Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland | Page 9

of Joux and Geneva being the _Chalet de la S. Georges_, a grammatical anomaly which puzzles a stranger descending the southernmost slope of the Jura from the Asile de Marchairuz. This law of formation is not universal; for the montagnes of Rolle and S. Livres are called the _Pr�� de Rolle_ and the _Pr�� de S. Livres_, while the _Fruiti��re de Nyon_ is the rich upland possession of the town of that name.]
[Footnote 2: Probably a relic of the time when the earlier Barons of Coppet possessed this district. The families of Grandson, Lesdigui��res, and Dohna successively held the barony; and in later times the title de Coppet hid a name more widely known, for on the Chalet of Les Biolles, some distance to the east of La Baronne, the name of _Auguste de Sta?l de Holstein de Coppet_ is carved, after the fashion of Swiss chalets. This was Madame de Sta?l's son, who built Biolles in 1817; it was afterwards sold to the commune of Nyon, and finally purchased by Arzier two or three years ago.]
[Footnote 3: 'Cornhill Magazine,' June 1863, 'How we slept at the Chalet des Ch��vres.']
[Footnote 4: This is only a guess, made from a comparison with the ascertained heights of neighbouring points.]
[Footnote 5: The patois of Vaud has a prettier name for this kind of stone--le sex (or _scex) qui plliau_, the weeping-stone.]
[Footnote 6: I brought one of these to England, and am told that it is the Stenophylax hieroglyphicus of Stephens, or something very like that fly.]
[Footnote 7: Since writing this, I have been told that some English officers who visited the cave in the August of 1864 found no ice in any part.]
[Footnote 8: See also p. 231.]
[Footnote 9: P. 145.]
[Footnote 10: P. 301.]
[Footnote 11: It is possible that the freezing of the surface may play a curious part in the phenomena of the spring season in such caves. Supposing the surface to be completely frost-bound, all atmospheric pressure will be removed from the upper surface of the water in the long fissures, and thus water may be held in suspension, in the centre of large masses of fissured rock, during the winter months. The first thorough thaw will have the same effect as the removal of the thumb from the upper orifice in the case of the hand-shower-bath; and the water thus rained down into the cave will have a temperature sufficiently high to destroy some portion of the cold stored up by the descent of the heavy atmosphere of winter, or at least to melt out the ice which may have blocked up the lower ends of the fissures.]
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CHAPTER II.
THE GLACI��RE OF S. GEORGES, IN THE JURA.
The best way of reaching this glaci��re from Geneva would be to take the steamer to Rolle, or the train to one of the neighbouring stations, between Geneva and Lausanne, and thence pass up the slope of the Jura by the road which leads through Gimel. For the train, the Allaman station would be the most convenient, as an omnibus runs from Allaman to Aubonne, where the poste for Gimel may be caught. But from Arzier there is a short cut of less than two hours along the side of the hills, leaving that village by a deep gorge not unfitly named _L'Enfer_, and a dark wood which retains an odour of more savage bygone times in its name of the 'Bear's Wood,' as containing a cavern where an old bear was detected in the act of attempting to winter.[12]
The village of S. Georges has very respectable accommodation for a single traveller, au Cavalier. The common day-room will be found untenable by most Englishmen, however largely they may delight in rough quarters; but there is a double-bedded room at the end of a bricked passage up-stairs, which serves well for bedroom and sitting-room in one. The chief drawback in this arrangement is, that the landlady inexorably removes all washing apparatus during the day, holding that a pitcher and basin are unseemly ornaments for a sitting-room. The deal table, of course, serves both for dressing and for feeding purposes, but it is fortunately so long that an end can be devoted to each; and on the whole it is possible to become considerably attached to the room, with its three airy windows, and the cool unceasing hum of a babbling fountain in the village-street below. The Auberge is a large building, with a clock-tower of considerable height, containing the clock of the commune: as soon as the candle is put out at night, it becomes painfully evident that a rectangular projection in one corner of the room is in connection with this tower, and in fact forms a part of the abode of the pendulum, which plods on with audible vigour, growing