“End of the description of the marvel, called the Froidiere.”
The next notice about the Glacière de Chaux-les-Passavant is by Gollut in 1592, as follows:—
“Ices in
summer.”
“I do not wish however to omit (since I am in these waters) to bring to mind the commodity, which nature has given to some dainty men, since at the bottom of a mountain of Leugné ice is found in summer, for the pleasure of those who wish to drink cool. Nevertheless at this time, this is disappearing, for no other reason (as I think) except, that they have despoiled the top of the mountain, of a thick and high mass of woods, which did not permit that the rays of the sun came to warm the earth, and dry up the distillations, which slipped down to the lowest and coldest part of the mountain where (by antiperistase) the cold got thicker, and contracted itself against the heats surrounding and in the neighborhood during the whole summer, all the external circumference of the mountain.”
The ice at Chaux-les-Passavant is said to have been entirely cleared out, by the Duc de Lévi, in 1727, for the use of the Army of the Saone. In 1743, when de Cossigny visited the cave, the ice was formed again. There are no reports about the intervening time between 1727 and 1743. The ice probably all re-formed the winter after it was taken away.
Captain Trouillet in 1885 writes of Chaux-les-Passavant: "The following winter had shown itself unfavorable to the production of ice, the periods of humidity preceding too long ahead the periods of frost. Finally last summer, coming after a wet spring, was exceptionally warm. Such were the circumstances which brought about in the glacière the ruin which could be seen at the end of last October. * * * On the 11th of November, the first effects of frost are felt and the temperature falls in the glacière to -2°: outside the thermometer drops to -3°. On the morning of the 12th, same result, and ice makes its appearance in the grotto, as the report of the observer shows: but the quantity produced is so small that the internal thermometer soon goes above 0°. It is only on the 9th of December that the frost wins definitely; on the 11th, 12th and 13th the chill is intense and reaches -19° outside, stopping at -15° in the glacière. The water coming from the rains between the 5th and the 9th drip at this time through the roof and the big side crevasse: circumstances grow favorable and the ice accumulates. From the 17th, the entrance slope becomes almost impracticable; the icicles grow on the roof, as big as the body of a man. * * * From this time to the end of December, the ice sheet does not increase, for water only arrives by the rare drip of the roof, and only the stalactites increase slowly. Outside, however, the cold continues vigorously, the thermometer on the 31st of December dropping to -15° and to -13° in the glacière. If the production of the ice stops, it is not the cold which is wanting, but the other element, the one which as our former study showed, is the most rarely exact at the meeting. The winter is only favorable on condition that it offers alternating periods of freezing and thawing; so the observer writes in his report: 'it is the water which is wanting, otherwise the glacière would be magnificent.'"
Trouillet speaks of the difficulty of winter observations in the following words: “Mons. Briot, the present lessor of the glacière, has the unpaid mission of going every week to the bottom of the grotto to get and put in place the interior thermometer. It is a really hard piece of work at this time of the year: each journey takes about one hour. Besides the chance that a visitor has of receiving on his head one of those magnificent stalactites 1 meter or 2 meters long which fall continually from the roof, it is perfectly disagreeable to him to arrive at the base of the slope otherwise than on the sole of his boots, and to face thus the frequent and painful meeting with rocks whose angular edges dot the surface of the descent, smooth as a mirror set at an angle of 30°.”
Trouillet and Girardot obtained a series of observations with maxima and minima thermometers at Chaux-les-Passavant during the winter of 1885-1886. At the end of November the temperature inside was +2°. On the 2d of December it rose to +2.5°. On the 10th of December, it sank to -1°, and after this date, it remained below freezing point all winter. The observations were not continuous, but they showed that every time the temperature outside dropped considerably, the temperature inside immediately did likewise. For instance, on the 12th of January, the outside air dropped to -18°, and the inside air responded by falling to -15°. On the other hand, when the temperature outside rose above freezing point, the temperature inside remained stationary or fluctuated only gently. For instance, from the 24th of March to the 8th of April, the outside air went up and down perpetually, the extremes being -2° and +16°; while in the same time the inside air rose continuously from -2° to -0.5°.
Windholes and Ice Formations near Gérardmer, Vosges. (Rozet, in Encyclopédie Moderne, Didot Frères, Paris, 1853, vol. XVI., page 503.)
L’Abime du Creux-Percé or Glacière de Pasques. (Martel, Les Abimes, 1894, page 394; Annuaire du Club Alpin Français, vol. XIX., page 38.)—On the plateau of Langres, Côte d’Or. It lies 15 kilometers from Dijon, and is really a limestone rock gorge, of 55 meters in depth, which at the top is 40 meters long and 20 meters wide, and at the bottom is 15 meters long and 12 meters wide. In March 1892, Mons. Martel found the north side covered with large icicles 15 meters long. The ice seems to remain throughout the year. The bottom of the Abime has been reached only by means of two long rope ladders.