Prof. Pictet on the Ice-caves of the Jura and the Alps. 5 
which has the privilege of retailing it, part of its revenue being 
derived from this monopoly. 
After climbing for three quarters of an hour by paths, which 
are practicable for horses accustomed to the mountain, we reach- 
ed an esplanade, called Le Grand Pre, where we found a cot- 
tage, from which the view is magnificent. Under the eye lay 
the lake of Geneva in its full extent, presenting its true geogra- 
phical form ; and behind it, the chain of the Alps, crowned by 
Mont Blanc, terminated the picture. We found by the baro- 
meter, that we had ascended 143 toises from the village, or 424 
from the lake. 
We continued to ascend for some minutes longer, and soon 
reached the most elevated point of the path ; from thence we 
descended a little, in order to arrive at the ice-cave, the entrance 
of. which we found, by the barometer, to be 427 toises above the 
lake. It is situated in a wood of pines, thinly scattered, and the 
surface of which is unequal. We discovered on arriving, two 
natural pits, nearly circular, hollowed in the rock, beside each 
other, of -about twelve feet diameter, and separated by a space 
of about as many feet. 
It is by those pits, which lie to the right in looking towards 
the mountain, that you descend into the ice-cave by means of 
two ladders ; the first is almost vertical, the second is more in- 
clined, and they are composed of forty-six steps. Prom thence 
you enter the grotto, by a short inclined plane, which terminates 
in the mass of ice, horizontal, or nearly so, on which the work- 
men were employed, and which forms the bottom or floor of the 
icercave. 
In order to give an idea of the form of this cavern, we shall 
suppose, that, stopping at the entrance, we look at it in the di- 
rection of its length, a direction nearly perpendicular to that of 
the chain of the J ura. The half of the vault, to the left, will 
then present the appearance of the quarter of a tolerably regu- 
lar ellipsoid, which will be seen in the direction of its greater 
axis, and abruptly cut throughout all its length, as if the half to 
the right, that which answers to the vertical of the spectator, 
was separated from it, and was lost in the bottom of the grotto, 
to an unknown depth, because it is full of ice. The height of 
the highest point of this half hemisphere, above the actual sur- 
