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Title: Glacières
or Freezing Caverns
Author: Edwin Swift Balch
Release Date: June 2, 2016 [EBook #52216]
Language: English
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GLACIÈRES
OR
FREEZING CAVERNS
[Illustration: ICE SLOPE AND BASIN, KOLOWRATSHÖHLE.]
GLACIÈRES
OR
FREEZING CAVERNS
BY
EDWIN SWIFT BALCH
A. B. (Harvard); F. R. G. S.
Member of the Franklin Institute
Of the Appalachian Mountain Club
Of the American Philosophical Society
Author of "Mountain Exploration," &c.
Philadelphia
ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT
1900
Copyright, 1900, by
EDWIN SWIFT BALCH.
Press of
ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT,
Philadelphia, Pa.
THIS BOOK IS
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO
MY MOTHER,
WHOSE DEEP INTEREST IN
MY WORK HAS
HELPED ME GREATLY.
PRELIMINARY NOTE.
Many kind friends have given me information about glacières or
assistance in my work. I am especially indebted to Mr. Robert Butler,
of San José, Cal.; Mr. F. H. Cushing, of Washington, D. C.; Professor
Charles E. Fay, of Tufts College, Mass.; Professor Eberhard Fugger, of
Salzburg, Austria; Mr. Alois F. Kovarik, of Decorah, Iowa; Monsieur
E. A. Martel, of Paris, France; Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., of Boston,
Mass.; Professor I. C. Russell, of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Miss H. Varena,
of Wiesbaden, Germany; and Miss Mary Coxe, Mr. G. L. Farnum, Mr. J.
E. Farnum, Mr. F. L. Garrison, Mr. W. C. Hall, Mr. E. I. H. Howell,
Mrs. Horace Jayne, Mr. W. E. Meehan, Mr. C. J. Nicholson, Mr. G. B.
Phillips, Mr. Bunford Samuel, Mr. W. W. Wagner, and Dr. W. H. Wahl, of
Philadelphia. I wish to acknowledge also the help I have derived from
the Bibliothèque Nationale and the library of the British Museum.
E. S. B.
Philadelphia, February the 10th, 1900.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Part I. Experiences in Glacières 1
Part II. The Causes of Subterranean Ice 109
Part III. List of Glacières 165
Part IV. Some Opinions about Glacières 269
Part V. List of Authors 313
Index 329
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Ice Slope and Basin, Kolowratshöhle Frontispiece
Glacière de Chaux-les-Passavant 8
Ice Stalagmites, Chaux-les-Passavant 10
Vertical Section of Chaux-les-Passavant 11
Ice Stalagmites, Chaux-les-Passavant 12
Vertical Section of Dóbsina 15
The Lower Rositten Alp and the Untersberg 16
The Entrance of the Kolowratshöhle 18
Vertical Section of the Kolowratshöhle 19
Top of Ice Slope, Kolowratshöhle 20
At the Entrance of the Schafloch 22
Hollow Cones and Fissure Columns, Schafloch 24
On the Ice Slope, Schafloch 26
In the Rear of the Schafloch 28
Vertical Section of Déményfálva 29
The Frauenmauer and the Gsoll Alp 38
In the Frauenmauerhöhle 40
Vertical Section of the Frauenmauerhöhle 42
Ice Stalactite, Frauenmauerhöhle 42
Vertical Section of the Suchenreuther Eisloch 57
La Glacière de Saint-Georges 62
Vertical Section of the Glacière de Saint-Georges 64
Vertical Section of Grand Cave de Montarquis 72
The Bluff at Decorah 86
Entrance of the Cave of Decorah 88
Locus Glacialis, Cave of Decorah 90
Gorge at Ellenville 92
Vertical Section of Pit near Summit 97
Vertical Section of Freezing Cave near Williamstown 103
Vertical Section of a Windhole 125
Freezing Cavern at Brainard 180
PART I.
EXPERIENCES IN GLACIÈRES.
EXPERIENCES IN GLACIÈRES.
SUBTERRANEAN ICE IN KING'S RAVINE.
Subterranean ice was brought to my notice by a mere accident, late in
the month of September, 1877, while on a descent of King's Ravine,
on Mount Adams, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We had just
descended the rock wall of the mountain and had reached the head of
the gorge, when my companion, Mr. Charles E. Lowe, the well-known
Appalachian guide of Randolph, suddenly said to me, "Would you like a
piece of ice? I can get you some presently." I answered, "Certainly,"
wondering where he would find any. When we got among the big boulders,
which form so rough a path for the traveler at the bottom of the
ravine, Mr. Lowe climbed down under one of the biggest, and presently
reappeared with a good sized lump of ice. I was much impressed at
finding ice at the end of the summer in this gorge, when for months
past no ice or snow had been visible on the surrounding mountains. I
noticed also the peculiar, flaky formation of the ice, and saw at once
that it was something new to me, and in fact it was a piece of what I
have since learned to know as "prismatic ice."
GLACIÈRE NEAR BRISONS.
In the summer of the year 1880, I traveled through the Alps, with a
friend from Philadelphia. On the 17th of September, we drove from
Geneva to Bonneville. Thence we started on foot without a guide, and as
a result got lost in the woods, from which we only extricated ourselves
at nightfall. After retracing our steps to Bonneville, we were glad to
find a man to show us the way we should have taken, and finally reached
the little village of Brisons in France, where we slept. The next day
we took a guide and made our way across the mountains to Annecy, at
one spot going out of our direct route to see a place spoken of by the
natives as a glacière. It was a little pit, and at the base of one
side thereof was the mouth of a small cave into which we could not see
any distance. At the bottom of the pit lay a mass of dirty snow and
ice to which we did not descend, as the sides of the pit were sheer
and smooth, and there was no ladder. This pit seemed to be more of
the nature of a gully filled with winter snow, than a true rock cave
containing ice.
THE GLACIÈRE DE L'HAUT-D'AVIERNOZ.
Three days after this, on Tuesday, the 21st of September, 1880, we
visited the two largest glacières on the Mont Parmelan, near Annecy,
France. At Annecy we inquired at the hotel for a man who knew the Mont
Parmelan; and, after finding one, we made our way to Les Villaz, where
we spent the night in an _auberge_. Our companion was an odd personage.
He was small, about fifty years of age, and looked meek, crushed and
hungry. He wore a long black frock coat and black trousers, thin boots
and a linen shirt, certainly not the ideal outfit for a cave explorer.
Under his care we started early in the morning and toiled up a mountain
path some eight hundred or a thousand meters,[1] through woods and
pastures, to the higher plateau of Mont Parmelan, in which was situated
the first glacière. This was in a great pit, at the bottom of which,
on one side, was a big cave. On the side of the pit opposite to the
opening, there was a steep rock slope, forty or fifty meters long,
whose lower portion was covered with snow. Down this slope we descended
with but little difficulty, reaching at the bottom an almost level ice
floor which spread over the entire cave and was formed throughout of
thick, solid ice. A second and much smaller pit in the roof of the cave
opened directly over the ice floor; and under this pit rose a small
cone of ice, some two meters high, the only one in this glacière.
[1] The metric system is used throughout this book, except in a few
quotations. Thermometric observations are given in degrees Centigrade.
The glacière itself was approximately round in shape, and some twenty
meters in diameter. At one place the rock wall was broken and we could
look into a much smaller inner cave or chamber. Into this we could not
penetrate on account of a long, narrow crack or hole which yawned in
the ice floor for a distance of some five or six meters and continued
through the opening into the second chamber. We tried to cut our way
along the side of the hole, but had to give it up, finding the ice
too hard and our time too short. The crack or hole, whose sides were
solid ice, proved conclusively that the ice in this glacière was many
meters in thickness, for we could look a long way down into the hole,
certainly for ten or twelve meters, until the ice sides disappeared in
darkness, without any visible bottom. The hole cannot be spoken of as
a crevasse, for, besides not looking like a crevasse, it was certainly
formed by other causes than those which form the crevasses in glaciers,
since there is, as a rule, no perceptible movement in subterranean
ice. Doubtless, the hole was due to the drainage of the cave, which
undoubtedly passed off through the hole. There may be, nevertheless,
some little motion in the ice of this glacière, for it is evident that
it is fed principally directly by the winter snows; which, whether as
frozen or melted snow, descend gradually, by the force of gravitation,
from the slope of the pit into the glacière.
As for any possibility of this great mass of ice melting away and
forming again in any one year, it passes belief; there must be at least
the cubic contents of a dozen ordinary houses in the cave, and such a
mass could hardly be destroyed or formed again in any such short space
of time as a fall or spring. This is, therefore, probably a permanent
or perennial glacière.
THE GLACIÈRE DE CHAPUIS.
Starting out from the Glacière de l'Haut-d'Aviernoz we walked across
the plateau of the Mont Parmelan, _en route_ for the second glacière.
This plateau is a curious rock formation, consisting of what the
natives call _lapiaz_, which might be translated "stone-heaps." The
plateau is full of great projecting rocks; and myriads of cracks
and crevices everywhere rend the surface, and over these crevices
one sometimes has to jump. Still, I do not remember any particular
difficulty. It was certainly not nearly as bad walking as the taluses
of loose rocks one meets at the base of many mountains.
Our guide led us for about an hour across the plateau in a southerly
direction, and then, looking over the side of the Parmelan, with a
sweep of the arm covering south, west and north, he told us that the
glacière lay between those points, but he did not know exactly where.
This seemed a rather hopeless prospect, so, as we had no clue to the
whereabouts of our prospective hole, we descended to a couple of
châlets we saw some two hundred meters below, but which at least were
in the direction of Annecy. We followed a goat-herd's path which led
to the châlets from the plateau, one of those dangerous grass tracks,
where nothing would be easier than to make a slip, and where a bad
slip might have unpleasant results. This is, however, just the kind
of place where every one is particularly careful not to slip. We were
careful and so reached the châlets all right, and there we found a
strong, intelligent boy, who at once pointed out the place where the
glacière was, about half way up the slope we had just come down. So we
took him with us, leaving our guide at the châlets to await our return.
The entrance to the glacière was in a wall of rock, set at an angle of
some thirty-five degrees; at the bottom of this there was some grass.
An easy chimney some fifteen meters high led up to the glacière. Up
this chimney we climbed. At the top we entered a little cave about
two meters deep, by a sort of portal about two meters wide. The cave
made an elbow to the right, and passing this we found that it turned
to the left and pointed directly into the mountain. The rock went
down vertically in front of us, but the boy said we could get down,
so having first lowered a candle by a string to see the depth, which
turned out to be a perpendicular drop of some four or five meters,
with the help of the rope we all climbed down. We were already almost
entirely away from the daylight and a few steps took us into complete
darkness, except for the light we had from the candle each of us held
in his hand.
The fissure led straight into the mountain. It was a couple of meters
wide at places, and there we moved along the bottom. In one place it
narrowed below to a wedge, and there we progressed either by climbing
along one side or by placing one foot on one side and the other
foot on the other. The fissure led downwards as well as inwards. It
would have been nothing in daylight to go through it; but in the
semi-darkness it was not easy.
After a descent of some twenty-five meters or thereabouts, we arrived
at the glacière, and I have certainly never seen a weirder place. There
was a great arched rock dome, perhaps six meters in height, and some
twelve in diameter; the floor was a sheet of smooth, slippery ice, at
one end curling over, gently at first, afterwards more steeply, to a
lower depth; and on the sides were seven or eight ice columns streaming
from cracks in the rocks to the floor. Each of these columns was some
three or four meters high, and, small at the top and in the middle,
spread out at the base into the shape of fans. In the dim candle light
and the cold damp atmosphere, the columns loomed up like so many
ghosts, and the landscape impression was strange and solemn. The air
here seemed perfectly still.
There was another curiosity. The fissure we had come down, at this
point some three meters wide, was filled, just beyond the glacière,
with pure, transparent water, which formed a little lake: this was
perhaps one meter deep, and extended across the fissure, barring
further progress. It certainly seems strange that in the same cavern,
under nearly the same conditions of temperature, there should be one
place covered with a flooring of ice and another filled with water. The
explanation, however, is perhaps not far to seek. Over the lake there
was a distinct draught of air. The draught probably melts the ice in
summer, if indeed it does not prevent any from forming in winter. There
are, so far, no winter observations reported of this cave, yet it would
seem to be one which would well repay the trouble.
THE GLACIÈRE DE CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT.
On the 17th of August, 1894, my brother and I arrived at Besançon,
the Vesontio of the Romans, bent on seeing the Glacière de
Chaux-les-Passavant or de la Grâce-Dieu, which is not far distant
from the town. The hotel we stopped at was pretty bad; the beds were
surmounted with those old-fashioned curtains which were of use before
the invention of glass windows, but which now only serve to exclude air
and ventilation. However, I learnt something of the manners and customs
of the country, for on getting down at six o'clock the next morning
for breakfast, the first question the waiter asked was: _Quel vin
monsieur prendra-t-il?_ At seven o'clock we sallied forth in a little
open one-horse victoria, with a dull gray sky overhead. Besançon is
well down in a valley, so the first five miles of the road were a slow,
gradual rise to the surrounding levels. The scenery as we drove along
reminded us of Turner's pictures: distant vistas of hills and valleys
with factories blowing off their smoke and with tumble-down old houses
ensconced in picturesque nooks, just those long-distance effects that
Turner loved to paint and which, for some reason, the artists of the
present generation have generally neglected and usually speak of as
unpaintable or unpicturesque. There was a row of trees, the whole way,
on each side of the road, a bit of practical forestry, the wisdom of
which it would be well for Americans to recognize. After our poor horse
had pulled us up the long hills, we had an almost level road running in
a straight line as far as the eye could see. We saw at least a hundred
little hawks, who live on field mice and other rodents, and whose
preservation is another evidence of French wisdom. The last four miles
of the drive was up a ravine in the woods, near the beginning of which
we passed the Trappist convent of la Grâce-Dieu.
[Illustration: GLACIÈRE DE CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT.
From a Photograph by E. Mauvillier.
]
Opposite the entrance of the glacière, there is a little restaurant
where the peasants come to dance and picnic, and where the few
travellers who get to these parts, can obtain a tolerable _déjeuner_.
They keep a fair _vin du pays_ there, and we had some trouble on the
way home in consequence. Our driver, a talkative specimen of the genus
and an old soldier of Bourbaki's, told us, on the way out, many things
about Besançon during the Franco-German war and of the retreat of the
French army into Switzerland; but on the way home, he showed that he
evidently was not a member of the blue ribbon army. He first seemed
desirous of not taking us back to Besançon, preferring to go in the
other direction towards Bale; and afterwards he evinced a violent
inclination to go to sleep. We thought we should have to request him
to change seats with us, and drive back ourselves, but we obviated the
difficulty by plying him with questions as soon as he began to nod on
his box. Eventually, we reached Besançon all right, only once bumping a
passing cart, and only once nearly capsizing into a ditch. If Americans
can learn some points from Europeans about forestry, I think the latter
might get some equally valuable information from us concerning the use
of water, externally and internally.
The good lady at the restaurant acts the part of the old-fashioned
cave dragon, and we had to appease her by handing over four _sous_ as
a preliminary to exploration. She also had a sign up, saying that no
one is allowed to break off or take away any ice, which must sadly
interfere with the tourists' privilege of bringing away specimens.
The entrance of the glacière was surrounded by woods, which formed
a natural rampart to anything like wind. As we stood facing the
glacière a great pit opened before us, with a slope about one hundred
and thirty-five meters long leading to the bottom. This slope is at
first gentle in its gradient, but lower down it steepens to an angle
of some thirty degrees so that we were glad to resort to the trail
which descends in regular Alpine zigzags. In one place, on the right
hand, there were the remains of a stone wall with a door, and local
tradition relates that in former times there was a sort of fortified
habitation there, which was used in war times as a place of retreat.
The lower part of the slope is covered by a protecting roof of rock
which, thin at the rim where it is edged with forest, gradually slopes
downward overhead so that at the mouth of the glacière we looked back
and up what might be described as an immense tunnel. The lower part
of the slope was a mixture of broken rocks, mud and ice: the last,
however, seemed to be all on the surface, although it was impossible to
determine whether it went to any depth.
[Illustration: ICE STALAGMITES, CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT.
From a Photograph by E. Mauvillier.
]
At the base of the tunnel we found ourselves on the threshold of an
immense, almost circular cave, with a diameter of some fifty meters,
rising overhead into a regular vault or dome about twenty-seven meters
in height. The entrance to the cave is so large that plenty of daylight
is admitted, and the whole cave easily examined. The rocks are of a
yellowish brown hue, and I could not help thinking of Nibelheim in
Richard Wagner's Rheingold.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.[2] Vertical Section of Chaux-les-Passavant.]
[2] The figures in this book are rough sketches, without pretense at
accuracy of measurement, and are only explanatory of the text.
The bottom of the cave was entirely covered with a flooring of ice. How
thick this flooring was there was no means of judging, as there were
no holes, but it must have been at least two or three meters thick in
places. At the back of the cavern, directly facing the entrance, one
magnificent frozen water fall streamed from a fissure. It was perhaps
five meters high, and began to take the fan shape from its origin. The
base was about four meters wide, and did not rest on the ice floor, but
on a sloping rock extending out from the side of the cave.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of all, were six or seven great ice
stalagmites, shaped like cones or rough pyramids, which rose on the
floor of the cave. One of these was at least five meters in diameter
and six in height, and seemed perfectly solid. In the case of two of
the others, however, the cones were broken on one side, revealing in
each the stem and branches of a young pine tree. These evidently had
been planted in the ice and round them the columns had grown. Whether
all the ice cones were thus artificial in their origin I could not
determine, but it seemed probable that they were the result of years of
undisturbed accretion and growth. In both the cones where the break on
the side gave a view into the interior, the dark blue-green color of
deep glacier crevasses was present.
A pool of water, perhaps thirty centimeters in depth and three or four
meters in diameter, lay at one place on the ice floor. The whole cave
was damp and the ice in places decidedly slushy, in fact all the signs
showed that it was thawing. In the case of this glacière as well as
in those of the Mont Parmelan, it seemed clear that it must be in the
winter months that the formation of ice takes place.
[Illustration: ICE STALAGMITES, CHAUX-LES-PASSAVANT.
From a Photograph by E. Mauvillier.
]
DÓBSINA JEGBARLANG.
The cavern of Dóbsina, in the Carpathian Mountains, is easily reached
either from Poprád to the north, or from Dóbsina to the south. The
hotel at Poprád is better, however, than the inn at Dóbsina, where
my brother and I spent two nights. It was decidedly primitive. The
food was not so bad, but the pigs ran round in the courtyard, and one
morning a gypsy band woke us at half-past three o'clock by playing
in front of our windows, in dreadful wailing tones, which were most
irritating at that hour. At the proper time, however, Hungarian gypsy
music,--despite the fact that none of the players ever seem to look at
the leader, and that each man appears to play the tune he likes the
best,--is strangely fascinating.
Dóbsina itself lies in a hollow, surrounded with well-wooded hills, the
general appearance much resembling some of the valleys of the White
Mountains of New Hampshire. My brother and I started from Dóbsina on
the morning of the 27th of July, 1895, at half-past seven o'clock, in
a little open carriage with excellent horses and a Hungarian driver in
national costume. He was a nice fellow, but he did not understand a
word of German. The road reminded us of some of our own mountain roads,
as it was rough, full of holes and partly washed away by the rains. We
first ascended to the crest of the surrounding hills and then descended
to the Stracena Thal, a wild limestone valley covered with fine
forest. Two hours and a half driving landed us at the hotel-restaurant
near the cave, at which I should certainly stop on another visit. It
was half an hour's stroll thence, through beautiful woods, to the
cavern's entrance. Northwards in the distance the Tátra Range was
visible, a set of sharp bare rock peaks, at whose base, ensconced in
pine forests, is situated the famous Hungarian summer resort of Tátra
Füred, which much resembles Bar Harbor.
The entrance to the cavern is enclosed by a fence with a gate, and here
the Dóbsina people have a high tariff and take toll from tourists. At
the gate, we waited for half an hour, until a sufficient number of
persons had arrived to form a party. This mode of visiting the cave
rather detracts from the pleasure, even though it does away with all
difficulty and makes the beauties of Dóbsina accessible to everyone. It
was also necessary to wait long enough to cool off thoroughly before
entering, on account of the icy air of the cavern, where heavy winter
clothes are indispensable.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Vertical Section of Dóbsina.]
The entrance to Dóbsina faces nearly due north. It is small, perhaps
two meters wide and three meters high, and is perfectly sheltered
from any wind. The sudden drop in temperature at the entrance was
startling; in fact it was the most extreme change I have noticed in any
cave. Within the length of an ordinary room, say in a distance of five
meters, we passed from an extremely hot summer morning to the chill of
a mid-winter afternoon. A slight air current, perhaps, issued from the
entrance, as we observed a faint mist there. At the rock portal there
was ice on the rocks overhead, and underfoot was the beginning of the
huge mass of ice which almost fills the cavern. A descent down eighteen
wooden steps landed us at the beginning of a great ice floor, in what
is called the _Grosser Saal_. It is a magnificent cave. The floor is
a sheet or rather a mass of solid ice, the surface of which is level
enough in one place to permit of skating; in other spots it is sloping
and covered with small ice hillocks. The ice is solid throughout,
without any holes or cracks. Several fissure columns stream to the
floor from cracks in the sides. Joining the roof to the floor are
numerous big ice stalactites, which form frozen pillars and columns.
These are from eight to eleven meters in height, and some two to three
meters in average breadth and width. Nearly translucent, they are
covered with all sorts of icy ornaments hanging about them in tufts and
fringes; they are beautiful in their shapes, as well as in their white
and blue colors. One of these columns is called the _Brunnen_, because
until about ten years ago, a small stream dribbled continuously from
the roof and cut a channel across the ice floor; but now the stream has
solidified into the pillar, and the channel is filled up, although it
can still be traced in the ice.
The cavern is lighted by electricity, which has the merit, even if it
brings in an element of artificiality, of clearly revealing one of the
chief glories of Dóbsina. This is the rime or hoar frost, which in the
shape of ice or snow crystals, covers the entire limestone roof, and,
reflecting the electric light, shines like frosted silver. Some of
these frost crystals seem to be precipitated to the floor, and in one
place I found a small sheet of them, perhaps two meters in width each
way, which looked and felt like genuine snow. The general color effect
of all this upper cave is white, although there is some blue in the
ice, and gray and brown in the rocks and shadows. It would not be much
of a misnomer to call Dóbsina "the great white cave."
The ice extended to the sides of the cave except in two places. Here
there were holes in the ice, bridged by low rock arches. We passed
through one of these and descended by a wooden staircase some eighty
steps, afterwards returning up through the other arch by another
staircase. At the bottom we stood in a magnificent gallery named the
_Korridor_, formed by a solid wall of ice on one side and by a wall
of limestone rock on the other. The ice wall is the lower portion of
the ice floor; the rock wall is the continuation of the roof. For the
entire distance the ice wall rises almost perpendicularly some fifteen
meters in height, while the rock wall arches overhead.
[Illustration: THE LOWER ROSITTEN ALP AND THE UNTERSBERG.]
The bottom of the _Korridor_ was filled with blocks of fallen
limestone, through which any water drains off, and on which there was a
wooden walk, so that we circled round the ice with the greatest ease.
At one place on the limestone wall hung a cluster of big icicles,
which, from their shape really deserved the name they bear, of the
_Orgel_. At another place a hole, some six or seven meters deep, was
hewn, in the form of a small chamber, directly into the ice mass. This
is the _Kapelle_, where we performed our devotions by leaving our
visiting cards on the floor. Near the middle of the _Korridor_ the ice
mass bulges out and extends to the limestone wall, breaking the whole
_Korridor_ into two parts, the western portion about eighty meters, and
the eastern about one hundred and twenty meters long. This necessitated
cutting a tunnel about eight meters long in the ice to get through. The
color of the _Korridor_ is a darkish gray and is much more sombre than
that of the _Grosser Saal_. A remarkable feature of the ice wall is the
fact that distinct bands of stratification are visible in the ice in
many places. Why the _Korridor_ is not filled up with ice and why the
ice is perpendicular for such a distance are questions I am unable to
answer satisfactorily; but it is probable that the temperature of the
rock walls is sufficiently high to prevent ice from forming in winter
or to melt it in summer if it does form in winter.
The air in Dóbsina seemed still, and scarcely felt damp. In one or two
places in the _Grosser Saal_ there was a slight sloppiness, showing
incipient signs of thaw. In the _Korridor_ it was freezing hard.
THE KOLOWRATSHÖHLE.
The Kolowratshöhle is situated on the north slope of the Untersberg,
near Salzburg, at an altitude of 1391 meters. My brother and I visited
it on the 2d of August, 1895. We had one of the patented guides of the
district, Jacob Gruber by name, in regular Tyrolese dress, with gray
_jacke_ and black chamois knee breeches. We left Salzburg in the early
morning in an _einspänner_ and drove to the foot of the Untersberg in
about an hour, whence, by a rough path passing by the Rositten Alp, we
ascended to the cave in about three hours. The last hundred and sixteen
meters of the path were cut across some moderately steep rock slabs and
a perfectly unnecessary iron hand-railing affixed.
The entrance faces northeast. Here there must have been a slight
draught of cold air moving outwards, the effect of which was
perceptible to the eye, as at the point where the cold inside air
met the quiet warm outside air, a faint mist was visible. From the
entrance, a sharp slope, set at an angle of about forty degrees, led
to the lowest point of the cave. The upper half of this slope was
still covered with the winter snow which had blown or had slid in. We
descended on the right hand edge of the snow by means of some steps
cut in the rock by the _Deutschen-Oesterreichischen Alpen Club_.
These steps were covered with a sticky, red mud, which left almost
ineradicable stains on our clothing, and as there was also ice in
places, they were decidedly slippery.
[Illustration: THE ENTRANCE OF THE KOLOWRATSHÖHLE.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Vertical Section of the Kolowratshöhle.]
At the bottom of the slope we were at the lowest point of the cave,
to which all the water flowed, and where it drained off into a crack
with a loud gurgling noise. Back of us was the daylight streaming
through the entrance; opposite to us was first an ice floor, then a
great ice slope, which came down from the further end of the cave. The
ice was transparent and of a pale ochre-greenish hue, and filled the
entire width of the cave. There is a streak of iron, probably, through
the limestone, which in places tints the rocks a dull red. The color
impression is a dull green-red, and, on account of the size of the
entrance, the light effect is only semi-subterranean.
The ice floor was covered with a layer of slabs of ice, eight or ten
centimeters thick, which, earlier in the year, had evidently had water
under them. The ice wall or ice slope consisted of two big waves, one
above the other, the lower set at an angle of about ten degrees, the
upper set at an angle of about twenty-five degrees. To get up the upper
wave required about twelve steps cut with the axe. Behind the upper
wave, five or six fissure columns streamed out to the beginning of the
ice. One ice stalactite, at least two or three meters long, overhung
the ice floor, and Gruber said about this: "Well, I wonder it has not
fallen yet: they seldom last as late in the year," a confirmation of
what was clearly evident, namely, that the whole cave was in a state of
thaw.
In two places there was a strong, continuous drip from the roof to the
ice floor, which formed, in each case, what I can only call an ice
basin. These basins were nearly circular; one was about four meters,
the other about two, in diameter. Around about two-thirds of the rim
of the larger one, ice rose in a surrounding ring two or three meters
high, suggesting that earlier in the year this basin was a cone, and
possibly a hollow cone. The depth in the ice floor, in both cases,
was about one and a half meters, and each basin contained some thirty
centimeters in depth of water. They reminded me of the rock basins one
sees in mountain torrents, where an eddying current has worn smooth all
the edges of the rocks. From the larger of these basins, a channel as
deep as the basin ran to the lowest point of the cave. This channel was
cut out by the overflow, which ran through it in a tiny stream.[3]
[3] The photographs of the Rositten Alp, of the entrance of the
Kolowratshöhle, and of the interior of the Kolowratshöhle, were made
for me on the 16th of July, 1896, by Herr Carl Hintner, Jr., of
Salzburg. The two latter photographs are, I believe, the first good
ones ever obtained of the inside of the cave. They were taken without
artificial light on quick plates; the best of the two received an hour
and a half, the other two hours' exposure. The photographer said at
first that it was not possible to succeed, and it was only by promising
to pay him in any case, that he could be induced to try.
[Illustration: TOP OF ICE SLOPE, KOLOWRATSHÖHLE.]
THE SCHAFLOCH.
The Schafloch, on the Rothhorn, near the Lake of Thoune, is one of the
biggest glacières in the Alps. On the 15th of August, 1895, after early
coffee, made by the _portier_ of the Hotel Belvedère at Interlaken,
I drove to Merligen, on the north shore of the lake, with Emil Von
Allmen, an excellent guide. We left Merligen on foot at a quarter
before seven, and, making no stops on the way, reached the Schafloch at
ten minutes past ten. The path mounts gently up the Wüste Thal, which
higher up is called the Justiz Thal. The track through the latter is
almost on a level, over grassy alps. On the right hand rise the steep,
almost dolomitic, limestone cliffs of the Beatenberg. On the left is
the range of the Rothhorn, with steep grass and forest slopes below,
and limestone cliffs above. The last hour of the walk was up these
slopes, by what Baedeker calls a "giddy path." By leaving the word
"giddy" out, his description is accurate. The cavern is at the base of
the limestone cliff, and the grass slope extends up to it.
The entrance to the Schafloch is at an altitude of 1752 meters: it
is a fine archway, and a low wall is built partly across it. In
front of this, we sat down and consumed our chicken and cheese, and
that best of a traveller's drinks, cold tea. The day was windless,
and when I lighted a cigar, to see whether there was any draught at
the entrance, the smoke rose straight up, showing that the air was
perfectly still. When we were sufficiently cooled off, we entered the
cave. The entrance faces east-south-east, but after about ten meters
the cavern takes a sharp turn to the left, forming a sort of elbow,
and runs about due south, constantly descending in an almost straight
line. For the first eighty meters or so, the floor was covered with
blocks of fallen limestone, among which we had to carefully pick our
way. Then we began to find ice, which, a few meters further on, spread
out across the entire width of the cave, with a gentle slope towards
the left. The surface of the ice was rather soft, and the whole cave
was evidently in a state of thaw. A few scratches with the axe--the
most invaluable friend in an ice cave--were necessary at one place to
improve our footing. It would have been impossible to move here without
a light, and I carried our torch, made of rope dipped in pitch, which
occasionally dropped black reminders on my clothes. We were in the
middle of a great ice sheet to which several fissure columns streamed.
On the right hand a beautiful ice stalactite flowed from the roof to
the floor; it was some five meters high, and perhaps seventy-five
centimeters in diameter, and swelled out slightly at the base. On the
left hand were three or four ice stalagmites, shaped like pyramids or
cones.
[Illustration: AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE SCHAFLOCH.]
One of these cones was especially remarkable. It was at least five
meters high--Von Allmen said eight--and at the bottom was about four
meters in diameter. The base of this cone was entirely hollow. There
was a break on one side by which we could enter, and we then stood
on a rock floor with a small ice dome or vault overhead. I have seen
no other hollow cone like this. The guide lighted a red Bengal fire
inside, when the whole pyramid glowed with a delicate pink light,
resembling _Alpenglühn_. Near this cone stood the half of another
ice cone. It was quite perfect, and the missing half was cut off
perpendicularly, as if with a huge cleaver. A hollow in the base of
the remnant showed that this cone must have been originally also a
hollow cone, and its destruction was probably due to the change in the
temperature of the drip from the roof, at the setting in of the summer
thaw.
Just beyond the cones, the ice floor steepens and curls over into a
big ice slope, one of the finest I have seen. Von Allmen spoke of this
as _der gletscher_, an expression I never heard applied elsewhere to
subterranean ice. On the right side, the slope would be difficult
to descend in the darkness. On the left, the slope is gentle and a
rock juts out a little way down. Von Allmen insisted on roping--an
unnecessary safeguard--but he said: "If you slip, you will probably
break an arm or a leg, and then we shall be in a nice mess." He then
cut about twelve steps in the ice, down to the rock, while I shed light
on the performance with our torch. We were so completely away from
daylight that black was the predominating color; and even the ice was a
dark gray, and only appeared white in the high lights. Below the rock,
we found a narrow strip on the left side of the ice slope free from ice
and blocked with boulders, over which we carefully picked our way down.
At the bottom, the ice expanded into a level surface, stretching nearly
to the end of the cave. There were only a few fissure columns in this
part of the cavern, where the most remarkable feature was the cracks
in the rock walls, which were so regular in formation that they almost
looked like man's handiwork. The rocks are free from stalactites, and
in fact stalactites seem a good deal of a rarity in glacières.
On retracing our steps, we saw, when the first glimmers of daylight
became perceptible, the rocks assume a brilliant blue color, as if they
were flooded with moonlight. This effect lasted until near the mouth of
the cavern.
[Illustration: HOLLOW CONE AND FISSURE COLUMNS, SCHAFLOCH.]
DÉMÉNYFÁLVA JEGBARLANG.
A little west of Poprád, in Northern Hungary, on the railroad between
Sillein and Kassa, is the village of Liptós Szt Miklós, to which place
I journeyed on the 12th of June, 1896. The conductor was the only man
on the train or at any of the stations who would admit that there was a
glacière at Déményfálva, and that it was feasible to get into it: every
one else professed entire ignorance on the subject. It is perhaps,
worth noting at this time that it is always difficult to get any
information about glacières; in fact, the advice about cooking a hare
might well be applied to glacière hunting: first catch your glacière.
The scenery between Sillein and Miklós was picturesque. The hills were
covered with forest. In one place, the railroad ran through a beautiful
mountain gorge alongside a river, where a number of rafts were floating
down. There were also some primitive ferries, where a rope was
stretched across the river, and the force of the current carried the
ferryboat across, once it was started. Many peasants were at work in
the fields; often in squads. White, blue, brown, and a dash of red were
the predominating colors in their dress. The men wore white trousers,
made of a kind of blanket stuff, and a leather, heelless moccasin of
nearly natural shape. Almost all the women had bare feet; those of
the older ones were generally shaped according to Nature's own form,
while those of the younger ones were generally distorted from wearing
fashionable shoes. We went past several villages of huts with thatched
roofs, something like the Russian villages one sees beyond Moscow, only
less primitive.
The inn at Miklós was poor, and as at Dóbsina, the pigs lived in the
yard and occasionally came for an interview under the covered doorway.
Inquiries elicited the information that Déményfálva could be reached
by carriage, so I engaged one at the livery stable. The owner told me
that about twenty years before, he leased the glacière and carried on a
regular business in supplying Buda-Pest with ice. He had thirty lamps
put in to give light to the workmen, who brought up the ice in baskets
on their backs.
At half past five o'clock next morning the carriage, which was innocent
of paint, lined with a sort of basket work and without springs, but
certainly strongly built, stood at the door. A boy of about eighteen
years of age, who could speak German, went along as interpreter. The
morning was dismal, and, every quarter of an hour or so, a shower of
thick mist fell and gradually made us damp and uncomfortable. After
about twenty minutes on a pretty bad road, we came to a place where
there was a fork, and the driver turned to the left, over a track which
consisted of two deep ruts through the fields. Soon after, we heard
some shouting behind us, and a fierce-looking man, in a leather jacket
and carrying a large axe, came up and abused the driver. He was not
an agreeable person; however, presently he simmered down and began to
smile. It turned out that he was a _wächter_, that is, a guardian of
the fields, and that we were trespassing. The driver meekly promised
to return by the other route, and we went on our way in peace. After
awhile, we drove into some woods and then into a mountain gorge, with
forest-covered slopes at the base and with limestone cliffs jutting
out above. Here we came to the cottage of the _wächter_ or _förster_
of the surrounding woods, who also acted as guide to the cave, for the
few tourists who came to see it; and when he heard of our destination,
he at once slipped on a second ragged coat, took a woodman's axe and
started on foot, going much faster than the carriage. This was not
surprising, for the road resembled nothing but the bed of a mountain
brook, a mass of boulders with ruts between them. This highway was made
by the peasants driving their carts over the plain in the same place,
and as the soil was cut away, the boulders appeared; and over and among
these we went banging along, and we were jolted about and bumped into
each other, until every bone in my body ached.
[Illustration: ON THE ICE SLOPE, SCHAFLOCH.]
At a quarter past seven o'clock we came to another house in a little
glade, where the carriage stopped; and on asking the _förster_ for
his name, he wrote down in my note book, in a clear well formed
hand:--Misura, Franz. From the glade, ten minutes' walk on a mountain
path, up an easy slope, took us to the entrance of Déményfálva. It is
about two meters wide by three quarters of a meter high. We passed
through and entered a large chamber, well lighted from the right by
another opening, which is higher up and bigger than the entrance.
The air in this chamber was at about the same temperature as that of
the outside air, and, on our return from the nether world, it seemed
positively balmy. In the floor at the end of the chamber, a small pit
yawns open. It is perpendicular on three sides and set at a sharp
angle on the fourth. A wooden staircase of some two hundred steps, many
of which are sadly out of repair, leads nearly straight down this slope
to the glacière.
After descending about eighty steps of the staircase, bits of ice
appeared on the walls and floor and after some thirty steps more, a
lateral gallery opened to the right, and into this we turned. This may
be called the upper cave or story, for in Démenyfálva--besides the
entrance chamber--there are practically two stories, the upper one of
which is mainly ornamented with stalactites, the lower one with ice.
There was a little ice on the floor from which rose some small ice
columns, perhaps fifty centimeters in height. The cave or gallery had
a gentle downward slope and turned towards the left. After some little
distance, we came to another wooden staircase, of ten or twelve steps,
quite coated over with thick, solid ice. Misura had to cut away at it
for several minutes, before he could clear the steps enough to descend.
This was in fact the beginning of an ice wall, the _Eiswand_ or
_Eismauer_, which, turning to the right, flowed through a rock arch to
the lowest cave. The rock arch or portal was some three meters wide and
two meters high, and a fringe of beautiful organ-pipe like icicles hung
on it on the right hand. Just beyond the portal the ice sloped steeply
for a couple of meters; then it became level and on it rose a little
pyramid, a meter and a half in height perhaps, and a column; then the
ice sloped away again to the lower cave.
[Illustration: IN THE REAR OF THE SCHAFLOCH.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Vertical Section of Démenyfálva.]
We then continued our course beyond the rock portal along the upper
cavern for about two hundred meters. It was a fine large gallery or
passage and during the first fifty meters or so, we found numerous
small ice cones, perhaps a hundred of them, from tiny little ones to
some about forty centimeters in height. Many of these were columnar in
form, nearly as large at the top as at the base: in some cases the top
was flat, and the columns then looked almost as if an upper portion
were sawn off. I have seen this shape of column nowhere else. In places
there were slabs and bits of ice on the floor. The last hundred meters
of this upper cave was free from ice and was exceptionally dry. It was
formed of a pale yellow limestone rock, almost dolomitic in color, and
many stalactites, in their thousand various shapes, hung from the roof
and on the sides. In one spot, one big limestone stalagmite towered up
directly in the middle of the gallery. We did not go to the end of the
cave, where ice has never been found.
Retracing our course past the rock portal to the entrance pit, we
descended on the long staircase for some eighty steps more, the amount
of ice on the rocks steadily increasing. In places, frost crystals had
formed in small quantities on the roof and walls. At the bottom of the
pit, another lateral gallery, directly under the upper gallery, opened
to the right. Entering this, we passed over broken limestone débris,
which seemed to overlie a mass of ice. Limestone stalactites were
noticeable all through this lower cavern, and frost and icicles had
sometimes formed over them, in which case the ice stalactite assumed
the form of the limestone stalactite. Advancing a few meters, we went
by, on our right hand, an ice pyramid of a couple of meters in height.
Just beyond this, the cave turned to the left like the upper cave,
and we descended to a level floor of transparent ice, into which we
could see some distance. At this spot, numerous icicles, generally of
inconsiderable size, hung from the roof and on the sides of the cavern.
At the further end of this ice floor or ice lake we reached an ice
slope, the _Eiswand_, which flowed to the ice floor from the upper
cave in several waves. It was some six meters wide and twenty-five
meters long; and it was not steep, perhaps fifteen degrees in the
steepest portions. On the slope some old, nearly obliterated steps were
visible, and at these Misura proceeded to cut, and with torch in one
hand and axe in the other, gradually worked his way up, until he once
more reached the level spot whence we had looked down the ice slope.
Here he stood waving his torch, a proceeding indeed he did constantly
throughout the trip, for he seemed exceedingly proud of the beauties of
his cavern. This waving of torches, however, is exceedingly foolish,
as their smoke quickly blackens stalactite, and in fact nothing but
candles and magnesium wire should be carried for lighting purposes
underground. The ice of the ice slope was hard, gray and opaque, quite
different from that of the ice lake. The ice floor is formed of new
ice, which is gradually refilling the place from which Misura said the
ice for Buda-Pest was taken out twenty-five years ago. To prove this
assertion, he called my attention to the side of the lake directly
opposite the ice slope. At that spot, under the limestone rubbish over
which we came, there was an outcrop of perpendicular opaque ice about a
meter high. Misura said that the workmen began to cut at the ice slope
and that they dug out a couple of meters in depth from the ice lake,
until they had cut back to where the vertical outcrop was standing.
The explanation seemed to be in accord with the facts, and if so, it
would go to show that the ice in this cave is of slow formation and
great permanency; as seems also proved by the steps on the ice wall,
which--we were the first party in the cave in 1896--had remained over
from the preceding summer. Misura told me he had never seen so much
ice nor seen it so hard as during our visit, and he added that there
was generally water on the ice lake, and he thought there would be some
in two or three weeks more. The greatest quantity of ice in the upper
cave was at the head of the ice-slope, and it would seem as though
there must be cracks or fissures in the overhead rocks there, through
which the water is supplied to feed the ice, not only that of the upper
cave, but also the larger portion of that of the lower cave.
The heavy winter air would naturally sink down into the entrance
pit to the lower cavern, and some of it diverge into the beginning
of the upper cavern, which at first is distinctly a down slope. A
little beyond the portal at the head of the ice slope, the upper cave
is either horizontal or in places slightly ascending. Probably this
prevents the cold air from entering further, and probably also, the
heat of the earth neutralizes the cold air of winter beyond a definite
spot.
The air in the cave seemed absolutely still throughout; it was
also extremely dry, undoubtedly because melting had not yet begun.
The icicles evidently were formed by the slow drip freezing as it
descended, and there were no perceptible cracks nor fissures in the
rocks underneath them. The facts seem to me to prove that neither
evaporation nor regelation can be the factors at work in making the ice
and we may deduce an important rule therefrom. When a cave is dry, then
the air is dry; when a cave is wet, then the atmosphere is damp. In
other words, the state of dryness or dampness of glacière atmosphere
depends on how much the ice is thawing and parting with its moisture.
On our return to the base of the long staircase, and while we ascended
it, we had an exquisite moonlight effect, much resembling the one at
the Schafloch.
THE FRAINER EISLEITHEN.
About two hours by rail, north of Vienna, is the village of Schoenwald,
to which I journeyed on June the 15th, 1896. At the railroad station
there was a K. K. Post Omnibus in waiting, which, when it was packed
with passengers and luggage, drove over to Frain in an hour. The
admirable road lies across a rolling plain, until it reaches the
brink of the valley of the Thaya, to which it descends in long Alpine
zigzags. On the bluff overlooking the opposite side of the river, there
is a fine _schloss_.
I secured the seat next to the driver and questioned him about the
Eisleithen. Although he had driven on this road for five years, without
visiting the Eisleithen, yet he was positive that they were warm in
winter, but cold in summer. He said more than once: _Desto heisser
der Sommer, desto mehr das Eis_, and in fact was an emphatic exponent
of the notions generally held by peasants, which some _savants_ have
adopted and tried to expound. At Frain, I applied at the little hotel
for a guide, and was entrusted to the care of the hotel boots. He was
an intelligent, talkative youth, but he insisted also that "the hotter
the summer, the more ice there is." However, he was polite, and made
up for any shortcomings by always addressing me as _der gnädige Herr_.
The day was hot, so it took us three-quarters of an hour on foot, along
the valley of the Thaya, to reach the base of the bluff where the
Eisleithen are situated, at an altitude of about four hundred meters.
The hillside is covered with patches of scrubby forest; and towards
the summit, the entire mass of the hill is honey-combed with cracks
and the rocks are much broken up. After about ten minutes' ascent up
a little path, we came to small holes, from each of which a current
of cool air poured out; these holes seemed fairly horizontal, and the
temperatures were high enough to prove that there was no ice within.
A little further on, we came to a hole or tiny cave among a pile of
rocks, where there was a painted sign: _Eisgrube_. It went down from
the mouth, and I put my hand well in, but, beyond the length of my arm,
I could neither see nor measure its shape or depth. The air felt cold,
but was nowhere near freezing point; nor was it possible to determine
whether there was a draught: it may or may not be a wind cave. Not
far from this, there were two gullies, each terminating in a small
cave. The first gully was planned somewhat like certain traps for wild
animals, that is, it narrowed gradually from the entrance, then became
covered over; and then dwindled, after some four meters more, into a
small descending hole, the end of which we could not reach. But we got
in far enough, to come to large chunks or slabs of ice plastered about
on the floor and sides. In this cave, which was sheltered against sun
and wind, the air, as tested by the smoke of a cigar, was motionless,
and the cave seemed unconnected with any air current. The second gully
terminated in a somewhat larger cave, whose floor was well below the
entrance; no ice was visible, however, although the air was still and
the temperature low. This cave may or may not be a glacière; but surely
it is not a cold current cave.
These Frainer Eisleithen certainly offer an interesting field to anyone
studying subterranean ice, from the fact that there are, in the same
rocks, caves without apparent draughts in summer and containing ice,
and caves with distinct draughts and no ice. The problem seems more
intricate than is usually the case, but the solution is simply that the
two classes of caves happen to be found together.
THE EISHÖHLE BEI ROTH.
The Eifel is one of the bleakest districts of Central Europe, and to
one entering it from the vineyards and the well-inhabited basin of the
Rhine, the contrast is impressive. The railroad rises gradually to a
land of comparatively desert appearance, with rocks and trees on the
heights and a sparse cultivation in the valleys. But, if the country is
unattractive to the agriculturist, it is interesting to the geologist,
on account of the great number of extinct volcanoes. Almost in the
centre of the Eifel is the little town of Gerollstein, famed for the
_Gerollsteiner Sprudel_, which gives forth an effervescence undreamed
of by anyone, who has not visited the birth place of some of these
German table waters.
About an hour's walk from Gerollstein, on the side of a small hill,
is situated the little Eishöhle bei Roth, named after a neighboring
village. I went to this place, on the 25th of June, 1896, with a young
boy as guide. The cave is sheltered from the wind by a wood around it,
among which are many large trees. It is at the base of a wall of piled
up lava, or at least volcanic, rocks which form a sort of cauldron. The
entrance is a small tunnel some five meters long, which goes straight
down at an angle of about twenty-five degrees and then turns sharply to
the left. At the turn, the cave may be perhaps one meter in height. We
did not go beyond this spot, where the air was icy and the temperature
sub-normal, as the tunnel was blocked up by a large boulder, which
had evidently recently fallen from the rocks in front. There was no
ice, as far as we went, and the boy said it began three or four meters
further in. He told me that there was no ice in the cavern in winter,
but admitted that he had not entered it at that season, so that was
hearsay. He had heard also that the ice was sometimes taken out for
sick people, but otherwise it was not used.
