of the fog, and found the air for the rest of the way perfectly clear.[63]

M. Soret states that he has not absolute confidence in his thermometrical observations, but as he had more time than I to devote to such details, inasmuch as he did not pass down into the lowest part of the cave, I give his results rather than my own, which were carelessly made on this occasion:—­On a stone near the first column of ice, 0 deg..37 C.; on a stick propped against the column on the edge of the great ice-fall, 2 deg..37 C.; in a hole in the ice, filled with water by drops from the roof, 0 deg.  C. approximately.[64] The second result is sufficiently remarkable.  My own observations would give nearer 33 deg.  F. than 32 deg. as the general temperature of the cave.

Christian was so cold when we had finished our investigations, that he determined to take his second refreshment en route, and, moreover, time was getting rather short.  We had started from Gonten at half-past nine in the morning, and reached the glaciere about half-past twelve.  It was now three o’clock, and the boat from Gonten must reach the steamer at half-past six precisely, so there was not too much time for us; especially as we were to return by a more mountainous route, which involved further climbing towards the summit of the Rothhorn, and was to include a visit to the top of the Ralligflue.  On emerging from the cave, we were much struck by the beauty of the view, the upper half of the Jungfrau, with its glittering attendants and rivals, soaring above a rich and varied foreground not unworthy of so glorious a termination.  There was not time, however, to admire it as it deserved, and we set off almost at once up the rocks, soon reaching a more elevated table-land by dint of steep climbing.  The ground of this table-land was solid rock, smoothed and rounded by long weathering, and fissured in every direction by broad and narrow crevasses 2 or 3 feet deep, at the bottom of which was luxuriant botany, in the shape of ferns, and mallows, and monkshood, and all manner of herbs.  The learned in such matters call these rock-fallows Karrenfelden.  When we had crossed this plateau, and came to grass, we found a