EEVIEWS. 
643 
ICE-CAVE EXPLORATIONS* 
C LEARLY there are other means of obtaining a reputation at the risk 
of breaking one’s bones besides those in vogue among the members of 
that wonderfully insane and unprofitable body the Alpine Club. In the volume 
before us the author records his experience, not in clambering up Matterhorns, 
but in descending into the bowels of the earth. Let it not be thought, however, 
that the latter is much easierthan the former. Those who know anything of ordi- 
nary caverns, and the difficulties of getting through them, andstiU more of getting 
out of them, may form some faint idea of what they should have to undergo in 
an ice-cavern. The Rev. C. F. Browne records the results of his explorations 
of the latter in the book lying upon our table, and truly he deserves great 
credit for his courage. This we should not award him, were his powers of 
daring merely exhibited after the manner of those who belong to his club ; but 
Mr. Browne, while exposing himself to perils not much inferior to those ex- 
perienced in ascending gigantic mountains, has really given more than a mite 
to science. Fancy leaving a glorious noonday sun, and with a couple of peasants 
as one’s assistants, spending a whole afternoon in exploring the depths of 
some cavern, a single false step in which might send you to eternity ; 
digging steps out of the huge walls of ice, and striving to investigate sur- 
rounding objects by the misty illumination of a torch ! Such an occupation 
is at all events one congenial to the heart of Mr. Browne ; and though we 
certainly do not envy his tastes, we are thankful for his labours. His volume 
embraces a number of well-written and exciting narratives, and contains two 
chapters — those on the causes of subterranean ice, and on the prismatic 
structure of the ice in glaciers — which are very valuable. The latter is 
especially of interest, ?:a we commend it to the notice of our readers, 
although we do not coincide in the opinion of the writer that ice-prisms are 
similar in point of origin to the prismatic forms produced in ordinary mud, 
the latter appearing to us to be devoid of symmetry and uniformity. Mr. 
Browne’s book is a good one ; and while we wish it every success, we venture 
to express a hope that its author may soon give us a further account of his 
inquiries. 
“ Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland. A Narrative of Subterranean 
Exploration.” By the Rev. J. F. Browne, M.A., Fellow of St. Catherine’s 
College, Cambridge, and Member of the Alpine Club. London : Longman 
& Co. 1865. 