It seemed to me that the conditions at Roth show that the ice is formed
by the cold of winter alone: the cave is well below the entrance; it is
the lowest point of the surrounding cauldron of rocks and all the cold
air naturally gravitates to it; it is sheltered by rocks and trees
from wind or exposure to the rays of the sun; the tunnel faces nearly
due north; and the water necessary to supply the ice, easily soaks
between the lava blocks.
THE FRAUENMAUERHÖHLE.
Eisenerz, in Eastern Tyrol, is a picturesquely situated little town. It
is at the bottom of a great valley, with mountains all around it. Two
of these are bare, gaunt limestone peaks, which are decidedly dolomitic
in form and color. The sharpest of these is to the north. It is called
the Pfaffenstein and is the beginning of the range culminating in the
Frauenmauer. On a mountain to the east of the town, one sees the iron
mines and works, whence the town takes its name "Ironore," and whence
quantities of iron are taken out every year. The mines are said to have
been in operation for over a thousand years, since about A. D. 800.
After the ore is taken from the mine and roughly prepared, it is run
down in small cars through a covered way to the railroad station to be
shipped; and at certain times there is a seemingly endless procession
of these cars, each bearing, besides its load of ore, a miner, with
clothes and person entirely begrimed to the yellow-brown color of the
iron.
As I walked out of the Eisenerz railroad station, an old man in
Tyrolese costume asked me if I wanted a _träger_ and a guide, so, while
he was carrying my valise to the hotel, we came to terms. He was one of
the patented guides of the district and wore the large badge of the
Austrian guides. If the size of the badge made the guide, one should
be safe with Tyrolese, but for difficult excursions, it will not do
to trust to a guide simply because he happens to be "patented"; that
is, not if one values the safety of one's neck. Next morning, July the
9th, 1896, the old guide arrived betimes at the hotel and roused me by
tapping on the wall below my window with his stick. We left at half
past five o'clock. My companion, who should have known better, had not
breakfasted, so by the time we reached the Gsoll Alp at a quarter-past
seven, he was almost tired out. He wore the regulation black chamois
knee breeches and a _gamsbart_ in his hat. He picked many flowers en
route, ostensibly because they were pretty; but in reality, I think,
because it gave him the opportunity to recover his wind. He told me
he was sixty-three years old, and he certainly went up hill with some
difficulty, and for the first time in my life, I fairly succeeded in
showing a clean pair of heels to a _patentirter führer_ on a mountain
side. At one place he found a large snail in the road. This he wrapped
up in leaves and placed on a rock, and on our return he picked the
leaves and snail up, and rammed the whole bundle into his pocket,
informing me that it was excellent _Arznei_, although he did not
mention for what complaint.
[Illustration: THE FRAUENMAUER AND THE GSOLL ALP.]
The road led up a wooded valley, in a sort of series of steps,
bits of even ground interspersed by steeper ones, with the
Pfaffenstein-Frauenmauer limestone peaks poking up their jagged summits
on the left. The sky was clear at starting, except in the west, where
clouds were forming, and these gradually overspread the whole sky, and
finally turned to rain. Just before we reached the Gsoll Alp, we went
by a huge snow avalanche, which had fallen in February and torn a lane
clear through the pines, bringing down numbers of them with it. The
remains of the avalanche were banked up on the side of the road, which
was cut out, and many of the pines were still piled on and in the snow.
Stopping ten minutes at the alp to allow my guide to recuperate on some
bread and milk, we then crossed the pastures and pushed up a rather
steep slope by a small path, at one place crossing the remains of
another avalanche. We also came near having the attentions of a little
bull which was screaming viciously. My guide said it was an extremely
disagreeable beast, but he did not think it would attack him, as he
always made a point of giving it bread when at the châlet. We reached
the entrance of the cave at a quarter-past eight.
A man and a boy from Eisenerz, who had heard I was going to the cavern
and who wished to profit by my guide, caught up with us here. They were
much disappointed when I told them I should visit only the _Eiskammer_.
They went into the cave at the same time that we did, and eventually
we left them pushing up one of the side chambers, with only one torch
in their possession. My guide said he thought they were risking their
lives, as there were many holes they might fall into, besides the
probability of their finding themselves in total darkness. He told me
that once, while in the cavern, he heard distant yells, and, going up
the gallery whence they proceeded, found a man half dead, who said
he had tried to come through the mountain by himself, had broken his
lantern and had remained in the darkness an indefinite number of hours;
a situation, the horror of which could not be realized by anyone
who has not been underground without a light and felt the absolute
blackness of a cavern.
The Frauenmauer is a limestone peak, 1828 meters in height, one of
several forming a horseshoe round the Gsoll Alp. It presents on that
side a sheer wall of rock, in which there are two holes close together,
at an altitude of 1335 meters. These are the lower openings of the
Frauenmauerhöhle, of which the higher and biggest one is used for
an entrance. They are some thirty or forty meters from the base of
the rock wall, and a flight of wooden steps leads up to the entrance
opening, which is narrow and high. At the top of the steps, we stood
in the mouth of the cave; and, going in four or five meters, saw the
other opening to the left, below us. About five meters further, there
was one small lump of ice, as big as a pumpkin, lying on the ground,
but this may have been carried there from within. The cavern went
nearly straight for some twenty-five meters from the entrance, rising
all the time gently. Then came a steep little drop, of some four or
five meters, in the rock floor, and here a small wooden staircase was
placed. A gallery opened to the right and this was the cavern proper,
which leads through the mountain. It rose considerably and contained
no ice as far as we went, which was for some distance. The walking was
bad, as the floor was covered with _geröll_, that is broken detritus.
[Illustration: IN THE FRAUENMAUERHÖHLE.
From a Photograph by A. Kurka.
]
Returning and continuing towards the freezing chamber, the floor of the
cavern began to rise once more, continuing for some forty-five meters
to its highest point, which is lower, however, than the top of the
entrance, an important fact to notice. For, although the floor of the
cave is considerably higher, at a distance of seventy meters within,
than the level of the bottom of the entrance; still, that highest spot
is below the level of the top of the entrance. This fact, and also the
size of the gallery, unquestionably explains why the cold air can get
in as far as it does. At this highest spot we found a considerable mass
of ice, a couple of cartloads in bulk perhaps, which the guide said
would melt away later in the summer. This was, perhaps, the remains
of a fallen stalactite. This mass of ice is an interesting point in
connection with the Frauenmauerhöhle, for it shows that ice in a cave
sometimes forms, even if in small quantities, above the level of the
base of the entrance. There seems no reason why it should not do so,
provided there is the necessary water supply. Such ice would, however,
suffer more, as soon as the outside air was over freezing point, than
would ice which was below the level of the entrance. It would probably
disappear early in the year, unless the cave were in a latitude or at
an altitude where snow remained in the open during most of the year.
[Illustration: Fig. 5. Vertical Section of the Frauenmauerhöhle.]
From this highest point, the cave turns somewhat to the left, and the
floor begins to slope downward, sinking gradually to some six meters
below the level of the entrance. Ten meters or so from the highest
point, we began to find icicles and fissure columns, and about twenty
meters further, we reached an almost level ice floor, stretching across
the entire width of the cave--some seven meters--and extending about
fifty meters more to the end of the cave. In several places there was
much frozen rime on the rock walls. There were also a number of columns
and icicles, though none of any special beauty. I broke a piece off one
of them, and the ice was transparent and free from prisms, showing that
this column was probably of fairly recent origin. Letting a bit melt in
my mouth, the water tasted pure and sweet.
[Illustration: ICE STALACTITE, FRAUENMAUERHÖHLE.
From a Photograph by A. Kurka.
]
In two places, there were _abgrunds_, that is, holes in the ice. One
of these was a wide, deep hole on the left side of the cave, between
the rock and the ice floor. The other was a great hole in the ice floor
itself. As the edges of both holes sloped sharply, it was impossible
to get near enough to look into either, but I threw in lumps of ice,
and from the sound should judge that the holes were about three meters
deep. The hole in the ice floor seemed to be cut by drip, and I think
they both carried off the drainage.
The ice floor was sloppy and thawing rapidly. At the furthest point we
reached, within about fifteen meters from the end of the ice chamber,
we were stopped by an accumulation of water lying on the ice. I poked
into it with my ice axe and found it about twenty centimeters in depth.
There was a crust of ice on top in places. The lake was cold, but I am
sure the water was not freezing, as I held my hand in it at least a
minute without pain. The guide assured me that in two weeks or so the
lake would be completely frozen, provided there was some fine, warm
weather; but, if there was rain, he said that it would not freeze. By
this statement, he unintentionally explained, what he asserted was
true, namely, that the cave froze harder in August than in July. The
explanation of course is, that in fine, dry weather, water does not run
into the cavern, and then the lake gradually drains off, leaving the
ice floor free from water; and this the natives interpret to mean that
the water has frozen up.
At the edge of the lake there was a fissure in the left hand rock
wall, in which my companion assured me that a column would shortly
form. I absolutely doubt this statement, as, if it were true, it
would be contrary to everything I have seen; still, I wish I could
have returned in August, to verify the matter. I poked my torch up
the fissure, also felt in with my hand. It was cold, and on the rocks
inside there was much hoar frost, but I could neither see nor feel any
ice mass, nor am I sure how far the fissure extended.
The air was still, damp and over freezing point throughout the
_Eiskammer_, and all the signs showed that the cave was in a state
of thaw. Although the rocks are limestone and scarcely blackened by
smoke anywhere, yet as our torches did not give much light, the color
impression was black and gray, like the Schafloch.
At the hotel the landlord confirmed in every particular the story of
the cave freezing hardest in August or September. He had never been
there himself, but stated that everyone said the same thing, and
that many people had "broken their heads" trying to account for it.
At eight o'clock in the evening, my guide came to let me know that
the man and boy, whom we left trying to penetrate the cave, had just
turned up after making all their relatives extremely anxious. They
were nearly lost, and had in general an extremely uncomfortable time.
It is scarcely to be wondered at that accidents occur in caves and on
mountains when people, with neither knowledge nor proper preparation,
go wandering off by themselves into the unknown.[4]
[4] On the evening of June 29th, 1897, I met at Hieflau three Viennese
tourists who had come that day through the Frauenmauer. They found the
lake on the ice floor of the _Eiskammer_, just as I had in 1896. They
said also, moreover, that they found ice and icicles or ice columns
in the main cave; unfortunately, they did not explain clearly in what
part.
THE MILCHHÄUSER OF SEELISBERG.
The summer of 1896, will long be remembered by Alpine climbers for
the pitiless rain storm, which kept coming steadily down during the
vacation months. It was in the midst of this that I arrived at Trieb,
on the Lake of Lucerne, on the 6th of August, to see whether I could
find the windholes which were reported near Seelisberg. At the landing
place I found Herr J. M. Ziegler, the owner of the Hotel Bellevue at
Seelisberg, who promptly secured a nice, blond bearded young fellow,
a relative of his and his _knecht_, as a guide. It was pouring when
we started, a proceeding which kept on during our entire excursion.
We tramped up a narrow road, paved with great stones in the old Swiss
fashion, and, as my guide truly said, awfully steep for horses.
Half an hour from the boat landing, took us to the first milkhouse,
which belonged to Herr Ziegler. It was in a small patch of woods, and
was placed against a cliff, where rocks had fallen down and formed a
talus of broken detritus. The side walls of the house were built out
from the cliff and roofed over, and the front wall had a doorway closed
with a wooden door. At the back the detritus or _geröll_ was built into
a vertical, unplastered wall between most of the interstices of which,
cool air came forth. Several of these interstices were fairly large
holes of uncertain depth. It was a cool day and the air currents were
only a little cooler than the temperature outside.
Another half an hour of uphill walking, partly on roads and partly
over soaking meadows, took us to Seelisberg, where we stopped at the
house of the owner of the second milkhouse, to get the key. The owner
could not go with us because he had damaged his foot, by wearing great
wooden shoes or _sabots_ armed with enormous spikes, while cutting
grass on steep slopes. He was hospitable enough: unlike his dog, who
was exceedingly anxious to attack us. The owner said--in the intervals
of the dog's howls--that ice formed during the winter in the rear wall
of his milkhouse and remained until about June. The milkhouse was in
a little patch of woods against a small cliff, at the bottom of which
were broken rocks. We had some difficulty in getting in, working for
at least ten minutes at the lock, while drops of rain-water would
occasionally drip into our coat collars. Just as I had given up hope,
my companion succeeded in getting the key to turn. There were several
pans, full of milk, placed to cool, and several barrels of potatoes;
and, as at the first milkhouse, we found that the rear wall consisted
simply of heaped up detritus built into a vertical position. Gentle air
currents flowed from several large holes and from the cracks between
the stones.
From here we went by a path through woods and over meadows down to the
lake, coming to the shore some distance to the west of the steamboat
landing. Everything was soaking wet, and as we proceeded, I felt my
clothes getting wetter and my shoes absorbing water like sponges until,
when we came to an overflowing brook, wading through seemed rather
pleasant. There is one advantage of getting thoroughly wet feet in the
mountains: it makes crossing streams so much easier, as one does not
delay, but simply steps right in.
The lower milkhouse was on the shore of the lake, near the house of
a fisherman, whose wife opened the door for us. There was some milk
in pans and several barrels of wine; and on a board were a number of
_ferras_ from the lake; the result of two days' catching in nets. This
was the largest of the three milkhouses; although it did not have as
many big holes in the rock wall as the others, but only the interstices
between the blocks of rock, whence we could feel cool air flowing out.
The woman said that the ice melted away by April or May, but that in
winter the wine barrels were all covered with frost. She also said that
the air coming from the clefts in summer was colder when the weather
was warm, than when it was rainy. Doubtless the temperature of the
draughts remains the same during the summer, but the air feels cooler
to the hand when the outside air is hot.
A walk of another half hour, through more soaking wet grass, brought
us back to the steamboat landing at Trieb, where I touched my guide's
heart with the gift of a five franc piece, and had a talk with Herr
Ziegler. He said that there were a number of places in the neighborhood
whence cold air came forth during the summer from cracks in the rocks:
that there were also other milkhouses, notably one at Tell's Platte, on
the lake: and that the milkhouses were not generally used in winter,
when the doors were left open, to allow the cold air to penetrate as
much as possible through the rocks behind. During the winter the
draughts were reversed, and poured in instead of out of the openings,
and Herr Ziegler thought that at that time the interior of the rock
cracks became chilled, and that possibly ice formed in them which
helped to chill the summer currents, when the draughts poured out from
the holes.
THE GLACIÈRE DE LA GENOLLIÈRE.
On Tuesday, the 11th of August, 1896, a cool and rainy day, I left
Geneva and went by train to Nyon, where I found at the station a little
victoria, in which I drove up to Saint-Cergues. The road lay across
the plain to the base of the slopes of the Jura, and then up these in
long zigzags; it was admirably built and on the hill slopes passed
the whole way through a beautiful thick forest, principally beeches
and birches. At Saint-Cergues, I went to the Pension Capt, where
the landlady soon found a guide in the shape of the gendarme of the
district, a right good fellow, Amy Aimée Turrian by name. He was in
uniform, with an army revolver in a holster at his belt. We then drove
about half an hour beyond Saint-Cergues, the road rising but little,
and the thick forest giving place to a more open wood of evergreens,
with patches of pasturage. As a forest sanitarium, Saint-Cergues seems
unsurpassed in the whole of Europe. The carriage turned up a little
country road, which soon became too rough for driving, so we proceeded
on foot for about another half hour, through pine woods and pastures,
to the glacière. Turrian enlivened the way with an account of his life
as a gendarme, of the long solitary six hour patrols in the woods in
winter, and of how he lay in ambush for poachers. He said he would not
take long to fire on anyone resisting arrest, as that was _sérieux_.
The glacière is in the middle of a pasture, with several pine trees
overhanging it. It is surrounded by a wall, built to prevent the cows
from falling in. There are two pits, side by side and about three
meters apart: they are some thirteen meters in depth, with a width of
five or six meters. They open into one another at the bottom; the rock
separating them, forming a natural bridge overhead. One of the pits is
vertical on all sides. The other is vertical all around, except on the
side furthest away from the natural bridge. Here the side of the pit
is in the shape, so usual in glacières, of a steep slope. Down this
slope we descended. It was slippery and muddy, owing to the recent
heavy rains, and my ice axe proved invaluable and probably saved me
some unpleasant falls. Under the bridge, the floor was covered with a
mass of shattered limestone debris, among which there was neither ice
nor snow; both of which my guide said he had found in abundance the
preceding June. A little limestone cavern opened on one side below the
bridge. A great, flat limestone slab formed a natural lintel, and,
lighting our candles, we stooped down and passed under it into the
cave, which was about the size of a room and in which we could just
stand up. At the entrance and over most of the floor there was ice, in
one place thirty or forty centimeters in depth, as I could see where a
drip from the roof had cut a hole. There were no signs of icicles or
columns. My guide said he had never penetrated into this chamber, which
he thought, on his earlier visit, was blocked with ice and snow. I did
not see any limestone stalactites anywhere, and I am inclined to think
that the low temperatures of glacières have a tendency to prevent their
formation.
After our visit, we went to the Châlet de La Genollière close by, where
there were some thirty cows and calves. The intelligent _berger_ or
manager said that most of the ice from the glacière was used for butter
making during the hot weather; and that between the inroads thus made
upon it and from other causes, the ice disappeared every year before
autumn, but that it formed afresh every winter; pretty good evidence to
show that the ice in this cave has nothing to do with a glacial period.
He also stated that when he first entered the inner chamber in the
spring there were four ice columns there.
The glacière de La Genollière is a clear exemplification of the theory
that the cold of winter is the sole cause for the ice. The whole
glacière is rather small and is fairly well protected against wind.
Although snow cannot fall directly under the rock arch, yet I should
imagine it drifts under, or after melting, runs in and refreezes. To
the inner cave snow, as snow, could hardly reach; and the cavern is
probably filled, like most cave glacières, from frozen drip. The inner
cave is, therefore, a true cave glacière, while the outer pits and the
bridge are something between a gorge and a cave. La Genollière should,
I think, be visited about the end of June, when the ice formations are
certainly larger and more interesting than in August.
THE FRIEDRICHSTEINER OR GOTTSCHEER EISHÖHLE.
A little to the east of, and in about the same latitude as Trieste,
is the small town of Gottschee, now reached by a branch railroad from
Laibach. Gottschee is a German settlement almost in the centre of
the district known as the Duchy of Krain, Austria, which is mainly
inhabited in the north by Slavonians and in the south by Croatians.
Gottschee lies directly at the western base of the Friedrichsteiner
Gebirge, one of whose peaks is the Burgernock. On the eastern slopes of
this mountain is situated the Friedrichsteiner or Gottscheer Eishöhle,
at an altitude of about nine hundred meters.
On the 24th of June, 1897, I left Gottschee at half past six o'clock in
the morning with Stefan Klenka, a nice little man. I had asked to have
him come at six o'clock, but he did not turn up and I had to send for
him. His excuse was, that tourists always ordered him for six o'clock,
but when the time came, they were still in bed. He had taken a German
officer and his wife to the cave the year before, and after keeping
him waiting three hours, they started at nine o'clock. The result was
that they did not get to the cave until two o'clock, and returned to
Gottschee just at nightfall.
We reached the cave at half past eight o'clock. The steep and rough
path went uphill through a fine forest, which my guide said was
_Urwald_, _i. e._, primeval forest; and there were certainly some
big trees and many fallen ones, and much underbrush. He assured me
that bears were still plentiful in the neighborhood, and that Prince
Auersperg, who owns the shooting, does not allow them to be killed,
preferring to pay for any damage they may cause to the peasants'
fields or for any cattle they may dine on, rather than to have these
interesting animals exterminated from his woods. He also said that
there was a two meter snowfall in Gottschee in winter: a sufficient
quantity to account for the glacières. At one place on the road we
stopped before a small crack in the rocks, and Klenka dropped in some
small stones, which we could hear strike two or three times a long
distance below. There is surely an unexplored cavern at this spot.
The Friedrichsteiner Eishöhle is a large pit cave, well lighted by
daylight. It is sheltered from any winds by the great trees which grow
all around it and even over the rock roof. A long, steep slope leads
straight into the pit and from the top the ice floor is in full sight.
On both sides of the slope the rocks are almost sheer. Over the bottom
of the slope the rock roof projects at a great height. The sides of the
cave rise perpendicularly at least forty meters, and in fact, the cave
suggests an unfinished tunnel set on end.
Some years ago, the _Deutschen und Oesterreichischen Alpen Verein_
built a wooden staircase, in a series of zigzags, on the slope. This
staircase should have been cleared off earlier in the year, but, of
course, the matter was neglected. Down these steps we descended until
they became covered with snow, and lower down with hard ice. All this
was winter's snow which fell directly on to the slope and gradually
melted and froze again, so this was really a miniature glacier. It was
not subterranean ice at all. We cut down the snow, but had to stop when
we came to the ice, as it would have involved a couple of hours at
least of the hardest kind of step cutting; and this my guide did not
care to undertake, especially as he was nearly killed on this slope the
week before. He had reached, with some tourists from Trieste, a place
above that where we stopped, when he slipped and fell down the slope,
shooting clear across the cave, where he remained until ropes were
procured, and he was dragged out. He afterwards showed me the numerous
cuts and bruises he had received on his perilous glissade.
We had to stop also for another reason. I had unwisely brought as wrap,
a thick overcoat reaching to the knees, and this was such an impediment
on the icy staircase, that I took it off, and soon began to feel long
shivers creeping down my spine. This question of extra clothing for
glacière exploration is hard to arrange. One must guard against most
trying changes of temperature. For, on entering a big glacière, the
heat of a July day without, will, at a distance of only a few meters,
give place to the cold of a January day within, and nothing could be
better devised than a big glacière to lay the seeds of rheumatism.
It is difficult to plan a garb suitable to meet all the varying
conditions, but the dress must be cool and warm, and light enough to
permit free motion. The clothes I have found most practical are a thin
waistcoat and thick trousers, and two short sack coats, one of them
a heavy winter one. The coats should button at the throat, and it is
well to place straps round the bottom of the trousers. Thick kid gloves
should always be worn in caves, to save cutting the hands on rocks or
ice in the darkness, and hobnails may prevent some unpleasant slips.
From the point where we stopped, some ten meters away from the ice
floor, the largest portion of the cave was visible. The finest object
was a big ice curtain or _vorhang_, as my guide called it, which, from
a height of five or six meters, flowed down from fissures to the ice
floor, and which covered the rocks on the eastern side. Under one point
of this curtain, Klenka said that there was a deep hole in the ice.
Smaller fissure columns also streamed from the rear wall to the ice
floor. The ice floor itself was flat, of an ochre greenish tinge, and
was covered with broken ice fragments. We could not see the western
portion of the cavern, as the rocks jutted out in a sort of corner.
Klenka said that there were several small pyramids there; a large one
which he spoke of as the _Altar_; and a small ice slope, plastered on
the side rocks.
The sides of the cave were of a dark gray limestone rock, and from
the top of the slope they assumed a decidedly bluish tone, and I
am inclined to think that there was already--we were there from
eight-thirty A. M. until ten A. M.--a faint mist in the cavern. This
is the most interesting phenomenon connected with the Friedrichsteiner
Eishöhle. The cavern faces due south, and about midday, in clear
weather, the sun shines directly into it, causing a mist or cloud to
form in the cave on warm days; a mute witness that evaporation is
connected with the melting, not with the forming, of the ice. The air
at every point seemed still.
On my return to Gottschee, I called on one of the professors of the
K. K. Gymnasium, and he told me many interesting facts about the
surrounding country. Among other things he said that no traces of a
glacial period or indeed of glaciers were found in the Krain; and as
this district is particularly rich in glacières, this fact is a strong
proof against the glacial period theory. He assured me also that many
bears still existed in the neighborhood; that one family was known to
inhabit the woods round the Friedrichsteiner Eishöhle, and that he had
often seen bear tracks on his own shooting, some ten kilometers to the
south.
THE SUCHENREUTHER EISLOCH.
On the 25th of June, 1897, I left Gottschee at six-thirty A. M. in an
_einspänner_, and drove thirteen kilometers southward, over a good
road, albeit hilly in places, to Mrauen, which we reached in about
two hours. The weather was exceedingly hot. I took Klenka along, as
he spoke German, and he entertained me on the drive by telling me
that there were many poisonous snakes in the country, of which the
_kreuzotters_ or vipers were the worst, and that three or four persons
were bitten every year.
Mrauen is in Croatia, and I could see a slight difference in the people
and their dress from those of Gottschee. From Mrauen, the landlord of
the _Gasthaus Post_, Josef Sirar, led us to the Grosses Eisloch. This
is sometimes spoken of as the Eisloch bei Skrill, but as it lies in
a patch of woods below the village of Suchenreuth, the Suchenreuther
Eisloch seems the correct name. At least that was what Sirar called it.
It took us about an hour on foot from Mrauen to get into the woods.
On the way we met two guards in uniform, carrying Männlicher carbines
with fixed bayonets, and it was agreeable to feel that the strong arm
of the Austrian government extended over this semi-wild land. In the
woods, following Sirar's able guidance, we took a short cut--always a
mistake--and were lost temporarily in a maze of bushes and brambles, in
which I thought of the _kreuzotters_. After that, Sirar at first could
not find the cave and had to hunt around for it, while I sat on a stone
and waited impatiently.
At the cave a rather steep slope of wet mud, covered with dead leaves,
led down through a rock arch. Sirar had to cut several steps in the
mud with his hatchet, or we should probably have sat down suddenly.
The archway opened into a moderately large cavern, which was about
twenty meters deep, almost round and some fifteen meters in diameter.
The slope continued right across the cave, and on some parts of it
were logs of wood and much débris. On the wall hung a few limestone
stalactites. In the roof of the cave was a great hole, and under
this was a big cone of old winter snow, which had become icy in its
consistency, and on which there was much dirt and many leaves. The
temperature in the cave was several degrees above freezing point, and
there was no ice hanging anywhere. Sirar said that when the weather got
hotter, the ice would come; but as he said also, that he had been only
once before in the cave, some ten years ago, his opinion was not worth
much. Both men said that the preceding winter was unusually warm.
[Illustration: Fig. 6. Vertical Section of the Suchenreuther Eisloch.]
THE NIXLOCH.
Near Hallthurm in Bavaria, a railroad station between Reichenhall and
Berchtesgaden, is a well known congeries of windholes, called the
Nixloch. I visited it on Friday, July the 2d, 1897, with a railroad
employee, whom I found at the peasants' _gasthaus_.
The Nixloch is ten minutes distant in the forest, on the slopes of the
Untersberg. It is among a mass of big limestone blocks, and close by
are the remains of the walls of an old castle or fortification. The
Nixloch descends from the entrance for about two meters nearly sheer,
and there is just room to get through. As I sat within the outside edge
of the mouth of the cave, the smoke of my cigar was slowly carried
downward into it.
Dropping down through the hole, we found ourselves in a small cavern
formed of rough limestone blocks overhead and underfoot. It is possible
to go still further down and my companion said that formerly it was
possible to go through the cave and come out at a lower opening; this
exit, however, was destroyed when the railroad was built. The draught,
as tested by the flame of a candle, was still drawing in some seven or
eight meters from the entrance. There is a second cavity immediately
next to the entrance, and at the bottom of these holes, the inward
draught was so violent as to blow the candle out. The thermometer
outside in the shade was 28°C.; inside the cave, where the draught was
still perceptible, it was about 20°C. Within the cave I noticed two
large, dark brown spiders.
On returning to the _gasthaus_, I had a talk with some peasants who
were dining there, and they told me that it was warm in winter in the
Nixloch, and that ice never formed there.
THE DORNBURG.
If one draws a line northeast from Coblentz and another northwest from
Frankfort-on-the-Main, they will intersect nearly at the Dornburg. The
railroad from Frankfort goes, via Limburg and Hadamar, to Frickhofen
and Wilsenroth, from either of which villages the ice formations of the
Dornburg are easily reached on foot in half an hour.
I arrived at Wilsenroth on the 26th of July, 1897, and soon found
an old forester, who said he had lived in the neighborhood for over
fifty years, to show me the way. The Dornburg is a low hill, perhaps a
hundred meters high and a kilometer long. It is basaltic and covered
with sparse woods. The forester said that on top were the remains of
the foundations of an old castle, and that this was possibly the origin
of the name Dornburg. We circled round the eastern base of the hill
for some ten minutes, when we came to a little depression, filled with
basalt debris, among which were several small holes, out of which came
currents of cool air.
Ten minutes further in the woods, we arrived at the _Dornburg
Restauration_ and then almost immediately at the glacière. It is at the
bottom of a talus of broken basaltic rocks and has been much affected
by the agency of man. In it are two _eislöcher_ or _stollen_, as the
forester called them. These are little artificial pits or cellars, dug
into the talus. They are side by side, opening about southeast, and
each is about one and a half meters wide, three meters long, and two
meters high. The sides are built up with wooden posts and overhead is
a thick roof of logs strewn with dirt. The day was cool and at the
mouth of each _eisloch_, a faint outward current of air was discernible
at nine-thirty A. M. I could not find any currents coming into the
_eislöcher_. Inside it was cold and damp, and evidently thawing. There
was a good heap of ice in each _eisloch_; it was clear, and I could
detect no trace of prisms.
By much questioning, I dug out something of the history of these
_stollen_ from the forester. Formerly the ice was found at this spot,
among the boulders at the base of the slope. But the people gradually
took many of these basaltic blocks away, to break up for road making,
and then the ice diminished. About 1870, a brewery, since burnt, was
built at the Dornburg and the brewer had these _stollen_ built, a sort
of semi-natural, semi-artificial ice house. Every winter, the present
owner of the _stollen_ throws a quantity of snow into them, and this
helps materially in forming the mass of ice.
Just below the restaurant there is a spring, which was said to be
extremely cold, but there was nothing icy nor apparently unusual about
it.
Under the restaurant itself is an interesting cellar. It was closed by
wooden doors. First there was a passage way which turned steadily to
the right, and which we descended by some ten steps. This was about
two meters wide and was full of beer bottles and vegetables. On the
left of the passage was a large double chamber where meat is kept. At
eleven-thirty A. M. a faint draught blew down the passage and into the
hall, the outside door being then open. The double hall was perhaps six
meters each way, and I could detect no air currents coming into it at
any place, except from the passage way. Both passage and halls were, as
far as I could see, entirely built over with masonry. There was no ice
and the temperature was some 7° or 8° above freezing point.
The daughter of the proprietor of the restaurant said that ice began
to form in the cellar in February and that it lasted generally until
October; but that this year it was destroyed early because the masonry
was repaired, although it was still possible to skate in the cellar as
late as March. In the beginning of winter the cellar was warm, and as
she expressed it, _der Keller schwitzt dann_, which I suppose means
that the walls are damp. She also said that it was a _naturlicher
Keller_, and I am inclined to think that it was a natural glacière,
converted into a cellar.
This visit to the Dornburg gave me many new ideas about classifying
glacières, especially in relation to the movements of air. I was
long puzzled by the German terms, _Eishöhlen_ and _Windröhren_; and
it suddenly struck me, at the Dornburg, that this terminology is
incorrect, when used as a classification of glacières. The presence or
absence of strong, apparent draughts, cannot be considered as a test
as to whether a place is or is not a glacière; the presence of ice,
for at least part of the year, alone makes a glacière, and this it
does whether there are or are not draughts. It seems to me more than
ever clear, however, that it all depends on the movements of air, as
to whether ice forms in a cave. If the movements of air take the cold
air of winter into a cave, then and then only--provided there is also
a water supply--do we have ice. I am now inclined to think that caves,
as far as their temperatures are concerned, should be classified into
caves containing ice, cold caves, ordinary normal caves, and hot caves,
without reference to the movements of air.
THE GLACIÈRE DE SAINT-GEORGES.
From Rolle, on the north shore of the Lake of Geneva; an excellent
carriage road leads in two hours and a half to Saint-Georges in the
Jura. At first the way goes steeply uphill and passes through many
vineyards, and afterwards it crosses level fields to Gimel, then rises
through woods to Saint-Georges. On arriving there on the afternoon of
August 3d, 1897, I found the street filled with evergreens, and long
benches and tables; the débris of a _fête de tir_, which had lasted for
two days, with dancing and banquets and, I suspect, much _vin du pays_.
When I got down stairs at six o'clock next morning, all the people
of the inn were sound asleep recovering from the effects of the
_fête_, and instead of their calling me, I had to call them. Finally I
succeeded in getting breakfast and then started in company with a first
rate fellow, named Aymon Émery.
[Illustration: LA GLACIÈRE DE SAINT-GEORGES.
From a Photograph by E. Truand.
]
We walked up through woods, in about an hour and a half, to the
Glacière de Saint-Georges, which lies at an altitude of 1287 meters in
the midst of the forest. There are two holes close together. One of
these descends vertically and is partly roofed over with logs on which
is rigged a pulley. Émery, who was the _entrepreneur_ of the glacière,
which means that he attended to getting out the ice, told me that they
pulled the ice up through this vertical hole, making a noose with a
rope round each block.
The other and shallower opening ended in a rock floor, which was
reached by a short ladder. To the right was an arch, under which the
rock terminated as a floor and descended vertically, forming the wall
of the cave. On this wall two ladders, spliced at the end into one long
ladder, were placed in a nearly vertical position. I tied the end of my
rope round my waist, and got a workman, who had come to cut ice, to pay
out the rope to me, while I went down.
The cave is rather long and narrow, perhaps twenty-five meters by
twelve meters, and the limestone roof forms an arched descending curve
overhead. I could not see any limestone stalactites; neither were there
any ice stalactites or stalagmites in the cave, but a good part of the
wall, against which the long ladder was placed, was covered by an ice
curtain. It was thin and had evidently been damaged by the ice cutters
or I think it would have covered the entire lower portion of the wall.
The base of the long ladder rested on an ice floor which filled the
bottom of the cave, and which would probably have been level if it had
not been cut out here and there in places, leaving many holes. A good
many broken ice fragments lay on the floor and in some of the holes
were pools of water. Some of the floor ice was exceedingly prismatic in
character, and I was able to flake it off or break it easily with my
hands into prisms.
[Illustration: Fig. 7. Vertical Section of the Glacière de
Saint-Georges.]
Under the vertical shaft, which is at one end of the cave, was a mass
of winter's snow which had fallen through the opening. Under this snow
was a deep hole, which I believe was the drain hole of the glacière
before the ice floor was cut away to a level below its mouth. Into
this hole I threw lumps of ice and heard them go bumping down for three
or four seconds.
The atmosphere was not uncomfortable, although the temperature was
about 7° C. The air did not feel damp, and seemed almost still, but
standing on the ice floor nearly under the vertical hole, I found that
the smoke from my cigar ascended rapidly, and it seemed as if there
were a rising air current, which sucked up the smoke.
Saint-Georges is a fine cavern and well worth visiting. Émery said that
the ice was not cut out for eight years preceding the summer of 1897,
and that for several years it was not possible to go down at all, as
there were no ladders, until he put in the two we utilized.[5] All the
natives of Saint-Georges believed that the ice was a summer formation
and that it was warm in the cave in winter.
[5] In the illustration of the Glacière de Saint-Georges, the opening
to the left is the vertical pit, through which the ice is taken out:
underneath it, is the heap of winter snow. The man in the upper part
of the picture is standing on the rock shelf at the base of the upper
ladder and at the top of the lower ladder. To the right of the lower
ladder near the bottom, a bit of the ice curtain is visible.
THE GLACIÈRE DU PRÉ DE SAINT-LIVRES.
From the Glacière de Saint-Georges, Émery and I pushed on through the
woods to the Pré de Saint-Livres. In several places we came on the
tracks of deer, and my guide told me he had killed eleven roe during
the last hunting season. He said also that an attempt is being made to
introduce the red deer into the Jura, and that the experiment seemed to
be meeting with success. We kept to the crest of the ridge along wood
paths, and, as the day was fortunately cool and cloudy, we were able to
walk fast and reached the Pré de Saint-Livres in two hours. At a spot
called La Foiraudaz we met the workmen coming down with a cartload of
ice, which they were taking to Bière. Some of this ice was extremely
prismatic.
The Pré de Saint-Livres is a big mountain pasture or meadow, surrounded
with hills covered with pine trees. In the middle of it is the Châlet
de Saint-Livres, round which numerous cows and calves were congregated
and where a small shepherd gave us some milk. The châlet is not one
of the old picturesque Swiss châlets with great stones on the roof to
keep it from being blown away by the wind, but a strongly built single
storied stone structure, which looks extremely modern among the green
hills.
The glacière lies close to the châlet, on the southern side of the
meadows, just on the edge of the woods, and is surrounded with trees.
It is at an altitude of 1362 meters and faces nearly due north. To
prevent the cattle from falling in, it is enclosed with a stone wall,
except in front, where there is a fence formed of an abattis of pine
trees. The cave belongs to the pit variety, and the pit is a big one.
As you stand at the top, you can look down to the end of the glacière.
The rocks are vertical all round the pit, and in front there is a small
rock shelf, one-third of the way down, which divides the rock wall
into two long drops. Against each of these was a rickety ladder, so we
fixed the end of my rope to the pine trees of the fence, and hung on
to it while we climbed down. The base of the lower and longer ladder
rested on a mass of snow. This was the beginning of a long snow slope
which gradually turned to ice and filled the cave. The cave itself,
measuring along the snow slope, is some forty meters long and some ten
to fifteen meters wide, and is entirely lighted by daylight.
The snow and ice slope fell in a series of small waves, and the upper
portion was rather dirty. On the right hand the workmen had fixed a
rope as a handrail, and all the way down had cut a staircase in the
ice, so that the descent was not difficult. Some of the ice was sloppy.
The ice mass did not abut entirely against the end of the cave, but
left an open space between the ice and the rock, some three or four
meters wide and some four or five meters deep. Here the workmen had
been getting their ice, and had cut into the ice mass for several
meters, forming a little tunnel.
There were no ice cones nor stalactites, neither did I see any
limestone stalactites. Much of the ice was prismatic; in fact, together
with that at Saint-Georges, it was the most strongly prismatic I have
seen. I can perhaps best describe it, by saying that it was brittle
in texture, as I could break up small lumps in my hands. There was
more prismatic ice at Saint-Livres, however, than at Saint-Georges.
The air in the cave was still and decidedly damp; and the temperature
was several degrees above freezing point. The day, however, was almost
windless, and I would not assert that movements of air, due to the
wind, might not sometimes take place in the pit.
The Glacière du Pré de Saint-Livres is one of those caves which may
be looked on as a transitional form between gorges containing ice and
caves containing ice. The winter snow falls into the mouth of the pit,
and is the chief foundation of the ice mass. It would be interesting
to make a series of observations in this cave to see whether there was
anything like glacier motion. Émery, of his own accord, expressed the
opinion that much of the ice here was due to the winter snows; in fact,
he thought that it was all due to it, and that it gradually descended
into the cave and turned, little by little, into ice. He told me that
some years ago a cow was found by the workmen, frozen into the ice,
at a depth of four meters; the flesh was perfectly preserved, and was
eaten. I asked him if he had ever seen insects in either cave, and he
said he had not.
From the glacière we walked back to the village of Saint-Georges. On
asking my guide how much I owed him, he said he received four francs
for a _journée_, so I gave him six francs, and we parted the best of
friends.
GLACIER ICE CAVE IN THE FEE GLACIER.
During a rather protracted stay at Saas-Fee in Switzerland, I visited
the glacier ice cave of the Fee Glacier on the 15th and 16th of
August, 1897, both cool and rainy days. It is about half an hour's
walk from the hotel to the ice cave, which is in the snout of the Fee
glacier, below the Eggfluh. A considerable stream issued from the cave.
On nearing the opening, a strong cold air current poured out above
the stream. At the front edge of the ice, the height of the ice roof
in the centre was perhaps twelve meters and the width fifteen meters.
Around the edge, the roof formed an almost perfect curve. The ice walls
contracted in a regular manner within, and the cave became narrower and
lower, and suggested an enormous funnel cut in half, into which you
looked from the larger end. The cave also grew gradually darker, and
the darkness prevented seeing further than to a depth of some fifteen
meters. In the ice walls, just inside the entrance, were several
crevasses, of the ordinary blue-green color. They followed nearly the
same curve as the roof, but did not go through to the outside. There
were no icicles. The ice was faintly stratified in places, and at the
outer edge was brittle. It did not break into the long narrow prisms
of the ice at Saint-Georges and the Pré de Saint-Livres, but rather
into small lumps with facets, of all sorts of shapes. It was evidently
unsafe to penetrate under the ice roof, for while I stood in front of
the cave, a large lump broke off from the roof and fell with a clatter
among a lot of other ice fragments already on the moraine floor. In two
places there was a steady rain of drops from the roof, showing that the
ice was melting.
This is perhaps the glacier cave in Switzerland which is easiest to
visit, and my inspection intensified my belief in what I consider
the correct explanation of some of the phenomena in glacières. The
suggestion was that as soon as the temperature gets above freezing
point in a glacier ice cave, the only process is that of destruction of
the ice, which seems to be also the case with glacières.
LA GRAND CAVE DE MONTARQUIS.
My brother and I left Cluses, in Savoie, a railroad station on the line
between Geneva and Chamonix, at two o'clock on the afternoon of the
22d of August, 1897, and drove up in two hours and a half to Pralong
du Reposoir, a distance of eleven kilometers. The road is a _route
nationale_, fine and broad, with parapets in many places. After passing
Scionzier, it mounts gradually, passing through a tremendous wild
gorge, cut by the waters and heavily clad with firs. We reached Pralong
at four-thirty, and stopped at a primitive inn, still in process of
construction, and tenanted only by blue-bloused peasants, who, as it
was Sunday night, sat up late, drinking and making a heathenish noise
they mistook for singing. I talked to some of these men, and they all
insisted that there was no ice at the Grand Cave in winter, but that
it came in summer. _Plus il fait chaud, plus ça gêle_, they said. One
man explained the formation of the ice in an original way, and with
an intelligence far above that of the average peasant. He considered
that it was due to air currents, and thought that in winter the snow
stopped up the holes in the rocks, through which the currents came; but
that when the snow melted, the draughts could work, and that then they
formed the ice.
The weather was abominable next morning, the clouds lying along and
dripping into the valley; but the inn was so awful that we decided to
try to reach the cave. We had a nice little blue-bloused peasant for
a guide, Sylvain Jean Cotterlaz by name. We went first for about an
hour on foot towards Le Grand Bornant on a fair road, to an alp called
La Salle. This was surrounded by a herd of cows, some of whom seemed
interested in our party. It now began to rain fiercely, and except for
my brother's perseverance, I should certainly have given in. A fair
path led up steep grass slopes into the clouds covering the Mont Bargy.
Each of us had his umbrella raised, and the ascent was slippery and
uninspiring. An hour took us to two deserted huts, the Alpe Montarquis,
and half an hour beyond, we came to the caves; by which time we were
thoroughly soaked.
The caves are on Mont Bargy, at the base of a limestone precipice,
which, I think, faces nearly north. There are three caves close
together. The lowest, or Petite Cave de Montarquis, Cotterlaz said is
also called La Cave des Faux-Monayeurs; as according to a, probably
untrue, tradition, it was once used by counterfeiters. Above this is a
small rock pocket, accessible down an easy slope. We went in and found
that there was no ice and indeed scarcely any water in it.
The Grand--not Grande--Cave is a little higher up, and as we came
to it, several sheep, which had taken refuge in the mouth from the
storm, hastily skipped away, evidently distrusting our intentions. The
altitude of the cave is said to be 2078 meters. The entrance must face
about north east; it is elliptical in shape, about fifteen meters wide,
and six meters high, and is badly sheltered against the wind. The cave
is of moderate size, about sixty meters in length and forty-five meters
in width, and the average height of the roof is not over four or five
meters. A gentle slope leads downwards. Many blocks of rock in the
front part had bits of moss growing on them, and some of the mud there
was of a dull purple color, as if some dark madder was mixed with it.
There was a red streak in the right hand wall, probably caused by iron.
I observed no limestone stalactites nor stalagmites in the cave, the
main body of which was well lighted throughout by daylight.
[Illustration: Fig. 8. Vertical Section of Grand Cave de Montarquis.]
The ice was in the shape of a nearly level floor, about twelve meters
long and eight meters wide: the shape was irregular, and the ice so
smooth that it was hard to stand up. The rocks in the rear overhung the
ice floor at one spot; and here, there streamed from a fissure to the
ice floor an ice column, some three meters high, whose base was fully
two meters distant from the rock wall. Near this column was a tiny ice
cone, which evidently had been bigger. Cotterlaz seemed impressed with
the fact that there was only one column in the cave, as he said that
in June, there would have been many columns and a larger and deeper
ice floor. The ice was sloppy in places, with several small hollows
cut by the drip and containing water. In one place there was a tiny
runnel filled with water, but there was no current. There was a good
deal of drip all through the cave, and in fact in one or two places we
might have kept on holding up our umbrellas with advantage. I hacked at
several pieces of ice, but none of it was prismatic.
At the rear of the cave, the ice ran, in a tongue, up the entrance of
an ascending fissure in the rocks. My brother cut here six or seven
steps in the ice; and he found them difficult to make, as the ice was
hard and thin, and not in a melting state. Above the ice tongue we
clambered up the rocks of the fissure some four or five meters further,
finding there some lumps of ice which were not melting. At this spot we
were almost in darkness. A lighted match burned steadily, so that there
was evidently not much draught, but the smoke gradually descended,
showing a slight downward current. This was the coldest, as well as the
furthest point of the cave we could reach, and we there heard a tiny
waterfall trickling within the fissure, although we could not see it.
By this time we were all chilled to the bone, so, abandoning the
idea of entering the Petite Cave, we retreated down the sopping wet,
slippery grass slopes to Pralong, and then immediately walked all
the way to Cluses to avoid taking cold. The Grand Cave was the most
fatiguing trip I ever made after glacières, but the circumstances were
rather unusual.
THE FREEZING WELL OF OWEGO.
On Thursday, June 23d, 1898, I went to Owego, in Tioga County, New
York. Inquiries at the Lehigh Valley railroad station and at the chief
hotel failed to elicit any information about a freezing well; and in
fact, I soon found that the existence of such a thing was a blank to
the rising generation. So I called on an old resident of Owego, who
told me that he knew of the well in question and that it was filled up
with stones many years ago; but that he remembered that, when he was a
boy, it used to freeze, and that it was spoken of as the deep well or
freezing well. I then walked up to the site of the well, which is about
one and a half kilometers to the northwest from the centre of Owego and
about one kilometer from the Susquehanna River. It is directly in the
middle of the highway, and nothing is now visible but a heap of stones.
Near by was the house of a Mr. Preston, who told me he was born in
1816, and had lived all his life at this spot. He said that the well
was about twenty-eight meters deep, and that it went first through
a layer of sand and then through a layer of gravel. He had more than
once been down the well and had seen the sides covered with ice. A
bucket sent down for water would sometimes come up with ice on the
sides. Whether the water at the bottom ever froze, no one knew, for
the ice caked and filled up the bore at about two-thirds of the way
down and became so thick, that as Mr. Preston put it, "it was just like
hammering on an anvil to try to break it." He also stated that another
well was dug about one hundred meters further down the road, and that
originally this sometimes had a little ice on the sides. Of late years
however, it was covered over with a wooden top and since then no ice
was known to form. I could obtain no information about any other wells
in the neighborhood ever showing similar peculiarities.
