CHAPTER I.
THE GLACIERE OF LA GENOLLIERE, IN THE JURA.
In the summer of 1861, I found myself, with some members of my family, in a small rustic _pension_ in the village of Arzier, one of the highest villages of the pleasant slope by which the Jura passes down to the Lake of Geneva.

The son of the house was an intelligent man, with a good knowledge of the natural curiosities which abound in that remarkable range of hills, and under his guidance we saw many strange things.

More than once, he spoke of the existence of a _glaciere_ at no great distance, and talked of taking us to see it; but we were sceptical on the subject, imagining that _glaciere_ was his patois for _glacier_, and knowing that anything of the glacier kind was out of the question.

At last, however, on a hot day in August, we set off with him, armed, at his request, with candles; and, after two or three hours of pine forests, and grass glades, and imaginary paths up rocky ranges of hill towards the summits of the Jura, we came to a deep natural pit, down the side of which we scrambled.

At the bottom, after penetrating a few yards into a chasm in the rock, we discovered a small low cave, perfectly dark, with a flooring of ice, and a pillar of the same material in the form of a headless woman, one of whose shoulders we eventually carried off, to regale our parched friends at Arzier.