'Reseatchei on Existing Glaciers. 245 



he had already remarlced, from the inquietude of Barry, that 

 some one was approaching the Hospice. 



** Those who have visited the Grimsel in summer will doubt- 

 less remember, that, in order to enter the vestibule, it is ne- 

 cessary to ascend a stair about seven feet high. Now, to give 

 an idea of the quantity of snow which was accumulated round 

 the house, it is sufficient for me to state, that, in place of ascend- 

 ing to the vestibule, we descended there by a stair which Jaun 

 had cut in the snow. The lake of the Grimsel was completely 

 invisible, for an uniform bed of snow extended over it, and 

 did not even allow its limits to be recognised. But the stream 

 which issues from it, although more abundant than we should 

 have expected, was only visible in the interior of the building, 

 whose floor it traverses. It is well known that the spring 

 which gives rise to this lake, like many other springs in the 

 Alps, is a thermal one. We were not, therefore, astonished 

 to find the water at some degrees above zero (32^ F.) We 

 were subsequently assured by M. Zybach that the lake never 

 freezes, whatever the degree of cold may be, and that even 

 the enormous bed of snow does not rest on a crust of ice, but 

 extends over the surface of the water ; and he added, that, 

 on sinking a rod through the snow, the water spouted to the 

 surface. We were entirely ignorant of this peculiarity, or 

 we should not have failed to investigate it. Perhaps other 

 naturalists may find an opportunity of doing so. 



*' The first thing we did on our arrival was to place our 

 thermometers. M. Agassiz sank a minimum thermometer 

 in a hole pierced in the snow to a depth of five feet, while 

 another thermometer was fixed at the surface. We were as- 

 tonished to find that at seven o'clock in the evening the tempe- 

 rature of the air was not lower than — 4° C. (+ 24° 8 F.), al- 

 though the sky was perfectly serene. We were very desirous 

 to ascertain the humidity of the atmosphere, but, to our great 

 vexation, our hygrometer had been broken during our journey. 



" We went to bed at an early hour, immediately after sup- 

 per ; having decided to start for the Ahschwung the following 

 morning at four o'clock. Our guides made us still hope that 

 perhaps the cold of the night might be sufficiently great to 

 cause the snow to bear us, which would considerably facilitate 