THE ICY GLEN, NEAR STOCKBRIDGE.
The Icy Glen is situated on Bear Mountain, about one kilometer from
Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is in the midst of fine woods and there
are many big trees in it. The bottom of the glen is full of rocks
and boulders, among which there is a rough path. I was told that ice
remained over there much longer than anywhere else in the neighborhood,
sometimes as late as May. On the 3d of July, 1898, I not only found no
traces of ice or snow, but the temperatures under the boulders showed
nothing abnormal. To make up for this, however, there were legions of
mosquitoes.
FREEZING MARBLE CAVE, NEAR MANCHESTER.
Near Manchester, Vermont, there is a little cave,[6] which is
noteworthy, in that it is in a marble formation. It is known as
Skinner's Cave, because it was owned for many years by Mr. Mark
Skinner. It lies in Skinner's Hollow, some five or six kilometers from
the centre of Manchester, at the base of the eastern slope of Mount
Equinox, of the Taghconic Range of the Green Mountains.
[6] My attention was called to this cave, by Messrs. John Ritchie, Jr.,
of Boston, and Byerly Hart of Philadelphia, who visited it some years
ago. Mr. Ritchie's opinion is that it is simply a refrigerator.
The cave is on the property of Mr. N. M. Canfield, who, on learning the
object of my visit, on the 5th of July, 1898, with true native American
courtesy, walked up to it with me. The last two kilometers were over a
rough logging road, which towards the end was steep and covered with
many broken logs. I could not have found the cave alone, as it was
so surrounded with bushes, that the entrance was invisible until we
actually reached it. It is in a gorge of Mount Equinox, in the midst
of a beautiful forest, which effectually cuts off any wind. The cave
faces nearly north and can scarcely ever, if indeed at any time, be
reached by the rays of the sun. The moment we got into the entrance, we
found the chilly, damp, summer atmosphere of true glacière caves. The
rocks were brown and mossy on the outside, but Mr. Canfield called my
attention to the fact that they were marble, and on his knocking off
a small piece, a section of pure white marble was exposed. In no other
instance have I heard of a marble cave in connection with ice. There
were scarcely any cracks or crevices in the rock.
The cave goes down with a steep slope from the entrance, much in the
shape of a tunnel, for some ten meters. The slope was covered with
slippery mud and decayed leaves, and at the bottom expanded into a
little chamber, in which lay a mass of wet, compact snow, some two by
three meters. It was evident that the snow was simply drifted in during
the winter, and was in too large a mass and too well protected to melt
easily, and there could be no question but that this place was purely
a refrigerator. The air was tranquil throughout and there were no
draughts. On the same day, a good breeze was blowing in the Manchester
Valley.
THE FREEZING WELL OF BRANDON.
The Freezing Well of Brandon is situated on the western or southwestern
outskirts of the village of Brandon, Vermont, not far from the railroad
station. I visited it on the 7th of July, 1898. The well was protected
by a wooden cover. On raising this, a faint stream of cool air seemed
to issue forth; but this was probably only imagination. The sides, as
far down as one could see, were built in with rather large blocks of
stone without cement. At the bottom water was visible and there were
no signs of ice. We drew up some water in a bucket, and although it
was cool there was nothing icy about it. I twice lowered a thermometer
nearly to the water and each time after ten minutes it registered only
13° C. There was certainly nothing abnormal in this temperature, in
fact it was strictly normal and my thermometer showed conclusively by
its actions that it could not have been near any ice mass. The people
at the house, however, assured me that a month before there was ice in
the well.
Afterwards I called on Mr. C. O. Luce, the owner of the well. He stated
that it was eleven and a half meters deep to the bottom, that it was
dug in 1858, and that the ground through which it goes was found frozen
at a depth of about four and a half meters. Here there is a stratum of
gravel and this is where the freezing occurs. Mr. Luce thought that
the water was under the ice, that is, that the water came up from the
bottom. He said also that the well usually froze solid in winter; but,
that as this winter was an open one, there was less ice this year than
usual. He thought that there was less ice anyway now than in former
years, partly because of the cover which was put over the well, and
which keeps out some of the cold; and partly because a neighboring
gravel hillock, called the Hogback, was a good deal cut away, and this
in some way affects the supply of cold in the gravel. He added that the
sandy soil round Brandon does not as a rule freeze to a greater depth
than two meters each winter. The house built beside the well was said
to be comfortable in winter.
There seems no doubt that this is another refrigerator. The cold water
of the winter snows percolates into the gravel mass and refreezes, and,
owing to the bad conductive quality of the material, the gravel remains
frozen later than the soil elsewhere in the neighborhood. The fact that
the well went through a frozen gravel stratum when dug, proves that it
is not alone the air that sinks into the well itself, which makes the
ice. The fact that the well freezes on the whole less than formerly,
apparently partly owing to the digging up of some of the gravel close
by, goes to prove the same thing. The fact that the well generally
freezes solid every winter, shows that although some of the gravel
mass possibly remains frozen all the time, much of the ice is renewed
each year. This is especially important as proving that the ice found
in gravel deposits is due to the cold of winter and not to a glacial
period, although, of course, no one could say for how long a time the
ice was forming and melting; and this process might date back to the
time of the formation of the gravel mass.
I could learn nothing of any similar place near Brandon, except that
Mr. Luce said that in an old abandoned silver mine in the neighborhood,
he had once seen ice during hot weather.
FREEZING TALUS ON LOWER AUSABLE POND.
On the eastern side of Lower Ausable Pond, Essex County, New York,
at the foot of Mount Sébille or Colvin, there is a talus of great
Laurentian boulders, which fell from the mountain and lie piled up
on the edge of the lake. Among these boulders, at a distance of
about five hundred meters from the southern end of the lake, there
are spaces, several of which might be called caves, although they are
really hollows between the boulders. On the 12th of July, 1898, I
visited this spot with Mr. Edward I. H. Howell of Philadelphia. From
several of the rock cracks we found a draught of air flowing strongly
out, as tested by the smoke of a cigar. The air was distinctly icy and
there could be no question that there was a considerable quantity of
ice among the rocks to produce the temperature.
In three places we found masses of ice. One of these hollows was small,
and the other two were much larger. One of the latter was almost round
in shape, and perhaps three meters in diameter; with a little snow near
the mouth and with plenty of ice at the bottom. The other was a long
descending crack between two boulders which joined overhead, and with
the bottom filled by a long, narrow slope of ice, perhaps seventy-five
centimeters in width and six meters in length, set at an angle of about
thirty-five degrees. The ice was hard and non-prismatic.
The cold air affects a large area of land around the boulders. Mr.
Howell called my attention to the flowers of the bunch-berry, which he
said were at least two weeks behind those on the surrounding mountains.
The same was true of _oxalis_, a pretty white flower, of which we found
several beds in full bloom.
Mr. Howell went to this talus, on the 4th of July previous, with Mr.
Niles, President of the Appalachian Mountain Club, on which occasion
they found plenty of snow near the entrance of the larger hollow. Mr.
Howell, indeed, has repeatedly visited this place, and always found
ice, which must, therefore, be looked on as perennial. At all times
also he has felt cold draughts flowing out; sometimes they were so
strong as to lower the temperature over the lake to a distance of
thirty meters or more: on hot days he has seen occasionally a misty
cloud form on the lake in front of the boulders. Mr. Howell considers
that the draughts so affect the surrounding air, that an artificial
climate is produced, and it is owing to this that spring flowers bloom
late in July and sometimes in August. Another fact well known to him,
is that in hot weather, the spot in front of the boulders is the best
in the whole lake to catch trout, as they always congregate in the
coldest water. The Adirondack guides use these ice retaining hollows,
which they call ice-caves, as refrigerators for their provisions and
game in hot weather: they say that the ice is formed in winter and
remains over during the summer, as it is so well sheltered.
FREEZING TALUS OF THE GIANT OF THE VALLEY.
On the indications of Mr. Otis, chief guide of the Adirondack Reserve,
I explored with Mr. C. Lamb, a guide from Keene Valley, the southern
base of the Giant of the Valley Mountain, Essex County, New York, on
the 14th of July, 1898. A road runs from Keene Heights to Port Henry,
through the gap between the south base of the Giant of the Valley and
the north base of Round Mountain, and passes close to a small lake
called Chapel Pond. Some three hundred meters west of this lake, we
left the road and struck north, across the brook, into the thick, mossy
woods. After perhaps one hundred meters, we came to a talus of great
boulders of Laurentian rock, with the cliffs of the Giant, whence the
boulders had fallen, rising steeply above. We found ice under several
of them, although never in any quantity. The thermometer, after an
exposure of fifteen minutes in one of these little hollows, registered
6° C., although not more than one meter from where the sunshine fell on
the moss. In the shade of a tree one meter distant from the same hollow
it registered 26° C.; a difference of 20° C. at a distance of only two
meters.
Perhaps one kilometer east of Chapel Pond, there is a place, where the
bases of the mountains come much nearer together, which bears the name
of "The Narrows." Here we crossed the brook again, and, after some
fifteen or twenty meters of scrambling through rough woods, reached
once more the talus of the Giant, composed of tremendous boulders.
Among these we found ice in many places and this time in large
quantities. Within one boulder cave we found an ice slab some four
meters in length, by two meters in width, and one meter in thickness.
This was pure, hard and non-prismatic ice, and was evidently not formed
of compressed snow: in fact snow could not have drifted in under the
boulder. We broke off a large piece of ice and took it back to Saint
Hubert's Inn, and it melted rather slowly. From the mouth of this cave
an icy draught issued, and, as it struck the warmer air outside, a
slight mist was formed. Mr. Lamb said that from the road itself he had
sometimes seen mist rising from this talus. Further explorations of the
talus of the Giant would probably reveal ice in many other places than
those we examined.[7]
[7] Mr. E. I. H. Howell examined several times, in 1899, the talus of
the Giant of the Valley. He found ice in many places; also cold air
currents blowing out. At one spot, there is a spring which flows all
through the summer, and the water is so cold, that its temperature is
little above that of melting ice. Mr. Howell found, as at Ausable Pond,
spring flowers growing in mid-summer among the rocks of the talus.
Mr. Lamb told me of two other places in the Adirondacks, where he
found ice in similar boulder formations. One was in the talus of Mount
Wallface in Indian Pass, between Mounts Wallface and McIntyre. The
other was in the talus of Mount McIntyre in Avalanche Pass, between
Mounts McIntyre and Colden. At the latter place, he found it near the
trail going round the lake in the pass.
THE ICE GULCH, RANDOLPH.
The Randolph Ice Gulch is situated in Randolph Township, New Hampshire,
about eight kilometers from Randolph Station, on the Boston and Maine
Railroad.[8] I visited it on August 11th, 1898. At the Mount Crescent
House, I found a guide in the person of Mr. Charles E. Lowe, Jr. The
excursion took us about six hours. The trail was a rough bush path,
cut by the Appalachian Mountain Club, and which had not been cleaned
out that year. It was a cloudy but hot day and this, combined with the
badness of the road, made the walk fatiguing.
[8] I first heard of the Ice Gulch from Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., of
Boston. Some years ago in the middle of July, he found ice plentiful in
the second chamber. He thought the Gulch only a refrigerator.
The Gulch lies between Crescent and Black Mountains. The altitude of
the upper end of the Gulch is something over eight hundred meters,
that of the lower end about six hundred meters. It is some fifteen
hundred meters long, and averages perhaps one hundred meters in width
at the top, and only a few meters at the bottom. The depth may be about
seventy-five meters and the sides are steep, in some places sheer.
The bottom is a mass of broken, fallen rocks, with a good many trees
growing among them. There are several steps, so to speak, in the Gulch,
which are called chambers, although the term seems rather meaningless.
Promenading through the bottom of the Gulch was fraught with
difficulty, because the rocks were placed in most unsuitable positions
for human progression, and my hands were certainly as useful to me as
my feet in preserving equilibrium. We found ice in one or two places,
but not in any great quantity. In one spot it was overlaid by water. My
guide said that there was less ice than the year before. A large piece
which we broke off, and which furnished us with a cooling morsel of
frozen fluid, was full of air bubbles. It was not prismatic ice, and
was certainly unusual in formation. It crunched up under the teeth and,
although it did not look like solidified snow, yet, judging from its
position among the boulders, it was doubtless formed from the melting
and refreezing of snow.[9] My guide said he had heard that fresh ice
began to form sometimes in September. The Gulch is well protected
against wind, and I detected no draughts among the rocks. Except in the
immediate vicinity of the ice, the temperature was not abnormally low.
[9] On the 17th of February, 1899, four days after the greatest snow
storm in Philadelphia in many years, I noticed that the snow on my
roof solidified slowly into a mass of ice which contained a good
many air-bubbles. It strikingly resembled the ice of the Ice Gulch,
only that it was more solid and did not have more than half as many
air-bubbles.
On returning to the Mount Crescent House, I had a talk with Mr. Charles
E. Lowe, Sr., who told me that Alpine plants, like those which grow on
Mount Washington and Mount Adams, are found in the Gulch; but that they
do not exist on the neighboring Black and Crescent Mountains. He said
also that ice was present in more than one place in King's Ravine, and
that it was always there.
FREEZING BOULDER TALUS AT RUMNEY.
About three kilometers south of Rumney, New Hampshire, there is a hill
called Bald Mountain, which, about three hundred meters west of the
carriage road from Rumney to Plymouth, descends as a big cliff, with
an exposure facing nearly southeast. At the base of this cliff, there
is a talus[10] which I visited on the 27th of August, 1898, with the
Sheriff of Rumney, Mr. Learned. He said he had found plenty of ice
there on the 18th of August, 1897, but he doubted whether there would
be any left this year, on account of the hot weather. Effectively a
careful hunt failed to reveal any ice, although the talus was just
the kind of place where it might have been expected, as the boulders
were piled one over the other and in one or two places there were
considerable hollows. The temperatures were normal, and there were
no draughts. The talus is exposed to the sun, and only moderately
sheltered against wind by a scrub forest. But there can be no doubt,
that ice lingers there long after it has disappeared from every other
spot in the neighborhood, and it seems as if our not finding any, is
another proof that it is the heat of summer which melts it away.
[10] Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., wrote me about this place, where he had
found ice plentiful some years ago in August, within two or three
meters from the outside: he considered it only a refrigerator.
ICE FORMATIONS AND WINDHOLES AT WATERTOWN.
At Watertown, New York, on the south side of the Black River, in the
town itself, are some natural cracks or crevices in the limestone
rocks. They are only a short distance from the New York Central
Railroad station. The cracks enter the northern side of the railroad
embankment, pass under the railroad tracks, and extend some distance
back. In front of them are four cellars, used for storing beer kegs.
The lessor, Mr. Ehrlicher, obligingly had the cellars opened for me, on
the 12th of September, 1898. There was neither ice nor draughts in the
cellars, and the temperature was normal. Mr. Ehrlicher said that in the
spring there was ice in the cracks, but that it had all melted away as
the result of the hot summer.
[Illustration: THE BLUFF AT DECORAH.
From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik.
]
About four kilometers west of Watertown, on the south bank of the Black
River, is the picnic ground of Glen Park, which is reached by trolley.
The manager of the restaurant walked around the park with me. In one
spot is a hollow or glen at the base of a small, much cracked limestone
cliff, which has a northern exposure. The manager said that snow and
ice usually lies in this place until June, not only among the broken
rocks, but even in the open. Sometimes ice remains among the boulders
all summer, but only near the front of the boulders, and by pushing
in, one soon gets beyond it: we found none, a fact showing once more
the effect of the unusually warm summer. On hot days, draughts issue
from between the boulders, but as the day was cool, we did not notice
any. The spot is well sheltered against the wind by a number of trees;
and the shape of the hollow reminded me of the glen in front of the
Eishöhle bei Roth.
Not one hundred meters from this hollow, is a little limestone cave,
closed by a wooden door, which excludes any cold air in winter.
The cave is lighted by electric lights, and is a narrow, crooked,
descending fissure, a _ganghöhle_, where the marks of water action are
plainly visible. At the bottom a little stream, evidently the active
agent in forming the cave, ran through the fissured limestone. In the
stream a large toad or frog was swimming about. There was nothing icy
about the cave or the water, and the temperature was normal. Ice was
never known to form in the cave. These two places, so close together,
are an interesting confirmation that it is only where the outside cold
can get in, that we find subterranean ice.
THE FREEZING CAVE AND FREEZING WELLS OF DECORAH.
Near Decorah, Iowa, is a freezing cavern, which is more frequently
referred to in cave literature than is generally the case. I visited it
on Friday, September the 30th, 1898, with an old English resident of
Decorah, Mr. W. D. Selby-Hill. The cave is situated about one kilometer
to the northward of Decorah, on the north bank of the Upper Iowa River,
at the base of a bluff. It is some thirty to forty meters above the
stream, and faces southward. It looks like a fault or fissure in the
rocks, with the sides meeting a few meters overhead. It is a true
cave, but probably in an early stage of formation, for there are no
apparent traces of water action, nor any stalagmites nor stalactites.
The absence of the latter may, however, be due to the fact that it is a
periodic glacière. The rock is a white limestone, rich in fossils. The
cave is some two to three meters in width and is rather winding, with a
short arm or pocket branching out on the west side. The main cave runs
back some thirty meters from the entrance. In one place it is necessary
to stoop, to get past some overhanging rock slabs. By candle light, we
went to the rear of the cave, and found it warm, dry, and free from
ice. There were no draughts, possibly because the day was cool.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE OF THE CAVE OF DECORAH.
From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik.
]
I looked in vain for _tubular fissures_, or indeed any fissures,
through which _water might freeze by pressure in its descent_, as the
believers in the capillary theory say it does. Nothing of the kind
existed, and I wrote in my note-book: "Writing on the very spot about
which this theory was started, I feel justified in asserting that the
theory amounts to absolutely nothing and is entirely incorrect."
Mr. Hill told me that there were two wells in the southern portion of
Decorah Township, where ice was found in summer. I visited them both,
but found no ice, and the temperatures normal. Mr. Hill said that one
of the wells was dug about thirty years ago, and that the workman told
him that the ground which he went through was frozen; and that at one
place he struck an opening, from which came so strong a current of icy
air, that it was hard to keep at work.
I talked to several persons afterwards. _Inter alia_, they told me that
the bluff was a great place for rattlesnakes, sometimes big ones. They
admitted also generally that they were puzzled about the formation of
ice in the cave. Some claimed that the ice formed in summer--the old
story once more. I met, however, Mr. Alois F. Kovarik of the Decorah
Institute, who had made a series of regular observations for over a
year and found that the ice begins to form about the end of March and
beginning of April, and is at its maximum towards the beginning of
June. Mr. Kovarik also told me, that he had found ice in one of the
wells in the beginning of August.
This was an especially satisfactory trip to me, for it did away, once
for all, with any possible belief that there was any basis of fact for
the capillary theory. It also seems to me important to find that the
ice of these freezing wells melts in summer. For it shows that their
ice is due to the same causes as those which form the ice in the cave,
and is another proof against the validity of the glacial period theory.
FREEZING ROCK TALUS ON SPRUCE CREEK.
On Spruce Creek, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, about four kilometers
north of the Pennsylvania Railroad depot, is an ice bearing talus,
known locally as the Ice Holes or Ice Caves. I visited this spot, on
October the 5th, 1898, with Mr. Benner, of Spruce Creek. We walked
up the pretty valley along the old Pittsburgh turnpike, at one place
finding some papaw trees, whose fruit had a horrible sickening taste;
then we crossed Spruce Creek by a footbridge and followed the other
bank back for some five hundred meters, until we were nearly opposite
the old Colerain Forge, which is located in a piece of land called by
the curious name of Africa. About half way from the bridge we smelt
a strange odor, which my companion thought came from a copperhead or
rattlesnake: we did not investigate.
[Illustration: LOCUS GLACIALIS--CAVE OF DECORAH.
From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik.
]
The freezing talus is situated at the foot of Tussey Mountain: it is
big, and is composed of small sandstone (?) rock débris. The talus is
at least thirty meters high and one hundred and twenty meters long.
As I stood at the bottom, I was reminded strongly of the talus at the
Dornburg. At the base were a number of small pits, evidently dug by
man. From the interstices between the rocks, icy cold draughts issued
in some places, and there was no doubt that there was plenty of ice
beneath the stones. In one place we thought we could see ice, and I
poked at the white substance with my stick, but I am not positive
that it was ice. All over the talus, the temperature was strikingly
colder than a few meters away, and in the pits we could see our breaths
distinctly. Although I am not much of a botanist, yet it seemed to me
that the flora immediately near the talus was somewhat different in
character from that of the surrounding country.
Mr. Benner told me that he saw, three or four weeks before, plenty of
ice in the pits; that they were made by farmers who formerly came to
this spot to get ice; and that parties occasionally picnic here in the
summer and make ice cream. He stated also that he saw, some years ago,
a small cave or hole containing ice near Mapleton, Pennsylvania, but
that it was destroyed by quarrying the rock away.
FREEZING GORGE NEAR ELLENVILLE.
On Sunday, October the 9th, 1898, with a young man from Ellenville,
I visited the well known Ellenville Gorge, in the Shawangunk Range,
Ulster County, New York. We left the hotel at eight-forty A. M. and
reached the gorge, known locally as the Ice Cave, at ten-five A. M.
It is about four kilometers northeast from Ellenville. The path rises
steadily uphill and is of the roughest description; it is covered with
loose stones, and looks as if it might become the bed of a mountain
brook in wet weather.
I call this place a gorge, instead of a cave, because it is uncovered
at the top, but probably originally it was covered. It is shaped like
a pit cave minus a roof, and it reminded me of the Friedrichsteiner
Eishöhle, and the Glacières de Saint-Georges and du Pré de
Saint-Livres. It is entered by a long slope from the western end, the
gorge turning northward further back. I estimated its width, at the
bottom at some five to seven meters, at the top at some three to four
meters; its length at some thirty meters and the deepest point we
reached, at some twenty meters below the surface. These are guesses,
however. In one place, a great rock slab overhangs the gorge. At nearly
the lowest point of the rock floor, there is a hole which extends
perpendicularly downwards some five or ten meters more; this opening
is partly blocked up with fallen masses of rock which would make a
further descent perilous. The north end of the gorge is also filled up
with a mass of great broken rocks; in fact, the whole place is out of
repair, as the rocks are cracked and creviced on both sides to a great
extent. The rock is friable and seems to be all breaking up, or rather
down, and I think there is some danger from falling stones, although
I did not see any fall. There is a good deal of moss on the sides of
the gorge, and on some ledges small evergreens are growing. The gorge
is sheltered thoroughly from winds by its formation and position, and
somewhat by the scrub forest surrounding it. There are several long,
deep crevices a few meters further up the mountain side, and I think
one of them is an extension of the main gorge.
[Illustration: GORGE AT ELLENVILLE.
From a Photograph by Mr. Davis.
]
We found no ice. It generally lasts till about the beginning of
September; and Professor Angelo Heilprin, and Miss Julia L. Lewis, of
Philadelphia, have found plenty of it in July and August. But the ice
had evidently now been gone for some time, for the temperature at the
bottom of the gorge was about 11° C. at ten-thirty A. M. This was but
little colder than the temperature v outside, which at ten-fifteen A.
M. was 14° C.
On returning to Ellenville, I learnt that there was another somewhat
similar smaller gorge, some eight kilometers away, at a place called
Sam's Point. This, however, is said to retain only snow, while in the
Ellenville gorge much ice is sometimes formed, and icicles a couple of
meters long are said to hang on the sides of the cliffs. The proprietor
of the hotel told me he had heard of a cave which contained ice not far
from Albany, at a place called Carlisle, on the Delaware and Hudson
Railroad.
FREEZING CAVE AND WINDHOLES NEAR FARRANDSVILLE.
I arrived at Farrandsville, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, early on
Tuesday morning, October the 11th, 1898, and found a boy, who worked
in a brick mill, as guide to the caves.[11] After emptying a small,
flat bottomed boat of the water of which it was half full, we rowed
across the Susquehanna River; then we walked up the road, along the
river bank, for a couple of hundred meters, and struck up the so-called
path to the caves. Although the whole of the mountain side was at the
disposal of the road maker, no better plan seems to have suggested
itself than to make the track go straight up. This saved making
zigzags, yet the result is that the path is steep, and as it is rocky
and slippery, it is hard travelling without bootnails or alpenstock.
[11] I learned of this cave from Mr. Eugene F. McCabe, of Renovo,
Pennsylvania. Mr. McCabe took out large pieces of ice from it in the
month of August. On December 23d, 1896, he found no ice inside the
cave, but a hoar frost covered the rocks; the temperature outside
was -5.6°; inside -4.5°: the day was clear and there was no breeze;
several matches lighted in the cave were almost instantly blown out by
a current of air coming from crevices in the rocks.
Mr. Ira C. Chatham, postmaster at Farrandsville, wrote to me on the
19th of October, 1898, as follows: "Your paper on Ice Caves [Journal
of the Franklin Institute, March, 1897] at pp. 177 and 178 describes
the Farrandsville Cave as near as is possible, as the ice forms in the
spring from the snow melting and dropping through the rocks into the
cave, and the rocks face directly north as stated."
As we went up, I noticed, in one or two places, cold draughts issuing
from crevices in the rocks. We soon came to a hollow under a rock,
where there were a number of cracks and crevices: the boy spoke of it
as the lower cave. It is some sixty meters above the Susquehanna River
and cold draughts flowed from the cracks, although we saw no ice. The
cave was about twenty meters higher up. One could crawl into it for
a couple of meters, and all round it the rocks are somewhat creviced;
in fact, I think there are a good many cracks in the entire hill.
There was no ice in sight in this hole, but a strong, cold draught
poured from it. After an exposure of fifteen minutes the thermometer
registered 6° C.; while outside, in the shade, it stood at 15° C. This
decidedly sub-normal temperature proved unmistakably, in my opinion,
the presence of ice a little further than we could see in. Both holes
face about north and are sheltered, by their position and by the sparse
forest which covers the ridge, against all winds except those from the
north.
I talked to the postmaster and the railroad agent at Farrandsville
on my return, and they stated that there was no ice in the hole in
winter, but that it formed about April and remained over until towards
September, showing that the cave is a normal glacière on a small scale.
GLACIÈRES NEAR SUMMIT.
In the search for coal, the mountains of the Appalachian Chain between
the little town of Summit, and the neighboring village of Coaldale,
Carbon County, Pennsylvania, were mined and tunneled in every
direction. Owing to the caving in of some of these mines, depressions
formed in certain places along the ridge in the upper surface of the
ground, and in two of these hollows natural refrigerators occur. These
were brought to my notice by Mr. C. J. Nicholson of Philadelphia, and I
visited them on May the 5th, 1899, in company with two coal miners of
Summit.
Starting from Summit, we passed across some rough ground under which
there was a mine on fire; and the miners showed me the tops of two
pipes sticking out of the ground, from which issued a smoke or steam,
too hot to hold the hand in more than a few seconds. Going beyond
through brushwood, for a couple of hundred meters, we came to the
first glacière, which was also the nearest to Summit. It faced almost
due north and looked as if it was formerly the entrance to a mine. It
was fairly big, and my companions assured me that, until within about
a year, ice was always found in it. Recently, however, part, of the
rock roof fell in, blocking up the entrance with a mass of débris and
making it unsafe to venture in. Formerly parties of tourists constantly
visited this place, after coming over the Switchback, but this is no
longer done and there has been some talk of cleaning away the broken
rocks and making the glacière accessible. The men also said that
occasionally people living in the neighborhood had dug out the ice for
their own use.
The other glacière was a short distance further, in the direction of
Coaldale. It is in a pit, which may have been the mouth of a disused
shaft or only a depression resulting from a cave-in. A scrubby forest,
which surrounds the hollow, acts as a windbrake. A rather steep slope
leads down into the pit, and at the end passes under the wall of rock
of the opposite side for a short distance, forming a small cave, which
faces almost due south and whose floor is choked up with broken rock
fragments. At the bottom of the slope we found some snow, and among
the boulders a good deal of snow-ice as well as several long icicles
hanging from the rocks. All the ice and snow lay on the north side of
the rocks, or underneath them, so that it was in shady places where the
sun could not reach it. The temperature was not at all uncomfortable,
although somewhat cool and damp.
[Illustration: Fig. 9. Vertical Section of Pit near Summit.]
There was nothing in either glacière, to show that the ice was formed
from any other cause than the drifting in, and melting and refreezing
of the winter's snow; and my impression is that the ice in the second
glacière could not last through the summer.
THE SNOW HOLE NEAR WILLIAMSTOWN.
The Snow Hole near Williamstown (Massachusetts) is situated near the
northern end of the Petersburgh Mountain of the Taghconic Range; it is
slightly below the watershed on the Williamstown side, at an altitude
of about seven hundred meters. The Snow Hole is in the State of New
York, near the boundary between New York and Massachusetts. It is a
long two hours' drive from Williamstown, the last four kilometers
or so, over an exceedingly steep and rough road, which is, in fact,
nothing but an old logging road, and the worst I ever drove over except
the road to Démenyfálva.
I visited the Snow Hole with my brother on Friday, September the 29th,
1899. It is surrounded by a dense forest, mainly of recent growth,
which thoroughly shelters it from all winds. In shape and appearance
it resembles the Gorge at Ellenville, except that it is smaller: its
location on the ridge is not unlike that of the Friedrichsteiner
Eishöhle. It is a narrow crack--or cave minus a roof--about fifteen
meters long, six to seven meters deep and from two to five meters wide.
It faces nearly north, and the bottom is in perpetual shadow. From the
northern end, a gentle slope leads to the rear. The slope was a good
deal blocked up by a big tree with large branches, which had fallen
directly into the fissure. There was some moss or greenish mould on
the rocks in places, and at the rear end of the slope there were
some fissures in the rocks, into which one might perhaps have crawled
a little farther, which formed a tiny cave. There was also a similar
incipient cave at the northern end. I could not detect any draughts
issuing from these rock fissures, and the air throughout was still,
although the wind was blowing hard on the ridge. The rocks were moist
in places and the air damp, but there was neither snow nor ice and the
temperatures were normal. The driver told me that he had found plenty
of snow in the base of the gorge some years ago in July; and he said
that he had always heard that snow was found in the Snow Hole all the
year round. All the conditions of the place, the shape of the fissure,
and its sheltered northern exposition, are favorable to the retention
of ice and snow, and it is not surprising that they remain over every
spring.
ICY GULF NEAR GREAT BARRINGTON.
The Icy Gulf or Icy Glen is some eight kilometers from Great
Barrington, Massachusetts. I have not been in it, but was told in
October, 1899, by the farmers living near by, that after snowy winters,
ice remains over through July. It must be similar to the Icy Glen at
Stockbridge.
THE ICE BED OF WALLINGFORD.
The Ice Bed of Wallingford is situated about three kilometers to the
east of Wallingford, Vermont. A drive of half an hour, over the Mount
Holly and Hearburrow roads, takes the visitor to the entrance of a
rough wood path, which, at a distance of three or four hundred meters,
leads to the Ice Bed. This is a huge talus, at the base of the White
Rock Mountain, whose cliffs rise steeply overhead for some three or
four hundred meters. The talus, which was doubtless formed by a great
slide at some distant date, consists of granite boulders, some of which
are big ones. The ice-bearing portion may be some thirty or forty
meters high vertically. It lies in a sort of gully or rock basin, and
at the top is about thirty meters broad, tapering to a point at the
bottom. The talus faces southward, and during a good part of the day
the sun shines full upon it. A thin forest fringes the sides and grows
round the bottom, but this can afford but little protection from the
winds, especially to those from the south.
I visited this place on the 5th of October, 1899. There was a distinct
drop in temperature as we neared the base of the talus, and a cool air
drew gently down over the rocks. I think slight draughts issued from
some of the crevices; but of this I am not sure. The temperature was
sub-normal, about 8°, but hardly low enough to prove the presence of
ice, although we could see our breaths distinctly. We looked carefully
under a number of the boulders, but neither ice nor snow was visible.
I was assured that ice was abundant there in the past July and August,
and I should think it had melted away only shortly before my visit. My
impression is, that this is a periodic glacière.
CAVES NEAR WILLIAMSTOWN.
On the eastern slope of the Petersburgh Mountain of the Taghconic Range
in Massachusetts, at a good deal lower altitude than the Williamstown
Snow Hole and about southeast of it are some caverns, which are but
little known. A five or six kilometer drive from Williamstown takes the
visitor to the base of the mountain, whence a rather steep ascent of
about a kilometer and a half brings him to the caves, which are in the
midst of a dense, scrub forest.
The caves were first entered, and possibly discovered, by Mr. W. F.
Williams, of Williamstown, when a boy. Since then, he has visited them
many times and explored them a good deal. They do not appear to have
any name as yet, and it would seem only fitting to christen them after
their explorer: the Williams Caves.
There are several unimportant holes in the immediate neighborhood of
the two main caves. The latter lie side by side. The rock formation is
the same as that of the Snow Hole, a dark gray slate with a few veins
of quartz, and they are due also evidently to the same geological
causes. It would seem as though the mountain had tended to open or
crack at these spots and fallen apart. This seems probable, because
wherever there is a projection on one side of the cracks, there is a
corresponding hollow in the opposite side. After this, water action has
come, and erosion and corrosion have worn out and carried away earthy
matter, and slowly deepened and widened the fissures. The remarkable
point in connection with the main caves, however, is that one is a
normal cave and the other a periodic glacière.
I went with Mr. Williams to these caves on the 6th of October, 1899,
and partially explored the glacière. On the way up, just as we left the
carriage road, a fine, three-year-old buck, in his winter coat, came
bounding out of the forest; on seeing us he stopped, and after taking a
good look, quietly trotted off into the bushes.
The glacière is rather peculiar in shape and may be described as two
storied. A long slope, set at an angle of some forty degrees, and
covered with mud and dead leaves, leads down into the crack, which
is from one to three meters in width. The first half of the slope is
open to the sky; the last half is covered by the rock roof, and is a
real cave. In this the floor is horizontal, the place forming a little
chamber in which the daylight has almost vanished. At the exact summit
of the slope a big tree grew most conveniently; and we tied to this one
end of a twenty-meter Austrian Alpine Club rope, and by holding fast
to it, and kneeling or sitting down in the mud in two or three places,
the descent was easy enough. It was rather difficult to scramble up the
slope again, however.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. Vertical Section of Freezing Cave near
Williamstown.]
In the floor of the little chamber there are two holes, and, stepping
over these, we stood at the rear end, about eighteen meters distant
from the beginning of the slope. My companion now set some birchbark
on fire and dropped it into the innermost hole, and we laid down in
turn, flat on the rock floor, and craned our necks through the hole.
Mr. Williams thought he could see ice below us. I looked down after
him and found that I was looking into a lower chamber whose sides were
invisible. The floor was some three meters below vertically, and on
this the birchbark was burning brightly. I think I saw some ice, but
I could not be sure, as there was too much smoke to see distinctly.
My companion offered to go down through the hole and get some ice; a
proposition I promptly vetoed, as had anything gone wrong, I could not
possibly have given him any assistance, as there was no extra rope.
Mr. Williams told me that he went down several times before in July or
August, and always found ice on the slanting floor. He said he did not
know how far this lower chamber extended, nor the length of the ice
floor. One thing which makes me hesitate to think that we saw ice was,
that the temperature of the chamber where we were was not at all icy;
but probably--I had forgotten my thermometer--nearly normal.
When we stood once more by the tree at the top of the slope, the mouth
of another cave was visible about two meters below us. Mr. Williams
said it had never looked more than a little crack before, and that the
opening was much bigger than at his last visit. It was directly under
the slope by which we descended and it vanished into darkness. Its
direction led straight towards the lower chamber, and it almost surely
leads to it. It seems thus that there are two hollows, one directly
above the other; and that the lower one is a glacière, while the upper
one is not. The cold air of winter would naturally sink into the lower
chamber, and the spring thaws would furnish plenty of drip, so that
this place seems to answer every requirement of a cave glacière.
But the most interesting fact about these caves is that, while the
shallower one is a glacière, the bigger and deeper one is not. This
is situated about ten meters north of the glacière and the direction
of the entrance is about the same. Mr. Williams has found snow and
ice in May in the entrance pit as far as the daylight goes, but none
beyond. I am inclined to think that the explanation of this is the fact
that the cave is a _ganghöhle_ or tunnel cave. Mr. Williams described
it as a narrow passage with chambers, and at least a hundred meters
long, and fifty meters in depth below the surface. The cold air sinks
in a certain distance, but as the passage is narrow and long, and too
winding for any strong draughts, the cold air which enters is soon
neutralized by the supply of warmer air within and by contact with the
rocks. I cannot help thinking that it is by some such explanation that
we must hope to solve the problem of why certain caves are glacières
and others in the immediate neighborhood normal caves; and the caves
near Williamstown are exceptional in presenting the problem so
patently.
PART II.
THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE.
THE CAUSES OF SUBTERRANEAN ICE.
I.
_Terminology._--Ice enduring the entire year is found, in temperate
latitudes, in a variety of forms and in several different kinds of
places. In some cases it is entirely above the surface of the earth;
in others it is entirely beneath the surface of the earth. These are
the extremes, and between them there are certain intermediate forms.
The perennial ice above ground of temperate regions has gradually
become known in English by the French word _glacier_, but strange to
say, there is no term in use in English which accurately describes the
perennial ice formations which are partially or completely underground.
Thus the term "ice cave" is applied to a rock cavern containing ice,
and the term "ice gorge" to a rock gorge containing ice. Both terms
are misleading, because the character of the contents is mentioned
before the nature of the geological formation. We say correctly enough
"limestone cave" or "lava cave" and, in my opinion, we should apply the
term "ice cave" in a similar manner to the hollows in the ice at the
lower end of glaciers, whence the glacier waters make their exit. These
are really "ice caves," that is caves with sides and roof made of ice.
Another trouble of the term "ice cave," as applied to rock formations
containing ice, is that it is not generic: not only is it incorrect,
but also it is not comprehensive. It does not apply to mines, tunnels,
wells, gullies, boulder taluses, or underground ice sheets. If "ice
cave" is used, except in its true sense of glacier ice cave, it seems
at least as though it should be so only for real caves which retain
ice, as opposed to taluses and wells. Curiously enough, the Germans
are just as inaccurate as ourselves, for their terms _eishöhle_
and _eisloch_ are absolute translations of our "ice cave" and "ice
hole." Indeed, there is no doubt that some of the incorrect notions
about subterranean ice formations, are due to the inaccuracy of the
terminology.
The only language, so far as I know, which has a correct and really
generic term for subterranean ice formations, is the French in its word
_glacière_. The French and Swiss say _glacières naturelles_ of ice
deposits formed naturally underground; and _glacières artificielles_
of ice houses. _Glacière naturelle_ is comprehensive and accurate. It
covers all the rock formations and suggests also the mode of formation
of the ice. It likewise implies the strong resemblance between natural
ice deposits and artificial ice houses. It might be well, therefore,
if the French term _glacière_ were adopted as a generic term for all
underground ice formations. As, however, there is little likelihood of
this happening, the question arises as to the best English equivalent
or equivalents. These seem to be "freezing cavern, freezing talus,"
etc., "natural refrigerator" or "subterranean ice formation." "Natural
refrigerator" and "subterranean ice formation" are more generic than
"freezing cavern, freezing well," etc.; but the latter have the
advantage of suggesting immediately that reference is made to the
hollows of the earth which at times contain ice; and, therefore, they
are the best terms, perhaps, which can be chosen in English.
Another point in the terminology of this subject has reference to
subterranean hollows where draughts issue or enter. Such hollows are
found in all parts of the world and are known usually in English as
"blowing caves" or "cold current caves." The Germans speak of them as
_windröhren_ or _windlöcher_. In my first paper about caves,[12] I
used the word "windhole" which I translated from the German. The term
"windhole" seems to me preferable to "blowing cave" or "cold current
cave" in that it is more generic. It applies to taluses or boulder
heaps, or in fact, to any hollows where draughts issue or enter,
whether these hollows are genuine caverns or not.
[12] _Ice Caves and the Causes of Subterranean Ice_, November 1896, and
March 1897.
It is necessary also to explain here that "glacière" and "windhole" are
not synonymous terms. It must be understood that a glacière or natural
refrigerator is a place where ice forms and endures in a subterranean
or semi-subterranean situation; and that _the presence of ice_ is the
criterion of whether a place is or is not a glacière. Likewise it must
be understood that a windhole or blowing cave is an underground hollow
with at least two openings, and in which distinct draughts occur; and
that the _presence of draughts_ is necessary to constitute a place
a windhole or blowing cave. A freezing cavern may or may not be a
windhole, and a windhole may or may not be a freezing cavern.
_Temperatures._--The phenomena of glacières are so closely connected
with temperatures that it seems necessary at this point to mention
some general facts in connection with subterranean temperatures, even
if these still form a subject of some uncertainty, and one about
which further observation is desirable. Subterranean temperatures may
be grouped under three heads: 1, Ordinary or normal temperatures;
2, Temperatures above the normal or super-normal temperatures; 3,
Temperatures below the normal or sub-normal temperatures.
1. In the great majority of caves, cellars and subterranean places
of all descriptions, the temperature of the air is about the same,
all the year round, as that of the ground. The frost of winter and
the heat of summer penetrate the earth for some trivial distance, a
few meters perhaps, and lower or raise the temperature of the ground
temporarily. Below this there is a stratum where the temperature is
found to vary but little the entire year and which, in a majority
of cases, approximates the mean annual temperature of the district.
Below this invariable stratum, the temperature generally rises
slowly, not at exactly the same rate everywhere, but in a regular
increase. This increase of temperature averages 1° C. for every 32
meters. As most caves and cellars are of small depth and as they take
their temperatures from that of the ground, it follows that as a rule
their temperatures are moderate and pleasant. And as the air of the
majority of caves and subterranean hollows is about the same as the
temperature of the surrounding rock, it is correct to call subterranean
air temperatures closely approximating the ordinary temperature of the
ground, ordinary or normal temperatures.
As already stated, with an increase of depth, there is, in almost all
cases, a regular increase of temperature. For this reason, mines, which
are much the deepest hollows reached by man in the surface of the
earth, are, as a rule, warmer in the lower levels: if deep, they are
also hot. And this is so generally the case that warmer temperatures at
the bottom of mines may be considered as normal.
2. In a few hollows close to the surface, there are temperatures much
above the normal temperature of the ground. Such places are rare and
abnormal.[13] The heat is generally due to the presence of hot springs
or to some volcanic action in the immediate neighborhood. In the case
of one cave close to the surface, the heat is due to some limekilns
which are situated immediately overhead.[14] Where these warm hollows
are genuine caves it seems proper to call them "hot caves."
[13] Kraus. _Höhlenkunde_, page 86.
[14] Grotte du Jaur. _Les Abimes_, page 160.
3. In a number of places, there are abnormally low temperatures
underground either for the whole or only for part of the year.
Although commoner than hot caves, yet the underground places with low
temperatures are also rare and abnormal. They may be divided into two
groups: 1, Those where the temperatures are lower than the normal,
without becoming low enough for ice to form; and 2, Those where the
temperature sinks so low, that ice forms.
It is difficult to make definite divisions among the various forms of
natural refrigerators, but it is correct, probably, to classify them
under five heads, in accordance with the different kinds of formations
of the hollows in the rocks:
1. Gullies, gorges, and troughs where ice and snow remain.
2. Soil or rocks overlaying ice sheets.
3. Taluses and boulder heaps retaining ice.
4. Wells, mines and tunnels in which ice sometimes forms.
5. Caves with abnormally low temperatures, and often containing ice.
1. _Gorges and Troughs._--Gullies, gorges and basins which retain snow
and ice are fairly numerous in mountain districts. They are generally
ravines, or rock fissures, or hollows, in positions below the snow line
where snow and ice are sufficiently protected, from sun and wind, to
remain long after snow in the surrounding open country, at the same
altitude, has melted away. Some of these gorges are small, some big. As
a rule, they are deep and narrow.
In north-eastern Siberia, a form of permanent surface ice is found,
which the Tungusses speak of as _tarinnen_, which means "ice troughs"
or "ice valleys."[15] These _tarinnen_ are broad valleys, with either
a horizontal floor or one sloping gently in the form of a trough, over
which the ice is spread in the form of a sheet. The Tungusses assert
that the ice in some of these troughs never wholly melts away, although
it lessens in quantity from the beginning of May till the end of
August, after which it once more increases.
[15] _Bulletin de la classe physico-mathématique de l'Académie
Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg._ 1853. Vol. XI, pages
305-316.
_Subterranean Ice Sheets._--In several places in different parts of
the world there are underground ice sheets which extend over large
spaces; they are common under the tundras of Alaska; and there are fine
examples on Kotzebue Sound,[16] on the Kowak River,[17] and along the
Yukon River.[18] The "Ice Spring" in Oregon seems to be a formation of
the same kind. Several examples of these subterranean ice sheets are
reported also from different parts of the Russian Empire.
[16] See Part III: page 167.
[17] See Part III: page 167.
[18] See Part III: page 166.
A somewhat different kind of ice sheet was observed on Mount Etna. Sir
Charles Lyell[19] speaks of it as a "glacier preserved by a covering
of lava." He says Signor Mario Gemmellaro satisfied himself that
nothing but a flowing of lava over snow could account for the position
of the glacier. Ice sheets somewhat similar to these are reported
from Tierra del Fuego,[20] and probably also such sheets occur in
Iceland; and enormous heaps of ice covered with sand are found on Mount
Chimborazo.[21] On the northwestern coast of Greenland, glaciers, whose
flow has stopped, were observed buried under an accumulation of moss
and grass.[22]
[19] _Principles of Geology_, 11th Edition, Chap. XXVI.
[20] See Part III: page 190.
[21] See Part III: page 189.
[22] See Part III: page 165.
_Taluses and Boulder Heaps._--Taluses and broken debris, and in general
boulder heaps of all sorts, have interstices and openings between the
boulders, and in these it occasionally happens that ice is found. This
is most common among the taluses at the base of cliffs, but in some
cases ice is found among broken rocks on the sides of gently sloping
hills, or even on the plateaus of their summits. Sometimes the ice
and snow on the bottom of rock gorges all melts away, while further
down, in the hollows of the boulders forming the floor, ice still
remains. The rocks of which these ice bearing taluses are formed are
generally gneiss, granite, limestone, sandstone, basalt or porphyry.
Among such boulder taluses the phenomenon designated as _Windröhren_
or _Ventarolen_, that is, windholes, is frequently found. Sometimes
the air among such boulder formations is quiet, but as a general thing
draughts pour out at the lower openings during the hot months, and blow
into them during the cold ones.
_Freezing Wells, Mines and Tunnels._--Subterranean ice is also found in
certain places in connection with man's handiwork. In a few wells in
the United States, the temperature in winter becomes abnormally low,
and for four or five months these wells freeze up and become useless.
A case of a freezing well was recently observed near la Ferté Milon in
Central France.[23] Ice is reported also as forming in various mines in
Europe, Asia and America; in fact, it is not an uncommon occurrence.
Occasionally, also, ice forms in tunnels.
[23] See Part I.: pages 74, 79, 89. Part III.: page 206.
_Cold Caves._--Caves with abnormally low temperatures may be divided
into two classes. First, caves where the temperatures are lower than
the normal, without becoming low enough for ice to form; and second,
caves where the temperatures sink so low, that ice forms.
