300 Report of the Researches of M, Agassiz. 



tion. We were naturally curious to know if these blue bands 

 penetrated far into the interior of the glacier, and it was his 

 interest in this point that led M. Agassiz to descend one of the 

 pits of the glacier to the depth of 120 feet. I shall extract 

 the following passage from his paper in the Edinburgh Philo- 

 sophical Journal, which relates to his descent, which we were 

 in the habit of calling his descente aux enfers. 



" It was toward the termination of our residence on the 

 glacier, when we had finished our boring, and were preparing 

 to depart, that, while discussing the phenomena we had ob- 

 served, one of the party remarked, that it would perhaps be 

 easy to descend, without danger, into some one of the pits of 

 the glacier, and that, perhaps, some unexpected appearances 

 might thus be observed. We all joined in this opinion, and 

 without delay commenced seeking for a pit suited for the 

 purpose. These pits, as I have remarked in my Etudes sur 

 LES Glaciers, are probably old crevasses, which a small stream 

 of water has prevented from being completely closed ; so that, 

 instead of being of an elongated form, they are, on the con- 

 trary, for the most part circular, and the rivulet, far from con- 

 tracting them, tends, especially when considerable, to enlarge 

 them more and more. We found one of these pits at some dis- 

 tance from our hut, which seemed well adapted for our object ; 

 its mouth had a diameter of eight feet, and it seemed to pe- 

 netrate vertically to a great depth. I resolved, accordingly, 

 to descend ; and to accomplish this, it was necessary, first, to 

 cut off the stream, by making another channel for it. We set 

 all hands to work ; and when the new bed was formed, I sent 

 my men to procure the tripod, whicli had been used for the 

 boring operations, and placed it over the pit. A board, ^on 

 which I was to sit, was fixed to the end of the rope, and I was 

 secured to that rope by a strap, which passed under my arms, 

 so that my hands were left free. In order to protect me from 

 the water, which we were not able to turn off completely, the 

 guides covered my shoulders with a goat's skin, and put a 

 marmot-skin cap on my head. Thus accoutred, I descended, 

 provided with a hammer and a staff. My friend Escher was 

 to direct the descent, and for this purpose he lay forward on his 

 face, with his ear hanging over the side, the better to hear 