Caves where the temperatures sink below the normal, but in which ice
does not form either in winter or in summer, are found in several
places in different parts of the world. They are termed in French
_cavernes froides_ and in German _kalte höhlen_. There are but few data
from reliable observers about such cold caves. Some descriptions are
given without thermometric measurements, and the statements that the
caves are cold, mean nothing beyond the fact that they feel colder than
the outside air. It is, however, conclusively proved that cold caves
exist, and that while they are not freezing caverns, yet that they have
a temperature lower than the mean annual temperature of their district.
In fact, the assumption, which had passed into an axiom, that caves
always have the same temperatures as the mean annual temperature of
the district, must certainly be given up. Cold caves are generally in
one of two shapes: 1, in the shape of a sand glass,--two cones above
each other meeting at the narrowest point--where the upper cone lets
the heavy cold air descend easily, while the lower bell shaped cone
prevents its escape; and 2, where two sink holes open into one pit,
which is in the shape of a bell.[24]
[24] _Les Abimes_, page 563.
_Glacière Caves or Freezing Caves._--Caves where the temperatures
sink so low that ice is able to form, are found in many different
rock formations and in various positions, shapes and sizes. The rock
formation of freezing caverns is generally limestone, but sometimes it
is marble, lava, basalt, gneiss or granite. In all cases, however, the
rock is either porous or else it is broken and fissured, as otherwise
the water supply necessary to the formation of ice could not find its
way in.
Glacière caverns may, for the sake of convenience, be classified into
several classes, according to their position or to their form. The
lines of transition between them, however, are so indefinite in nature,
that it is often difficult to specify a cavern as belonging to any
special type. The most important factor in classifying glacière caves
is their position. Under this head there are two main divisions: first,
pit caves; second, cliff caves.
Pit caves are those where a pit or pits open into the ground, and the
ice is found at the bottom. Sometimes there is no roof, when the place
may be called a gorge: this occurs at Ellenville, where the roof has
fallen. Again, the pit itself is more or less roofed over and the ice
is found mainly or wholly under the roof: this is the case at Haut
d'Aviernoz, at the Friedrichsteinerhöhle, at Saint-Livres, and at
Saint-Georges. Sometimes the pit takes the form of a descending tunnel,
leading into a hall or chamber, in which the ice lies under a rock
roof: this happens at Chaux-les-Passavant. In all these pit caves the
body of the cave is below the entrance, and most of them are fairly
well lighted by daylight throughout. Generally there is only one pit,
but occasionally there are two connected underground, as is the case at
La Genollière.
Cliff caves are those where the entrance is at the base or in the
side of a cliff. Frequently the cave is in the shape of a hall or
chamber, which begins directly at the entrance, and which may be large
or small. This kind always has a down slope directly from the mouth.
The Kolowratshöhle, Dóbsina and the Grand Cave de Montarquis may be
mentioned as examples. In some cases there is a pit at the base of
a cliff and there is a slope leading down to the cave, somewhat in
the form of a tunnel: this is the case at Manchester and practically
also at Roth. Again there is a more or less long gallery between the
entrance and the glacière, which is always below the level of the
entrance. The Schafloch, Démenyfálva and Decorah may be cited as
examples. As a rule the gallery slopes down from the entrance, but
sometimes the floor rises and then sinks to the glacière. The top of
the entrance, however, is always higher than the highest point of the
floor, as otherwise the cold air could not get in. This is the case at
the Frauenmauerhöhle, and, apparently, also at the Posselthöhle. In one
case, at Amarnath in Kashmere, the floor is said to rise to the roof at
the back; but as the entrance is nearly as big as the floor area, the
ice formations must also be below the level of the top of the entrance.
The dimensions of glacière caves vary greatly. Some are large, others
are small. Saint Georges, a roofed pit cave, is some twenty-five
meters by twelve meters, with a depth of about twelve meters.
Chaux-les-Passavant, a cave at the end of a pit tunnel, has a diameter
of some twenty-seven meters. The measures of Dóbsina, a cave at the
bottom of a cliff, are given as follows: Height of roof above ice
floor, 10 to 11 meters; length 120 meters; breadth, 35 to 60 meters,
and surface about 4644 meters. The Frauenmauerhöhle is a gallery about
one hundred meters long before the ice floor is reached, and this is
some fifty meters more in length by about seven meters in width. The
glacière cave near Frain, on the contrary, is so small that one can
only crawl in some two or three meters. In fact, glacière caves vary in
size between great halls and little tunnels where one cannot stand up
straight.
The entrances of glacière caves also vary greatly in their dimensions.
For instance, the Friedrichsteinerhöhle is on one side of a huge pit
and is as large and deep as the pit. Saint Georges, on the contrary,
has, near one end of the roof, a couple of holes, some three meters in
diameter. The entrance to the Schafloch is four meters wide by four
meters seventy centimeters high, while the entrance to Roth is not over
one meter each way.
A classification of subterranean ice formations, and one which applies
to all the different forms, is into permanent and periodic glacières.
When in any underground spot, ice remains throughout the year, the
place may be called a permanent glacière; when on the contrary the ice
melts away for part of the year, the place may be called a periodic
glacière. This classification, which several observers have used
already, is convenient and valuable.
_Movements of Air._--Another classification of glacières can be made
in accordance with the movements of air underground. Glacières may be
divided into those where there are no strong draughts in summer and
those where there are draughts: or into "apparently static caves"; and
"dynamic caves" or "windholes." The first class includes those caves
where there is one or more openings close together and those above the
body of the cave. In such hollows the air in summer is nearly still,
while in winter there are distinct rotary movements of the air as
soon as the temperature outside is lower than that within. Almost all
glacière caves belong to this class of caves without strong draughts
in summer. Sometimes, however, ice is found in hollows where there are
two or more openings, at different altitudes and at different ends of
the hollow, and where there are draughts. Occasionally, also, there are
fissures in the sides or rear of apparently static caves, which allow
something like draughts at times, as is the case at the Grand Cave de
Montarquis.
Professor Thury of Geneva coined the terms "static cave" and "dynamic
cave" which have come largely into use since, and which practically
correspond to the German terms _eishöhle_ and _windröhre_. I do not
think the term "static cave" accurate, and prefer the term "apparently
static cave" or "cave without distinct draughts." For although there
are many caves where the air seems stagnant at times, and there are no
distinct perceptible draughts, still that the air is really stagnant
all summer appears to me doubtful, and it seems as if the movements of
air were distinctly apparent only in certain caves and not in others.
Air which is apparently stagnant is found in both pit and cliff caves
mainly in the summer months, but even in these I have noticed several
times in summer slight movements of air, especially near the entrance.
I could not exactly feel the air moving, but by lighting a cigar the
smoke could be seen borne outwards exceedingly slowly. At the entrance
of the Kolowratshöhle I think there was a faint outward current when I
was there. The day was hot and windless, and as the cold air met the
hot outside air it formed a faint cloud or mist at the mouth of the
cavern. At Saint-Georges, although the air seemed tranquil, I found
that the smoke of my cigar ascended rapidly just below the hole in the
roof, showing an ascending air current. In the double cave of Chapuis,
I found one cavern filled by a little lake over which there was a
draught.[25]
[25] See Part IV.: Butler, page 308.
From the few winter observations we have, there can be no doubt that in
winter the movements of the atmosphere are lively, the break in the air
column occurring as soon as the outside temperature is lower than that
within, when the outer air immediately begins to sink into the cave.[26]
[26] See Part III.: Chaux-les-Passavant, page 203; Saint-Georges, page
220.
If I have doubts as to the existence of absolutely static caves, it is
different about dynamic caves. When a subterranean hollow goes through
rocks, with one opening higher than the other, there will surely be
distinct draughts. These dynamic caves exist in many parts of the world
under such names as cold current caves or blowing caves or windholes.
Sometimes they are fissures in broken limestone. Often they are the
cracks between piles of boulders. A cool air generally pours from the
lower opening in summer while the cold air pours into it in winter, the
draught being then reversed. At the upper opening the operation takes
place in the opposite way, the hot air being sucked in in summer, and
given out in winter. Sometimes, however, changes take place, according
to the differences in the outside temperature, in the direction of the
air current in the course of a single day.
The causes of the movements of air in these windholes are exceedingly
simple. The movements of air depend on the fact that in summer the air
in the tube becomes colder from contact with the rocks and, therefore,
heavier than the air outside, and by gravity the heavy inside air
displaces the lighter outside air and comes rushing out at the lower
opening. This leaves a vacuum, which is filled by the warmer air
dropping into the tube from above. In winter on the contrary, the air
within the tube is warmed by contact with the rocks and becomes lighter
than the air outside. It, therefore, rises and streams out from the
upper opening, and the vacuum is filled by the heavy cold air pushing
in at the lower opening.
[Illustration: Fig. 11. Vertical Section of a Windhole.]
G. F. Parrot's[27] explanation is so satisfactory that I give it with
one or two changes. He considers the air movements an ordinary statical
phenomenon of the air, in caves which have two openings at different
altitudes. Let E G D represent the section of such a cave with the
openings A and B. Let us think that there are over C and B two vertical
air columns and from B to C a horizontal air column B C; then the two
air columns over B and C are at all times of the year equal in weight.
Not so the air columns A C and A E G D B, because their temperatures
are different. Assume the temperature in the cave G is +12° the whole
year round. If in summer the air column A C is at a temperature of
+25°, then the heavy air in the cave G pours out through A and is
replaced by air flowing in through B. If in winter the air column A
C is at a temperature of -1°, then the air pours with equal inverse
velocity at A into the cave, and out at B. The velocity of the current
in both cases depends on the difference of temperature within and
without.
[27] _Grundriss der Physik der Erde und Geologie_, 1815, pages 92-99.
The foregoing explanation makes it evident that the movements of air
in these windholes do not depend on the presence of ice. In many of
those I have examined myself there was no ice visible, and from the
temperature of the air current, there could not have been any ice
within the mountain. Still, there are numerous cases where ice is found
in windholes among boulders, and a few cases where windholes exist in
connection with apparently static glacière caves. Undoubtedly the great
majority of windholes do not contain ice in summer, or, indeed, at any
time of the year, and, as far as I can see, windholes, according to
their temperatures, belong rather to the class of normal caves than to
that of glacières.
_Forms of Ice._--Almost all the forms assumed by underground ice are
different from those assumed by overground ice. This is not surprising,
as the conditions, under which the ice is formed, are so different.
Almost all the lines of underground ice are rounded. The sharp angles
and fractures visible on glacier or iceberg are absent. Instead of
seracs and crevasses, broken ice falls, or piled up ice floes, we have
hanging stalactites and rising stalagmites, smooth ice floors and
curved ice slopes. This difference is of course due to the fact that
most subterranean ice is formed from the drip from the roof or the
sides of caves, and because the factor of motion--which plays so large
a part in the shaping by fracture of overground ice--is practically
wanting.
The most striking forms of subterranean ice are the ice stalactites
and stalagmites. They descend from the roof as icicles or rise from it
as rough cones or pyramids. The icicles are of all sorts of shapes and
sizes: sometimes they are tiny; sometimes they grow downward till they
reach the floor and form regular columns, in some cases no less than
eleven meters in height.
The ice stalagmites likewise are of all sorts of shapes and sizes, some
of them growing to a height of seven or eight meters. Occasionally they
have hollow bases, but this is rare. How these hollow cones are formed
is a still uncertain matter; but it is in some way by the action of
the drip. At the Kolowratshöhle I saw the drip from the roof cutting
out in July the basin, whose tall remaining sides suggested that early
in the spring it was probably a hollow cone. The cone at the Schafloch
of which I saw one half remaining, could only be accounted for by
some action from the drip.[28] The warmth of the rock floor may help
perhaps also, in melting away some of the base of the hollow columns.
[28] See Part IV.: Thury, page 287; Browne, page 290.
The frozen waterfalls which issue from fissures in the rock walls of
caves are another form of ice seen only below ground. For lack of a
better name, I call them fissure columns. A peculiarity of these is
that, while the rock fissure is more or less rectangular or at least
sharp angled, the ice column issues in a rounded stream. Sometimes
these fissure columns stream over the rock; sometimes they spring out
far enough from the rock to be quite away from it. They vary from about
one to five meters in height, and at the base they almost always spread
out in a shape resembling that of a fan.
The ice on the bottom of caverns of course takes its shape from the
form and angles of the floor of the caves. If the bottom is level or
nearly so, the ice lies on it as a sheet or floor. If the bottom of the
cave is sloping, the ice follows the angles of the slope, forming an
ice slope or ice wall, and sometimes becoming nearly or quite vertical.
These ice slopes distantly resemble the portions of glaciers called
an ice fall, with the great difference, however, that there are no
crevasses, not even tiny ones.
Occasionally, slabs of ice are found reposing in a fractured sheet over
a solid ice floor. This means that a lake has formed on this spot in
the spring, frozen over, and then run off, leaving its frozen surface
in broken pieces on top of the under ice.
Another kind of frozen water is the hoar frost which forms on the
rock roofs and walls. This is not at all rare. It is an open question
whether this is not the same thing as that which has been described as
subterranean snow.[29] I found myself in Dóbsina a small sheet of what
to look and touch was snow. I wrote of this as snow in my first paper
about glacières[30], but I am of the opinion now that it was the hoar
frost detached from the roof and not genuine snow.
[29] See Part III.: Ziegenloch, page 247; Creux de Souci, page 207.
[30] _Ice Caves and the Causes of Subterranean Ice_, November, 1896,
and March, 1897.
At Dóbsina, also, I noticed that the ice of the ice wall of the
Korridor assumed a stratified or laminated form. Mr. John F. Lewis
of Philadelphia suggested to me that this was probably due to a
precipitation of the hoar frost from the roof, and I think his
explanation is correct. The hoar frost forming at a certain degree of
cold, would doubtless be precipitated at a rise of temperature, and
would then act much as do the different layers of snow in the upper
portion of glaciers.[31] It would consolidate gradually, layer over
layer, and form strata, producing the banded or laminated structure
visible in the vertical ice of the Dóbsina Korridor.
[31] Whymper: _Scrambles amongst the Alps_, 1871, page 426.
The ice in caverns is sometimes found with a structure which is, I
believe, of rare occurrence above ground. This is when it takes the
shape known as prismatic ice, which means that if a lump is broken
from a column or icicle, the fracture will show regular prisms. This
phenomenon is not as yet satisfactorily accounted for; the only thing
certain about it is, that it does not occur in ice of recent formation.
From my own observations, I should say that ice became prismatic at the
end of summer; at least I have always found it in August or September
rather than in June or July.[32]
[32] See Part IV.: Browne, page 289; Lohmann, page 303.
Besides building up ice heaps, the drip, also, has the function of
destroying its own creations. If there are no crevasses, there are
holes and runnels. These are generally found at or leading to the
lowest point of the ice floor. Occasionally the holes are deep,
sometimes many meters in depth. They are certainly cut out by the
melting water, to which they offer an exit; in fact they are a part of
the drainage system present in all glacière caves, where there must be
some outlet for surplus water at or near the lowest point: and as the
caves are always in porous or broken rock, the drainage takes place
through the cracks and fissures.
The drip produces also the exact opposite of pyramids in the shape of
ice basins. These are cut in the floor by an extra strong drip from
the roof at those spots. Basins exactly like these are not seen on
glaciers. Not infrequently they are full of water of considerable depth.
Lakes and pools are found in glacière caves. Sometimes they are on
the ice floor, and in this case they are due either to rain-water
collecting faster than it can flow off, or else because the cave is in
a state of thaw. Sometimes these pools are among the rocks in one part
of a cave, while the ice is in another part.
I have said above that motion in subterranean ice is practically
wanting. This is proved by the lack of crevasses on the ice slopes
or ice walls, and also by the fact that basins and cones appear year
after year in the same spots, where they remain whether they are
increasing or diminishing. But this statement cannot be held to cover
the entrance snow and ice slopes of some of the open pit caves such as
the Gottscheer cave, or Saint-Livres or Haut d'Aviernoz. Here the snow,
which falls on the entrance slope, must gradually gravitate to the
bottom. The question is whether it only descends in the shape of water
after melting or as snow before solidifying; or whether it ever slides
down at all after becoming somewhat solidified. Probably, however, the
ice of these slopes, judging from the fact that crevasses are entirely
lacking, remains stationary.
_Color Effects._--The color effect of every glacière cavern has a
certain individuality, according to the color of the rocks, the
quantity of ice, and the amount of daylight admitted through the
entrance. In my opinion, the white note given by the ice, makes a fine
glacière cave the most beautiful of all subterranean hollows. In this
respect it seems to me that they are similar to high Alps, which are
certainly most impressive with coverings of snow and glacier.
There are, however, two distinct notes in the color effects of glacière
caves and these may be described as the partly subterranean, or as the
wholly subterranean. In the former case the local tints stand out more
clearly. For instance, at the Kolowratshöhle the ice is beautifully
transparent and of a pale ochre-greenish hue: the limestone rocks
are streaked with iron, and thus have a reddish hue, while, owing
to the entrance admitting plenty of daylight, the effect is only
semi-subterranean. Again, at Chaux-les-Passavant plenty of daylight is
admitted: the rocks are a yellowish brown, and the ice is white and
blue. At the Schafloch or the Frauenmauer, on the contrary, the effect
is wholly subterranean: daylight is so completely absent that black
is the predominating note, the ice itself looking gray. Dóbsina is an
exception, as, thanks to the electric light, white is the conspicuous
tone, even though rocks and shadows dull many places and corners into a
sombre gray.
More than once, on returning to daylight from the intense blackness
of a cave, I have seen the rocks near the entrance appear a dark
blue color, exactly simulating moonlight. This effect is common to
both glacière caves and ordinary caverns. It is a striking but rare
phenomenon, and depends apparently on the shape of the cave. This
moonlight effect only seems to occur when a cave makes an elbow
directly after the mouth and then goes straight for some distance. When
the daylight is actually in sight, the moonlight impression vanishes.
_Carbonic Acid Gas._--Carbonic acid gas, judging from the most
recent explorations, is more of a rarity in rock caves with normal
temperatures than is generally supposed. There appears to be only one
case on record where this gas was observed in a cold cave. This was
in the Creux-de-Souci,[33] which is rather a cold than a freezing
cavern, but which on one occasion was found to contain snow, and
whose temperature is always extremely low. From the present state of
knowledge, therefore, it may be assumed that if carbonic acid gas does
form in glacière caves, it does so only seldom.
[33] See Part III.: page 207.
_Fauna._--No attention whatever has been paid, practically as yet, as
to whether any distinctive animal life exists in glacières. So far, I
have seen none myself. The Rev. G. F. Browne, in four instances, found
a large red-brown fly nearly an inch long, which is supposed to be
_Stenophylax Hieroglyphicus_ of Stephens; and at Chapuis, he obtained
an ichneumon of the genus _Paniscus_. At Font d'Urle, Monsieur Villard
captured a blind specimen of a coleoptera, _Cytodromus dapsoïdes_.
A variety of rotifer, _Notholca longispina_, is now living in the
Creux-de-Souci. In Skerisora, remains of bats have been found, not very
different from those now living in the neighborhood.[34] It is, in any
case, certainly remarkable that the same kind of fly should have been
discovered in several glacières in different localities; and it may
some day be shown that there is a special insect fauna. Certainly the
subject is worth investigating.[35]
[34] See Part I.: Ausable Pond, page 81, and Part III.: Creux-de-Souci,
page 207; Font d'Urle, page 213; Chapuis, page 216; La Genollière, page
219; Skerisora, page 245.
[35] In June, 1899, I mentioned these facts to Monsieur Armand Viré,
director of the Biologic Laboratory in the catacombs of the Jardin
des Plantes in Paris. He was much interested, and promised to make a
careful investigation of the matter.
_Flora._--The flora of glacières has been as little observed as the
fauna. There are scarcely any references to such a thing as glacière
plant life in literature. Whether there is a special flora in any
glacière cave is still an open question. In the cases of several
boulder taluses, there is no doubt that, even if there is not a special
flora, at least that the plants near the ice beds are greatly retarded
every year in their development. Probably the flora among the boulders
blooms a month or six weeks later than the flora in the immediate
vicinity. In the cases of the Cave of Paradana and of the Kuntschner
Eishöhle it is reported that the plant life becomes more and more
arctic in character towards the bottom of the pit.[36]
[36] See Part I.: Ausable Pond, page 80; Giant of the Valley, page 83,
note 7; Ice Gulch, page 85; Spruce Creek, page 91. See Part III: Spruce
Creek, page 188; Paradana, page 237; Kuntschner Eishöhle, page 241.
_Paleontology._--No paleontological remains have as yet been reported
from glacière caves. No bones of animals have been found, except those
of bats in Skerisora[37] and a few of the common genus _bos_.[38]
No relics of the handiwork of man have been discovered; nor, indeed,
with the exception of the skeletons found in the cave of Yeermallik in
Kondooz,[39] anything which reveals the presence of man in glacières or
that they were ever used for habitation. The reason that there are so
few remains in glacière caves is undoubtedly because their temperatures
are too low for their occupation by animal or man; but, from the
evidence afforded by their non-occupation, may be drawn the valuable
inference that the glacière caves of to-day were glacière caves long
ago.
[37] See Part III.: Skerisora, page 245.
[38] See Part I.: Saint-Livres, page 68.
[39] See Part III.: Yeermallik, page 261.
_Legends and Religion._--There are scarcely any legends connected
with glacières. I know only of one about one of the caves of the Mont
Parmelan.[40] Nor does there seem to be any reference to glacière caves
in works of fiction. Dante makes his last hell full of an ice lake, but
an attentive perusal fails to reveal a single line which in any way
describes or suggests a glacière. In at least two cases,[41] however,
the ice in caves is connected with religion, as in Kashmere, the
Hindoos, and in Arizona, the Zuni Indians, either worship or pray at
glacière caves, overawed, from some mystical feeling, by the permanence
of the ice formations which they connect with their deities.
[40] See Part III.: Glacière de l'Enfer, page 216.
[41] See Part III.: Amarnath, page 262; Cave, White Mountains, Arizona,
page 176.
II.
The cause of the formation of subterranean ice is undoubtedly one
of the most intricate problems in connection with caverns. Various
theories have been advanced why ice is found in certain caves and not
in others. Some writers have held that it is a remnant of a glacial
period; others that it is owing to the presence of salts in the rocks;
some have said that it is due to the rocks retarding waves of heat
and cold; and still others think that it is formed by pressure on
the percolating waters. Many of these theories were formulated in
explanation of the belief of peasants living near the caves, who almost
always say that the ice is formed in summer and melts in winter. Most
scientific observers on the other hand claim that the ice is due to the
cold of winter, and a few think that it is formed or helped by draughts
and by evaporation and expansion of the air. The variety of opinions
put forth, show at any rate the intricacy of the problem.
All my own observations have tended more and more to make me believe
that the cold of winter is the cause of the ice. Before elaborating my
own views, however, I wish to take up seriatim the theories which have
been formulated, principally in explanation of the belief that the ice
was a summer product, and to give my reasons for my disbelief in them.
_Glacial Period._--The first theory, perhaps, to touch on, is the one
that the ice is a remnant of a glacial period. This seems to occur
to many persons as a solution of the question when they first hear
of glacières, and it has been several times propounded to me, and
naturally enough, always by scientific men.[42] Still I do not think it
has ever been held by anyone who had made a study of glacières.
[42] See Part IV.: Hitchcock, page 284; Bonney, page 291; Dawkins, page
292.
The theory is, indeed, untenable in regard to freezing caves, as it
does not accord with the observed facts of the yearly disappearance of
the ice in many caves and taluses. At Szilize every year the ice has
disappeared pretty completely by November, and the cave is free; but
in April or May the floor is again covered with ice, and columns and
icicles have formed on the roof and sides. At La Genollière the cave
is used by the people of the neighboring châlets, through the spring
and early summer, to help in the operation of butter making; by the
middle or the end of August it has entirely disappeared, but is found
formed afresh the following spring. At the Rumney Talus, at the Cave of
Decorah, at the Gorge of Ellenville, and at the Williamstown Snow Hole,
I found no snow or ice.[43] Yet it is abundant in all these localities
in the spring. Too many examples of the complete melting away of the
ice every year can be cited, to permit any doubt: glacière caves are
not connected with a glacial period.
[43] See Part I.: Rumney, page 85; Decorah, page 88; Ellenville, page
91; Williamstown, page 98.
Though it may be stated positively that the ice in caves is not a
remnant of a glacial period, yet this cannot be done so authoritatively
about subsoil ice sheets and freezing wells. At Brandon, Owego and
Decorah the gravel was found frozen at the time the wells were dug, and
it is of course impossible to determine for how long a time this was
the case previous to the digging. The proofs, however, are so strong
that the ice re-forms every winter at such freezing wells, that they
may be considered as in every respect following the same general laws
as glacière caves. That the ice in these wells is not the remains of a
glacial period, seems proved moreover by the work of the Boston Natural
History Society, which sank two wells at Brandon near to the Freezing
well. One of these was only twenty-one meters distant and went through
the same gravel drift. Yet it did not strike ice.[44] A somewhat
similar state of things appears to be the case with the Centennial Lode
and other lodes on Mount McClellan,[45] where the causes also seem to
be local, as there is no ice in mines on neighboring mountains.
[44] See Part IV.: Hager, page 282; Hitchcock, page 284.
[45] See Part III.: Rifts of Ice, etc., page 174.
_The Summer's Heat Theory._--The natives and peasants in the
neighborhood of glacière caves generally believe that the ice of
caves is formed in summer and melts in winter. I have met with this
belief everywhere in Europe; in the Eifel, Jura, Swiss Alps, Tyrolese
Alps, and Carpathians: and also occasionally in the United States.
Peasants and guides tell you with absolute confidence: "The hotter the
summer the more ice there is." The strange thing is that any number
of writers[46]--sometimes scientific men--have accepted the ideas and
statements of the peasants about the formation of ice in summer, and
have tried to account for it.
[46] Among them may be mentioned: Boisot, 1686; Valvasor, 1689;
Behrens, 1703; Billerez, 1712; Bel, 1739; Rosenmüller and Tillesius,
1799; Sartori, 1809; Pictet, 1822; Scrope, 1826; Murchison, 1845.
The belief of the peasants is founded on the fact that they scarcely
ever go to any cave except when some tourist takes them with him, and,
therefore, they rarely see one in winter, and their faith is not based
on observation. It is, however, founded on an appearance of truth:
and that is on the fact that the temperatures of glacière caves, like
that of other caves or that of cellars, are colder in summer than the
outside air, and warmer in winter than the outside air. Possessing
neither reasoning powers nor thermometers, the peasants simply go a
step further and say that glacière caves are cold in summer and hot in
winter.
Professor Thury tells a story to the point. He visited the Grand Cave
de Montarquis in mid-winter. All the peasants told him there would be
no use going, as there would be no ice in the cave. He tried to find
even one peasant who had been to the cave in winter, but could not. He
then visited it himself and found it full of hard ice. On his return
he told the peasants of his discovery. They were staggered at first,
finally one exclaimed: "It makes no difference; in genuine glacières
there is no ice in winter."
It will be difficult, probably, to eradicate this belief and the
consequent theories among the uneducated people in the vicinity of
glacière caves, for their imperfect observations will keep it alive. In
refutation, it may be said that the winter's cold theory is the direct
opposite of the summer's heat theory, and that all the observations and
all the facts which prove the one, disprove the other.
Within two or three years, however, the formation of small quantities
of ice has been observed during the summer months in one or two caves.
This has taken place in mountain caves situated at a high altitude at
times when the air outside has dropped below freezing point during the
night. There is, therefore, nothing inconsistent in this fact with the
winter's cold theory: indeed it is only a widening of it in the meaning
of the word winter.[47]
[47] See Part III.: Beilsteinhöhle, page 235. Part IV.: Professor
Cranmer, page 310.
_Chemical Causes._--Non-scientific persons, on first hearing of
glacière caves, almost always suggest that to form the ice there must
be salts in the rocks. Probably they connect unconsciously in their
minds "ice caves" and "ice cream."
Chemical causes, however, have never appealed to scientific men.[48]
There are only two places I know of where salt is reported. One is the
Ice Spring in Oregon, which is said to be slightly saline in taste; the
other is the Cave of Illetzkaya-Zatschita, where the gypsum hillock,
in which the ice is found, overlies a bed of rock salt. Repeated
experiments in letting lumps of glacière ice melt in my mouth have
convinced me personally that in all cases the water is exceedingly
pure and sweet, a fact mentioned in the very first notice extant about
glacières, the letter of Benigne Poissenot in 1586, who speaks of the
deliciousness of the water in Chaux-les-Passavant. To sum this matter
up briefly, it can be safely asserted that all causes, which would fall
under the head of "Chemical causes," must be entirely eliminated as
possible cold producers.
[48] See Part IV.: Billerez, page 270; Hacquet, page 271.
_Waves of Heat and Cold._--While Sir Roderick Murchison was studying
the geology of Russia,[49] he visited Illetzkaya-Zatschita and was
puzzled to account for the ice formations. He thought, at first, that
they were due to the presence of salt, but recognizing that this was
not correct he submitted the case to Sir John Herschel, who, rejecting
the evaporation or condensation of vapor as the cause, argued that
the ice was due to waves of heat and cold, and that at certain depths
in the interior, the cold wave arrived in mid-summer and the heat in
mid-winter. Murchison declined to assent to this doctrine, asking why
one cave should present this exceptional occurrence, when the numerous
other rents and openings in the same hillock were free from ice. The
impossibility of the heat and cold wave theory was so completely shown
by Murchison's objection, that it has never again been brought forward.
[49] _The Geology of Russia and the Ural Mountains_, vol. I., pages
184-198.
_Capillary or Compressed Air Theory._--The possibility of compressed
air causing subterranean ice to form seems to have been first
authoritatively formulated by Mr. N. M. Lowe, of Boston.[50] His theory
in brief is this:--Bubbles of air drawn into water flowing down through
fissures in rocks are liable to a continually increasing pressure. When
the air has reached the bottom and is liberated in the cave, it will be
from a pressure equal to the height of the column of water, and it will
have lost by connection in the mass through which the conduit passes,
the heat due to its compression; and on being liberated, it will
immediately absorb from the air and the water in the cave, the heat
which it has lost in its downward passage.
[50] _Science Observer._ Boston, 1879, vol. II., page 57. See Part IV.:
Silliman, page 279; Olmstead, page 282.
Several scientific observers have rallied to this idea.[51] One of
the Hungarian residents at Dóbsina, a doctor, whose opportunities
for observations are unrivalled, told me--if I understood him
correctly--that he believed in the capillary theory.
[51] See B. Schwalbe, _Ueber Eishöhlen und Eislöcher_, page 56.
There are many facts, however, which militate against the compressed
air theory as applied to caves. Almost all caves receive some drip
through fissures, and yet there are many thousands of caves which never
contain ice, and whose temperature scarcely varies the year round.
Especially against the theory is the fact that glacière caves are
never known in hot countries. If the theory were correct we should,
for instance, sometimes find ice in such caves as those of Yucatan
described by Mr. Mercer.[52]
[52] _The Hill Caves of Yucatan._
There are also some mechanical difficulties in the way. Mr. John
Ritchie[53] touches them when he says: "If the passage through which
the water flows down is at all tubular the column will be subjected to
the usual hydrostatic pressure." The word _tubular_ is the hard one to
answer. Limestone rock fissures are certainly not tubular. They have
all sorts of shapes and angles and corners, every one of which would
interfere with anything like a regular pressure.
[53] _Boston Transcript_, January 2d, 1897.
This latter objection would not apply to borings in mines. I have been
assured that in some borings in Western mines ice has been formed by
pressure, and there may be truth in this, although I doubt it, as
I have yet to hear of ice in any mines in warm latitudes. Mr. John
Ritchie[54] has suggested, also, that if compressed air does not
perhaps act strongly enough to form ice, yet it may help in keeping
the temperature low and aid in the formation of draughts in caves and
boulder heaps. At present, however, I can see no reason to think that
the ice in caves is due to compressed air.[55]
[54] _The Happy Thought._ Boston, January 23d, 1897.
[55] See Part I.: page 89.
III.
I have already said that I believe that the cold of winter is the
cause of the ice in caves. To make this clearer, I may say that I look
on glacières as the last outcrop, the outside edge, so to speak, of
the area of low temperatures, which has its culminating point in the
Northern Hemisphere in the Arctic Ocean, Greenland and Siberia, and in
the Southern Hemisphere in the Antarctic; and which is manifested to
us in the snows of mountain peaks, and immediately round us in frozen
ponds and rivers and snowy blizzards; and which, as it disappears each
summer, leaves its last traces in our latitudes in sequestered gorges
and convenient caverns. In every case, it seems to me, glacières are
simply refrigerators, which preserve the ice and snow accumulated in
them during the winter. They all follow the same general laws as to
the origin of their contents, modified only in slight degree according
to the varying natural local conditions, such as the water supply, or
the protection from sun and wind, or the thickness of the overhead
rock, or the altitude or latitude. I cannot see that there is anything
remarkable about the fact that the cold of winter is able to penetrate
and make itself felt sometimes for a slight depth in the earth's
crust; a depth, so far as yet known, never exceeding one hundred and
fifty meters. It seems to me that glacières only emphasize a law of
nature, which has doubtless been formulated many times in connection
with springs and phreatic waters, and that is, that where we find cold
waters underground, we may be sure that they have penetrated from the
outside.
If we look first at the mode of formation of overground perennial ice,
that is, of the ice of glaciers and of rock gorges; and then at the
evidences of the mode of formation of underground perennial ice, in
boulder heaps, wells and caves; we will soon see that the transitions
between them are gentle in character and that there is nothing
unnatural about the formation of the ice in glacières.
_Glaciers._--Everyone now knows the main characteristics of glaciers.
They are formed in parts of the earth where the land or the mountains
reach to the region of perpetual snow. The snows fall from the sky, and
accumulate into a snow cap, which by its own weight and by melting and
regelation, gradually changes to ice. This, by the laws of gravitation,
descends to lower levels, and in mountain valleys extends sometimes
far below the snow line into the region of cultivated fields. These
valley prolongations of the perpetual snow caps are the glaciers. The
important point to notice here, is that the formation of glaciers is
originally entirely due to the precipitation of moisture by cold in the
upper portions; while the destruction of glaciers is due to the action
of heat melting the ice in the lower portions, where they disappear in
the shape of streams of running water. It is, therefore, not surprising
that the greatest glaciers are found in the Arctic and Antarctic
regions and in the highest mountain ranges; and that in the tropics
glaciers are either wanting or exceedingly small.
_Gorges and Troughs._--Gorges and gullies, where ice remains over,
are a transitional form between glaciers and glacières. In many
mountain ravines or canyons, the enduring snow consists principally
of the avalanches which have fallen from the heights above during the
winter and solidified in the bottom of the ravines. Freezing gorges
proper, however, are not dependent on avalanches for their supply,
but they receive the accretions to their ice directly from the winter
snows. These fall into the gorge itself and by melting and regelation
gradually solidify into a mass of ice which, when well sheltered
against sun and wind, remains over sometimes till the following winter.
By their mode of formation, therefore, it is evident that the ice in
these gorges has some of the characteristics of glaciers; that it is
due to the same prime causes as the ice of glaciers or the ice on ponds
and rivers, namely the cold of winter; and in fact, it is not far
wrong to consider these gorges as miniature glaciers.
Freezing gorges, however, show, also, certain degrees of kinship to
freezing caverns and taluses, principally in the protection afforded
to the ice against external destructive influences. The ice is almost
always found in positions where it receives little, if any, of the
direct rays of the sun and, also, where it is scarcely, if at all,
exposed to any winds. The sides of the fissures and surrounding trees
generally afford the necessary protection. Some of the forms which the
ice assumes in gorges, such as long pendent icicles, are also more
characteristic of underground than of overground ice.
The freezing troughs or basins found in Siberia are evidently closely
related to gorges, and the fact that the ice is found in less sheltered
places may be explained by the high northerly latitudes of these
troughs, in general between fifty-seven and sixty degrees.
_The Winter's Cold Theory._--The places where ice is found underground
differ in one important respect from gullies and troughs, and that
is, in the fact that above the ice there is rock or soil, which, in
true caves, takes the form of a roof. This causes some important
distinctions between overground and underground perennial ice. It means
that the ice is formed directly in the caves, and that it is genuine
subterranean ice, and not, except perhaps near the entrance, solidified
snow. The roof, while not admitting the winter snows, is, however, a
protection against warm summer rains, and, of course, entirely cuts
off radiation from the sky. If, therefore, it keeps out some cold, it
also acts as a protector against heat.
That the cold of winter is the source of the cold which produces the
ice which forms underground, and that it is through its influence,
with the assistance of certain secondary causes, that some caves are
converted into what are practically natural ice houses, seems to me
the true explanation of the phenomenon of subterranean ice, not only
since it is the simple and obvious explanation, but also because all
the facts, so far as I have myself observed, are in accord with this
theory.[56]
[56] Among those who have written or said that the cold of winter plays
a more or less important part in the formation of subterranean ice
may be mentioned: Poissenot, 1586; Gollut, 1592; DeBoz, 1726; Nagel,
1747; Cossigny, 1750; Jars, 1774; Hacquet, 1778; Girod-Chantrans, 1783;
Hablizl, 1788; Prévost, 1789; Townson, 1797; Humboldt, 1814; Dearborn,
1822; Deluc, 1822; Dewey, 1822; Lee, 1824; Reich, 1834; Hayden, 1843;
Guyot, 1856; Rogers, 1856; Petruzzi, 1857; Smyth, 1858; Hager, 1861;
Thury, 1861; Browne, 1865; Raymond, 1869; Krenner, 1874; Ritchie,
1879; Benedict, 1881; Schwalbe, 1881; Fugger, 1883; Trouillet, 1885;
Girardot, 1886; Russell, 1890; Martel, 1892; Krauss, 1894; Lohmann,
1895; Balch, 1896; Cvijic, 1896; Butler, 1898; Kovarik, 1898; Cranmer,
1899.
To form subterranean ice, just as to form any other ice, two things are
necessary: the first is cold, the second is water. Cold is supplied by
the cold air of winter, and water must in some manner find its way into
the cave while the cold air is there.
The process is as follows: The cold air of winter sinks into and
permeates the cave, and in course of time freezes up all the water
which, in the shape of melting snow or cold winter rain or spring
water, finds its way in; and once ice is formed it remains long after
ice in the surrounding open country has melted away, because heat
penetrates with difficulty into the cave. The only effect of the heat
of summer is to melt the ice.
The proofs, to my mind, of the truth of this view are: 1--Glacières
are always found in parts of the world where, during part of the
year at least, the temperatures of the surrounding country fall
below freezing point. 2--All observations by reliable observers
show that the temperatures of glacière caves vary, but in a much
narrower thermometric scale, with those of the outside air: that the
temperatures are lowest, and as a rule below freezing point, during the
winter months; and that the temperatures are highest, and as a rule
above freezing point, during the summer months. 3--Ice is never found
far from the mouth of caves, but always near enough for the cold air
to get in. 4--Evaporation, according to my observations, is, as in all
other forms of ice in nature, connected mainly with the melting, not
the freezing of the ice.
_Geographical Distribution and Altitudes._--Glacière caves proper
are found in various parts of Europe, Asia, and America, mostly in
the smaller mountain ranges or in the outliers of the snowy mountain
chains; generally in limestone and occasionally in basaltic formations.
There are a good many in the Jura; a few in the Swiss and the Italian
Alps; a number in the Eastern Alps of Tyrol and Carinthia. There are
some in Hungary, several in Russia, one in Iceland, one on the Peak
of Teneriffe, a number in Siberia, one in Kondooz in Central Asia,
one in the Himálaya, one in Japan, and one in Korea. I have heard so
far of over fifty glacières in North America, several of which are in
Pennsylvania. From all over the world there are some three hundred
places reported where subterranean ice is said to occur. This includes
gorges, boulder heaps and freezing mines and wells, all of which exist
in much the same localities as glacière caves.
All the glacières which I know of, are situated in a latitude or at
an altitude where ice and snow forms for part of the year in the
surrounding open country. None are reported from India or Africa, or
in fact from any low-lying places in tropical latitudes. Most of them
are found in middle latitudes, and only where during part of the year,
at least, there is a cold season, that is, where for some time the
thermometer stands below freezing point.
Glacières are, in general, at fairly high altitudes. The Schafloch
is at 1780 meters; Skerisora in Transylvania at 1127 meters; Dóbsina
at 1100 meters; the Glacière de Saint-Georges at 1208 meters. It is
true that there is one freezing cavern in the sub-tropical latitude
of Teneriffe, La Cueva de la Nieve; but it is at an altitude of 3300
meters, and where snow falls every year in the open on the Peak.
Unless some freezing cave is hereafter discovered in a region where
there is no ice in the open in winter, I do not see how the imperative
necessity of the cold air of winter for forming the supply of ice can
be controverted.
_Thermometric Observations._--That the cold air of winter is the
important factor in the production of cold is proved, also, by the
thermometric observations recorded in various caves by different
observers. They all tell the same tale: that the temperatures vary with
those of the outside air, that they are lowest in winter and highest
in summer. I quote in the "List of Glacières"[57] a few of those
published; but there are many more, and they all show the same general
characteristics.
[57] See Part III.: Decorah, page 178; Chaux-les-Passavant, pages
203-5; La Poujade, page 208; Montarquis, page 218; Saint-Georges, page
219; Schafloch, page 223; Kolowratshöhle, page 227; Schellenberger
Eisgrotte, page 228; Frain, page 252; Dóbsina, page 253; etc.
A comparison of all the figures recorded proves that, as a rule--inside
of glacière caves--from about the first of November to the first
of July, there are winter temperatures, that is temperatures below
freezing point; and from about the first of July to the first of
November, there are summer temperatures, that is temperatures above
freezing point.
The observations prove also that the inner temperatures vary less than
the outer, that is that they range within narrower limits. They also
show that the inner air is but slowly affected by the outer air when
the latter is above freezing point, the inner temperature rising
then only gradually. Per contra, when the outside temperature drops
quickly much below freezing point, the inside temperature generally
drops correspondingly at once, proving that the cold air has sunk by
its weight into the cave. The observations also prove that the old idea
that the temperature of caves is the same throughout, can no longer
be considered correct. The observations also appear to show, that the
temperature of a cave does not necessarily represent the mean annual
temperature of a surrounding district. Observation is still entirely
lacking on the mean annual temperature of glacières, so that one cannot
speak definitely about the matter; but it seems likely that the mean
annual temperature of a glacière cave is lower than the isotherm of its
locality; and it seems more than probable that on the same isotherm
different glacière caves may have different mean annual temperatures,
varying with the elements of size, quantity of ice, position of body of
cave and of entrance, water supply and other factors.
_Ice near the Entrance of Caves and the Surface of the Soil._--An
important proof that it is the cold air of winter which forms the ice
is the fact that the latter is always found near the entrance of caves
or near the surface of the soil. It never extends far within. To the
best of my knowledge, ice has never been found two hundred meters from
the entrance nor at any depth beyond one hundred and fifty meters. In
all caves of great extent, the temperature far in is about the same as
that of the surrounding rock, and in all deep borings the temperature
increases with the depth and at great depths the temperature becomes
high. This nearness of subterranean ice to the outside air is one of
the best proofs, that, paradoxical as the whole phenomenon appears at
first, yet in reality it is an extremely simple matter.
The position of the entrance of a cave in relation to the body of the
cave is an important factor in permitting the cold air to permeate
and remain in the cave. In all the caves or gullies I have examined
myself, the main mass of ice is well below the level of the entrance,
and even if the latter is sheltered against the wind, it is not
sheltered against the cold air of winter. This is heavy, and by its own
weight sinks well down to the bottom, freezing up in course of time
all the moisture that may drip from the roof, or that may come into
the cave in the shape of melted snow or cold winter rain. The summer
air, which is warm and, therefore, light, can only enter the cave with
great difficulty; and, as a rule, before it dislodges the winter air
and destroys the ice, another winter's freeze reverses once more the
conditions. These principles seem to hold of every known glacière.
It is true, that at the Frauenmauer, the floor of the cavern rises
somewhat from the entrance; but the highest point of the floor is still
below the level of the top of the entrance, so that the cold air can
flow over the highest point without difficulty. The same appears to be
the case at the Posselthöhle; while at Amarnath in Kashmere, where the
floor is said to rise to the back wall, the entrance is about as large
as the area of the floor, so that the ice must also be below the level
of the top of the entrance.
The position or situation of the entrance is important. In almost all
cases it has a northerly exposure, and is sheltered against entering
winds. If these two conditions do not exist the ice supply surely
suffers. Sometimes the entrance is more or less tortuous. In some cases
it is protected by a fringe of trees. Still, there is no absolute rule
about entrances. The Friedrichsteinerhöhle faces about due south, and
at midday in summer, the sun shines all the way down to the ice floor,
causing mists to form. In the Kolowratshöhle, the entrance is badly
sheltered against the wind and this undoubtedly affects the supply in
summer and causes more rapid melting there than in some other cases.[58]
[58] See Part III.: Decorah, page 178.
Freezing boulder taluses invariably have the ice near the surface,
and probably it is never a dozen meters distant from the open air.
These taluses are one of the strongest links in the chain of evidence
proving the winter's cold theory. The snow and ice on the surface of
the taluses and on the surface of the boulders in gullies melts away,
while it still lingers underneath the boulders. It seems self-evident
that the melting snow water has run to the lowest level and there
congealed, and then remained because it was better sheltered than the
ice outside.
The subsoil ice of the tundras of Siberia and Alaska is almost
identical with the ice of boulder formations, except that it extends
under larger areas. It is the product of a climate where there is a
long, rigorous winter and it is not surprising that the ice is found at
greater depths than in more southerly latitudes.[59] The depth to which
the ice extends is, of course, determined by the depth to which the
winter's cold can penetrate the soil. There is no doubt that the causes
of this ice are local, that is, that it is due to the long prevailing
low temperatures.
[59] See Part III.: Alaska, page 166; Klondike, page 167; Kowak River,
page 166; Kotzebue Sound, page 166.
The freezing wells of which the most conspicuous examples are at
Brandon, Owego, Decorah, and in Montana, seem also due to local causes
and the ice is never far from the surface, that is, not over twenty
meters; and apparently also it forms above the water horizons which
supply the wells.
The ice sheet on Mount Etna[60] does not seem to be at any great depth.
It apparently had a different origin from most subterranean ice masses,
in that the snow probably fell first and was then covered by a flow of
lava. It is, therefore, almost _sui generis_ in its mode of formation,
unless there are similar sheets on other volcanoes, which is probable
in a country like Iceland, and which is said to be the case in Tierra
del Fuego,[61] But the original cause of the ice sheet on Etna was the
same as all other subterranean ice masses, namely the cold of winter.
[60] See Part III., page 210.
[61] See Part III., page 190.
_Evaporation and Movements of Air._--The formation of subterranean ice
is sometimes assigned partly to evaporation or to expansion of the air.
The theory is an old one, and both scientific and non-scientific men
have advanced it.[62]
[62] Among those who have written that evaporation is a factor in the
formation of subterranean ice, may be mentioned: Pictet, 1822; Scrope,
1827; Reich, 1834; Pleischl, 1841; Murchison, 1845; Olmstead, 1856;
Hitchcock, 1861; White, 1870; Kirchhoff, 1876; Krauss, 1895.
I have already said that I believe it is the movements of the air
which cause a cave to be a glacière cave or a normal cave. When they
act in such a way as to permit the cold air of winter to permeate a
cave, we find low temperatures and ice; when they do not, we find the
temperature about the same as that of the ground and no ice.
That the ice is not formed in apparently static caves, by movements
of air producing evaporation, seems to me proved by what I have
noticed in regard to the atmosphere. The dryness or moistness of the
air within a glacière cave is coincident with the state of freezing
or thawing of the cave. When I have visited a large cave in June,
everything was frozen tight, there were no drips nor mushy ice, the
air was relatively dry and the sensation of cold not unpleasant. When
I have visited a cave in August, the ice was soft and mushy, water
was dripping from the roof, the atmosphere was moist, and the cold
penetrating. It seems to me that the facts go to show that it is not
evaporation which forms the ice, but the melting of the ice which
fills the cave with moisture. If there are any draughts or movements
of the atmosphere when above freezing point, then their tendency is to
vaporize the ice.
The process of the formation of ice in relation to the atmosphere is as
follows: the cold air permeates the cave and freezes up all the drip:
the atmosphere becomes dry: gradually warmer air gets in and the ice
begins to melt: then the atmosphere gets charged slowly with the vapor
of the melting ice. This process is the exact opposite of the formation
of ice by evaporation; it is the atmosphere which is made humid by the
vaporizing of the ice, and by the drip. When the air is thoroughly
saturated with the vapor, being scarcely renewed from outside and but a
few degrees above freezing point, it undoubtedly retards evaporation,
acts like a blanket and lessens the rate of melting of the ice.[63]
[63] See Part IV.: Thury, page 285; Fugger, page 296; Trouillet, page
298.
Everything I have personally observed in freezing windholes shows
that in them also the cold of winter and not evaporation is the
cause of the ice. They answer to the same tests as other glacières,
of geographical distribution and altitude, nearness of ice to the
outside, thermometric observations, and dampness of the air when the
ice melts. Equally with other glacières, the movements of air in
windholes do not depend on the presence of ice, but the ice does depend
on the movements of air and a water supply at the proper time. A proof
that it is the cold of winter which makes the ice in windholes, is that
the ice is always found at the lower extremity, for the reason that it
is at that end that the cold air enters and to that end that the water
gravitates. The reason that ice is more rarely found in windholes than
in apparently static caves, is due to the movements of air. Unlike the
caves where the heavy cold air preserves the ice by remaining pent
up, as soon as the outside temperature rises the heavy cold air in
windholes tumbles out at the lower opening and is replaced gradually by
air at a higher temperature. This also flows out and when it is above
freezing point, it naturally melts the ice and becomes humid: in fact,
it vaporizes the ice as it passes, and dissipates the moisture into the
outer air.
It is, however, certain, that in caves with a temperature some degrees
above freezing point, when there is either running water or strong
drips, evaporation may be, and sometimes undoubtedly is, a factor in
lowering the temperature somewhat.[64] As in some windholes there
is occasionally moisture on the rock surfaces where the air current
passes, the evaporation from these surfaces doubtless lowers the
temperature of the draughts, and it may be, also those of the rock
surfaces, a little.
[64] See Part IV.: De Saussure, page 274. See also _Les Abimes_, 1894,
page 564.
Further observations, however, will be necessary in regard to
evaporation underground, as the data are still insufficient to make
absolutely positive statements.[65] I fail to see any evidence to show
that evaporation ever lowers the temperature of draughts underground
below freezing point, only that it may help to lower them to something
less than they would otherwise be. Taking all the facts which I have
myself observed, and all I have read of in the reports of others, my
own conclusion is that we have no proof that evaporation underground is
ever strong enough to produce ice.
[65] Several observers consider evaporation as more or less of a factor
in the production of cold underground. It is suggested also, that in
certain cases, at high altitudes, evaporation tends to prevent the
melting of the ice in windholes, but this is not proved, as yet. See
Part IV.: De Saussure, page 274; Fugger, page 296; Trouillet, page 298;
Martel, page 300; Lohmann, page 302.
_Time of Formation of Ice._--Everything I have seen points to the fact
that ice begins to form in a cave as soon as the temperature of the
cave has sunk below freezing point, whenever, from any cause, water
gets into the cave. The cold may begin to penetrate caves as soon
as outside frosts have occurred, that is in the fall months, about
November; and as soon as the temperature inside sinks below freezing
point, ice will begin to form, provided also that water gets into the
cave, from rains or springs or any other source.
In the mid-winter months, although there is then plenty of cold, the
water supply is generally lacking, as the outside moisture is mostly
frozen up and the result is that the winter months are not those
when the ice is mainly formed. Some is undoubtedly formed in certain
caves whenever during the course of the winter a surface thaw outside
furnishes water to the cave,[66] but in other cases this is not so and
the ice does not appear before the spring. In all cases it is in the
spring, before the cave has parted with its store of cold, and when
both the air and the rock walls are chilled below freezing point[67]
that the ice forms fastest. Then plenty of water is furnished by the
melting of the snows and the unlocking of the brooks, and also by early
spring rains. All this surface water runs through the fissures into
the still freezing cave and there becomes ice. Not only the air, but
also the rock walls are chilled below freezing point, and as the rocks
part slowly with the cold stored in them, this cold helps to freeze the
water pouring in.
[66] See Part III.: Chaux-les-Passavant, page 203; Saint-Georges, page
220.
[67] See Part IV.: Townson, page 275; Thury, page 285; Trouillet, page
297; Schwalbe, page 298; Terlanday, page 301; Kovarik, page 307.
The natural law in relation to time seems to be this: Ice may be formed
in caves as soon as the outside temperature sinks below freezing point.
In some caves it forms intermittently all through the cold months
because there is a water supply. In other caves it only forms in the
spring, because there is no water supply in the winter months. In all
cases, however, the end of winter is the time when most of the ice is
formed.
PART III.
LIST OF GLACIÈRES.
LIST OF GLACIÈRES.[68]
[68] This list is necessarily incomplete, and only approximately
accurate in many cases.
NORTH AMERICA.
Buried or Fossil Glaciers, North Greenland. (W. E. Meehan,
_Philadelphia Ledger_, 1896.)--On Robertson's Bay is the plateau of
the Verhoef Glacier, which is about 1500 meters long and 400 meters
wide, and stands back only a few meters from the edge of the sea. This
plateau, both top and sides, is a mass of flourishing vegetation,
chiefly grass, which reaches above a man's knee. From among this
verdure buttercups, poppies, cinquefoils and dandelions thrust their
golden heads in wild profusion. Similar buried glaciers are found in
many places along the fiords of North Greenland.
Mr. Meehan gives a simple explanation in connection with the Verhoef
Glacier. He says that this glacier formerly extended out into the sea,
and that while it moved forward, the clump moss, which struggles for
existence in Greenland gorges, could do little more than hold its own.
In course of time, from some unknown cause, the glacier receded to the
point where it now discharges, the part in the water floating away in
the shape of icebergs, and the part on the shore remaining stationary.
This was the opportunity for the clump mosses. Caring nothing for the
cold they crept slowly over the quiet mass of ice and made their way
first in thin net-like layers, later in thick masses, till they reached
the rocky shore. Year after year the mosses grew, the young plants
trampling underfoot the older; until the latter, rotting, turned into
a rich mould. The seeds of grasses and flowers found their way to
this, blown by the wind or carried on the feet of birds. The plateau
now is a garden of green, gold and white. How long this will last it
is impossible to say, as any time nature may unloose its hold, and the
frozen river once more pour down into the bay.
Subsoil Ice in Alaska. (I. C. Russell, _A Journey up the Yukon
River_, page 149, and _Second Expedition to Mount Saint Elias_, page
19.)--Professor Russell found ice covered by rocks and vegetation
in several places in Alaska, especially along the southern edge of
the Malaspina Glacier and on the Yukon River. He gives the following
interesting account in 1890 of these ice sheets: "Throughout the length
of the Yukon, one is frequently reminded of the high latitude drained
by the great river, by seeing strata of ice in the recently cut banks,
beneath the dense layer of moss and roots forming the surface on which
the forests grow. One may frequently find ice even on a hot summer's
day, by scraping away the moss at his feet. In some instances the
frozen layer has been penetrated to the depth of twenty-five feet, but
its full depth has never been ascertained. In the banks of some of the
streams to the north of the lower Yukon, strata of ice over a hundred
feet thick have been observed, and the indications are that its total
depth is considerably greater than the portion exposed. This subsoil
ice is stagnant and without the characteristics of glaciers."
Subsoil Ice in the Klondike Region. (_Philadelphia Ledger_, December
30th, 1897.)--The Klondike mining country is covered with snow most of
the year. The ground is frozen for ten or twelve meters in depth, down
to bed rock. In some places the ground, which is protected by a thick
moss, is not thawed out by the sun in summer. The miner cuts off the
moss with a shovel, and then builds a fire, which thaws out the ground
for five or ten centimeters. He digs this out, rebuilds a fire, and
then continues this process.
Ice Cliffs on the Kowak River, Alaska. (Lieutenant J. C. Cantwell,
_National Geographic Magazine_, October, 1896.)--On the shores of the
Kowak River are a series of ice cliffs of from about 25 meters to
45 meters in height. On top of these ice cliffs is a layer of black
silt-like soil some 2 meters in thickness, and from this springs a
luxuriant growth of mosses, grass and Arctic shrubbery. The melted ice
shows a residuum of fine dust, which while fresh emits a pungent odor.
Subterranean Ice Sheet on Kotzebue Sound. (Otto von Kotzebue,
_Entdeckungsreise in die Südsee_, etc. Weimar, 1821. Vol. IV., page
140.)--Dr. Eschholz discovered near Kotzebue Sound, in 1816, a mass of
ice more than 30 meters thick, and entirely covered with a layer at
least 15 centimeters thick of clay, sand, and earth, on which heavy,
long grass was growing. In the ice and in the soil overlaying it, were
many remains of extinct animals. On the side towards the ocean the ice
was entirely bare, exposed to sun and air, and much of it was melting
away in streamlets.
Freezing Lava Caves, Washington. (R. W. Raymond, _Overland Monthly_, 3d
November, 1869, page 421. Th. Kirchhoff, _Reisebilder und Skizzen aus
America_, 1876, vol. II., page 211. _Philadelphia Ledger_, September
25th, 1899.)--These caves are distant about four hours from the foot of
Mount Adams, and about 56 kilometers from the mouth of the White Salmon
River, where it falls into the Columbia River. The caves are in basalt,
and they are connected at both ends with the open air. Only a few of
them contain any ice, which in the largest cave is about 6 meters below
the entrance, from which one descends by a ladder. The cave opens on
one side and is some 15 meters in depth, 6 meters or 8 meters in width
and 3 meters or 4 meters in height. This part contains the most ice.
The other side gradually narrows from the entrance, is longer, and
reaches out through fallen rocks and rubbish to daylight. In the lower
portion, there are a few ice stalactites and stalagmites: one a superb,
transparent hillock, which rises nearly to the roof, is called the
Iceberg. A strong draught flows into the cave in summer through the
open arm.
The following paragraphs from the _Philadelphia Ledger_ probably refer
to the same locality:--
"Ice for the cutting, and that in August and early in September, is a
novelty not often found in regions as far south as the Columbia River
basin; but the novelty is enjoyed every year by people who visit the
ice caves under the shadow of Mount Adams, about 100 miles northeast
of Portland. It is a very extensive region. Frank McFarland, who has
just returned from a six weeks' vacation camping trip there, gives an
interesting account of its general make up.
"At the ice caves, which are six miles from Trout Lake, the stalactites
are more beautiful and wonderful this year than ever before, and this
was Mr. McFarland's fifteenth trip there. He broke off and took to camp
chunks of ice weighing 100 pounds. Pleasure parties who come to the
lake use considerable of the ice for packing their trout to take home.
All you have to do is to take a torch of pitch pine or a lantern, and
go into the big caves and pack off all the ice you want. It is a sure
crop, and never fails."
Ice Spring in the Rocky Mountains, Oregon. (G. Gibbs, _American Journal
of Science and Arts_, 1853, Second Series, vol. XV., page 146.)--The
Ice Spring is about 60 kilometers from the South Pass to the right of
the Sweetwater River. It is situated in a low marshy swale, where the
ground is filled with springs; and about 60 centimeters below the turf
is a sheet of horizontal ice, some 10 centimeters to 30 centimeters
thick, lasting throughout the year. The ice is clear and is disposed
in hexagonal prisms; it has a slightly saline taste, the ground above
it being impregnated with salt and the water near by tasting of sulphur.
Freezing Lava Caves in Modoc County, California. (_Dispatch_,
Frankford, Pennsylvania, 22d January, 1897, reprinted from another
paper.)--The lava beds, where the Modoc Indians made their last stand
against the United States troops, are described as an immense field of
lava covered with a beautiful forest of conifers. Numerous caves of
varying shapes and dimensions are scattered throughout these lava beds.
Some are mere covert ways, with an arch of stone thrown over them;
others are immense chambers some meters from the surface; another kind
sinks deeply and may be in a series of chambers united by a corridor
that opens at the surface; while another kind seems to go directly to
the centre of the earth without stopping. Some of these caves contain
ice and from them the Modocs drew their water supply while besieged by
the troops. Judging from what is reported of the caves the quantity of
ice in them must be large. The thermometer in winter in the region is
said to go as low as -30° C.
Freezing Lava Beds near Medicine Lake, Siskiyou County, Northern
California. (M. S. Baker, _Sierra Club Bulletin_, 1899. Vol. II., page
318.)--"One other feature of the lava region must be mentioned--the ice
caves. There are several of these known, and very likely many more
remain undiscovered. Those located along the edge of the lava, near the
cinder cone, I have known to contain ice and water as late as August.
The largest I have seen is on the Mayfield Road, about twenty miles
east of Bartles. It is situated in the barren lava, and in one of the
warmest localities of the region,--and there are few cool spots in the
lava anywhere. One enters the cave by crawling down a hole none too
large. The instant the interior is reached the temperature falls in a
surprising way. Not more than ten feet below the surface of the hot
rocks is a bed of ice, covered by a foot or so of ice water. The body
of ice was perhaps twelve or fifteen feet long, by five feet across
in the widest places. This cave is formed by a fissure that extends a
distance of twenty miles from the ice cave to Pittville, and nearly
coincides with the 4000 foot level, as shown in the map. Along the
southeastern half of this earth fissure the southwest wall has faulted,
leaving a cliff, which, in places, must be nearly 200 feet high."
Freezing Shafts, Montana.--Mr. Robert Butler, of San José, Cal., has
given me much information about glacières in Montana. He visited one
miners' shaft which is situated about 80 kilometers up the Rosebud
River from Rosebud Station on the Northern Pacific R. R., and about 10
kilometers northeast of the Cheyenne Indian Agency. It is on the north
slope of the Little Wolf Mountains, near the summit, at the head of
Greenleaf Creek. The canyon and surrounding slopes are covered with
a dense growth of pine. The rock has the appearance of scoriæ caused
by the burning of immense beds of coal in recent geological times. The
rock is broken into comparatively small pieces. The altitude is some
1200 meters. The forest, the volcanic ash and the altitude, besides
the loose rock formation, makes this place a natural ice house. Ten or
twelve years ago three prospectors, looking for silver, sunk a shaft
here. At a depth of about 4 meters it began to grow cold, and at 6
meters they found ice and imagined they could feel an upward draught.
Being ignorant and superstitious, they became frightened and abandoned
the shaft. During the winter, the snow fills the shaft half full of
ice, which then remains over through the summer. There is a general
report and belief among those who have visited the well, that it
freezes in summer and thaws in winter. There are thousands of mining
shafts in Montana, and if they are on the north slope of a mountain
of considerable altitude and under a dense forest and not too deep,
they generally have ice at the bottom during the summer. It is also
said to be nothing new for a miner in following crevices to find them
filled with ice, especially if near the surface on the north slope of a
mountain.
Freezing Cave, Fergus County, Montana.--Mr. Robert Butler, of San José,
Cal., visited this place, which is about 35 kilometers southeast of
Lewistown. It is on the north side of a butte. Masses of ice and great
icicles form in some parts of the cave in such quantities during the
latter part of winter that the cave furnishes ice for cooling the
drinking water for several dozen families. During July and August the
people come from some distance around to get the ice. The people in the
neighborhood believe that the ice forms in summer and thaws away in
winter. They also speak of the ever upward draught of cold air coming
possibly from some great hidden cavern in the lower recesses of the
mountain.
Freezing Well at Horse Plains, Montana. (Levi Allen, _Scientific
American_. New Series, 27th October, 1883.)--The well is described as
13.60 meters deep. It is dug through solid gravel, and in sinking it
there was encountered, at a depth of 10.60 meters, a current of air
strong enough to blow out a candle. It began to freeze in September,
1882, and in November it was frozen solid.
Freezing Silver Mine, Bighorn County, Wyoming.--This place is in the
Sunlight Basin of the Shoshone Mountains. Mr. William Worrell Wagner,
of Philadelphia, informs me that he visited it in August, 1897. It is
a silver mine or tunnel, running straight into the mountain for about
60 meters, at an altitude of about 3300 meters. The peaks of the Teton
range were in sight from the mouth of the tunnel. For the first half of
the way in, a good many icicles were hanging from the rocks. The last
half of the tunnel was thickly coated with ice and looked like a cold
storage plant. Snow disappears on the rocks outside about June, and
begins to fall again in September, so that Mr. Wagner's visit was at
about the hottest time of the year. Mr. Wagner presented the meat of a
bull wapiti he had shot to the miners, and they stored it in the mine
as if it had been an artificial refrigerator.
Rifts of Ice, Mount McClellan, Colorado. (Edward L. Berthoud, _American
Journal of Science and Arts_. Third Series, 1876, vol. XI., page
108.)--Near the summit of Mount McClellan, is the Centennial Lode,
which runs into the mountain, at an altitude of about 3900 meters.
Intercalated in the mineral vein are three or four well defined veins
of solid ice parallel with the bedding of the rock and filling all its
inner side-cracks and fissures. The same frozen substratum is found in
two other lodes near by on the same mountain. Nothing of the kind is
known on other Colorado mountains. The soil is loose and largely made
up of rocky débris, which shows that the ice is probably due to local
causes.
Freezing Tunnel on the Hagerman Pass, Colorado. (_Philadelphia Press_,
October 16th, 1897.)--The Hagerman Pass Railroad line is said to
have been abandoned after the completion of the Busk-Ivanhoe tunnel,
but to have been rebuilt. The Hagerman tunnel for a distance of over
700 meters was filled with solid ice, and it required blasting with
dynamite, and a month's continuous labor, day and night, to dig the ice
out.
Freezing Cavern in Cow Mountain, Colorado. (_Post Dispatch_, St. Louis,
Mo., July 13th, 1897, and September 5th, 1897. _Mail Order Monthly_,
St. Paul, Minn., October, 1899.)--The cave was discovered by parties
doing assessment work on a group of claims. A man was picking in a
three meter hole when he struck his pick into an opening, which was
gradually enlarged and showed a deep pit underneath. The men got a rope
and descended into an immense cavern full of ice. Later exploration
led to a small hall, some 5 meters in diameter, full of icicles. From
here a fissure led into a second rock chamber larger than the first. A
small hole in the floor at an angle of some 45° gave access to a third
and larger hall, about 25 meters by 40 meters. Great masses of ice were
found in this, also a small lake, about 12 meters by 20 meters. "Some
who have visited the wonderful discovery are of the opinion that it
is a great cave or fissure in a glacier which for centuries has been
slowly making its way down from Pike's Peak and whose waters are now
feeding the Arkansas River."
Windhole, Arizona. (_Christian Herald_, March 24th, 1897.)--Mr. Cofman,
while drilling a well on his place, is said to have opened a windhole
from which the escaping air current was strong enough to blow off the
hats of the men who were recovering the lost drill. Some days the air
escapes with such force that pebbles the size of peas are thrown up,
accompanied by a sound much like the distant bellowing of a fog horn.
Again for days there will be a suction current, unaccompanied by
sound, in which the current of air passes into the earth with somewhat
less force than when escaping, and any light object, as a feather or a
piece of paper, will be immediately sucked in. The account is probably
exaggerated.
Freezing Lava Cave near Flagstaff, Arizona.--Professor W. B. Scott of
Princeton University told me of this cave, which he had not visited
himself. It lies 14.5 kilometers south of Flagstaff, on the Mesa
table land, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. It was described to
Professor Scott as a double cave, with two floors, one over the other,
the lower containing the most ice. It is in lava, and can only be
entered by crawling in on hands and knees.
Freezing Cave or Gorge, White Mountains, Arizona.--Mr. Frank Hamilton
Cushing has told me of this place. It is a cleft among lava rock, which
being roofed at the further end, might be described as a cave. In this
the ice remains until June or July, much later than anywhere else in
the neighborhood. The Zuni Indians worship before this, calling the
ice the breath of the Gods, the snow they consider as a sort of down.
The region is arid, which makes any water precious, and this fact has
developed the element of mysticism about snow and ice among the Indians.
Freezing Cave near Galena, Black Hills, South Dakota. (Miss L. A.
Owen, _Cave Regions of the Ozarks and Black Hills_. Cincinnati, 1898,
page 209): "At Galena, a new mining town of golden promise, there is
reported to be an Ice Cave, where ice forms at all seasons, and during
the warm weather is a source of comfort and pleasure to the miners."
Windholes in the Ozark Mountains, Missouri.--Mr. H. F. Brinckerhoff,
of Aurora, Mo., informs me that there are a number of cold air current
caves in the Ozark Mountain region. One of them is some 19 kilometers
south of Aurora, Lawrence County, and is used for cold storage in
summer. There is a cave in a limestone bluff about 15 meters above a
river, and in the rear is this windhole, which is an opening about 30
centimeters high and 3 meters wide. A strong current of air comes out
from it in summer, and the hotter the air outside, the stronger is the
outward coming current. In winter the current is reversed. The outward
current is so strong in very hot weather that a handkerchief held in it
is straightened out to an angle of about 45°.
Freezing Cave and Well at Decorah, Iowa. Described in Part I. (Dr. C.
A. White, _Report of Geological Survey of State of Iowa_, 1870, vol.
I., page 80. A. F. Kovarik, _Scientific American Supplement_, No. 1195,
November 26th, 1898, pages 19,158, 19,159).
On June 1st, 1869, Dr. White found the ice dry and well frozen, and he
thought it was then accumulating. The cave was cool and apparently dry,
and no strong air current was passing through.
Mr. Alois F. Kovarik, of the Decorah Institute, has made a valuable
series of observations about the Decorah Cave. The temperatures he
observed were the following:
IN THE VALLEY, LOCUS
SHADE. DIVISION. GLACIALIS. END.
July 1, 1897 +33.3° +2.2° 0.0° 0.0°
" 27, " +21.1° +5.0° 0.0° 0.0°
Aug. 14, " +32.2° +5.8° +3.1° 0.0°
Sept. 3, " +32.2° +7.2° +3.1° +8.3°
" 18, " +33.9° +8.6° +6.1° +8.3°
Oct. 16, " +24.0° +10.0° +8.3° +8.3°
" 30, " +10.0° +7.2° +4.7° +5.0°
Dec. 11, " -2.2° -2.7° -1.1° -2.0°
Jan. 8, 1898 -0.0° -2.7° -3.9° 0.0°
" 22, " -5.0° -6.1° -3.9° -3.9°
Feb. 26, " -0.0° -6.6° -6.6° -5.0°
March 12, " +2.8° -1.6° -2.7° -2.7°
" 26, " +8.8° -1.7° -1.6° -1.1°
April 16, " +25.6° -1.4° +1.1° -1.1°
" 30, " +13.9° +1.1° -1.1° -1.1°
May 28, " +17.2° +1.7° -0.3° 0.0°
June 9, " +25.0° +1.7° -0.3° 0.0°
" 18, " +22.3° +1.7° -0.2° 0.0°
July 16, " +35.0° +7.2° 0.0° +2.2°
On the 1st of July, 1897, a cold breeze was noticed coming from the
cave to a distance of at least 30 meters. At the entrance the breeze
was strong enough to blow out a candle. This breeze was not noticed at
other times. From December to February inclusive, on the contrary, the
breeze was reversed. From July to October, 1897, the walls of the cave
were moist. From October to February they were dry. In February frost
began to appear on the walls. On March 12th, 1898, the walls were
covered with frost. The ice appeared at a spot nearly at the end of the
cave on the 26th of March, 1898. At a place about 6.50 meters nearer
the entrance, however, is where most ice forms. This place Mr. Kovarik
calls _Locus Glacialis_. The ice appeared here about the 29th of May,
1898. It increased rapidly up to June 12th, when it was at its maximum,
and was about two meters in width. It generally covers the north wall
from top to base. The greatest thickness in 1898 was 29 centimeters.
The temperature which Mr. Kovarik recorded on the 16th of April at
_Locus Glacialis_ of +1.1 seems an anomalous one. On writing to him
he sent me the following explanation: "April 16th, after I left the
thermometer at _Locus Glacialis_ the usual time, I noticed that it
registered +1.1° C. It seemed singular, for at both the Division and
the End, the thermometer registered considerably lower. I left the
thermometer at its place for about an hour longer, and noticed then
that it did not register differently. I would suggest this explanation:
This is true about water that upon freezing it gives off its latent
heat. Now on April 16th some water dripped into the cave on the wall
near where the thermometer was, about 1.50 meters from the floor. The
amount of water was very small, but as it came in contact with the cold
wall it began to give out its latent heat which affected the close by
thermometer. The temperature of the rock was without doubt between -1.°
and -3°."
Freezing Cavern at Brainard, Iowa. (Alois F. Kovarik, _Decorah Public
Opinion_, September 20th, 1899.)--This little cave is situated on the
north side of a hill about 1.5 kilometers northwest of Brainard. It is
about 4.50 meters deep. On June 10th, 1899, Mr. Kovarik found the floor
and walls covered with ice. The temperature was 0° C. The owner claims
to have taken enough ice out of it on July 4th, 1897, to freeze cream.
Freezing Cave near Elkinsville, Brown County, Indiana. (Clipping from
a western newspaper, 1896.)--The entrance is said to be overlapped by
trees and to resemble a mine shaft. The winding way leads to a hollow
some 15 meters below the surface, resembling a broad vaulted corridor,
which is known to the natives as the devil's chamber and where the
temperature is low. From this point several galleries lead further in,
and from one of them comes a blast of icy cold air. This passage is
similar to the one at the entrance to the cave, but after a few meters
frost is visible, and further on it is thick on all sides, like the
crust that is formed on the pipes of an ice plant. The narrow way leads
to a big chamber, known as the ice vault. In this dome, which is fully
30 meters in width, the ice forms a large stalagmite and is of unknown
depth.
Freezing Gully on Mount Abraham, Maine. (Jackson, _Report of the
Geology of Maine_, 1839, III.)--Ice was found in June at an altitude of
1032 meters among the boulders in one of the gullies of Mount Abraham.
[Illustration: FREEZING CAVERN AT BRAINARD.
From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik.
]
Subterranean Ice in King's Ravine, Mount Adams, New
Hampshire.--Described in Part I., page 1.
Ice Gulch on Crescent Mountain, Randolph, New Hampshire.--Described in
Part I., page 83.
Ice in a Hole at Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.--Mr. John Ritchie, Jr.,
of Boston, has examined this place, which he is sure is a refrigerator.
It is in a hole north of the cliff and near its top.
Ice on Mount Garfield, New Hampshire.--Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., informs
me that ice was discovered among the boulders on the summit of Mount
Garfield during the summer of 1897.
Freezing Talus near Rumney, New Hampshire.--Described in Part I., page
85.
Freezing Talus near North Woodstock, New Hampshire.--Mr. John Ritchie,
Jr., has examined this locality. He thinks the ice was gone in July,
but judges it to be on the level of an old talus and a couple of meters
down.
Freezing Well at Lyman, Grafton County, New Hampshire. (_Geology of
Vermont_, 1861, I., page 197.)--A well in that town is reported as
having been frozen solid in June, 1816, at a depth of about 2.60 meters
from the surface.
Icy Wells at the Foot of Mount Mansfield, Vermont. (N. M. Lowe,
_Science Observer_, vol. II., page 58.)--These are described as being
really "incipient caves."
Freezing Cave near Manchester, Vermont.--Described in Part I., page 76.
Ice Bed of Wallingford, Rutland County, Vermont. Described in Part I.,
page 99. (S. Pearl Lathrop, _American Journal of Science and Arts_,
1844, XLVI., page 331.)--Dr. Lathrop says that ice has been found at
the Ice Bed as late as September.
Freezing Wells at Brandon, Vermont. Described in Part I., page 77.
(_Geology of Vermont_, 1861, vol. I., page 192.)--Mr. Hager says that
the well was dug into a mass of sand and gravel, of the kind known
as modified drift. The gravel was frozen at the time of digging. The
Boston Natural History Society, in 1859, sank two wells, one 21 meters
southeast of the original one, the other 21 meters northwest. The first
was 10 meters in depth and did not reach ice; the second was 11 meters
in depth, and came to the layer of frozen gravel.
Cave near Brandon, Vermont. (_Geology of Vermont_, 1861, vol. I., page
197.)--Mr. Hager heard that about 3 kilometers north of Brandon village
was a cavern, in a hill, in which ice is found most of the summer.
Icy Gulf near Great Barrington, Massachusetts.--Mentioned in Part I.,
page 99.
Icy Glen near Stockbridge, Massachusetts.--Described in Part I., page
75.
The Snow Hole, New York: near Williamstown, Massachusetts. Described in
Part I., page 98. (Dewey, _American Journal of Science and Arts_, 1819,
vol. I., page 340; and 1822, vol. V., page 398.)--Mr. Dewey found, in
June, snow 2 meters deep on ice of unknown depth. On his second visit
he found less ice and snow than on his first visit, as the trees in the
neighborhood had been cut down.
Glacière near Williamstown, Massachusetts.--Described in Part I., page
101.
Freezing Well near Ware, Massachusetts.--(_Geology of Vermont_, 1861,
vol. I., page 197.)--Depth 11.5 meters. This is in a sand and gravel
formation much like that at Brandon, except that there is less clay,
and that none of the pebbles are limestone.
Wolfshollow near Salisbury, Connecticut. (C. A. Lee, _American Journal
of Science and Arts_, 1824, vol. VIII., page 254.)--In the eastern
portion of the township, at an altitude of about 800 meters, is a chasm
about 100 meters long, 18 meters deep and 12 meters wide. It is in
mica-slate, and is sheltered by large trees. At the bottom at one end
is a spring of cold water and a cave of considerable extent, in which
ice and snow is found the greater part of the year.
Natural Ice House, near Meriden, Connecticut. (Benjamin Silliman,
_American Journal of Science and Arts_, 1822, vol. IV., page 174.)--It
lies between New Haven and Hartford, about 32 kilometers from the sea,
at an altitude of about 60 meters. The ice is found in a narrow defile
of perpendicular trap rock, at the bottom filled with broken stones.
The defile is so placed that in summer the sun only shines into it for
about an hour each day; it is also well protected by surrounding trees,
the leaves from which form beds at the bottom among the rocks and help
to protect the ice.
Natural Ice House of Northford, Connecticut. (Benjamin Silliman,
_American Journal of Science and Arts_, 1822, vol. IV., page
177.)--About 11 kilometers from New Haven on the Middletown road
between Branford and Northford, is a gorge where ice remains throughout
the year. In this case the ice is mixed with a considerable quantity of
leaves and dirt; it has sometimes been brought to New Haven.
Ice in an Old Iron Mine, near Port Henry, Lake Champlain. (_Geology of
Vermont_, 1861, vol. I., page 199.)--Ice was found during the summer at
a depth of from 15 meters to 30 meters, and a current of cold air was
issuing from the opening. There seems to be more than one opening to
the mine.
Freezing Talus on Lower Ausable Pond, Essex County, New
York.--Described in Part I., page 79.
Freezing Talus at the South Base of the Giant of the Valley, Essex
County, New York.--Described in Part I., page 81.
Freezing Boulder Talus, Indian Pass, New York. See Part I., page 83.
Freezing Boulder Talus, Avalanche Pass, New York.--See Part I., page 83.
Freezing Cave near Carlisle, New York.--See Part I., page 93.
Ice among the Catskill Mountains, New York.--Mr. George Brinton
Phillips informs me that he has seen subterranean ice in August among
boulders in a gorge in the Catskills near the Stony Cloves road,
starting out from Haines' Falls. The people in the neighborhood speak
of the place as an ice cave.
Gorge in the Shawangunk Mountains, near Ellenville, Ulster County, New
York. Described in Part I., page 91. (Heilprin, _Around the World_,
1894, page 194.)--Professor Heilprin found in July a mass of ice
measuring about thirty meters in length and 1 meter in depth. The
thermometer near the ice read about 1° C. above freezing point, the day
being hot. Icicles hung from the ledges on the side of the gorge.
Freezing Gorge at Sam's Point, New York.--See Part I., page 93.
Ice Deposits and Windholes at Watertown, New York.--Described in Part
I., page 86.
Freezing Well near Tioga, New York.--Depth, 23 meters. No information.
Freezing Well near Prattsburg, New York.--Depth, 6.5 meters. No
information.
Freezing Well near Owego, New York. Described in Part I., page 74.
(D. O. Macomber, _American Journal of Arts and Sciences_, 1839, vol.
XXXVI., page 184. _Well's Annual of Scientific Discovery_, 1856, page
190.)--The thermometer is said to have stood at--1.2° at the bottom of
the biggest well when it registered--20° outside. When a candle was
let down, the flame became agitated and was thrown in one direction
at the depth of 9 meters; at the bottom the flame was still, but soon
died out. Large masses of ice were found in the biggest well as late
as July, and the men who made the well were forced to put on thick
clothing in June, and even so could not work for more than two hours at
a time.
Cave in the Panama Rocks, Chautauqua, New York. The Rev. Horace C.
Hovey informs me that he has been in a small cave in this locality, and
that he found ice in it.
Cave in Sussex County, New Jersey.--A clipping from a newspaper, with
neither name nor date, says that new ice is found daily on the land of
Peter Feather, in the mouth of an unexplored cavern. A small stream of
water runs out of the cavern and forms a pool at the opening, and here
it is that the ice forms. Enough has been taken in one day to freeze
two cans of ice cream. A cold draught of air issues continuously from
the cavern.
Hole Containing Ice on Blue Mountain, New Jersey. Reported; no
information.
Gorge Containing Ice on Bald Eagle Mountain, Clinton County,
Pennsylvania.--Mr. Henry Chapman Mercer, of Doylestown, learned of
the existence of this gorge during the summer of 1897. It is near the
village of McElhatten, in the neighborhood of Lock Haven, and is some
3 kilometers distant from the Susquehanna River. Ice is said to remain
over during the entire summer.
Freezing Cave and Windholes near Farrandsville, Clinton County,
Pennsylvania.--Described in Part I., page 93.
Underground Ice Formations, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, on the
southwestern borders of Lycoming County.--Mr. W. Coleman Hall of
Philadelphia, about twenty years ago, found ice in two or three
places, on Bear Creek, north of Muncy Creek, about 25 kilometers north
of the Susquehanna River, and southwest of Eagles Mere. The ice was
under rocks, in what may be described as limestone sinks. Since the
destruction of the forest, the ice has become less abundant, if indeed
any still forms.
Glacières in Abandoned Coal Mines near Summit, Carbon County,
Pennsylvania.--Described in Part I., page 95.
Ice Cave Railroad Station, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. On the Bowman
Creek branch of the Lehigh Valley R. R.--Mr. F. Holschuh, agent at
Luzerne, informs me that about 2 kilometers from Ice Cave Station is a
little waterfall on the side of a mountain which was formerly covered
with dense forest. A short distance below the fall, a large hollow
place has been worn out of the rocks by the action of the water. The
overhanging rocks give this almost the appearance of a cave. While
the forest was still thick and when the winter was cold, ice would
form under these rocks and would not disappear until summer was well
advanced. The station was called Ice Cave on account of this place.
Hole Containing Ice at Millerstown, Pennsylvania.--Reported; no
information.
Freezing Talus at Spruce Creek, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania.
Described in Part I., page 90. The _Philadelphia Ledger_ of July 6th,
1896, states that around the boulders where the ice lies, there are
found varieties of plants strongly arctic in character.
Ice Mountain, Hampshire County, Virginia. (C. B. Hayden, _American
Journal of Science and Arts_, 1843, vol. XLV., page 78.)--It lies on
the North River, near the road leading from Winchester to Romney, at
an altitude of from about 220 meters to 240 meters. One side of the
hill is entirely composed of loose stones, among which an abundance
of ice is found at all times, although the sun shines on the upper
surface of the stones from ten in the morning until sunset. The ice is
regularly used in summer by the people near by. Constant and strong air
currents issue from the crevices in the rocks. Similar, but smaller
accumulations, are said to occur in the same county. Mrs. George B.
Balch visited the Ice Mountain in August, 1878. She saw no ice, but the
air under the stones was very cold.
Blowing Cave, Bath County, Virginia.--Mrs. Horace Jayne informs me that
there is a blowing cave near the Cowpasture River, about half way on
the old stage road between Millboro and Warm Springs. A draught flows
out from it, strong enough to blow the grass about, three or four
meters away. The draught is cold, perhaps abnormally so. The cave has
not yet been explored.
SOUTH AMERICA.
Ice Sheets on Mount Chimborazo. (A. von Humboldt, _Travels to
the Equinoctial Regions_, London, 1814, vol. I., page 156.)--"On
Chimborazo, enormous heaps of ice are found covered with sand, and in
the same manner as at the Peak [of Teneriffe] far below the inferior
limit of the perpetual snows."
Tierra del Fuego. (A. Winchel, _Walks and Talks_, 1898, page 122.)--"On
Tierra del Fuego ice and lava are found interstratified for a great
depth, each winter's snow being covered by a new lava sheet."
TENERIFFE.
La Cueva de la Nieve or del Hielo. (Humboldt, _Travels to the
Equinoctial Regions_, 1814, vol. I., pages 154, 156. C. Piazzi Smyth,
_Teneriffe, an Astronomer's Experiment_, 1858, page 348.)--La Cueva de
la Nieve lies at an altitude of 3267 meters in the Malpays on the Peak
of Teneriffe, just below the snow line. It is in obsidian. The entrance
is 3.6 meters high and 2.7 meters broad. The grotto is 36 meters long,
6 meters wide, and 4 meters high. The descent into the cave is so steep
that it is necessary to be lowered by ropes. Professor Smyth found in
July an ice floor about 60 centimeters thick which was covered with
water. A good deal of snow was lying near the mouth of the cave. The
walls were covered with ice and icicles and a few small ice cones rose
on the ice floor.
ICELAND.
The Surtshellir or Cave of Surtur. (Olafsen and Povelsen, _Voyage en
Islande_, Paris, 1802. Henderson, _Iceland_, 1819, 2d ed., page 420.
Guimard, _Voyage en Islande_, page 481.)--The Surtshellir lies in the
volcanic waste of Westisland, and is in lava which has flowed from the
Bald Jokul. The approach is through an open chasm. The length of the
cave is 1534 meters, with an average width of from 15 meters to 17
meters, and a nearly uniform height of from 9 meters to 11 meters. In
four places the roof is broken and allows daylight to enter. A great
deal of ice is sometimes found in the cave, in the shape of an ice
floor, transparent icy pillars, hanging icy pendants, and columns and
arches of ice along the walls. Some of the pillars have been found 2.50
meters high.
Kutlagaya. (A. Winchel, _Walks and Talks_, 1898, page 122.)--"In
1860 the crater of the mountain Kutlagaya, in Iceland, hurled out
simultaneously into the air lumps of lava and ice, all intermingled
together."
SCANDINAVIA.
Ice in the Mines of Nordmark. (Jars, _Voyages Métallurgiques_, 1774,
page 105.)--13 kilometers north of Philipstadt, Wermeland, Sweden, a
number of holes were dug, some to a depth of 120 meters. Ice of some
thickness formed in some of these towards the end of winter, and lasted
until about September, despite the fires of the workmen.
Persberg Iron Mines, Sweden. (J. Prestwich, _Collected papers_, etc.,
on page 206, quotes Dr. Clark's _Travels in Scandinavia._)--Ice is said
to have been found on the sides and bottom of the mine to a depth of
about 135 meters.
Ice Caves Reported in Norway.--I was told in Norway that some of the
caves in the mountains near the Swartisen ice field contained ice, but
I do not know whether this is true. I suspect that there are glacier
ice caves which have given rise to this report.
ENGLAND.
Helvellyn, Cumberland. (Wordsworth, _Fidelity_.)--The following verses
were pointed out to me by Mr. Bunford Samuel. As far as I know they are
the only poetry about glacières:--
"It was a cove, a huge recess
That keeps, till June, December's snow;
A lofty precipice in front,
A silent tarn below!
Far in the bosom of Helvellyn,
Remote from public road or dwelling
Pathway or cultivated land
From trace of human foot or hand."
Ice in an Old Copper Mine, Cumberland. (J. Clifford Ward, _Nature_,
vol. XI., page 310.)--Ice reported as a rare occurrence.
Ludchurch Chasm, Staffordshire. (R. K. Dent and Joseph Hill's _Historic
Staffordshire_, quote Dr. Plot, 1686.)--Mr. Bunford Samuel called my
attention to this book, in which Dr. Plot is quoted as saying that
as late as the 17th of July, snow has been found in Ludchurch Chasm.
Messrs. Dent and Hill do not mention anything of the kind as occurring
now.
Blowing Cave in Denbighshire, Wales.--A newspaper cutting says
that there are such strong eruptions of winds from a cave in this
neighborhood as to toss back to a great height in the air any article
of apparel thrown in.
Tin Croft Mine, Cornwall. (J. Prestwich, _Collected papers_, etc., page
206, quotes Mr. Moyle.)--Ice has been found in abundance in this mine
at a depth of nearly 100 meters.
CENTRAL EUROPE.
Glacière de Chaux-les-Passavant. Described in Part I., page 8.
(Poissenot, _Nouvelles Histoires Tragiques de Benigne Poissenot,
licencié aux lois. A Paris, chez Guillaume Bichon, rue S. Jacques, a
l'enseigne du Bichot, 1586, avec privilege du Roy_, pages 436-453.
Gollut, _Les Mémoires historiques de la Repub. Sequanoise, et des
princes de la Franche Comté de Bourgogne, par M. Lois Gollut, Advocat
au Parlement de Dôle; A Dôle, 1592_. Trouillet, _Mémoires de la
Société d'Émulation du Doubs, 1885_. Girardot, _Mémoires de la Société
d'Émulation du Doubs, 1886_.)
The earliest notice of a glacière which I have been able to find is in
the shape of a letter giving an account of a visit to the Glacière de
Chaux-les-Passavant in 1584, by Benigne Poissenot, a French lawyer.
The account, which I have translated as literally as possible, is in a
special chapter, as follows:--
"Sir:--Since our separation, I have had this pleasure (_heut_) to
hear news of you only once, having found your brother in Paris; who,
having assured me of your good health (_disposition_), informed me of
how since we had seen each other you had travelled to Italy, even as
far as Greece, of which you had seen a large portion: and that sound
and safe, after so long a journey, you had reappeared and landed at
Havre de Grace where you wished to go, that is to say at home. All the
pleasure which a friend can receive, knowing the affairs of another
self, joined to such a happy result, seized my heart, at the recital
of such agreeable news: and I did not fail shortly after, to write you
amply all which had happened to me since I left you until my return to
France: congratulating you at having escaped from marine abysses and
perilous passages on land, on which travellers are often constrained
to risk their life. From this time, I have always stayed in Paris or
in the neighborhood, according to the good pleasure of dame fortune,
who ruled me in her wise and fed me with her dishes the most common
and ordinary until the first day of January of the year 1584, when I
received my first gift in the shape of a strong and violent disease,
which tormented me more than a month: from which, having become cured
with the help of God, and having with time recovered my health and my
strength at the arrival of spring, I was seized with the desire to
smell the air of the country. And in fact having thrown away my pen
and travelled about (_battu l'estrade_) through high and low Burgundy,
I stopped at Bezenson, Imperial City, to spend the summer. This city
is still to day just the same as Julius Cæsar describes it, in the
notable mention he makes of it, in the first book of his commentaries
of the war in Gaul, there remaining there all the vestiges of the
most remarkable things, which he tells of in his description. There
are also very fine fountains, from all of which water streams from
the representation of some god of antiquity, as a Neptune, a Bacchus,
a Pan, a Nereide or others: except before the state house, where the
statue of Charles the Fifth, representing him in a most natural manner,
is placed on an eagle, which from its beak, pours out such a great
quantity of water that this is the most beautiful, among all the other
fountains. And as I do not doubt that while traversing Italy, you both
saw and examined with curiosity the most handsome singularities, which
presented themselves to your eyes and that on your return, passing
through Avignon and Dauphiné, as your brother informed me, you had
the advantage over me of seeing the wonders of the country, of which
you had heard me speak sometimes, regretting that the war, during the
time I was in that quarter, had prevented my going to the spot, to see
the burning fountain as in Dodone, and the fountain called Jupiter,
which torches of fire light up and which grows less till midday and
then grows till midnight, and then diminishes and fails at midday:
and another in Epirus which we call to day Albania, the tower without
venom and the inaccessible mountain: then as I said, since you have
contemplated these things and several others not less admirable, I
wish to entertain you about a marvel which I saw, during my sojourn
in Bezenson, to know from you, whether in all your journey, you saw
a similar thing. Know then that the day of the festival of St. John
Baptist, a young man, provided with an honest knowledge, with whom I
had made some little acquaintance, presented me with an icicle, to
cool my wine at dinner, and which I admired greatly, on account of the
time of the year in which we then were, begging him who gave it to me
to tell me where he had discovered this rare present for that time. He
answered me that every year, the day of the solemnity of the festival
of St. John Baptist, the inhabitants of a village, which he named, were
bound to come to offer the great church of St. John of Bezenson, a
goodly quantity of ice, which they got in a wood, and brought to town
at night on horses, for fear that by day it should melt, and that one
of his cronies had given to him what he had given to me.
"Suddenly there flamed up in me a desire to see this place, where
in the height of the summer, ice was to be found. When he who had
presented me with the icicle saw this, he promised to accompany me, not
having as yet, any more than myself, seen this marvel. I did not hatch
very long this decision, all the more as all those, to whom I mentioned
it, encouraged me to carry it out as soon as I could, assuring me that
I should see a strange thing, and that even the Duke of Alva on his
return from Flanders, passing through Franche Comté, had wished to
see this novelty. Therefore calling on the promise of the one who was
the cause of undertaking this journey, we went together to Versey, a
fine town, distant five leagues from Bezenson, turning a little off
our direct route, to go to see a literary man, at this said Versey,
who having called on me at Bezenson, had extracted from me the promise
of going to see him. There happened to me in this spot, what the poet
du Bellay says happened to him, on his return from Italy, passing
through the Grisons, to go into France: who, after having chanted the
troubles there are in the passage, says that the Swiss made him drink
so much, that he does not remember anything he saw in that country.
Likewise, I can assure you that my host, following the custom of those
of the country (who do not think they are treating a man properly if
they do not make him drink a lot, taking that from the Germans, their
neighbors) made us carouse so well, that when we went to bed, we were
very gay boys. For although we had both made an agreement on the road,
yet our host knew so well how to win us over, saying that those who
would not drink, gave reason to think badly of them, and that they had
committed, or wished to commit some great crime, which they feared to
give away in drinking, that in the end we let ourselves go, passing
the time in Pantagruelic fashion. The next morning having taken some
"hair from the beast" and a guide which our host gave to us to conduct
us to the _Froidiere_--we continued our wanderings, and arrived at a
little village called Chaud, joining a large wood, where our guide told
us, that although he had been more than six times to the _Froidiere_,
yet the road was so tortuous and so cut up by small paths, that if we
did not take a man from this village, to be more sure, we might spend
more than half a day in the wood, before finding what we were seeking.
Getting off our horses now, we added to our company a native of the
place, who having led us by crooked roads, about a quarter of a league,
through the forest, made us enter into a close thicket and by a little
path led us to a pleasant meadow; where, looking down, we saw a hole,
of difficult descent, at the bottom of which was the opening of a
grotto, pretty big, and so awful and terrifying to see, that one would
have said, it was the mouth of Hell. And in truth, I remembered then,
the hole of St. Patrick, which is said to be in Hibernia. We were not
brave enough knights, to try the adventure, my companion and I, if our
guides had not taken the lead. After whom we descended as magnanimously
as the Trojan Duke followed the Sybil to the Plutonic realms, the sword
half drawn from the scabbard, and well determined to make test of the
Platonic doctrine, which teaches that demons can be dissected, in case
any shade or spook should have come to meet us. About the middle of
the way, we began to feel in descending a very agreeable freshness;
for it was the second day of July and the sun shone very warmly, which
made us sweat drop by drop. But we had good opportunity to refresh
ourselves and put ourselves to cool, having reached the grotto which
we found of the length and breadth of a large hall, all paved with ice
in the bottom, and where a crystalline water, colder than that of the
mountains of Arcadia Nonacris, streamed from many small brooklets,
which formed very clear fountains, with the water of which I washed
myself and drank so eagerly, that I had wished the thirst of Tantalus,
or else that I had been bitten by a Dipsas, in order to be always
thirsty, amid such a pleasant beverage. A great lord, who in some
pleasure resort, should have such a refrigerator in summer, could boast
according to my judgment, to be better provided with drink, than the
kings of Persia were with their river Coaspis, which engulphs itself
into the Tigris, the water whereof was so sweet, that the use of it
was allowed only to the great King, for the retinue and cronies of his
household. Do not think, that among these delights, I was at all free
from fear, for never did I raise my eyes above that from terror my
whole body shivered and the hair stood up on my head, seeing the whole
roof of the grotto, covered with big massive icicles, the least of
which, falling on me, had been sufficient to scramble up my brains and
knock me to pieces; so much so that I was like to that criminal, whom
they say is punished in Hell, by the continual fear of a big stone,
which seems as though it must suddenly fall on his ears. There are
besides the large hall of the grotto, some rather roomy corners, where
the gentlemen of the neighborhood, put their venison to cool in summer,
and we saw the hooks, where they hang the wild fowl. It is true, that
when we were there, we saw neither game nor wild fowl, and I think,
that if we had found any of it, we were men to carry off some of it.
We walked around for about a quarter of an hour, in this _Froidiere_
and we should have staid there longer if the cold had not driven us
out; which struck in to our backs, even to make our teeth crack; we
reascended the slope, not forgetting, all of us as many as we were, to
provide and load ourselves with ice, which served us at lunch in the
little village mentioned above to drink most delightfully, assuring
you that it is impossible to drink more freshly than we drank then. I
thought of those old voluptuaries, who cooled their wine with snow, and
it seemed to me, as though they might have had it much cheaper if in
their time there had been many such _Froidieres_, to refresh it with
ice, instead of with snow, as some of the gentlemen of the neighborhood
of the _Froidiere_ and some of the most notable persons of the
neighborhood of Bezenson do; who by night, have a good supply brought
on horses, which they keep in their caves, and use at their meals and
banquets. Turning back towards the Imperial city of Bezenson, I carried
for about two great leagues, a rather large icicle in my hands, which
little by little melted and was a pleasant and agreeable cooler, on
account of the great heat of the weather. After having thought over in
my mind, the cause of this _antiperistase_, I could find none other but
this: to wit, that as heat domineers in summer, the cold retires to
places low and subterranean, such as is this one, to which the rays of
the sun cannot approach, and that in such an aquatic and humid place,
it operates the results, which we have shown above. Which seemed to me
so much more likely, that on asking the peasants of the neighboring
village, if in winter there was ice in this _Froidiere_, they answered
me that there was none, and that on the contrary, it was very warm
there. Whatever may be the cause, whether this or another, I can assure
you, that I admired this singularity as much as any I have seen,
since a large church, cut into a rock which I had seen a few years
previously, in a little town of Gascony called St. Milion, distant
seven leagues from Bordeaux; on the steeple of which is the cemetery,
where they bury the dead; a thing to be marvelled at by him who has not
seen it.
"I have made trial, to enrich this missive, with all the artifice
which has come into my head, using the leisure, which the present time
brings me: as the temple of Janus is open, the air beyond breathing
nothing but war: which forces me, against my wish, to sojourn in this
place longer than I had intended. If these troubles settle down, and if
after the rain, God sends us fine weather as requires the calamitous
state in which is now the flat country, I shall return to my Parnassus;
from which if I go out hereafter, believe that it will be very much in
spite of myself, or that my will will have very much changed. You will
be able to let me hear from you there, and take your revenge for the
prolixity of this letter, by sending me one still longer, which you
will write to me with more pleasure, as I shall take much in reading
it. However as it is becoming time to sound taps, I will pray the
sovereign creator for my affectionate recommendations to your graces.
"Sir, and best friend, may you keep in health and have a long and happy
life. From Sens this 20th of June 1585.
"Your obedient friend, BENIGNE POISSENOT.
"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:--
[Sidenote: "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.
Creux de Chevroche or Roche Chèvre, Côte d'Or. (Clément Drioton,
_Mémoires de la Société de Spéléologie_, 1897, vol. I., page 209.)--"In
the woods of Mavilly, near Bligny-sur-Ouches, is a little cave, called
Creux de Chevroche or Roche-Chèvre, where one can find ice until the
month of July."
Freezing Well of Marolles, at La Ferté-Milon, Aisne. (Martel, _Les
Abimes_, page 563, note 2.)--This well is 8.15 meters deep; the
altitude is 70 meters. During the winter of 1892-93 the water in
it froze for a thickness of 15 centimeters. The minimum outside
temperature that year was -17°.
Windholes near Pontgibaud, Puy de Dome. (G. Poulett-Scrope, _The
Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France_, 1858, page
60.)--These windholes are in basalt. There are many cracks, whence cold
air currents issue, and where ice has been found, sometimes in summer.
There are cold storage huts over some of the cracks.
Le Creux-de-Souci, Puy de Dome. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, 1894, Page
387.)--This is situated 5 kilometers southeast of Besse-en-Chandesse.
It is a large lava cavern with the entrance directly in the middle of
the roof. The bottom is partly filled by a lake. The depth from the
surface of the ground to the lake is 33 meters; from the smallest part
of the opening to the lake the depth is 21.50 meters. Down this last
portion one can descend only by means of a rope ladder. The temperature
is extremely low; in general near freezing point. In June, July, August
and November 1892, Monsieur Berthoule, _maire_ of Besse, did not find
any snow. On the 10th of August, 1893, on the contrary, he found at the
bottom a heap of snow, which he thinks was formed in the cave itself,
by the freezing during their descent of the drops of water which are
constantly dripping from the roof. He reports landing on _une montagne
de neige, de neige blanche_. On several visits, Mons. Berthoule noticed
carbonic acid gas in dangerous quantities. There was none at the time
he observed the snow heap, but ten days later he found it impossible
to descend into the cave as the carbonic acid gas came up in puffs to
the entrance. In the lake, Mons. Berthoule discovered a variety of
Rotifer, _Notholca longispina_, and also several algæ and diatoms.
The _Asterionella formosa_ is the most remarkable from its abundance:
it exists in some of the lakes of the Alps, but not in those of the
Pyrenees.
Aven de Lou Cervi, Vaucluse. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 563.)--This is
a cold cave. It belongs to the class which Mons. Martel calls _avens
à rétrécissement_, or _abimes à double orifice_. In September, 1892,
Mons. Martel noted a temperature of 6.5° at 53 meters; of 6.8° at 64
meters. Mean temperature of locality, 8.75°.
Igue de Biau, Lot. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 304.)--Cold cave.
Temperature on 13th July, 1891: 5°.
Fosse Mobile, Charente. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 380.)--Cold cave.
Temperature on 11th April, 1893: 7°.
Aven de Deidou, Causse Méjean. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 223.)--Cold
cave. Temperatures on 14th October, 1892: outside air, 4°; at bottom,
6.5°.
Aven des Oules, Causse Méjean. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 227.)--Cold
cave. Temperatures on 21st October, 1892: outside air, 2.5°; at bottom,
4°.
Windhole Cold Caves near Roquefort, Aveyron.--They lie 13 kilometers
from Millau, at an altitude of about 600 meters, and are utilized in
the manufacture of Roquefort cheese.
Aven de Carlet, near la Roche Giron, Basses Alpes. (Martel, _Les
Abimes_, page 53.)--Lumps of ice are reported to have been taken from
it.
La Poujade, Cévennes. (Martel, _Les Abimes_, pages 212-215.)--An
intermittent spring in limestone rock. At the bottom of the first
gallery, on the 18th of September, 1892, the temperature of the air was
12.3°, and that of a pool of water supplied by drip 11.5°. Mons. Martel
thought that the drip brought to the pool the mean annual temperature
of the ground through which it had come. A little further within and 5
meters lower, the temperature of the air was 7.3° and that of another
pool of water 6.8°. This pool was not supplied by drip and must have
been left over by the last flow of the spring. Mons. Martel thought
that the lower temperatures at this spot were due to the cold air of
winter dropping to the bottom of the cave and on account of its density
not being able to get out.
Snow Preserved in Chasms in the Italian Mountains. (_The Penny
Magazine_, London, August, 1834, page 335.)--Mr. Bunford Samuel called
my attention to an article in which the Southern Italians are said to
dig wells or cellars on the mountain sides, and to throw snow into them
in winter. The snow is well pressed together and straw, dried leaves,
etc., is thrown on top. By having a northern exposure for these pits,
and seeing that they are in thick forest, or in rifts where the sun
does not penetrate, these depots may be safely placed as low down the
mountain as the snow falls and lies. Naples is largely supplied [1834]
with snow in summer from such snow wells situated on Monte Angelo, the
loftiest point of the promontory separating the Bay of Naples from the
Bay of Salerno.
Cold Caves of San Marino, Apennines. (De Saussure, _Voyages dans les
Alpes_, 1796, III., page 211.)--These are probably windholes.
La Bocche dei Venti di Cesi. (De Saussure, _Voyages dans les Alpes_,
1796, III., page 211.)--These windholes were in the cellar of the
house of Don Giuseppe Cesi, in the town of Cesi. The cellar acted as a
natural refrigerator. The air stream was so strong, that it nearly blew
out the torches. In winter the wind rushed into the holes. De Saussure
was shown the following Latin verses by the owner:--
"Abditus hic ludit vario discrimine ventus
Et faciles miros exhibet aura jocos.
Nam si bruma riget, quaecumque objeceris haurit.
Evomit aestivo cum calet igne dies,"
Windholes or "Ventarole" on Monte Testaceo, near Rome. (De Saussure,
_Voyages dans les Alpes_, 1796, III., page 209.)--There are a number
here among heaps of broken pottery. The temperatures seem abnormally
low.
Krypta Sorana. (Kircher, _Mundus Subterraneus_, 1664, page 118 and
page 239.)--This has been spoken of as a glacière cave, but as there
is much doubt in the matter, I quote the passages, on which the
reports are based, in the original Latin: "Cryptae sunt naturales,
quarum innumerae sunt species, juxta vires naturales iis inditas. Sunt
nonnullae medicinali virtute praeditae, quaedam metallicis vaporibus,
exhalationibus, aquis scatent, sunt et glaciales, plenae nivibus et
crystallo, uti in Monte Sorano me vidisse memini." And further: "Vidi
ego in Monte Sorano cryptam veluti glacie incrustatam, ingentibus in
fornice hinc inde stiriis dependentibus, e quibus vicini montis accolae
pocula aestivo tempore conficiunt, aquae vinoque, quae iis infunduntur,
refrigerandis aptissima, extremo rigore in summas bibentium delicias
commutato."
Subterranean Ice Sheet, Mount Etna, Sicily. (Lyell, _Principles of
Geology, 11th Edition_, chapter XXVI.)--This ice sheet is near the
Casa Inglese. Sir Charles Lyell ascertained the fact of its existence
in 1828, and in 1858 he found the same mass of ice, of unknown extent
and thickness, still unmelted. In the beginning of the winter of
1828, Lyell found the crevices in the interior of the summit of the
highest cone of Etna encrusted with thick ice, and in some cases hot
vapors actually streaming out between masses of ice and the rugged and
steep walls of the crater. Lyell accounts for this ice sheet by the
explanation that there must have been a great snow bank in existence
at the time of an eruption of the volcano. This deep mass of snow
must have been covered at the beginning of the eruption by volcanic
sand showered on it, followed by a stream of lava. The sand is a bad
conductor of heat and together with the solidified lava, preserved the
snow from liquefaction.
Glacière on the Moncodine. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 13.)--The
Moncodine is described as a Dolomite near the Lago di Como. The cave
lies up the Val Sasina, two hours from Cortenuova, at an altitude of
1675 meters. The entrance faces north, and is 2.5 meters high and 1.5
meters wide. The average diameter of the cave is 16 meters. The floor
is solid ice, which has been sometimes cut for use in the hotels on the
Lago di Como and even been sent to Milan.
La Ghiacciaia del Mondole. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 8.)--The Mondole
is a mountain 2375 meters high, near Mondovi, south of Turin. The cave
lies on the eastern slope, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. It is
hard to get at. The entrance is to the east, and is 2 meters wide and
1.5 meters high. A passageway some 25 meters long leads to a large
chamber where there is plenty of ice. In hot summers ice is brought
from the cave to Mondovi. _Ghiacciaia_ means freezing cavern in Italian.
La Ghiacciaia del Val Séguret. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 8.)--It lies
near Susa at the base of chalk cliffs, at an altitude of about 1500
meters. The cave is said to be about 40 meters deep, 50 meters wide and
50 meters high. Bonetti in May, 1874, found many icicles and ice cones.
La Borna de la Glace. (Chanoine Carrel, _Bibliothèque Universelle de
Genève_, 1841, vol. XXXIV., page 196.)--It lies in the Duchy of Aosta,
commune of La Salle, on the northern slope of the hills near Chabauday,
in a spot called Plan Agex. The altitude is 1602 meters. The entrance
opens to the east and is 60 centimeters wide and 80 centimeters high.
One can descend for 4 meters. There are two branches in the rear of
the entrance. Chanoine Carrel found an ice pillar 1 meter high in the
western branch. He recorded these temperatures on the 15th of July,
1841: Outside +15°. Entrance +2.9°. East branch +0.9°. West branch
+0.5°.
Windholes in the Italian Alps. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, pages 94-97.)--A
number of these seem to have abnormally low temperatures. Some are in
the mountains around Chiavenna, and are sometimes, by building small
huts over them, utilized as refrigerators. Some are reported in the
neighborhood of the Lago di Como near Dongo, near Menaggio, and in the
villa Pliniana near Curino; in the neighborhood of the Lake of Lugano
at the base of Monte Caprino, near Melide, near Mendrisio and near
Sertellino; and in the Val Maggia near Cevio.
The Glacière de Font d'Urle, or Fondurle, Dauphiné. (Héricart de Thury,
_Annales des Mines_, vol. XXXIII., page 157; G. F. Browne, _Ice Caves_,
etc., page 212; E. A. Martel, _Mémoires de la Société de Spéléologie_,
vol. I., page 37; L. Villard, _Spélunca_, 1896, vol. II., page 39.)--It
lies on the Foire de Font d'Urle, 16 kilometers north of Dié, 48
kilometers east of Valence, and 80 kilometers south of Grenoble. The
glacière consists of two large pits, lying east and west, and with
underground communication. From this tunnel a long low archway leads to
a broad slope of chaotic blocks of stone, which is 60 meters long and
42 meters in greatest width. The ice begins half way down this slope,
fitfully at first and afterwards in a tolerably continuous sheet. Thury
found many icicles hanging from the roof. Browne found four columns
of ice, of which the largest was 5.80 meters across the base. On his
visit, in the middle of August, the ice was strongly thawing. Both
explorers noted the extremely prismatic character of the ice. Browne
found a temperature of +0.5°. Martel gives a section and plan of Font
d'Urle. Mons. Villard says about this cavern: "A curious thing: I found
in this cave, motionless on a piece of rock, entirely surrounded by ice
for a distance of several meters, a blind specimen of a coleoptera,
_Cytodromus dapsoïdes_."
The Chourun Clot. (E. A. Martel, _Sous Terre_. _Annuaire du Club Alpin
Français_, vol. XXIII., 1896, pages 42, 43; _Mémoires de la Société
de Spéléologie_, vol. I., page 31.)--In Dauphiné, half way between
Agnières and the Pic Costebelle, at an altitude of 1,740 meters. There
is first a pit 18 meters long, 4.50 meters wide and 25 meters deep. In
the bottom of this is a vertical hole 15 meters deep and from 1 meter
to 2 meters in diameter, in which there was much ice on the 31st of
July, 1896. Then the pit changes to a sloping gallery which terminates
in a little hall, full of ice, at a depth of 70 meters. Martel gives a
cut and section of this glacière.
The Glacière du Trou de Glas. (E. A. Martel, _La Géographie_, 1900,
vol. I., page 52.)--In the range of the Grande Chartreuse.
The Chourun Martin. (E. A. Martel, _La Géographie_, 1900, vol. I., page
53.)--In the range of the Dévoluy, Hautes-Alpes; altitude 1,580 meters.
An extremely deep pit, which on July 31st, 1899, was much blocked up
with snow.
The Chourun de la Parza. (E. A. Martel, _La Géographie_, 1900, vol. I.,
page 54.)--In the range of the Dévoluy, Hautes-Alpes; altitude 1,725
meters. A fine pit, 25 meters in diameter, and 74 meters in depth.
Filled with snow or rather névé, in which are deep holes.
The Glacière de l'Haut-d'Aviernoz. Described in Part I., page 2. (C.
Dunant, _Le Parmelan et ses Lapiaz_, page 26; Browne, _Ice Caves_,
etc., page 157.)--Mons. Dunant calls this glacière l'Haut d'Aviernoz;
Mr. Browne calls it the Glacière du Grand Anu. By a plumb line held
from the edge of the larger pit, Browne found that the ice floor was
about 35 meters from the surface, which would give a level for the ice
floor closely identical to the one I found. In July, 1864, he recorded
a temperature of +1.1°.
The Glacière de l'Enfer. (G. F. Browne, _Good Words_, November, 1866;
T. G. Bonney, _The Alpine Regions_, 1868, pages 95, 96; C. Dunant, _Le
Parmelan et ses Lapiaz_, page 25.)--On Mont Parmelan. A pit cave with
a steep slope of broken rock leading to a rock portal in the face of
a low cliff. This opens into a roughly circular hall about 22 meters
in diameter and 3 meters to 4 meters in height. A chink between the
rock and the ice permitted Mr. Browne to scramble down three or four
meters to where a tunnel entered the ice mass. Throwing a log of wood
down this tunnel, a crash was heard and then a splash of water, and
then a strange gulping sound. "The tunnel obviously led to a subglacial
reservoir and this was probably covered by a thin crust of ice; the
log in falling had broken this and then disturbed the water below,
which then commenced bubbling up and down through the hole, and making
a gulping noise, just as it does sometimes when oscillating up and down
in a pipe."
Mons. C. Dunant of the _Club Alpin Français_ describes a visit to
the Glacière de l'Enfer. He mentions also a legend of a witch from a
neighboring village who would get the ice from these caves and bring
it down in the shape of hail on the crops of the peasants who were
inhospitable to her.
The Glacière de Chapuis. Described in Part I., page 5. (Browne, _Ice
Caves_, etc., page 182, and _Good Words_, November, 1866.)--Mr. Browne
calls it the Glacière de Chappet-Sur-Villaz. Mr. Browne and Professor
T. G. Bonney found several flies in the Glacière de Chapuis. Three of
them were specimens of _Stenophylax_, the largest being probably, but
not certainly, _S. hieroglyphicus_ of Stephens. Two smaller caddis
flies were either _S. testaceus_ of Pictet or some closely allied
species. One other insect was an ichneumon of the genus _Paniscus_,
of an unidentified species. It differed from all its congeners in the
marking of the throat, resembling in this respect some species of
_Ophion_. Mr. Browne thinks that the case flies may have been washed
into the cave somehow or other in the larva form, and come to maturity
on the ice where they had lodged. But this explanation will not hold
in the case of the ichneumon, which is a parasitic genus on larvæ of
terrestrial insects.
The Glacière de Le Brezon. (Pictet, _Bibliothèque Universelle de
Genève_, 1822, vol. XX., page 270, and Thury, _Bibliothèque Universelle
de Genève_, 1861, vol. X., pages 139 and 152.)--It lies southeast of
Bonneville near the foot of Mount Lechaud, at an altitude of 1276
meters. The cave is 9.7 meters long, about 8 meters wide and the
greatest height is about 4 meters. The entrance is small and is at the
base of a cliff, in some places of which cold air currents issue. The
ice lies on the floor. Some of it is probably winter snow.
The Glacière de Brisons.--Described in Part I., page 1.
The Grand Cave de Montarquis. Described in Part I., page 70.
(Thury, _Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève_, vol. X., pages
135-153.)--Professor Thury describes two visits to this cave. On the
16th of August, 1859, he found no ice stalactites or stalagmites. On
the 19th of January, 1861, he did not find a single drop of water in
the cave, but many stalactites and stalagmites of beautiful clear ice,
one of which resembled porcelain more than any other substance. In
August, Thury found an air current streaming into the cave at the rear,
but this did not, however, disturb the air of the interior, for in one
part it was in perfect equilibrium: along the line of the draughts
the ice was more melted than elsewhere in the cave. In January, the
current was reversed and poured into the fissure, with the temperature
varying between -1.5° and -2.5°. He observed the following temperatures
at the Grand Cave:--
TIME. OUTSIDE. INSIDE.
16th August, 1859 +8.6° +2.5°
19th January, 1861 1.25 P. M. +2.6° -4.°
" " " 2.12 " +2.1° -4.°
" " " 3.50 " -1.1° -4.°
The Petite Cave de Montarquis. Mentioned in Part I., page 71. (Thury,
_Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève_, 1861, vol. X., page 150. Also
quotes Morin.)--At the end of a crooked fissure 10 meters deep, a
passage 6 meters long, leads into a cave 8 meters high and 5 meters in
diameter. In August, 1828, Morin found an ice stalagmite of 5 meters in
height in the middle of the cave.
Cave Containing Ice on the Southern Shore of Lake Geneva.--Reported; no
information.
The Glacière and Neigière d'Arc-Sous-Cicon. (Browne, _Ice Caves_,
etc., page 118.)--These lie close together in the Jura about twenty
kilometers from Pontarlier. The little glacière is formed by a number
of fissures in the rock, disconnected slits in the surface opening into
larger chambers where the ice lies. The neigière is a deep pit, with a
collection of snow at the bottom, much sheltered by overhanging rocks
and trees. A huge fallen rock covers a large part of the sloping bottom
of the pit, which forms a small cave in the shape of a round soldier's
tent, with walls of rock and floor of ice.
The Glacière de la Genollière. Described in Part I., page 48. (Browne,
_Ice Caves_, etc., page 1.)--Mr. Browne observed in 1864 a temperature
of +1.1°, and two days later of +0.8°. He also found a number of flies
running rapidly over the ice and stones. He was told in England,
from the specimen he brought away, that it was the _Stenophylax
hieroglyphicus_ of Stephens or something very like that fly.
The Glacière de Saint-Georges. Described in Part I., page 62. (Thury,
_Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève_, 1861, vol. X.)--Professor Thury
obtained the following temperatures at the Glacière de Saint-Georges:--
OUTSIDE. INSIDE.
9th January, 1858 7.36 P. M., -4.5° 7.16 P. M., -0.6°
" " " 7.20 " -1.2°
" " " 7.27 " -2.5°
" " " 7.50 " -2.9°
Minimum of night -5.8° -4.9°
10th January, 1858 10.53 A. M., -3.4° 10.12 A. M., -4.6°
" " " 11.14 " -3.1° 10.30 " -4.5°
" " " 11.45 " -2.2° 11.20 " -4.4°
" " " 12.32 P. M., -2.4° 12.14 P. M., -4.4°
" " " 1.12 " -0.9° 1.30 " -4.2°
" " " 3.03 " -2.9° 2.30 " -4.1°
" " " 3.56 " -3.5° 3.14 " -4.0°
" " " 4.26 " -3.7° 4.00 " -3.8°
Minimum of night -7.6° -6.8°
11th January, 1858 9.34 A. M., -5.6°
2d April, 1858 6.20 P. M., +0.7° -0.2°
Minimum of night + 1.1°
3d April, 1858 10.00 A. M., +4.0° 9.00 A. M., -1.0°
Professor Thury's winter excursions caused him to accept as proved that
part of the mountaineers' belief, which holds that there is no ice
formed in caves in winter. One of the main grounds for his opinion was
the series of observations he made in the Glacière de Saint-Georges.
He found no ice forming there in winter and the natives said it did
not because the cavern was not cold enough. So he placed large dishes
filled with water in the cave and found that they froze solid during
the night, which he had been assured was impossible. Thury also found
violent movements of the air at Saint-Georges in January, 1858. A
candle burned steadily for some time, but at 7.16 P. M. it began to
flicker and soon inclined downwards through an angle of about 45°; and
in the entrance, the flame assumed an almost horizontal position. At 8
P. M., the current of air nearly disappeared. Thury thought that this
violent and temporary disturbance of equilibrium was due to the fact
that as the heavier air outside tended to pass into the cave, the less
cold air within tended to pass out; and the narrow entrance confining
the struggle to a small area, the weaker current was able for a while
to hold its own.
The Glacière du Pré de Saint-Livres. Described in Part I., page
65. (Browne, _Ice Caves_, page 40.)--Mr. Browne found, in 1864, a
temperature of 0°.
The Petite Glacière du Pré de Saint-Livres. (Browne, _Ice Caves_, page
46.)--This is near the last cave at a slightly higher altitude. There
is first a small pit, then a little cave, in which there is an ice
slope. This passes under a low arch in the rock wall, and leads down
into another small cave. Mr. Browne descended this ice stream, which
was itself practically a fissure column and spread into the fan shape
at the base. The lower cave was 22 meters long and 11 meters wide, and
contained an ice floor and several fissure columns.
The Glacière de Naye, above Montreux, Switzerland. (E. A. Martel, _Les
Abimes_, page 397; _Spélunca_, 1895, vol. I., pages 107, 108; _Mémoires
de la Société de Spéléologie_, vol. III., pages 246-254.)--This is
called a _glacier souterrain_. It was discovered in 1893 by Professor
Dutoit. There are fifty-four caves known among the Rochers de Naye, and
only this one contains ice. It is a long narrow cave with two entrances
and widest towards the base, which opens over a precipice. The altitude
is high, the upper entrance being at an altitude of 1820 meters, and
the lower of 1750 meters. The place is both a passage cave and a
windhole. The snow falls into the upper entrance, and slides down,
becoming ice in the lower portion. There are other connecting passages
and hollows where the cold air cannot get in, and there ice does not
form. Mons. Martel thinks that the ice formed during the winter is
preserved by the draughts--due to the difference in level of the two
openings--causing an evaporation and chill sufficient for the purpose.
The Creux Bourquin. (E. A. Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 397.)--At
Mauberget, near Grandson. This is a rock gorge 25 meters deep. At the
bottom, on the 9th of July, 1893, was a mass of ice 38 meters long and
8 meters wide.
The Glacière de Monthézy. (Browne, _Ice Caves_, page 97.)--This lies
to the west of Neufchâtel, between the Val de Travers and the Val de
Brévine, on the path between the villages of Couvet and Le Brévine,
at an altitude of 1100 meters. The cave is nearly oval in shape, with
a length of 34 meters and a width of 29 meters. The roof is from 1
meter to 3 meters high. There are three pits, about 20 meters deep, on
different sides of the cave. The descent is made through the largest
pit. On the 6th of July, 1864, Mr. Browne found the floor of the cave
covered with ice, and icicles and columns in some places; he also saw
a clump of cowslips (_primula elatior_) overhanging the snow at the
bottom of the pit through which he descended.
Pertius Freiss. (T. G. Bonney, _Nature_, vol. XI., page 327.)--It lies
on the way to the Pic d'Arzinol, near Evolène, in the Val d'Hérens.
A slip or subsidence of part of a cliff has opened two joints in the
rock, in both of which fissures Professor Bonney found ice on July 23d.
The Schafloch. Described in Part I., page 21. (Körber, _Jahrbuch des
Schweizer Alpen Club_, 1885, vol. XX., pages 316, 343.)--Herr Körber
gives some of the dimensions as follows: Entrance 14 meters wide
and 4.70 meters high. Length of cave 206.8 meters: average width
20 meters and greatest width 23.5 meters. Height from 5 meters to 7
meters. Length of ice slope 29 meters and breadth 12.5 meters; for 16
meters the slope has an inclination of 32°. Körber made the following
observations in the Schafloch:--
14 METERS 100 METERS 160 METERS
DATE. OUTSIDE. FROM FROM FROM
ENTRANCE. ENTRANCE. ENTRANCE.
21 September, 1884, 10.5° 5.6° 0.2° 0.2°
18 January, 1885, 2.7° -1.0° -1.3° --
The Rev. G. F. Browne, in 1864, found a temperature of +0.5°.
The Eisloch of Unterfluh. (Baltzer, _Jahrbuch des Schweizer Alpen
Club_, 1892-93, pages 358-362.)--Twenty minutes from Unterfluh near
Meiringen. A long narrow rock crack, some 30 meters deep and running
some distance underground.
Windholes and Milkhouses of Seelisberg.--Described in Part I., page 45.
Windholes on the Spitzfluh. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 92.)--These are
situated between Oltingen and Zeylingen, Canton Bâle: they generally
contain ice till the end of July.
Windholes on the Blummatt. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 93.)--On the
northwestern slope of the Stanzerberg. Ice sometimes lies over in these
windholes.
Windholes near Bozen. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 97.)--On the Mendel
ranges in Eppan, southwest of Bozen, among porphyry rocks. There are
strong wind-streams. Ice is said to remain till late in the summer.
Grotto on Monte Tofana, Dolomites. (T. G. Bonney, _Nature_, vol. XI.,
page 328.)--This is probably a rudimentary glacière.
Holes with Ice near Lienz. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 97.)--One hour
and a half distant near Aineth, is a small cave containing ice, and
further up the valley towards Huben, are several windholes.
Eishöhle am Birnhorn. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 131.)--Near Leogang in
the Pinzgau. Altitude 2150 meters. There are two entrances, from which
a slope 10 meters long, set at an angle of 25°, leads to an ice floor
12 meters long and 3 meters high. Then comes a small ice slope, and a
little horizontal floor at the back. Explored by Fugger.
Glacières on the Eiskogel. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 19.)--The
Eiskogel is in the Tennengebirge, a mountain mass lying east of Pass
Lueg. At an altitude of about 1900 meters, are two small caves, about
30 meters to 40 meters apart. They are some 25 meters in length and get
smaller towards the bottom.
Holes with Ice in the Tennengebirge, between the Schallwand and the
Tauernkogel. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 20.)--In this gorge are some
small holes at an altitude of about 2000 meters, which are said to
contain ice in summer.
The Seeofen. (A. Posselt-Csorich, _Zeitschrift des Deutschen und
Oesterreichischen Alpen Verein_, 1880, page 270.) On the Hean Krail in
the Tennengebirge, at an altitude of about 1900 meters. The entrance
faces southwest, and is 6 meters high and 4.5 meters wide. The cave is
25 meters long, and 8 meters wide. The floor of the cave is 13 meters
below the entrance.
The Posselthöhle. (A. Posselt-Csorich, _Zeitschrift des Deutschen
und Osterreichischen Alpen Verein_, 1880, page 273.)--Named after
its discoverer. It lies on the Hochkogel in the Tennengebirge, at an
altitude of about 1900 meters. The entrance faces southwest, and is
about 8 meters high and 8 meters wide. From the entrance the cave first
rises, then sinks again below the level of the entrance, where the
ice begins. The cave is about 20 meters wide. About 180 meters were
explored, to a point where a perpendicular ice wall, 6 meters high,
barred the way. About 125 meters from the entrance, there was an ice
cone about 7 meters high.
The Gamsloch or Diebshöhle. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 14.)--It lies
on the Breithorn of the Steinernes Meer, near the Riemannhauss, at an
altitude of about 2180 meters. The entrance faces south. There is first
a small, then a larger chamber. The latter is some 40 meters long, by
5 meters or 6 meters wide. The ice is in the large chamber.
Eishöhle am Seilerer. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 15.)--On the
eastern side of the Seilerer arête on the Ewigen Schneeberg, west of
Bischofshofen, at an altitude of about 2400 meters, is a small glacière
cave.
Cave in the Hagengebirge, West of Pass Lueg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
15.)--It lies about 2 kilometers east of Kalbersberg, at an altitude of
about 2000 meters. A snow slope, with an ice floor at the bottom, leads
into a long cave, about which little is known.
The Nixloch. Described in Part I., page 57. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_,
page 98.)--Professor Fugger gathered some valuable data in connection
with the Nixloch. In August, 1879, he found the air current entering
downwards; on September 14th, 1879, there was no current either way.
On Christmas day, 1878, on the contrary, the draughts were reversed,
pouring out of the hole with a temperature of +7.4°: the outside air
then being -7.4°. At this time the known lower opening was in existence.
The Kolowratshöhle. Described in Part I., page 18. (Fugger,
_Beobachtungen_, etc., page 7.)--This cavern has been more carefully
studied than any other glacière cave. Some of its dimensions are given
by Professor Fugger as follows: From the entrance to the ice floor,
26.6 meters; surface covered by ice as measured on a plane, 2940
square meters; approximate cubical measure of entire cave, 92,000 cubic
meters. The height of the entrance is 7 meters, with a width at the
base of 2.7 meters, and at the top of 6.6 meters.
On the entrance slope occurred the only fatal accident I know of in
glacières. In 1866, the Bavarian minister Freiherr von Lerchenfeld
tried to descend; a wooden handrail which had been erected over the
snow broke under his weight; von Lerchenfeld fell to the bottom of the
cave and died a few days after from the injuries he received.
Of the Kolowratshöhle, we have numerous thermometric observations by
Professor Fugger, of which I select a few.
DATE. OUTSIDE. ENTRANCE. INSIDE. REAR.
21 May 1876 +6.5° +0.7° +0.03° 0°& +0.08°
18 June 1876 +5.1° +1.6° +0.23° +0.4°
24 June 1876 +10.° +1.6° +0.4° --
5 July 1876 -- -- +0.4° --
22 July 1876 +11.3° +1.5° +0.4° +0.2°
29 July 1876 +15.2° +2.4° +0.3° +0.2°
22 Aug. 1876 +19.8° +4.0° +0.4° +0.25°
20 Sept. 1876 +7.2° +3.0° +0.45° +0.6°
22 Sept. 1876 -- -- +0.30° --
16 Oct. 1876 +14.8° +2.05° +0.2° +0.2°
22 Oct. 1876 +5.6° +2.5° +0.25° +0.4°
26 Nov. 1876 +4.4° +0.4° -1.0° --
6 Jan. 1877 +2.1° +1.2° -1.65° -0.6°
The Schellenberger Eisgrotte. (Fugger, _Beobachtungen in den Eishöhlen
des Untersberges_, page 80.)--On the southeast slope of the Untersberg
near Salzburg, at an altitude of 1580 meters. The path leads past the
Kienbergalp over the Mitterkaser and the Sandkaser. In front of the
entrance is a sort of rock dam, 30 meters long and 5 meters or 6 meters
higher than the entrance. Masses of snow fill the space between the
two. The entrance is about 20 meters wide and from 2 meters to 3 meters
high. A snow slope of 25 meters in length, set at an angle of 25°,
leads to the ice floor. The cave is 54 meters long, from 13 meters to
22 meters broad and from 4 meters to 10 meters high. The cave has been
repeatedly examined by Fugger, who has always found most snow and ice
in the beginning of the hot weather, after which it gradually dwindles
away.
Of the Schellenberger Eisgrotte, we have the following thermometric
observations by Professor Fugger:--
DATE. OUTSIDE. ENTRANCE. INSIDE.
29 June, 1877 +18° -- +0.38°
24 " 1881 +21° +2.3° +0.24°
28 Aug., 1878 +14.6° -- +0.2°
12 " 1879 +17.8° -- +0.3°
4 Oct., 1876 +16.7° +1.4° +0.3°
9 " 1880 +3.6° +3.5° +0.3°
2 " 1887 +5.4° -- +0.4°
9 " 1887 +8.2° -- +0.4°
11 Nov., 1877 +7.4° -- +0.2°
The Grosser Eiskeller or Kaiser Karls Höhle. (Fugger, _Beobachtungen_,
etc., page 58.)--On the Untersberg, between the Salzburger Hochthron
and the Schweigmüller Alp. Altitude 1687 meters. A stony slope of 26
meters in length leads to an ice floor which is 26 meters long and 6
meters to 8 meters wide.
The Kleiner Eiskeller. (Fugger, _Beobachtungen_, etc., page 73.)--Near
the last. A small cave 8 meters long, 6 meters wide, 8 meters high.
The Windlöcher on the Untersberg. (Fugger, _Beobachtungen_, etc., page
73.)--On the Klingersteig, at an altitude of 1300 meters. Four small
caves of about 12 meters each in length and 8 meters in depth, and
communicating at the bottom. There are strong draughts among them. In
one of the caves is a small pit of great depth.
The Eiswinkel on the Untersberg. (Fugger, _Beobachtungen_, etc., page
77.)--Between the Klingeralp and the Vierkaser, at an altitude of 1600
meters. A small cave or rather rock shelter.
Windholes on the Untersberg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, pages 103,
104.)--Windholes have been found by Fugger on the lower slopes of the
Untersberg:
Near the Hochbruch at Fürstenbrunn.
In the débris of the Neubruch.
In the débris of the Veitlbruch.
Hotel Cellar at Weissenbach on the Attersee. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
20.)--There is a small cave here, at an altitude of 452 meters, which
is utilized as a cellar, and which is said to contain ice in summer.
Cave near Steinbach. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 20.)--A small cave
containing ice on the northwest slopes of the Höllengebirge. Altitude
about 700 meters.
The Kliebensteinhöhle or Klimmsteinhöhle. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
20.)--On the north slope of the Höllengebirge, near the Aurachkar Alp,
between Steinbach and the Langbath Lakes. Altitude about 1300 meters.
Length about 40 meters, width 20 meters, height 15 meters.
The Wasserloch. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 21.)--On the south slope of
the Höllengebirge, near the Spitzalpe. Altitude about 1350 meters. At
the bottom of a gorge is a snow heap and a small cave. The snow becomes
ice in the cave.
Cave on the Zinkenkogl near Aussee. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
21.)--Altitude about 1800 meters. A snow slope leads to an ice floor 18
meters long and 4 meters wide.
Cave on the Kasberg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 22.)--South of Grünau
near Gmunden. Altitude about 1500 meters. Small cave 12 meters long, 4
meters wide.
The Wasseraufschlag on the Rothen Kogel. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
22.)--A tunnel near Aussee. The ice in it was formerly used.
The Gschlösslkirche. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 22.)--On the Dachstein
range, facing the Lake of Gosau. A small cave, mostly filled with snow.
Cave with Ice on the Mitterstein. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 23.)--On
the Dachstein, one hour and a quarter from the Austria hut. Altitude
about 1800 meters. Cave 5 meters to 6 meters wide, 30 meters long. In
the rear a passage leads apparently to a windhole where there is a
strong draught.
Windholes in the Obersulzbach Valley in the Pinzgau. (Fugger,
_Eishöhlen_, page 105.)--Fugger found ice among these on the 1st of
August, 1886.
Ice in an Abandoned Nickel Mine on the Zinkwand, in the Schladming
Valley. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 105.)
Windholes on the Rothen Kogel near Aussee. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
106.)--These were found to contain ice on the 2d of September, 1848.
Cave on the Langthalkogel. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 23.)--On the
Dachstein plateau between Hallstatt and Gosau. A small cave which
contains ice.
Eislunghöhle. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 24.)--A small cave between the
Hochkasten and Ostrowiz in the Priel range.
The Geldloch or Seelücken on the Oetscher. (Schmidl, _Die Höhlen
des Ötscher and Die Oesterreichischen Höhlen_; Cranmer and Sieger,
_Globus_, 1899, pages 313-318, and 333-335.)--The second known notice
of a glacière cave is the account of a visit to the Oetscher Caves
in 1591. After lying in manuscript for two and a half centuries, it
was published by Dr. A. Schmidl in 1857, in _Die Höhlen des Ötscher_,
pages 21-36. According to the account, which is naive, but evidently
truthful, Kaiser Rudolf II. ordered Reichard Strein, owner of the
Herrschaff Friedeck, to investigate the Ötscher and especially its
caves. He did so, with the title of _Kaiserlicher Commissarius_, and
accompanied by the _Bannerherr_ Christoph Schallenberger, Hans Gasser,
and eleven porters. On September the 16th, 1591, they visited the
Seelücken, where they found a lake in the front of the cave, and where
the party had great difficulties in climbing round on to the ice.
The Seelücken on the Oetscher is situated at an altitude of 1470
meters. It opens nearly due south. The ice floor is about 20 meters
below the entrance and is about 38 meters long and 24 meters wide; at
the rear, it rises for some 15 meters as an ice wall at an angle of
about 60°, and then forms a second ice floor about 45 meters long by
19 meters wide. The front part of the ice is sometimes, about July,
covered with water. The cave continues further back, in two branches,
and Professors Cranmer and Sieger consider that it is a large windhole,
in which draughts are infrequent, on account of its length and because
the openings are near the same level. There are also several up and
down curves and in these cold air remains and acts something like a
cork in stopping draughts.
On the 13th of September there were no draughts, and the temperatures
between 11 A. M. and 12 M. were:--
Outside air +7.1°
Inside near entrance +1.5°
A little further in +1.1°
At the lowest point near ice +0.8°
On the 31st of October, 1897, there was a draught, which followed the
curves of the cavern, and which flowed out at the southern end. The
temperatures were:--
Outside air +3.7°
Inside near entrance +1.3°
At the lowest point near ice +0.8°
On the second, higher ice floor +1.0°
In the main passage behind ice +1.4°
Cave on the Kühfotzen near Warscheneck. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
25.)--A small cave containing ice.
Eiskeller on the Rax. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 25; Cranmer,
_Eishöhlen_, etc., page 61.)--Altitude about 1660 meters. A doline with
a small cave at the bottom, in which melting snow was found on the 19th
of September, 1896.
The Tablerloch. (Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_, etc., pages 19-60.)--On the
Dürren-Wand in the mountains south of Vienna, 2 hours distant from
Miesenbach R. R. station. Altitude about 1000 meters. Entrance 7 meters
wide, 3.5 meters high. Slope 30° from entrance. Lowest point 22 meters
below entrance. Extreme length of cave 50 meters, width 23 meters,
height 15 meters. Professor Cranmer found fresh ice beginning to form
on the 12th of November, 1893; on the 1st of December, 1894; and on
the 20th of October, 1895. He found it melting away on the 3d of June,
1894; on the 1st of June, 1895; and on the 31st of May, 1896. The rates
at which the ice formed or melted, however, were not always the same in
different parts of the cave. The greatest amount of ice observed seems
to have been in March and April. In the summer months no perceptible
movements of air seem to have been noticed. This was also sometimes the
case in the winter months, during which, however, movements of air were
at other times plainly perceptible.
The Gipsloch. (Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_, etc., page 60.)--A small cave on
the Hohen-Wand near Wiener-Neustadt. It is rather a cold cave than a
glacière.
The Windloch. (Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_, etc., page 61.)--On the Hohen-Wand
near Wiener Neustadt. Small cave. Snow found in it on June the 2d, 1895.
Eisloch in the Brandstein on the Hochschwab. (Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_,
etc., page 64.)--Altitude about 1600 meters. A moderately large cave.
On the 21st of August, 1895, there was an ice floor 10 meters long and
5 meters broad. Temperature in rear of cave, -0.2°.
Caves on the Beilstein. (Krauss, _Höhlenkunde_, 1894, pages 207-219;
Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_, etc., page 63.)--These lie about 4 hours on foot
from Gams in Steiermark, at an altitude of 1260 meters, in a place
where the mountain is much broken up by fissures and snow basins. The
large cave has two openings, from which steep snow slopes descend.
The cave is 60 meters long, 15 meters to 18 meters broad, and about 7
meters high. Clefts in the rock in two places lead to two lower, small
ice chambers. In the neighborhood of the large cave are two small ones.
Prof. Cranmer found fresh ice in the Beilsteinhöhle on the 20th of
August, 1895. Two days before, fresh snow had fallen on the neighboring
mountain peaks.
Eishöhle on the Brandstein. (Cranmer, _Eishöhlen_, etc., page 62.)--A
small cleft cave near the Langriedleralm near Gams in Steiermark. On
the 20th of August, 1895, it contained some ice.
The Frauenmauerhöhle.--Described in Part I., page 37.
The Bärenloch near Eisenerz. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 28.)--In the
neighborhood of the Frauenmauerhöhle. Altitude 1600 meters. A steep
snow slope leads to an ice floor 13 meters long.
The Katerloch. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 29.)--On the Göserwand near
Dürnthal, Glemeinde Gschaid in Steiermark. A large cave, some 190
meters long and 80 meters wide. A thin ice crust has been found on
parts of the walls in the rear.
Caves in the Stein Alps. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 29.)--The plateau
of Velica Planina lies, at an altitude of 1600 meters, 9 kilometers
north of Stein in the Duchy of Krain. There are three caves containing
ice on the plateau. The first is a big one and is called V. Kofcih. The
second is called Mala Veternica. The third and biggest is called Velika
Veternica; its length is about 100 meters and its breadth 30 meters.
Glacière Caves on the Nanos Mountain. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page
34.)--In the southwestern Krain, 5 kilometers from Präwald. There are
four caves containing ice reported on the Nanos mountain. Two of them
are big. The altitude of one of these is 1300 meters, of the other 1350
meters.
Brlowa Jama. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 36.)--Seven kilometers from
Adelsberg. Small glacière cave.
Kosova Jama. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 38.)--Near Divacca. Forty
meters long, 20 meters broad.
Glacière near Adelsberg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 36.)--Small cave.
One hour from Adelsberg.
Kacna Jama. (J. Marinitsch, _La Kacna Jama_, _Mémoires de la Société de
Spéléologie_, vol. I., page 83.)--A great pit near the railroad station
of Divacca. Herr Marinitsch observed the following temperatures on
January 2d, 1896:--
At Divacca -2° C.
In the Kacna Jama at 40 meters -1.1° C.
" " " " " 100 meters +1.2° C.
" " " " " 210 meters +2.1° C.
Sanct Canzian, Karst. (E. A. Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 564,
note.)--During the winter of 1889-1890, Herr Marinitsch found
stalactites of ice as far as the seventeenth cascade of the Recca; 1000
meters from the third entrance of the river. The temperature of the
Recca was then at 0°; during the summer, the temperature of the water
rises to 27° (?).
The Grosses Eisloch of Paradana. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 36.)--On
the high plateau of the forest of Tarnowa, east of Görz. A large pit
cave, 30 meters to 40 meters deep. Professor Fugger says of it: "The
flora in the basin-like depression has the character of high mountain
vegetation, with every step it resembles more this flora as it exists
in the neighborhood of glaciers, until finally in the deepest point of
the basin all vegetation stops."
The Kleines Eisloch of Paradana. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 37.)--A
small pit glacière, 500 meters distant from the Grosses Eisloch of
Paradana.
Suchy Brezen. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 37.)--A small pit glacière,
situated about midway between the Grosses and Kleines Eisloch of
Paradana.
Prevalo Cave. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 37.)--In the Buchenhochwald,
south of Karnica. Small glacière.
Cave of Dol. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 38.)--On a mountain near
Haidenschaft. Small glacière.
Glacière near Matena in Bezirke Radmansdorf. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's
_Berichte_, etc., vol. VII., page 68.)--On a wooded height. The ice
commences to melt in the early summer.
Glacière on the Schutzengelberge near the Golac. (Petruzzi in
Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc., vol. VII., page 64.)--A small glacière.
Glacière Cave near Lazhna-gora or Latzenberg. (Valvasor, _Die Ehre des
Herzogthumes Crain_, vol. I., pages 242, 243; Hacquet, _Oryctographia
Carniolica_, 1778, III., page 159.)--In the neighborhood of Vishnagora
in the Krain. The entrance is under a church. It is a large cave, 40
meters long and 20 meters high, where the ice all melts by the end of
the summer. Valvasor gives the following account of this cave in 1689,
which seems the first printed notice of a glacière in German:--
"Near to Lazchenberg up by the church of St. Nicholas, where a _Thabor_
stands, one finds a big hole, which sinks into the stony rocks. Through
this one descends deep with torches: there opens then underneath as
big a cavity as the biggest church could be, and the same is extremely
high, in the form of a cupola. One sees there different teeth, formed
and hardened from the water turned to stone. Further down one arrives
to a deep gully: into which, however, I have not been. On the other
side one must again ascend, and then one comes again to a cupola: in
which cupola ice stands up like an organ from the earth.
"There also one sees icicles of pure ice of different sizes and
heights, of which many are one or two _klafters_ high and as thick as
a man; but many only two or three spans high or higher, and as thick
as an arm, and some also thinner. This ice is formed from the drops
of falling water; and indeed in summer; for in winter there is no ice
therein. Over such ice one must then ascend, as there are then said to
be separate holes and grottoes. But no one has been any further."
Glacière on the Dini Verh. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc.,
vol. VII., page 67.)--Near Tomischle in the Krain. Small glacière.
Eiskeller near Rosseck. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc., vol.
VII., page 64.)--On the Pograca Mountain in the Krain, northeast of the
Hornwald, near the Meierhof Rosseck. Small glacière cave.
Gorge near Rosseck. (Valvasor, _Die Ehre des Herzogthumes Crain_, vol.
I., page 243 and page 517 ; Petruzzi in Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc.,
vol. VII., page 64.)--Behind the ruined castle of Rosseck, on the
Pograca Mountain in the Krain, is a gorge, at whose bottom are four
little holes containing ice most of the year.
Valvasor wrote of this cave in 1689: "Near Rosseck immediately back
of the castle there opens a mighty cavern entirely in stony rock, and
yawns in the shape of a cauldron down into the earth. Above as wide as
a good rifle shot, but below quite narrow. And there underneath there
are many holes where the ice remains through the whole summer. From
such ice have Duke Frederick Graf and Duke von Gallenberg daily made
use in summer to cool their wine. Six years ago I descended there in
the month of August, and found ice enough in all the holes."
In the same volume Freiherr Valvasor elaborates his remarks about this
cave and that at Latzenberg, repeating in the main the observations
in the paragraph just given. He says: "There hang also long icicles
which are quite pleasant to look at. * * * This ice breaks all too
easily and quickly. * * * Contrarywise, however, this ice lasts much
longer in the sun and the heat than other ice. * * * Some might think
it would eventually turn into stone: this, however, does not happen:
for it remains only in summer and disappears in winter: as I can say
for certain, as I have been in myself in the winter as well as in the
summer time. * * * For as in the summer the floor is quite covered with
ice: it makes walking so dangerous and bad that one cannot take a step
without climbing irons; but in the winter time one goes safely and
well. * * *"
Freiherr Valvasor was evidently an accurate observer, and, if for his
word "winter" we substitute "autumn," his account will be much more
nearly correct than might have been expected two centuries ago.
The Kuntschner Eishöhle. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc.,
vol. VII., pages 65, 66.)--This is known also as the Töplitzer,
Unterwarmberger or Ainödter Grotto. It lies 2 kilometers from
Kuntschen, and 12 kilometers from Töplitz near Neustädtel, in the
Krain. Altitude about 630 meters. Petruzzi says: "Of all so far
noticed ice grottoes it is the most wonderful and splendid." In August
and September, 1849, the temperatures near the ice were about two
degrees above freezing. On the 16th of August, there were many long
ice stalagmites and stalactites; on the 29th of September they had
diminished materially. Petruzzi says also: "One leaves the abundant
vegetation of the Alpine summer flora, and through bushes and dwarf
underbrush, through bare and half moss covered rocks and débris,
through rotten and twisted tree stems, one comes to the hall of eternal
winter, where the microscopic mosses of the north surround the thousand
year old stalactites, hanging from the dripping vault, with an always
passing, always freshly forming, tender sulphur colored down." Dr.
Schwalbe has also examined this cave.
The Friedrichsteiner or Gottscheer Eishöhle.--Described in Part I.,
page 51.
The Handler Eisloch.--7 kilometers south of Gottschee and about twenty
minutes from the village of Handlern, near Rieg. Altitude 596 meters.
Small cave. Professor Hans Satter of Gottschee told me he doubted
whether ice ever formed there now.
The Suchenreuther Eisloch.--Described in Part I., page 55.
Ledenica na Veliki Gori. (Petruzzi in Haidinger's _Berichte_, etc.,
vol. VII., page 67.)--In the Krain, 11 kilometers from Reifnitz, on the
Balastena Mountain. Altitude 1253 meters. Much ice was found there on
the 10th of July, 1834.
Mrzla Jama. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 34.)--On the Innerkrainer
Schneeberg, 13 kilometers from Laas.
Glacière Caves on the Kapella. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 39.)--On a
pass in the neighborhood of Piacenza. Altitude 800 meters.
Glacière Cave in West Bosnia. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_. page 39.)--West of
Kljuc, county Petrovac, district Smoljama, near village Trvanj. Called
Trvanj, also Ledenica. Altitude about 1000 meters, length 170 meters,
breadth from 4 meters to 30 meters.
Rtanj, Servia. (A. Boué, _La Turquie d'Europe_, 1840, vol. I., page
132; Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896, pages 72-74.)--This
glacière is on the south side of Siljak, near the village Muzinac. A
passage 60 meters long leads to a hall about 10 meters in height. Dr.
Boué found snow here in August, the thermometer standing below freezing
point. The people in the neighborhood told Dr. Boué that the snow is
formed in June and disappears in September and that it is sometimes
carried to Nisch. He also heard of similar cavities on the Bannat
Mountain. Dr. Cvijic observed in the hall a temperature of +0.4° C.
Ledena Pec, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896, pages
68, 69.)--On the Ledini Verh or Glacial Peak, at an altitude of 800
meters; distant one hour and a half from the village of Souvold. Length
of passage 108 meters; at entrance about 6 meters, at end about 15
meters in height. On the 10th of May, 1893, there was plenty of ice and
snow. Temperature of outside air +19° C.; inside air at rear +0.5° C.
Probably permanent glacière.
Dobra Ledenica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896,
page 70.)--West of Ledeno Brdo. Probably periodic glacière. On July
25th, 1890, the temperature of the outside air was +26° C.; of the
inside air +3.5°C. _Ledenica_ is the name for a glacière in Servia.
Ledenica in the Mala Brezovica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_,
vol. II., 1896, page 70.)--Length 43 meters. A large, permanent
glacière. On July 28th, 1890, the outside air was +23°: inside air +2°.
Ledenica Treme in the Souva Planina, Servia. (Cvijic, Dr. A.,
_Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896, page 71.)--Altitude 1600 meters to 1700
meters. A rather large, probably permanent glacière. Plenty of ice in
it on April 21st, 1894.
Zla Ledenica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896, page
72.)--On the Kucaj. A permanent glacière, 7 meters or 8 meters deep. On
July 25th, 1890, outside air +25°; inside air at snow +6°.
Glacière on the Devica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II.,
1896, page 74.)--Under the peak Lazurevica. Altitude 1000 meters. A
narrow passage leads to a hall 17 meters long by 12 meters wide and
20 meters high. On June 30th, 1893, there was plenty of snow in the
passage and ice in the hall.
Glacière Vlaska Pecura, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II.,
1896, page 74.)--On the Devica, under the Golemi Vech. A small periodic
glacière.
Glacière in the Zdrebica, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II.,
1896, page 74.)--On the southeast side of the Souva Planina, near the
village Veliki Krtchimir. A small periodic glacière. On April 20th,
1874, plenty of snow and ice.
Glacière Stoykova, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_, vol. II., 1896,
pages 75, 76.)--On the Kucaj. A large pit cave with a total depth of 23
meters. Probably a permanent glacière. On July 21st, 1890, plenty of
ice and snow. Outside air +21°; inside air in hall +0.5°.
Glacière on the Topiznica Mountain, Servia. (Dr. A. Cvijic, _Spélunca_,
vol. II., 1896, page 76.)--Altitude 1100 meters. A large pit cave with
an extreme depth of 27 meters. In August, 1893, there was plenty of
snow and ice, and the inside temperature was +1°.
Glacière Cave near Borszék. (Bielz, _Siebenbürgen_, 1885, page
334.)--About an hour distant from the baths, in broken limestone. It
seems to be a rock fissure, at the end of which ice is found till
towards the middle of July.
Glacière Cave near Sonkolyos in the Korös Valley. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_,
page 51.)--Small cave.
Glacière near Zapodia. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 50.)--Near Petrosc in
the Bihar Mountains. Altitude 1140 meters; length 20 meters, width 7
meters.
Pescerca la Jesere. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 50.)--Between Vervul la
Belegiana and the Batrina in the Bihar Mountains. Small freezing cave.
Glacière Cave near Verespatak, in Transylvania. (Bielz, _Siebenbürgen_,
page 52.)--Small cave.
Gietariu near Funacza. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 50.)--In the Bihar
Mountains. Small glacière cave.
Cave of Skerizora. (Karl F. Peters, _Sitzungsbericht der K. K.
Akademie der Wissenchaften_, Wien, vol. XLIII., 1861, page 437; Bielz,
_Siebenbürgen_, 1885, page 37.)--This is one of the greatest glacière
caves known. It lies in the Bihar Mountains, three hours from the
village of Ober-Girda, which can be reached from Gyula Fehérvar, via
Topánfalva. It is a pit cave, in limestone, at an altitude of 1127
meters. The pit is about 57 meters broad, and 45 meters deep, with
exceedingly steep walls. The entrance is in the northeast wall and
is about 10 meters high. This leads into a nearly circular hall 47
meters in diameter and about 20 meters high. The floor is ice. In the
southeast corner is a hole over 75 meters deep. In the northwest wall
is an opening 14 meters wide, which forms the beginning of a sort of
gallery 54 meters long and which at its further end is 24 meters wide
and 8 meters high. This is also covered with a flooring of ice, which
in some places can only be descended by step cutting. This passage
is also richly adorned with ice stalactites and stalagmites. At its
end is another also nearly circular hall, 21 meters in diameter and
about 22 meters high. This is called the '_Beszerika_' or church. In
one place there is a magnificent collection of ice stalagmites called
the "Altar." Peters found in dirt on the sides of the cave remains
of bats not very different from those now living in the vicinity. He
thinks the bats may have come there before the cave became a glacière;
or else that they may even now sometimes get into the first hall and
there perish from cold. This makes it uncertain, therefore, whether the
remains can be considered as of the past or the present.
Eishöhle bei Roth.--Described in Part I., page 35.
Mines on the Eisenberg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 59.)--These lie near
Blankenburg in the Thüringer Wald and have been known to contain ice.
The Ziegenloch or Grosses Kalte Loch, and the Kleines Kalte Loch.
(Behrens, _Hercynia Curiosa_, pages 68, 70.)--These lie near
Questenberg in the Southern Harz Mountains, at an altitude of about 300
meters. The Grosses Loch is described as a sort of small pit some 8
meters deep, in one side of which opens a small fissure some 10 meters
long. Ice has been found in this in April; Schwalbe found none there in
July. The Kleines Loch was another small cold cave near the Ziegenloch,
but it has been filled up. Behrens says that the dampness at the cave
at Questenberg is precipitated as snow.
Holes with Ice near Sanct Blasien. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 109.)--In
the Black Forest, among boulders at an altitude of 820 meters.
Holes with Ice near Hochenschwand. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 109.)--In
the Black Forest, among boulders at an altitude of 820 meters.
Eisstollen and Eiskeller at the Dornburg. Described in Part I., page
59. (Poggendorff's _Annalen der Physik und Chemie, Ergänzungsband_,
1842, pages 517-519.)--Ice appears to have been discovered at the
Dornburg in June, 1839. It was found from a depth of 60 centimeters
down to 8 meters. The width of the ice-bearing talus was from 12
meters to 15 meters; and it is said that it becomes wider in winter and
narrower in summer.
Beschertgluck Mine, Freiberg District. (Prestwich, _Collected papers_,
etc., page 206.)--Mr. Prestwich quotes Daubuisson as having seen the
shaft of the mine lined with ice to a depth of 80 toises (144 meters?).
Ice in the Zinc Mines on the Sauberg. (Reich, _Beobachtungen über die
Temperatur des Gesteines_, 1834, pages 175 and 205.)--These are near
Ehrenfriedersdorf in Saxony and formerly contained ice in winter. They
are reported now to be destroyed.
The Garische Stollen. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_, etc., page 3.)--Near
Ehrenfriedersdorf in the Freiwald. Lohman found much ice in this in
January, less in March, and scarcely any in May.
The Ritterhöhle. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_, page 5.)--Near
Ehrenfriedersdorf in the Freiwald. Small ice deposit. The rock is
granite.
The Stulpnerhöhle. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_, page 6.)--Near the
Ritterhöhle. Small ice deposit in granite rock.
Eisloch and Eishöhle near Geyer in Saxony. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_,
page 7.)--These are in a place called die Binge. Both are small.
The Alte Thiele. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_, page 8.)--Near Buchholz in
Saxony. Small ice deposit.
Mine Pits in the Saxon Erzgebirge. (Reich, _Beobachtungen über die
Temperatur des Gesteines_, 1834.)--Extremely low temperatures have been
found in several of these pits:--
In the Churprinz Friedrich August Erbstollen near Freiberg.
In the Heinrichs-Sohle in the Stockwerk near Altenberg.
In the Henneberg Stollen, on the Ingelbach, near Johanngeorgenstadt.
In the Weiss-Adler-Stollen, on the left declivity of the valley of the
Schwarzwasser, above the Antonshütte.
Holes Holding Ice on the Saalberg. (_Annalen der Physik und Chemie_,
1850, LXXXI., page 579.)--These lie between Saalberg and the Burgk. Ice
is found here on the surface from June to the middle of August. From
the observations of Professor Hartenstein, Fugger deduces that this
place must be the lower end of one or more windholes.
Millstone Quarry of Niedermendig. (M. A. Pictet, _Mémoires de la
Société d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève_, 1821, vol. I., page 151.)--On
the Niederrhein. There are many connecting pits and galleries here, in
which ice has been found in the hottest days of summer as well as in
March. The abandoned shafts are utilized as beer cellars.
Eisgrube on the Umpfen. (Voigt, _Mineralogische Reisen durch das
Herzogthum Weimar_, 1785, vol. II., page 123.)--In the Rhöngebirge,
twenty minutes from Kaltennordheim, are some irregular masses of
columnar basalt, at an altitude of about 500 meters, among which
abundant ice has been found up to late in the summer.
Cave near Muggendorf, Franconia.--The landlord of the Kurhaus Hotel at
Muggendorf, told me that there was a small cave in the vicinity where
there was ice in the winter and spring, but that it all melted away
before August.
Cave on the Dürrberg. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 59.)--Near Zwickau in
Bohemia. Small cave which sometimes contains ice.
The Schneebinge. (Lohman, _Das Höhleneis_, page 11.)--Near Platten in
Bohemia. A small ice deposit in an old mine.
Ice among Basaltic Rocks on the Pleschiwitz. (Pleischl, in
Poggendorff's _Annalen der Physik und Chemie_, vol. LIV., 1841,
pages 292-299.)--Above Kameik near Leitmeritz in Bohemia. Professor
Pleischl, in May, 1834, found ice under the rocks a little distance
from the surface. The surface of the rocks was then warm. On the 21st
of January, 1838, Professor Pleischl found snow on the outside of
the rocks, but no ice underneath. He was assured by the people of the
district that the hotter the summer, the more ice is found.
Glacière on the Zinkenstein. (Pleischl, in Poggendorff's _Annalen der
Physik und Chemie_, vol. LIV., 1841, page 299).--The Zinkenstein is one
of the highest points of the Vierzehnberge, in the Leitmeritz Kreis.
There is a deep cleft in basalt, where ice has been found in summer.
Eislöcher on the Steinberg. (Pleischl, in Poggendorffs _Annalen der
Physik und Chemie_, vol. LIV., 1841, page 299.)--In the Herrschaft
Konoged. Small basalt talus where ice is found in the hottest weather.
Windholes in Bohemia. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 109.)--In the
neighborhood of Leitmeritz. These are in basaltic rock. Ice sometimes
forms at the lower extremity. The most notable are--
On the Steinberg near Mertendorf on the Triebschbach;
On the Kelchberg near Triebsch;
On the Kreuzberg near Leitmeritz;
On the Rodersberg near Schlackenwerth;
In the Grossen Loch near Tschersink.
Ice in a Pit near Neusohl. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 109.)
The Frainer Eisleithen. Described in Part I., page 33. (Fugger,
_Eishöhlen_, page 163.) Professor Fugger quotes the following
observations by Forester Wachtl at Frain:--
1861. 1862.
January -7° to -2° -5°
February -2° to 0° -5° to -2°
March 0° to +1° -1° to 0°
April +1° to +2° 0°
May +2° +2° to +5°
June +2° to +3° +3° to +6°
July +3° +3° to +5°
August +3° to +7° +5°
September +7° to +6° +3° to +6°
October +6° +5°
November -- +5°
December -1° to -3° 0° to -2°
Démenyfálva Jegbarlang. Described in Part I., page 24.
Dóbsina Jegbarlang. Described in Part I., page 13. (Pelech; _The Valley
of Stracena and the Dobschau Ice Cavern_; Schwalbe, _Über Eishöhlen und
Eislöcher_, page 31.)--Pelech gives the following measurements: The
Grosser Saal is 120 meters long, 35 meters to 60 meters wide, and 10
meters to 11 meters high, with a surface area of 4644 square meters.
The ice mass is estimated as 125,000 cubic meters in volume. The length
of the Korridor is 200 meters; the left wing being 80 meters, and the
right wing 120 meters long. The cave was first entered on July 15th,
1870, by Herr Eugene Ruffiny, of Dóbsina, and some friends. He had
happened to fire a gun in front of it, and hearing a continuous muffled
rolling echo within, determined to explore it.
Dr. Schwalbe quotes the following series of observations in Dóbsina
during the year 1881:
DEEPEST POINT FROM KORRIDOR
ENTRANCE. GROSSER SAAL. OF KORRIDOR. TO KLEINEN SAAL.
January -2.2° -4.2° -2.2° -0.6°
February -1.2° -3.4° -1.9° -0.3°
March -1.4° -2.1° -0.9° -0.2°
April -0.25° -1.25° -0.7° +0.3°
May +0.7° +0.9° -0.5° +0.5°
June +1.0° +1.5° -0.5° +0.5°
July +1.8° +2.1° +0.2° +1.1°
August +3.4° +3.8° +0.24° +0.80
September +2.00 +2.3° -0.3° -0.15°
October -0.2° +0.2° -0.5° -0.2°
November -1.3° -1.9° -0.6° -0.3°
December -2.2° -3.2° -0.65° -1.75°
------ ------ ------ ------
Year +0.04° -0.44° -0.69° -0.02°
The Philadelphia _Evening Bulletin_, March, 1st, 1899, printed the
following note about Dóbsina: "In this cave, some sixteen years ago,
a couple named Kolcsey elected to pass the week immediately following
their marriage. They took with them a plentiful supply of rugs,
blankets and warm clothing, but notwithstanding all precautions,
their experience was not of a sufficiently pleasant nature to tempt
imitators."
Lednica of Szilize. (M. Bel, _Philosophical Transactions_, London,
1739, vol. XLI., page 41 _et seq._; Townson, _Travels in Hungary_,
1797; Terlanday, _Petermann's Mittheilungen_, 1893, page 283.)--It lies
1.5 kilometers from the village of Szilize, near Rosenau, in Gomör
County, in the Carpathians, at an altitude of 460 meters. A pit about
35 meters deep, 75 meters long, and 48 meters wide opens in the ground,
and at the southern end, in the perpendicular wall, is the cave. The
entrance is 22 meters wide, 15 meters high, and faces north. A slope 4
meters long sinks with an angle of 35° to the floor of the cave, which
is nearly circular in form, with a diameter of about 10 meters. On
the east side of the cave there seems to be a hole in the ice some 10
meters deep.
In 1739, there was published in London a curious letter in Latin from
Matthias Bel, a Hungarian _savant_, about the cavern of Szilize. He
says: "The nature of the cave has this of remarkable, that, when
outside the winter freezes strongest, inside the air is balmy: but it
is cold, even icy, when the sun shines warmest. As soon as the snow
melts and spring begins, the inner roof of the cave, where the midday
sun strikes the outside, begins to sweat clear water, which drops
down here and there; through the power of the inner cold it turns to
transparent ice and forms icicles, which in thickness equal large
barrels and take wonderful shapes. What as water drops from the icicles
to the sandy floor, freezes up, even quicker, than one would think.
"The icy nature of the cave lasts through the whole summer, and what
is most remarkable, it increases with the increasing heat of the sun.
In the beginning of the spring the soft winter's warmth begins to give
way soon thereafter, and when spring is more advanced, the cold sets
in, and in such a manner, that the warmer does the (outside) air
grow, the more does the cave cool off. And when the summer has begun
and the dog days glow, everything within goes into icy winter. Then do
the drops of water pouring from the roof of the cave change into ice,
and with such rapidity that where to-day delicate icicles are visible,
to-morrow masses and lumps, which fall to the ground, appear. Here
and there, where the water drips down the walls of the cave, one sees
wonderful incrustations, like an artificial carpeting. The rest of the
water remains hanging on the ice, according to the warmth of the day.
For when for a longer time it is warmer, the ice of the stalactites,
of the walls and of the floor increases; but when the ruling heat, as
sometimes happens, is diminished through north winds or rainstorm,
the waters freeze more slowly, the ice drips more fully and begins to
form little brooklets. When however the temperature gets warmer, the
icy nature of the cave begins once more. Some have observed, that the
nature of the grotto receives the changes of temperature ahead, like a
barometer. For, when a warmer temperature sets in outside, the waters
change into ice, several hours before the heat sets in, while the
opposite takes place, when by day the temperature is colder; for then
even by the warmest sky the ice begins to melt noticeably.
"When the dog days have passed and the summer has already changed
into fall, the cave with its own nature follows the conditions of the
external air. In the early months and while the nights are growing
colder, the ice diminishes visibly; then when the air cools off more
and more and when the brooks and side are rigid with frost, it begins
to melt as though there was a fire built underneath, until, when winter
reigns, it is entirely dry in the cave, without a sign of ice being
left behind. Then gentle warmth spreads into the entire cave, and this
icy grave becomes a safety resort for insects and other small animals,
which bear the winter with difficulty. But besides swarms of flies and
gnats, troops of bats and scores of owls, hares and foxes take up their
abode here, until with the beginning of spring, the cave once more
assumes its icy appearance."
These assertions of Bel are the most inaccurate ones made about
glacières. Yet, strange to say, they have colored the literature of
the subject down to our own times; and have been repeated many times,
sometimes with, sometimes without, the hares and foxes; the latest
repetition seeming to occur in 1883.
Cave near the Village of Borzova, Torna County, Carpathians. (Fugger,
_Eishöhlen_, page 52.)--Reported to contain ice, but nothing certainly
known.
CRIMEA.
Ledianaia Yama. (Montpeyreux, _Voyage autour du Caucase_ V., page 440;
Hablizl, _Description physique de la Tauride_, 1783, pages 43-45.)--On
the Karabi-Yaïla, 32 kilometers southwest of Karasubazar. Altitude
about 1800 meters. A fairly large pit glacière cave. The name means an
abyss of ice.
Glacière Cave on the Yaïla of Oulouzène at Kazauté. (Montpeyreux,
_Voyage autour du Caucase_, II., page 380.)--A small pit cave.
CAUCASUS.
Glacière Cave in the Khotevi Valley. (Montpeyreux, _Voyage autour
du Caucase_, II., page 379.)--In the province of Radscha, near the
Monastery Nikortsminda. A large pit cave which must be of the same
order as that of Chaux-les-Passavant and from which the inhabitants of
Koutaïs get ice.
Glacières near Koutaïs. (E. A. Martel, _Les Abimes_, page 397.)--"Dr.
A. Sakharov, it appears, has recently discovered in the government of
Koutaïs caves containing ice."
Cave of Sabazwinda. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 126.)--Near the town of
Zorchinwall, on the river Liachwa, province of Gori, in Georgia, near
the Ossete Mountains. Ice has been found in the cave in summer. In
December there was none.
URAL.
Glacière Cave near Sukepwa. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 63.)--On the
Volga, province of Zlatoust. Small cave on the river bank.
Glacière Cave on the Tirmen Tau. (Lepechin, _Tagebuch der Reise_, etc.,
vol. II., page 28.)--Near the village of Chaszina, 160 kilometers from
Orenburg. Small cave.
Glacière Cave of Kurmanajeva. (Lepechin, _Tagebuch der Reise_, etc.,
vol. II., page 5.)--Near Kurmanajeva, a village 49 kilometers from
Tabinsk, in the Government of Orenburg. A large cave. Lepechin found
ice in one part of the cave and deep water in another. There were
draughts in some places.
Cave on the Baislan Tasch. (Lepechin, _Tagebuch der Reise_, etc., II.,
page 40.)--The Baislan Tasch is a mountain on the right bank of the
Bielaja River, which flows into the Kama. There is a large cave in the
mountain in which ice has been found.
Cave on the Muinak Tasch. (Lepechin, _Tagebuch der Reise_, etc., II.,
page 38.)--The Muinak Tasch is a mountain on the Bielaja River. There
is a large cave in it, in which a little ice has been found.
Cave of Kungur. (Lepechin, _Tagebuch der Reise_, etc., II., page 137;
Rosenmüller and Tilesius, I., page 79.)--The Cavern of Kungur is near
the town of Kungur in the Government of Perm. There are in it many
passages and grottoes connecting with one another, some of which
contain ice. It is a fine, large cave, whose greatest length is 400
meters.
Mines of Kirobinskoy. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 65.)--These mines are
53 kilometers southeast of Miask in the Ural; they have been abandoned.
One of them contains ice all the year round.
Caves of Illetzkaya-Zatschita. (Murchison, Vernieul and Keyserling,
_The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains_, 1845, vol.
I., page 186.)--72 kilometers southeast from Orenburg. The caves are in
the Kraoulnaïgora, a gypsum hillock 36 meters high, rising in the midst
of an undulating steppe, which lies on a vast bed of rock salt. Only
one of the caves contains ice. There are strong draughts in places.
SIBERIA.
Cave near the Fortress Kitschigina. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--A
small cave, 17 kilometers east of Kajilskoi, 192 kilometers from
Petropaulowsk, 605 kilometers from Tobolsk. The cave is in an open
plain, and sometimes contains ice.
Wrechneja Petschera. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--Near the village
Birjusinska, in the neighborhood of Krasnojarsk, on the right bank of
the Yenisei. Large glacière cave.
Glacière Cave of Balagansk. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--A narrow
cleft, 80 meters long; 192 kilometers downstream from Irkutsk on the
left bank of the Angora River; at a distance of 2 kilometers from the
river.
Glacière Cave on the Onon River. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--A
small cave; 48 kilometers from the Borsja Mountain.
Mines of Siranowsk. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 126.)--In the Altai
Mountains, on the Buchtorma River, an affluent of the Irtysch.
Magnificent ice formations have been found in these mines.
Mines of Seventui. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 126.)--Near Nertschinsk,
on the Amoor River. Two of the levels contain perennial ice and hence
are called _Ledenoi_. These are at a depth of about 60 meters in porous
lava. The rest of the mine is in more solid rock.
Glacière Cave near Lurgikan. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 67.)--Near
the confluence of the Lurgikan and Schilka Rivers, in the province
Nertschinsk. From 2 meters to 7 meters wide. Length 280 meters.
Basins or Troughs Retaining Ice. (Dittmar, _Ueber die Eismülden im
Östlichen Siberien_; Middendorff, _Zusatz_; _Bulletin de la classe
physico-mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.
Pétersbourg_, 1853, vol. XI., pages 305-316.)--These troughs are nearly
akin to gorges and gullies, but their water supply seems to come
from a cause which is not usually present in gorges. Their principal
observer, M. de Dittmar, thought that a cold and snowy winter would add
materially to the supply of ice, but he also thought that a necessity
to the existence of the ice in these troughs was an abundant water
supply from a spring, whose temperature should be so high as not to
freeze in winter. The cold is supplied by the winter temperatures.
Some of the most important are reported--
In the Turachtach Valley.
Near Kapitanskji Sasiek.
In the valley of the River Belvi.
In the valley of the River Antscha.
In the Kintschen Valley.
In the neighborhood of Kolymsk.
In the Werchojanski Mountains.
In the Stanowáj Mountains.
KONDOOZ.
Cave of Yeermallik. (Burslem, _A peep into Toorkisthan_, 1846, chaps.
X., XI.)--In the valley of the Doaub, northwest of Kabul. The entrance
is half way up a hill, and is about 15 meters wide and 15 meters high.
This is a large cave, with many ramifications and galleries. In the
centre of a hall far within, Captain Burslem found a mass of clear ice,
smooth and polished as a mirror, and in the form of a beehive, with its
dome-shaped top just touching the long icicles which depended from the
jagged surface of the rock. A small aperture led into the interior of
this cone, whose walls were about 60 centimeters thick and which was
divided into several compartments. Some distance from the entrance of
this cave there is a perpendicular drop of 5 meters. A short distance
beyond this, in one of the halls, were hundreds of skeletons of men,
women and children, in a perfectly undisturbed state, also the prints
of a naked human foot and the distinct marks of the pointed heel of an
Afghan boot. The moollah, who was acting as guide, said the skeletons
were the remains of seven hundred men of the Huzareh tribe who took
refuge in the cave with their wives and children during the invasion of
Genghis Khan, and who defended themselves so stoutly, that after trying
in vain to smoke them out, the invader built them in with huge natural
blocks of stone, and left them to die of hunger. Some of the Afghans
said that the cave was inhabited by Sheitan, a possibility denied by
the moollah who guided Captain Burslem, on the philosophical plea that
the cave was too cold for such an inhabitant.
HIMÁLAYA.
Glacière Cave of Amarnath. (Miss Mary Coxe of Philadelphia showed me
a copy of a letter of Dr. Wilhelmine Eger describing a visit to this
cave.)--It lies three days' journey from Pailgam in Kashmere, on the
borders of Little Tibet. The altitude is evidently high as one crosses
snow fields to get to it. A small path zigzagging up a grassy slope
leads to the cave and is a stiff climb from the valley. The cave opens
on the side of a mountain and has a large, almost square mouth at
least as big as the floor area within. The floor of the cave is the
continuation of the grass slope and slants upwards and backwards to the
back wall, the only case of the kind so far reported. This cave is most
curiously connected with religion. Dr. Eger says that there are two
small blocks of ice in it which never melt. From time immemorial these
blocks of ice have been sacred to the Hindoos who worship them--as
re-incarnations--under the names of Shiva and Ganesh. Dr. Eger saw
offerings of rice and flowers on them. Thousands of pilgrims come every
year at the end of July or beginning of August from all parts of India.
Thousands of miles have been traversed and hundreds of lives laid down
through this journey. Every year people die either before reaching
the cave or after. The trip from Pailgam in Kashmere takes three days
up and two days down, if one returns by a shorter route where the way
is unsafe because of avalanches. So many have perished there that the
pass is called "The Way of Death." This must be taken by one class of
pilgrims, _Sardhas_ or Holy Men, to complete the sacred circuit, but
the Hindoos say any one dying on the pass will go straight to heaven.
Icicles Formed by Radiation. (General Sir Richard Strachey,
_Geographical Journal_, 1900, vol. XV., page 168.)--On the Balch pass
of the Balch range in Tibet, General Strachey, in 1848, saw icicles of
which he says: "On the rocks exposed to the south were very curious
incrustations of ice, icicles indeed, but standing out horizontally
like fingers towards the wind. I was not able to understand how they
were caused, nor can I tell why they were confined to particular spots.
The thermometer stood at 41°[F.], and though the dew point at the
time would probably have been below 32°[F.], and the cold produced by
evaporation sufficient therefore to freeze water, yet it is evident
that no condensation could ever take place simultaneously with the
evaporation. * * * It has since occurred to me that these icicles were
formed by radiation. I found, subsequently, in a somewhat similar
position, that a thermometer suspended vertically, and simply exposed
to the sky in front of it, was depressed as much as 20° F. below the
true temperature of the surrounding air. This result was, of course,
due to the radiation through the extremely dry and rarefied atmosphere
at the great elevation at which the thermometer was exposed. As
radiation takes place freely from a surface of ice, the growth of such
icicles as those described might be due to the condensation of vapour
brought up by the southerly day winds that so constantly blow over
these passes, and its accumulation in the form of ice on the exposed
extremity of the icicle, the temperature of which might thus have been
greatly reduced."
INDIA.
Ice Formed by Radiation. (T. A. Wise, _Nature_, vol. V., page 189; R.
H. Scott, _Elementary Meteorology_, Third Ed., pages 61, 62.)--Mr.
Bunford Samuel called my attention to the mode of manufacturing ice by
radiation in India. It is as follows:--
"A very practical use of nocturnal radiation has been made from time
immemorial in India in the preparation of ice, and on such a scale that
about 10 tons of ice can be procured in a single night from twenty
beds of the dimensions about to be given, when the temperature of the
air is 15° or 20° [F.] above the freezing point. * * * The locality
referred to is the immediate neighborhood of Calcutta. A rectangular
piece of ground is marked out, lying east and west, and measuring 120
by 20 feet. This is excavated to the depth of two feet and filled with
rice straw rather loosely laid, to within six inches of the surface of
the ground. The ice is formed in shallow dishes of porous earthenware,
and the amount of water placed in each is regulated by the amount of
ice expected.
"In the cold weather, when the temperature of the air at the ice fields
is under 50°, ice is formed in the dishes. The freezing is most active
with N. N. W. airs, as these are driest; it ceases entirely with
southerly or easterly airs, even though their temperature may be lower
than that of the N. N. W. wind.
"No ice is formed if the wind is sufficiently strong to be called a
breeze, for the air is not left long enough at rest, above the bed, for
its temperature to fall sufficiently, by the action of radiation.
"The rice straw, being kept loose and perfectly dry, cuts off the
access of heat from the surface of the ground below it, and, when the
sun goes down, the straw being a powerful radiator, the temperature
of the air in contact with the dishes is reduced some 20° below that
prevailing some two or three feet above them. The rapid evaporation of
the water into the dry air above creates also an active demand for heat
to be rendered latent in the formation of steam, and the result of all
these agencies is the formation of ice, under favorable circumstances,
on the extensive scale above mentioned."
KOREA.
Glacière Cave on the Han Gang.--Messrs. J. Edward Farnum and George
L. Farnum, of Philadelphia, inform me that they saw a small cave
containing ice on the banks of one of the Korean rivers. It is about
75 kilometers from Seoul, nearly northeast, near the ferry where the
old road leading from Seoul towards northern Korea crosses the Han
Gang, the river which passes by Seoul. The entrance is small; perhaps
2 meters wide. The cave is not thoroughly explored. Ice lies near the
entrance, and as far back as the Messrs. Farnum could see.
JAPAN.
Glacière Lava Cave near Shoji. (_Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia,
January 2d, 1896._)--The cave is about 12 kilometers from Shoji, and is
in lava. First there is a pit in the forest, some 5 meters wide by 15
meters deep. The cave opens into this. It seems to be some 400 meters
long and from 2 meters to 12 meters high. There is an ice floor in
places, also many ice stalagmites. At the furthest point reached there
is a strong air current, which extinguishes torches and so far has
prevented further exploration. Ice from the cave has been cut by the
country people for sale at Kofu, which is not far distant.
PART IV.
SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIÈRES.
SOME OPINIONS ABOUT GLACIÈRES.
Benigne Poissenot, in 1586, hinted that the cold of winter produced the
ice at Chaux-les-Passavant.[69]
[69] See Part III.: page 193.
Reichard Strein and Christoph Schallenberger visited the caves on the
Ötscher in 1591.[70]
[70] See Part III.: page 231.
Gollut, in 1592, suggested the cold of winter as the cause of the ice
at Chaux-les-Passavant.[71]
[71] See Part III.: page 202.
In the _Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences_, 1686, Tome
II., pages 2, 3, there is an account, with no author's name, of
Chaux-les-Passavant. The memoir states that in winter the cave is
filled with thick vapors and that after some trees were cut down near
the entrance, the ice was less abundant than formerly: that people
come for ice with carts and mules, but that the ice does not become
exhausted, for one day of great heat forms more ice than could be
carried away in eight days in carts and wagons: and that when a fog
forms in the cave, there is assuredly rain the following day, and that
the peasants in the neighborhood consult this curious "almanac" to know
the weather which is coming.
Freiherr Valvasor, in 1689, wrote about some of the glacières of the
Krain.[72]
[72] See Part III.: pages 238, 239.
Behrens, in 1703, thought it was colder in summer than in winter in the
caves near Questenberg in the Harz.
M. de Billerez, in 1712, writes that at Chaux-les-Passavant it is
really colder in summer than in winter; and that the ice is harder than
river ice, and this he thinks is due to the presence of a nitrous or
ammoniacal salt, which he says he found in the rocks.
M. de Boz made four trips to Chaux-les-Passavant on the 15th of May
and 8th of November, 1725; and the 8th of March and 20th of August,
1726. His memoir says that his observations tend to disprove those
of M. de Billerez, and that "the cause for the great cold, which is
less great in summer, although always remaining, is quite natural."
He cites as causes for the ice the exposure to the north-north-east;
the rock portal sheltering the entrance, and all the forest covering
the surrounding lands; and adds that some veracious persons told him
that since some of the big trees above the grotto had been cut down
there was less ice than before. He found no traces of salt, nor any
springs, and that the water supply came from the rains and melted snows
filtering through the ground.
In 1739, Matthias Bel published his curious account of Szilize.[73]
[73] See Part III.: page 254.
J. N. Nagel, a Vienna mathematician, visited the Ötscher in 1747. He
concluded that the ice was made in winter and preserved in summer as in
an ice house.
M. de Cossigny wrote, in 1750, about Chaux-les-Passavant. He made
a plan of the cave and took many observations in April, August and
October, and concluded that the interior condition of the cave does not
change noticeably from winter to summer, no matter what the external
conditions of temperature may be; that what people say of greater cold
in summer, vanishes before actual experience and that, as a state
of freezing reigns more or less continuously in the cave, it is not
surprising if the ice accumulates. Apparently he was the first to
notice and insist on the necessity of drainage to the cave through
cracks in the rocks. He also made a series of observations disproving
those of M. de Billerez, as to the presence of any kinds of salts in
the rocks or ice.
Hacquet, in 1778, thought that the ice in the cave at Lazhna-gora
formed in winter, but he also thought that there must undoubtedly be
some salt in the water. He says he found ice in the cave in the spring,
and that his companion, a priest, had never found any in winter. He
therefore concluded that by that time it had all melted.
Romain Joly, in 1779, claims to have visited Chaux-les-Passavant on the
19th of September (year not given). His account seems largely borrowed
from the one in the _Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences_, in
1686. He says: "This ice is formed by the drops of water which fall
from the roof, and which freeze because of the chill of the cave.
In the winter there is no ice, but running water." He says nothing,
however, about the ice forming in summer.
The _Citoyen_ Girod-Chantrans visited Chaux-les-Passavant in August,
1783, and reached the conclusion, from all he saw and heard, that the
cave did not freeze in summer nor thaw in winter, and that it was
really a natural ice house. He was aided by the notes of a neighboring
physician, Dr. Oudot, who had made observations in the cave, and among
others, had placed stakes of wood, on the 8th of January, 1779, in
the heads of the columns he had found in the cave; and on the 22d of
February, 1780, had found these stakes completely covered with ice,
forming columns 30 centimeters in diameter.
Hablizl, in 1788, wrote that the ice in the cave near Karassoubazar
formed in the spring by the snows which melt, run into the cave, and
refreeze. He also thought that there was less ice there in the fall
than in the spring, that it diminishes in July and August, and that the
idea, current in the neighborhood, of the formation of ice in summer,
is a mistake.
Professor Pierre Prévost, in 1789, gave an accurate explanation of
the formation of the ice in Chaux-les-Passavant. He says: "Weighing
carefully the local circumstances, one discovers in truth a few causes
of permanent cold. But these causes seem rather suited to keep up a
great freshness or to diminish the heat of summer, than to produce a
cold such as that which reigns in the cavern. First of all, big trees
throw shade over the entrance; it is, I was told, forbidden under
severe penalties to cut down any of them, for fear of depriving the
grotto of a necessary shelter. In the second place, this entrance is
situated almost due north, leaning a little to the east, which is the
coolest exposure one can choose, and the one most suited to help the
effect of the icy winds which blow from that quarter. Finally the slope
is steep and the grotto deep and covered with a thick vault. These
three conditions united constitute, as it seems to me, a very good _ice
house_; by which I mean a reservoir fit to preserve during the summer,
the ice which may bank up in winter.
"But how does this ice bank up? One knows that the outside waters
above form on the roof, during the winter, long drops and stalactites
of ice. These icicles, which hang down and increase constantly by the
drip from the same source which formed them, fall at last, carried away
by their own weight, and form so many centres, around which freeze
the waters with which the floor of the grotto is always inundated. At
the same time, the blowing of the north wind accumulates snow at the
base of the slope, which is uncovered in part and exposed above to all
the vicissitudes of the weather. Thus during the winter is formed an
irregular heap of ice and snow, which the first heats of spring begin
to make run, but which the heats of summer cannot finish dissolving.
The winter following has therefore even more facility to augment the
mass of these ice pyramids, which have resisted until the fall. And if
men did not work at diminishing it, it might happen that it would fill
the entire cavern at last to a great height.
"I am therefore strongly inclined to think that the process of nature
is here precisely similar to that of art; that without any especial
cause of cold, the natural glacière of Besançon conserves in the
moderate temperature of deep caverns, the heaps of snow and ice which
the winds and the outside waters accumulate there during the winter;
and that the melting of these snows and of these accumulated ices
forms little by little the ice floor, scattered over with blocks and
pyramids, which one observes there during the summer."
Horace Bénédict de Saussure, the great Swiss scientist and mountaineer,
in 1796, published a number of observations about cold current caves
in various parts of the Alps. He found that in summer the air blows
outward at the lower end, and that in winter it draws inward. His
explanation is that in summer the colder air in the tube is heavier
than the outside air and displaces it by gravity; while in winter the
rupture takes place in the other direction, since the column within the
tube is warmer than the outside air and therefore is pushed upwards by
the heavy air flowing in. He concludes that evaporation due to the air
passing internally over moist rocks suffices to explain the phenomenon
of low temperatures and that such caves have a rather lower temperature
in the Alps than in Italy owing to the greater natural cold of the
Swiss lake region. An experiment of his is worth mentioning. He passed
a current of air through a glass tube, 2.5 centimeters in diameter,
filled with moistened stones, and found that the air current which
entered with a temperature of 22.5° came out with a temperature of
18.75°, that is with a loss of 3.75° of heat.
Robert Townson, LL.D., in 1797, published an account, perhaps the first
in English, of a glacière cave. He says of Szilize: "Ice I truly found
here in abundance, and it was mid-summer, but in a state of thaw; the
bed of ice, which covered the floor of the cavern was thinly covered
with water and everything announced a thaw. I had no need to use my
thermometer: however I placed it in the ice and it fell to 0° of
Réaumur: I then wiped it and placed it in a niche in the rock, at the
furthest part of the cavern, a yard above the ice and here it remained
near an hour: when I returned I found it at 0°. * * * Everything
therefore, ice, water and atmosphere in the neighborhood had the same
temperature, and that was the temperature of melting ice: 0° Réaumur.
"When then is the ice which is found here, and in such quantities
that this cavern serves the few opulent nobility in the neighborhood
as an ice house, formed? Surely in winter, though not by the first
frost, not so soon as ice is formed in the open air. No doubt, from
the little communication this cavern has with the atmosphere, it will
be but little and slowly affected by the change. Should therefore,
Mr. Bel, or any of his friends, have come here to verify the common
report at the commencement of a severe frost, when the whole country
was covered with ice and snow, they might still have found nothing here
but water, or the ice of the preceding winter in a state of thaw, and
the cavern relatively warm; and likewise, should they have visited it
in a warm spring, which had succeeded to a severe winter, they might
have found nothing here but frost and ice; and even the fresh melted
snow, percolating through the roof of this cavern, might again have
been congealed to ice. I observed frequently in Germany in the severe
winter of 1794-5, on a sudden thaw, that the walls of churches and
other public buildings, on the outside were white and covered with a
hoar frost, and the windows on the same side covered with a rime."
Dr. Franz Sartori, in 1809, was a strong believer in the summer ice
theory, and wrote of the flies and the gnats, the bats and the owls,
and the foxes and the hares coming to Szilize to winter.
Alexander von Humboldt, in 1814, says about the Cueva del Hielo on the
Peak of Teneriffe that so much snow and ice are stored up in winter
that the summer heat cannot melt it all, and also adds that permanent
snow in caves must depend more on the amount of winter snow, and the
freedom from hot winds, than on the absolute altitude of the cave.
Dewey, in 1819, thought that the ice in the Snow Glen at Williamstown
was a winter formation.
Professor M. A. Pictet visited Saint-Georges, Le Brezon and Montarquis
and in 1822 endeavored to prove that they are cold current caves and
that the ice in them is due entirely to draughts causing evaporation.
He believed in the theory of the ice forming in summer more than in
winter and that it could not be the residue of a winter deposit. He
therefore argued that it must be due to descending currents of air
which he thought would be most energetic in summer; that they would
become at least as low as the mean annual temperature of the place
and be still further cooled by evaporation. The strange thing about
his theories is that he does not seem to have personally observed any
draughts either at Saint-Georges or Le Brezon, but the fact that the
ice was evidently not an accumulation of winter snow led him to try to
reconcile what he had himself seen with de Saussure's theories about
windholes.
Jean André Deluc in 1822 published a paper discussing the theories of
MM. de Cossigny, Prévost and Pictet. Deluc had never visited a glacière
himself, but he explains clearly the impossibility of Professor
Pictet's cold current theory, on the simple ground that Professor
Pictet himself did not find any cold currents. He takes up Professor
Prévost's theories warmly; using also the manuscript notes of Mons.
Colladon who had visited the Grand Cave de Montarquis. Deluc says:
"that the winter's cold penetrates into these caves, freezes the water
which collects there and that the ice thus formed has not the time to
melt during the following summer." He says further: "It seems that in
the three glacières with which we have been occupied there is a flat
or rather hollow bottom, where the waters can form a more or less deep
pond, and whence they therefore cannot flow away; it is there they
flow in winter; and as these are shut in places where the air cannot
circulate, the heats of summer can only penetrate very feebly. The ice
once formed in such cavities, only melts slowly; for one knows that ice
in melting, absorbs 60° of heat; and where find this heat in an air
always very cold and nearly still? During a great cold, the ice forms
with great promptness, while it melts with much slowness, even when
the temperature of the air is several degrees above zero; what must
then not be this slowness when the temperature of the interior air only
rises in summer one degree above freezing point. It would need several
summers to melt this ice if it did not reform each winter."
C. A. Lee, in 1825, wrote that the ice in the Wolfshollow near
Salisbury was a winter formation.
G. Poulett Scrope, in 1826, accepted as the truth the statement that
the cave of Roth was filled with ice in summer, but that it was
warm during the winter. In 1827, he explained the presence of ice at
Pontgibaud as follows: "The water is apparently frozen by means of the
powerful evaporation produced by a current of very dry air issuing from
some long fissures or arched galleries which communicate with the cave,
and owing its dryness to the absorbent qualities of the lava through
which it passes."
F. Reich, in 1834, thought that there were two possible causes which
might produce subterranean ice: 1, the difference in specific gravity
between warm and cold air; 2, evaporation. He thought the cold air a
sufficient cause in most caves, but he considered that evaporation also
played a part not infrequently.
Professor Silliman, in 1839, gave the first hint, in the negative,
about compressed air as a cause for subterranean ice. He said about
Owego that if one could suppose that compressed gases or a compressed
atmosphere were escaping from the water or near it, this would indicate
a source of cold, but that as there is no indication of this in the
water, the explanation is unavailable.
Professor A. Pleischl wrote in 1841 that he was told that ice formed on
the Pleschiwetz and on the Steinberge in summer. Continuing, he says:
"The author is therefore, as well as for other reasons, of the opinion,
that the ice is not remaining winter ice, but a summer formation, and
one formed by the cold of evaporation. * * * The basalt is, as a thick
stone, a good conductor for the heat, and takes up therefore easily
the sun's warmth, but parts with it easily to other neighboring bodies.
In the hollows, between the basalt blocks, is found, as I already
mentioned, rotting moss, which forms a spongy mass, which is wet
through with water. The basalt heated by the sun's rays now causes a
part of the water in the spongy mass to vaporize; for this evaporation
the water needs heat, which it withdraws from the neighboring bodies
and in part from water, and makes the water so cold, that it freezes
into ice, as, under the bell of an air pump--Nature therefore makes
here a physical experiment on the largest scale."
Much stress appears to have been laid on the paper of Professor
Pleischl by Professor Krauss and one or two others. The weak point in
it is that Pleischl did not see the ice form in summer, but was only,
as usual, told that it did so. There is nothing in the facts given to
show that the places mentioned are different from any other taluses,
where ice does not form as the result of heat.
Mr. C. B. Hayden, in 1843, wrote about the Ice Mountain in Virginia,
and held that the porous nature of the rocks makes them poor conductors
of heat, and that the mountain is a huge sandstone refrigerator.
Dr. S. Pearl Lathrop, in 1844, wrote of the Ice Bed at Wallingford,
Vermont, as a great natural refrigerator.
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison wrote in 1845 about the salt mine and
freezing cave of Illetzkaya-Zatschita. He visited them during a hot
August, and was assured that the cold within is greatest when the
external air is hottest and driest; that the fall of rain and a moist
atmosphere produce some diminution in the cold of the cave and that on
the setting in of winter the ice disappears entirely. He accepted these
statements evidently only in a half hearted way, submitting them to
Sir John Herschel, who tried to explain them, in case they were true,
of which Herschel was likewise doubtful. Murchison at first thought
that the ice was due to the underlying bed of salt, but soon recognized
that this explanation could not be correct. He also rejected Herschel's
"heat and cold wave" theory. Shortly after this he came across
Pictet's memoir, and on the strength of it concluded that the ice in
Illetzkaya-Zatschita could not be the residue of a winter deposit, but
must be due to descending currents of air; to the previously wet and
damp roof affording a passage to water; and to the excessive dryness of
the external air of these southern steppes contributing powerfully to
the refrigerating effects of evaporation.
Professor Arnold Guyot, in 1856, said that the well at Owego admitted
large quantities of snow which melts, but not readily, because it
is not accessible to the sun. It therefore goes through the same
process as glaciers, of partly melting and refreezing; and we have the
formation of a glacier without movement.
Professor W. B. Rogers, in 1856, held that the well at Owego became the
recipient of the coldest air of the neighborhood, and the temperature
remained abnormal because the bad conducting power of the materials of
the well retained the cold.
Professor D. Olmstead, in 1856, held about Owego that cold air exists
in the interior of the earth which may have found a ventilating shaft
in the well.
Professor Petruzzi, in 1857, considered the following requirements
necessary for a glacière: A high altitude above the sea; a decided drop
into the interior of the mountain; absence of all draught; protection
against all warm and moist winds, therefore the opening to north and
east. He also says about the glacière on the Pograca: that it is in
shadow; that the thick forest round the mouth keeps the temperature
down; that it begins to freeze below when it does above; that the cold
remains there into the spring; and that the water from rain or other
sources, which flows into the cave, must freeze there, and the ice form
in greater quantities than the heat of summer can melt away.
Mr. Albert D. Hager wrote in 1859: "The question now arises, why it
was that such a congealed mass of earth was found in Brandon at the
time the frozen well was dug. My opinion is, that the bad conducting
property of the solids surrounding it, the absence of ascending
currents of heated air, and of subterranean streams of water in this
particular locality favored such a result; and that the bad conducting
property of clay, as well as that of the porous gravel associated
with it, taken in connection with the highly inclined porous strata,
and the disposition of heated air to rise, and the cold air to remain
below, contribute to produce in the earth, at this place, a _mammoth
refrigerator_, embracing essentially the same principle as that
involved in the justly celebrated refrigerator known as 'Winship's
Patent.'
"Clay is not only nearly impervious to air and water, but it is one of
the worst conductors of heat in nature. (Note.--To test the question
whether clay was a poor conductor of heat or not, I took two basins
of equal size, and in one put a coating of clay one-half inch thick,
into which I put water of a temperature of 52° Fahrenheit. Into the
other dish, which was clean, I put water of the same temperature, and
subjected the two basins to equal amounts of heat; and in five minutes
the water in the clean dish indicated a temperature of 70° while that
of the one coated with clay was raised only to 56°.) If we can rely
upon the statements of those who dug out the frozen earth, it rested
upon a stratum of clay that lay upon the bed of pebbles in which the
water was found, for it was described as being a very sticky kind of
hard pan.
"This being the case, if the water contained in the pebbly mass had a
temperature above the freezing point, the heat would be but imperfectly
transmitted to the frost, through the clay, provided there was no other
way for its escape. But we have seen that the stratum of clay that
overlays the bed of pebbles in the side of the gravel pit was not
horizontal, but inclined towards the well at an angle of 25°. Now if
this drip was continued to the well, and existed there (which is highly
probable), it will be seen that the ascending current of heated air, in
the pebbly bed, would be checked upon meeting the overlying barrier of
clay and be deflected out of its upward course. The tendency of heated
air is to rise, hence it would continue its course along the under
side of the clay, through the interstices in the bed of pebbles, till
it found a place of escape at the surface, which in this case may have
been at the gravel pit before named."
Professor Edward Hitchcock wrote in 1861: "The presence of a mass of
frozen gravel deep beneath the surface in Brandon, was first made known
by digging a well in it in the autumn of 1858. * * * The gravel, also,
rises into occasional knolls and ridges. In short, it is just such
a region of sand and gravel as may be seen in many places along the
western side of the Green Mountains; and indeed, all over New England.
It is what we call modified drift, and lies above genuine drift, having
been the result of aqueous agency subsequent to the drift period. * *
* The well was stoned up late in the autumn of 1858, and during the
winter, ice formed upon the water in one night, two inches thick. It
continued to freeze till April; after which no ice was formed on the
surface, but we can testify that as late as June 25th, the stones of
the well for four or five feet above the surface of the water were
mostly coated with ice; nay, it had not wholly disappeared July 14th.
The temperature of the water was only one degree of Fahrenheit above
freezing point. The ice did however disappear in the autumn but was
formed again (how early we did not learn) in the winter, and so thick
too that it was necessary to send some one into the well to break it.
We visited the well August 18th, 1860, and found the temperature 42°.
Yet only the week previous ice was seen upon the stones, and we were
even told by one of the family, that a piece of ice had been drawn up
the day before in the bucket. * * * These frozen deposits may have been
produced during the glacial period that accompanied the formation of
drift, and continued far down into the subsequent epochs of modified
drift. * * * But in all the excavations both gravel and clay occur:
and how almost impervious to heat must such a coating 20 feet thick,
be! It would not, however, completely protect the subjacent mass from
solar heat. But there is another agency still more powerful for this
end, namely, evaporation, which we think has operated here, as we shall
more fully describe further on; and we think that these two agencies,
namely, non-conduction and evaporation, may have preserved this frozen
deposit for a very long period, from exterior influences."
Professor Thury in 1861 says about Saint-Georges: "Such is the
_résumé_, concise but exact, of the results of our winter excursion.
They furnish proof to the fact generally borne witness to by the
mountaineers, that ice does not form in winter in the interior of
caverns. But if this is so, it is for a very simple reason: two things
are necessary for the formation of ice: cold and water. In winter, the
cold is not wanting: but if there is no spring opening in the cave, the
water is absent, and then no ice forms.
"It is in the spring, at the time of the first melting of the snows,
that the ice must form. Then water at 0° pours over the surface, and
penetrates by the fissures of the rock and by the large openings into
the chilled cavern, which is also receiving the freezing air of the
nights. The grotto then makes its annual provision of ice, which after
this could only diminish little by little during the whole duration of
the warm season."
Professor Thury writes about the Grand Cave de Montarquis: "Here it
must be when water and cold meet, that is autumn and especially spring,
the time of the first melting of the snows."
"During the winter * * * the colder, heavier air comes to freeze the
water of the grotto, and chill the ice and the wall of rock."
"During the summer, the radiation of the vaults and the proper heat of
the ground only melt a small quantity of ice because this absorbs much
heat to pass into a liquid state."
"The heat of the air is entirely used to melt the ice; it does not
therefore manifest itself as sensible heat."
"The contact of the ice ready to melt, plays in a certain way, towards
the air a little warmer than itself, the rôle of an extremely absorbing
body, or one which has an excessive caloric conductibility."
"Here the formation of the ice could not possibly be attributed to the
cold caused by evaporation. The psychrometer indicated ninety-two per
cent, of relative humidity: the atmosphere of the grotto was therefore
almost saturated with evaporation of water, and the maximum of cold
caused by evaporation was not over half a degree centigrade."
About prismatic ice and a hollow pyramid, he says: "The prismatic
(_aréolaire_) structure is produced later on in the ice, by a new and
particular arrangement of the molecules of the already solidified
water. Therefore the recent stalactites are never crystallized."
"In the beginning of the hot season, the atmospheric temperature of
the grotto rises slowly. Inferior to zero by some tenths of a degree,
it produces first on the surface, in the stalactites, the prismatic
structure. The temperature continues to rise, the central portions
of the stalactites, still composed of ordinary ice, liquefy, and if
the melting water finds some issue, either by accidental openings
left between some prisms, or by the extremity of the stalactite or by
some point of its surface which had escaped the action of the regular
crystallization; by this opening the water escapes, and the tubular
stalactite has been formed."
"The column was composed of a very special ice, perfectly dry,
perfectly homogeneous, translucid and whose appearance could only
be compared to that of the most beautiful porcelain. I am inclined
to believe that we had under our eyes a special molecular state of
congealed water. This state would be produced under the influence of
a constant temperature of a certain degree (Note--perhaps not far from
4°--the actual temperature of the grotto) long prolonged. These causes
can be realized more completely in glacières than anywheres else."
The Reverend George Forrest Browne, published in 1865, _Ice Caves in
France and Switzerland_, one of the most delightful books of travel
ever written, on account of the scientific accuracy and the humor of
the author. He visited La Genollière, Saint-Georges, Saint-Livres,
Chaux-les-Passavant, Monthézy, Arc-sous-Çicon, the Schafloch,
Haut-d'Aviernoz, which he calls Grand Anu, Chapuis, and Font-d'Urle.
He says: "The view which Deluc adopted was one which I have myself
independently formed. * * * The heavy cold air of winter sinks down
into the glacières, and the lighter warm air of summer cannot on
ordinary principles of gravitation dislodge it, so that heat is very
slowly spread in the caves; and even when some amount of heat does
reach the ice, the latter melts but slowly, for ice absorbs 60° C.
of heat in melting; and thus, when ice is once formed, it becomes a
material guarantee for the permanence of cold in the cave. For this
explanation to hold good it is necessary that the level at which the
ice is formed should be below the level of the entrance to the cave;
otherwise the mere weight of the cold air would cause it to leave its
prison as soon as the spring warmth arrived. In every single case that
has come under my observation, this condition has been emphatically
fulfilled. It is necessary, also, that the cave should be protected
from direct radiation, as the gravitation of cold air has nothing to
do with resistance to that powerful means of introducing heat. This
condition, also, is fulfilled by nature in all the glacières I have
visited, excepting that of S. Georges; and there art has replaced the
protection formerly afforded by the thick trees which grew over the
hole of entrance. The effect of the second hole in the roof of this
glacière is to destroy all the ice which is within range of the sun.
A third and very necessary condition is, that the wind should not be
allowed access to the cave; for if it were, it would infallibly bring
in heated air, in spite of the specific weight of the cold air stored
within. It will be understood from my description of such glacières as
that of the Grand Anu, of Monthézy, and the lower glacière of the Pré
de S. Livres, how completely sheltered from all winds the entrances to
those caves are. There can be no doubt, too, that the large surfaces
which are available for evaporation have much to do with maintaining a
somewhat lower temperature than the mean temperature of the place where
the cave occurs."
Browne noticed prismatic ice several times. He says of it: "M. Thury
suggests also, as a possibility, what I have found to be the case by
frequent observations, that the prismatic ice has greater power of
resisting heat than ordinary ice. * * * A Frenchman who was present
in the room in which the Chemical Section of the British Association
met at Bath, and heard a paper which I read there on this prismatic
structure, suggested that it was probably something akin to the
rhomboidal form assumed by dried mud; and I have since been struck by
the great resemblance to it, as far as the surface goes, which the pits
of mud left by the coprolite workers near Cambridge offer, of course
on a very large scale. This led me to suppose that the intense dryness
which would naturally be the result of the action of some weeks or
months of great cold upon subterranean ice might be one of the causes
of its assuming this form, and the observations at Jena would rather
confirm than contradict this view: competent authorities, however, seem
inclined to believe that warmth, and not cold, is the producing cause."
Mr. Browne found a hollow cone at La Genollière, for which he accounted
as follows: "In the loftier part of the cave * * * ninety six drops
of water in a minute splashed on to a small stone immediately under
the main fissure. This stone was in the centre of a considerable area
of the floor which was clear of ice. * * * I found that the edge
of the ice round this clear area was much thicker than the rest of
the ice on the floor, and was evidently the remains of the swelling
pedestal of the column. * * * When the melted snows of spring send
down to the cave, through the fissures of the rock, an abundance of
water at a very low temperature and the cave itself is stored with the
winter's cold, these thicker rings of ice catch first the descending
water, and so a circular wall, naturally conical, is formed around the
area of stones; the remaining water either running off through the
interstices, or forming a floor of ice of less thickness, which yields
to the next summer's drops. In the course of time, this conical wall
rises, narrowing always, till a dome-like roof is at length formed and
thenceforth the column is solid." From what I have observed myself,
this explanation seems to fairly meet the facts.
Professor T. G. Bonney, in 1868, was inclined to believe that there was
some connection between glacières and a glacial period.
Mr. W. R. Raymond, in 1869, concluded from his own observations about
the lava cave in Washington: that the cold air of winter freezes up the
percolating waters from the surface, layer upon layer, solid from the
bottom, and the accumulated ice thaws slowly in summer, being retarded
by the covering which keeps out the direct rays of the sun, and by the
fact that the melting ice at one end of the cave, through which the
summer draught enters, itself refrigerates the air and maintains a
freezing temperature at the other end.
Dr. C. A. White, in 1870, says of the cavern at Decorah: "The formation
of the ice is probably due to the rapid evaporation of the moisture
of the earth and rocks, caused by the heat of the summer sun upon the
outer wall of the fissure and valley side. This outer wall is from ten
to twenty feet in thickness where the ice was seen to be most abundant.
The water for its production seems to be supplied by slow exudation
from the inner wall of the cave."
Dr. Krenner, in 1874, wrote of Dóbsina as "a natural ice cellar of
giant dimensions, whose ice masses formed in winter, the summer does
not succeed in melting."
Professor W. Boyd Dawkins wrote in 1874: "The apparent anomaly that one
only out of a group of caves exposed to the same temperature should
be a glacière, may be explained by the fact that these conditions
[those formulated by the Rev. G. F. Browne] are found in combination
but rarely, and if one were absent there would be no accumulation of
perpetual ice. It is very probable that the store of cold laid up in
these caves, as in an ice house, has been ultimately derived from the
great refrigeration of climate in Europe in the Glacial Period."
Mr. Theodore Kirchhoff examined the lava caves in the State of
Washington and in 1876 wrote that he considered that the ice in the
smaller ones were simply remains of the winter's cold. He thought
that the ice in the large cave where there is a draught could not be
accounted for in the same way, so he concluded that the ice must be due
to the draught.
Mr. N. M. Lowe, in 1879, proposed the Compressed Air or Capillary
theory[74] about the Cave at Decorah.
[74] See Part II., page 142.
Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., in 1879, gave an exceedingly clear exposition of
the theory in the same journal.
Mr. Aden S. Benedict, in 1881, published his observations about
Decorah. He found that there was no water falling in the cave to
compress the air, that there was no water falling near enough to be
heard, nor any aperture giving vent to cold air in the cave. He thought
that the cold of winter cools the sides of the cave several degrees
below freezing point and that these rocks are so far underground that
it would take a long season of hot weather to raise this temperature to
the melting point of ice. In the spring the water percolates through
the soil and drips on to the yet freezing rocks; on which it freezes
and remains until the heat of summer penetrates to a sufficient depth
to melt it away. The rocks once raised above 0° remain so until the
following winter and consequently if there are heavy autumn rains there
is water on the rocks but no ice. Mr. Benedict concluded that there was
nothing more mysterious about Decorah than the fact that if you drop
water on a cold stone it will freeze.
Professor Friederich Umlauft in 1883 wrote about glacières "that as
moreover they were generally protected against warm winds and strong
draughts and as their entrances look towards the north or east, there
is consequently more ice formed under these conditions in winter than
can melt away in summer. Other ice grottoes however show the remarkable
characteristic, that it is warm in them in winter, in the summer on the
contrary it becomes so cold that all the dripping water freezes. They
are found near snow clefts and gorges; when in the hot summer months
the snow melts, then the cold which has become free presses down the
temperature in the cave so much that the water freezes into ice. Such
grottoes are in Austria at * * * Frauenmauer, * * * Brandstein, * * *
Teplitz, * * * Scilize, * * * Dobschauer."
Herr Körber in 1885 wrote about the Schafloch, that the stored-up
winter's cold stands out as permanent adversary of the higher
temperature of the earth. The thermometer proved this by its action at
the end of the cave in a rock cleft, which is warmer than the rest of
the cave. In September Herr Körber found the masses of ice less and
the stalagmites smaller than in January, especially a column which in
January had become a stately mountain of transparent ice.
Professor Eberhard Fugger of Salzburg, has studied the caves of the
Untersberg carefully, having paid over eighty visits to them. He
classifies freezing caverns into the following types, according to
their position and their shape:
According to position: 1, open caves, that is those whose entrance is
free on a rock wall; 2, pit caves, where the entrance is at the bottom
of a pit; 3, pit caves, where the pit is covered and the opening is in
the roof.
According to shape: 1, _sackhöhlen_ or chamber caverns, into which one
enters immediately at the entrance; 2, _ganghöhlen_, or passage caves
terminating in a chamber; 3, _röhrenhöhlen_, or passage caves where
the passages continue further than the chamber.
He is a strong advocate of the winter's cold theory. He says: "The ice
of caves is formed by the cold of winter, and remains despite the heat
of summer, as through local circumstances the quantity of heat brought
to the ice is not great enough to melt it by the time when ice and snow
in the open at the same altitude have already disappeared."
"In order that ice may form in a cave in winter, two factors are
necessary. There must be water present in some form or other, and in
some way the outside cold air must be able to sink into the cave."
"When the bottom of a cave is below the entrance, the outside cold
winter air sinks into the cave from its weight, when the temperature of
the cave air is higher than that of the outside air; and it will remain
there during the warmer weather, as the warm outside air on account of
its lighter weight cannot drive out the cold heavy cave air."
"The most important factor for the formation of ice is the drip water.
The more drip flows into a cave during the cold season, the more ice is
formed; the more drip, on the contrary, flows into the cave during the
warm season, the more ice is destroyed."
"The warmth, which the roof of the cave gives out, is also a cause
which helps to melt the ice, and a cause in fact which works the
harder, the higher the temperature of the roof and the dirtier the ice
floor."
"If direct rays of the sun penetrate a cave, they scarcely warm up the
air which they traverse, but they raise the temperature of the floor
or of the walls, which they touch. They are therefore a very important
factor, which may bring about the melting of the ice."
"The snow slope at the mouth of a cave offers some protection against
the rays of the sun, especially if it is no longer white, but covered
with all sorts of dirt."
"The larger the mass of ice, the longer is its duration." "A certain
thickness to the roof is of importance in preserving the ice. If it
is less than 8 meters, then it is well if it is covered with outside
vegetation."
I entirely agree with these _dicta_ of Professor Fugger.
In 1893, Fugger writes: "The peculiar readings of temperature, which
I made in August 1877, in the Kolowratshöhle, namely on the 13th at
12 M., 0.5°, on the 15th at 4 P. M., 0.35°, on the 23d at 10 A. M.,
0.12°, on the 26th at 10 A. M., 0.17°, and on the 30th at 2.15 P.
M., -0.10°, I think I can attribute to the workings of the winds. In
the observations themselves there could scarce be an error. All five
observations were made at the same place, with the same thermometer,
after at least half an hour's exposure. In the time from the 13th to
the 30th of August, the temperature minimum in the town of Salzburg,
was 12°; before the 30th were several cloudless nights. During the
whole of August scarcely any but southeast and northwest winds were
blowing. The Kolowratshöhle opens in a rock wall to the east; the above
named winds therefore affected during the entire month the entrance
to the cave and may have produced a lively evaporation in the cave,
through a sort of sucking up of the cave air, and thus have created the
rather decided cooling off of 0.6° within seventeen days."
This statement, coming from Professor Fugger, deserves particular
attention, because it would go to show: first, that the air in
the Kolowratshöhle, a _sackhöhle_ with only one entrance, is only
apparently stagnant in summer and not really so; and second, that
evaporation may act to a limited extent in a cavern where there is
almost no running water.
Captain Trouillet, in 1885, published a paper about
Chaux-les-Passavant. He found that when it was colder inside than
outside, the internal air was nearly cut off from the outside; when it
was coldest outside there was a lively disturbance. He called these
two classes _périodes fermées_ and _périodes ouvertes_. He says:
"The duration of a _closed period_ is measured then on the curves
[of a maximum and minimum thermometer] of the interior temperatures,
between a minimum and the following maximum; that of an _open period_
is between a minimum and the preceding maximum. One can thus count
from the 25th November to the 31st December 25 _open periods_ of a
total duration of 200 hours or 8 times 24 hours: which gives for each
a duration of 7½ hours. The shortest lasted 2 hours and the longest
16 hours. During the same interval, the _closed periods_ numbered 26,
making a total duration of about 28 days; the longest, which lasted
from the 3d to the 8th December, was 126 hours long."
Trouillet also says: "From the 23d to the 30th December, the grotto
was completely isolated from the external air, and yet during three
consecutive nights, the interior had three marked chills. Such is
the phenomenon whose cause can only lay, in our opinion, in the
introduction of the dry air driven to the cave by the winds between
north and east. This air on entering comes in contact with the ice
and the humid roof of the cave; it saturates itself in producing a
formation of vapors, and therefrom a consumption of heat which may be
considerable."
There are some discrepancies in this last paragraph which must be
noted, for the reason that Trouillet's observations are so valuable. He
does not mention having seen the vapors himself, in fact the production
of these vapors seems only an inference. Nor is it easy to understand
how the grotto could be "completely isolated from the external air" if
the phenomenon lay "in the introduction of the dry air driven to the
cave by the winds north and east."
Dr. B. Schwalbe, in 1886, wrote that "all my observations point to
the fact that the rock is the cooling factor in summer, and that the
cold goes out from it." He says also that "when I saw for the first
time the little cave of Roth, which was filled with fairly numerous
ice formations, it was precisely the smallness of the volume of air
and the strange appearance of the ice which made the simple cold air
theory seen insufficient, nor could I later, by widening the theory and
observing the localities from the basis of DeLuc's theory, accept it.
It always seemed by all my observations that in the rock there must be
a lasting source of cold. There must be a cause present, which prevents
the rapid warming of the cave wall through the temperature of the
ground, which also keeps the stone cool in summer and induces the main
ice formation in the spring." He also hints that Mr. Lowe's compressed
air theory may be the correct one. Dr. Schwalbe's work, _Über Eishöhlen
und Eislöcher_, is one of the four or five most important contributions
to glacière literature, and his opinion is entitled to great respect on
account of his many observations.
Professor Israel C. Russell wrote in 1890, about the ice beds on the
Yukon: "It is thought by some observers, to be an inheritance from a
former period of extreme cold; but under existing climatic conditions,
when ice forms beneath a layer of moss, it is preserved during the
short summer, and may increase as it does on the tundras, to an
astonishing thickness."
In 1897, Professor Russell says: "It is not probable that all the
subsoil ice of northern regions has been formed in one way. Along the
flood plains and on the deltas of rivers where layers of clear ice are
interbedded with sheets of frozen gravel and vegetable matter, as is
frequently the case, it seems evident that the growth of the deposit is
due, in some instances, to the flooding of previously frozen layers,
and the freezing and subsequent burial of the sediment thus added to
their surfaces. When spring freshets spread out sheets of débris over
the flood plain of a river, as frequently happens when streams in high
latitudes flow northward, the previously frozen soil and the ice of
ponds and swamps may be buried and indefinitely preserved." "There is
still another process by which frozen subsoil may be formed in high
latitudes: this is, the effects of the cold during the long winters
are not counteracted by the heat during the short summers. Under the
conditions now prevailing in northern Alaska, where the mean annual
temperature is below 32° Fahrenheit, the frozen layer tends to increase
the thickness from year to year just as the depth of frozen soil in
more temperate latitudes may increase from month to month during the
winter season. During the short northern summers, especially where the
ground is moss covered, melting only extends a few inches below the
surface."
Mons. E. A. Martel, in 1892, wrote of the Creux-Percé: "I incline
only, as in all the pits which narrow at the bottom (_avens à
rétrécissement_) to attribute the chilling to the fall of the cold
air of winter and to its non-renewal in summer." And at page 564 of
_Les Abimes_ he says: "One knows that _evaporation_ is an active cause
of cooling; therefore it is always cooler in caves near the drips of
water. * * * I have positively noted this influence of evaporation
near the drips of Tabourel (8° instead of 9.5°), of Dargilan, of the
Cerna Jama, and in abysses with double mouths where there were strong
draughts (Rabanel, Biau, Fosse-Mobile, etc.)." In December, 1897,
Mons. Martel writes: "In short, the action of the winter's cold is
the real cause accepted by * * * and recently confirmed by Fugger,
Trouillet and Martel." And also: "It is probable that this influence
[evaporation] is only real at rather high altitudes; this is at least
what seems the result of the studies of the caves of Naye (1700 to 1900
meters) begun by Professor Dutoit."
In 1899, Mons. Martel gave an account of the Glacière de Naye. In this
paper, he abandons definitely fossil ice, salts and the capillary
theory as possible causes of underground ice. He considers that there
are four causes: 1, shape of the cavity; 2, free access of snow in
winter; 3, high altitude; 4, evaporation due to wind currents. The last
two causes he thinks are not necessarily always present. For instance
he considers that, at the Creux-Percé, and at Chaux-les-Passavant, the
ice is due especially to the sack or hour-glass shape of these hollows
where the summer air cannot get in on account of its lightness. At the
Glacière de Naye, which is a big windhole, situated at an altitude of
1750 to 1820 meters, Mons. Martel thinks that the ice is formed by the
snow and cold of winter, but that its preservation is assured by the
evaporation caused by the action of the windhole.
Dr. Terlanday, in 1893, asserted that ice does not form in Szilize in
winter, and that the ice first forms in the winter in the upper part
of rock fissures and that in the spring, at the time of an increase of
temperature, this fissure ice is brought to the melting point by the
successive entering of heat into the earth and that it then arrives at
the cave, where it aids the formation of icicles. This theory about
fissure ice is probably in so far correct, that the ice in the upper
parts of fissures, near the surface of the ground, melts before the ice
in the lower parts of fissures. The drip would then naturally run into
the cave and, as long as the temperature of the cave was low, help to
form cave ice.
Dr. Hans Lohmann, in 1895, published some valuable notes about several
glacières. While considering the cold of winter as the main cause of
the ice, he thought evaporation a secondary cause of cold. He says:
"That the cold from evaporation bears its share in cooling a cave,
will not be denied. * * * The air saturated with aqueous vapor makes
one think of constant evaporation. The aqueous vapor spreads itself
by diffusion throughout the entire cave, and if the outside air is
driest, goes to that. Through this, more ice and water can always be
vaporized, and to the warming elements there is furnished a cooling
one. If dry winds get into the cave, then must evaporation be very
lively and the chilling especially strong. Through this cause alone
can be explained the remarkably low temperature of +6.3° in the new
part of the Garischen Stollen, in contrast to the temperature of +7.9°
in the old part. The strong draught in the last drew out through its
suction the damp air of the new adit, so that there had to be a strong
evaporation."
Dr. Lohmann gives some exhaustive notes about prismatic ice. He found
it a product of the fall months. He thinks all the observations show
that "the beginning of all prismatic formation in the ice may be looked
for in the changes of temperature in the cave at the time of the
formation of the ice. These cause the everywhere recognized splitting,
vertically to the outer surface. The further development hangs, as
shown by Hagenbach and Emden, on the attempt of the neighboring cells,
to join into larger unities. The increase of the larger crystals is
finally prevented by the melting out of the openings between the
separate crystals. Through this may be explained the difference in the
prismatic ice in different parts of the same cave."
Regierungsrath Franz Kraus, in 1895, wrote a short essay on glacières
in _Höhlenkunde_. He seems to have seen but few glacières himself, and
considers the scientific side of the question by no means solved as
yet. He says: "The last word will not be spoken by the geographers and
the Alpine climbers * * * but by the physicists, in whose field both
questions really belong. Only then, when the physical circumstances
of the formation of the ice in glacières have been so thoroughly
understood, that under the same circumstances it may be possible to
build artificial glacières, only then could one say: the glacière
question is definitely settled. The best proof is always experiment."
He lays down several dicta which he says are universally recognized,
among which is this: "2. The ice formations in the débris heaps of
basaltic mountains are summer ice formations. The evaporation of the
infiltration water is recognized on all sides as the cause of this
ice." I differ in opinion from Herr Kraus about this matter, and think
that, on the contrary, every proof shows that the ice of basaltic
taluses is not a summer formation and is not due to evaporation.
Herr Kraus also says: "The _Eishöhlen_ resemble so little the
_Windröhren_, that for these a proper name is quite correct. Just
as one cannot draw a sharp line between _Einstürzschlünden_ and
_Einstürzdolinen_, so one cannot draw a sharp line between _eishöhlen_
and _windröhren_. A stagnation of cave air does not exist, and no cave
student would pretend to say it existed. The circulation of air may in
certain caves take place almost entirely through the mouth and it then
depends largely on the shape of the latter; in other caves are crevices
and erosion holes, which allow a circulation of air. Again in other
caves air may come through the floor into the cave, as is proved by
certain places always remaining free from ice."
He also says: "The formation of dripstone is also diminished about
thick roofs, when the cracks are too broad to permit a slow dripping
process. In caves with sufficient air movements, that is ventilation,
the dripstone formation takes place faster than in those in which
the air is only slowly renewed. Also in such caves, in which the air
is strongly filled with moisture, the dripstone formation process
is materially hindered. Therefore in water caves and in _eishöhlen_
one finds only rarely dripstone formations, and these mainly of poor
appearance. But in all cases the carbonic acid of the infiltration
water plays an important part."
In 1896, a Western newspaper published the following explanation about
the presence of ice in the cave at Elkinsville, Indiana; and it shows
how the idea--long since exploded--of the ice being due to chemical
causes, serenely bobs up on the discovery of a new cave: "Some have
advanced the theory that the air is forced through under passages
of the earth with such pressure as to make the strange formation;
some have attributed the cause to an underlying bed of alkali, whose
chemical change to a gaseous form has produced the phenomenon. Others
have thought that the interior heat of the earth, acting upon the
iron pyrites, or fool's gold, which largely abounds in this country,
is the true source of this unparalleled discovery. Still others think
that the sudden expansion of the carbonic acid gas given off by the
heated limestone, which is also common in this country, could have
easily produced the ice. But thus far the theories are nothing more
than speculation, and further than the fact that the ice cave exists,
and is, indeed, a remarkable phenomenon, none has been able to further
determine."
In 1896, Dr. A. Cvijic wrote that the cold air of winter is the source
of cold in the glacières of Servia. The mountains have so little water
that the shepherds constantly take the ice out in summer for their own
use.
In 1897, numerous newspapers, among others, the _Philadelphia Press_
of August 1st, romanced as follows about the cave at Decorah: "In the
summer its temperature is far below freezing. * * * From some unknown
source in the impenetrable rear of the cave comes a blast of cold air
as chill as from the Arctic region. In the winter the temperature of
the cave is like summer. * * * We followed the winding passage in and
out for more than 1000 feet. * * * I took out the thermometer and laid
it upon the floor of the cavern for three minutes. When I took it up
again I found that the mercury had fallen to 5 degrees below zero."
"What is it that causes this phenomenon? Scientific men are said to
have visited the cave within the last day or two who have declared that
it had in some manner a subterranean connection with the polar regions,
and that the cold air from the North coming in contact with the warm
moist atmosphere from outside converted the vapor into water on the
walls of the cavern where it straightway congealed. * * * It seems to
me possible after thinking the matter over carefully, that in some
mysterious manner the same influences that work the changes in climate
in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are operating in this cave. It is
a well-known fact that in the regions referred to the seasons are the
reverse of what they are here."
Mr. W. S. Auchincloss writes in 1897: "We also notice the working of
the same principle during summer days. The hottest part does not occur
at the noon hour--when the sun is on the meridian--but several hours
later in the afternoon. In this case the accessions of heat arrive more
rapidly than radiation is able to carry off. Radiation, however, keeps
on apace, and, at last attaining the mastery, temperature falls. Ice
caves furnish another example of the gradual procession in the seasons."
Mr. Alois F. Kovarik writes about Decorah in 1898 that "the length of
duration of the ice in the cave during the spring and summer depends
upon the quantity of cold stored up in the walls and this again upon
the coldness and the length of coldness of the previous winter. If
the winter be severe and long, the walls will store up a great supply
of cold for the gradual dissipation in the spring and summer and
consequently the phenomenon of the ice in the ice chambers will last
longer. Last winter, with an exception of the fore part of December,
was quite mild. As a result, the ice began to disappear with the latter
part of June, and totally disappeared by the end of July. * * * The
time of the lowest temperature in the cave depends upon how soon the
cold spells of the winter begin; for the sooner the walls begin to
freeze to a greater depth, the sooner have they stored up the greatest
amount of cold. * * * February 28th, 1898, when the walls contained
the greatest amount of cold, there was no ice in the cave, for the
reason that no water made appearance. Could water have appeared, no
doubt a great amount of ice would have formed; but as the conditions
are, the water has to come from the ground outside, and this being
frozen at the time, water could not in any natural way appear. If in
early spring, sufficiently warm days should come to melt the snow and
open the ground, the water not taken up by the ground would flow and
seep through crevices into the cave and ice consequently would appear
early. Somewhat such conditions prevailed this year, for warm days
appeared quite early in the spring. If _per contra_ the ground does not
open until in April, as was the case in 1895 and 1896, the appearance
of the ice is consequently delayed. * * * Naturally this opening [the
entrance] was small, but to give easier entrance, it was enlarged to
its present size. * * * If the entrance had been left a small opening,
as it naturally was, it is my belief that the temperature of the
interior of the cave would be lower in summer than it is, and the ice
would not disappear as soon as it does."
Mr. Robert Butler, of San José, Cal., investigated the question of cold
air draughts coming from the glacière cave and from the freezing shaft
he examined in Montana. He wrote to me, in 1898, that he found that one
notices or imagines to notice a draught of air, especially on hot days.
Rapidly walking into the cave from the hot air without to the rapidly
cooling air within produces the same nervous sensations as though one
were to remain stationary and the air were to pass by from the warm to
the colder portions. A distance of twelve meters finds a difference
in temperature of fifteen degrees Centigrade. Twelve meters can be
walked quickly, so quickly that the nerves cannot become accustomed
gradually to the change of temperature. The rapidly cooling air does
actually produce the sensation of cool air passing by one's face. It
produces somewhat the same sensation as the evaporation of ether on
the surface of the body. Mr. Butler satisfied himself that as far as
he had observed all the seemingly peculiar conditions and places where
the ice has been found do not indicate any other causes when carefully
investigated than those of the seasons of the year, and that the ice
was formed by no other cause than the natural cold of winter.
Professor Cranmer, in 1899, added some important contributions to our
knowledge of freezing caverns. All his work goes to prove the winter's
cold theory, but he has brought out some new details. He found warm and
cold periods in the Tablerloch during the winter months. The coldest
air sank to the bottom and the air in the cave stratified itself
according to its specific gravity and its temperature. During a cold
period, the outside air sank into the cave only to the air stratum,
whose temperature, from the preceding warm period, was as much higher
as that of the outer air, as this had become warmer in sinking to that
stratum. The air which enters falls down the slope and displaces an
equal volume of air which streams out under the roof.
Water will sometimes drip through a crack in winter until that crack
freezes up, when the water may then find some other crack to drip
through; at this second place a stalagmite may then grow, while at the
first place the stalagmite may stop growing and even begin to diminish
from evaporation.
Ice begins to form, whenever water gets into a cave, if the cave
temperature is below 0°; ice begins to melt as soon as the temperature
is over 0°.
Professor Cranmer found that occasionally small quantities of ice form
in caves in the summer months: this was in mountain caves, where there
was snow on the mountains and the temperature of the nights at least,
had sunk below freezing point: in fact when the conditions were those
of the winter months.
PART V.
LIST OF AUTHORS.
LIST OF AUTHORS.[75]
[75] This list of authors includes all the authorities which I
have personally consulted. Several papers, such as Dr. Schwalbe's
"_Uebersichtliche Zusammenstellung Literarischer Notizen ueber
Eishöhlen_" and the works of Dr. Listoff, I have been unable to find in
any library.
Allen, Levi. _Scientific American, New Series_, October 27th, 1883,
page 259.
_American Journal of Science and Arts_, 1839, vol. XXXVI., page 184.
Auchincloss, W. S., C. E. _Waters within the Earth and the Laws of
Rainflow_, Philadelphia, 1897.
Badin, Adolphe. _Grottes et Cavernes_, Paris, Hachette, 1867.
Baedeker, Karl. _Handbook of Austria._ _Handbook of the Eastern
Alps._ _Handbook of South Eastern France._ _Handbook of
Switzerland._ _Handbook of the United States._
Baker, M. S. _The Lava Region of Northern California: Sierra Club
Bulletin_, San Francisco, Cal., 1899, vol. II., page 318.
Balch, Edwin Swift. _Ice Caves and the Causes of Subterranean
Ice_: Allen, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia, November, 1896, and
_The Journal of the Franklin Institute_, Philadelphia, March,
1897, vol. CXLIII., pages 161-178. _Ice Cave Hunting in Central
Europe: Appalachia_, Boston, 1897, vol. VIII., pages 203-209.
_Subterranean Ice Deposits in America: Journal of the Franklin
Institute_, Philadelphia, April, 1899, vol. CXLVII., pages
286-297.
Baltzer, Dr. A. _Eine Neue Eishöhle im Berner Oberland: Jahrbuch des
Schweizer Alpen Club_, Bern, 1892-1893, pages 358-362.
Behrens, Dr. Georg Henning. _Hercynia Curiosa_, Nordhausen, 1703.
Bel, Matthias. _Philosophical Transactions_, London, 1739, vol. XLI.,
page 41 _et seq._
Benedict, Aiden S. _Decorah Republican_, June 19th, 1881.
Berthoud, Edward L. _American Journal of Science and Arts_, Third
Series, 1876, vol. XI., page 108.
Bielz, E. Albert. _Siebenbürgen, Handbuch_, Carl Graeser, Wien, 1885.
Billerez, Mons. de. _Histoire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences_,
1712, page 22 _et seq._
Bonney, T. G. _The Alpine Regions, 1868._ _Nature_, vol. XI., pages
310, 327, 328.
Boué, Dr. Ami. _La Turquie d'Europe_, Paris, 1840, vol. I., page 132.
_Sitzungsbericht der K. K. Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien_,
1864, I. Theil, page 321 _et seq._
Boz, Mons. de, Ingénieur du Roy. _Histoire de l'Académie Royale des
Sciences_, 1726, pages 16, 17.
Browne, The Reverend G. F. _Ice Caves in France and Switzerland_,
London, Longmans, 1865. _Ice Caves of Annecy: Good Words_,
Edinburgh, November, 1866.
_Bulletin, The Evening_, Philadelphia, March 1st, 1899.
Burslem, Captain Rollo. _A Peep into Toorkisthan_, 1846.
C. B. A. _Scientific American_, May 3d, 1879.
Cantwell, Lieutenant J. C. _Ice Cliffs on the Kowak River: National
Geographic Magazine_, October, 1896.
Carrel, Chanoine G. _Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève_, 1841, vol.
XXXIV., page 196.
_Christian Herald_, March 24th, 1897.
Colladon. His manuscript notes were used by J. A. Deluc in _Annales
de Chimie et de Physique_, Paris, 1822, vol. XXI., page 113 _et
seq._
Cossigny, Mons. de, Ingénieur en chef de Besançon. _Mémoires de
Mathématique et de physique présentés à l'Académie Royale des
Sciences_, 1750, vol. I., page 195 _et seq._
Cranmer, Professor Hans. _Eishöhlen und Windröhren Studien:
Abhandlungen der K. K. Geographischen Gesellschaft in Wien_, vol.
I., 1899.
Cranmer, Professor Hans, and Sieger, Professor Dr. Rob.
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INDEX.
INDEX.
PAGE
Adirondack guides, Opinions of, 81
Alaska, Subsoil ice in, 166, 167
Allmen, Emil von, guide, 21
Altitude of glacières, 150
Amarnath, Cave of, 262
Apparently static caves, 122
Arizona, Glacières in, 175, 176
Auchincloss, Mr. W. S., 307
Auersperg, Prince, 52
Ausable Pond, Freezing talus at, 79
Balch, Mrs. Geo. B., 189
Balch Pass, The, 263
Bargy, Mont, 71
Basins, Ice, 20, 130
Behrens, 270
Beilstein, Caves on the, 234
Bel, Matthias, 254, 271
Benedict, Mr. A. S., 293
Benner, Mr., 90
Berthoule, Mons., 206
Besançon, 8
Billerez, Mons. de, 270
Bonney, Professor T. G., 216, 222, 291
Boston Natural History Society, 138, 182
Boué, Dr. A., 242
Boulder heaps, 116
Boz, Mons. de, 270
Brandon, Freezing well of, 77, 182, 283, 284
Brinckerhoff, Mr. F. H., 177
Briot, Mons., 204
Brisons, Glacière de, 2
Browne, The Rev. G. F., 133, 213, 215, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 288
_Bulletin, The Evening_, 253
Buried glaciers, 165
Burslem, Captain, 261
Butler, Mr. R., 171, 172, 308
California, Glacières in, 170, 171
Canfield, Mr. N. M., 76
Capillary or Compressed Air Theory, 142
Carbonic acid gas, 133
Carrel, Chanoine, 212
Caucasus, Glacières in the, 257
Cesi, Don Giuseppe, 209
Chapuis, Glacière de, 5, 216
Chatham, Mr. I. C., 94
Chaux-les-Passavant, Glacière de, 8, 193
Chemical causes theory, 140
Cliff caves, 6, 18, 22, 27, 40, 70, 76, 120
Clothes for glacière exploration, 53
Cold caves, 117
Colladon, Mons, 278
Color effects, 131
Colorado, Glacières in, 174, 175
Cossigny, Mons. de, 202, 271
Cotterlaz, S. J., guide, 71
Coxe, Miss Mary, 262
Cranmer, Professor H., 232, 234, 235, 309
Creux-de-Souci, Le, 206
Crevasses, 4
Crimea, Glacières in the, 256
Cushing, Mr. F. H., 176
Cvijic, Dr. A., 243, 305
Dante, 135
Daubuisson, 248
Dawkins, Professor W. Boyd, 292
Decorah, Freezing cave of, 88, 177
Decorah, Freezing well of, 89
Deluc, Mons. J. A., 277
Démenyfálva Jegbarlang, 24
Dewey, Mr., 183, 277
Dimensions of glacières, 120
Dittmar, Mons. de, 260
Dóbsina Jegbarlang, 13, 252
Dóbsina, Village of, 13
Dornburg, Freezing talus at the, 59, 247
Dornburg, Freezing cellar at the, 60
Draughts, 8, 45, 47, 58, 80
Dripstone formations in glacières, 24, 30, 57, 63, 67, 304
Duc de Lévy, 202
Dunant, Mons. C., 215, 216
Dutoit, Professor, 221
Eastern Alps, Glacières in the, 224-236
Eastern United States, Glacières in the, 180-189
Eger, Dr. W., 262
Ehrlicher, Mr., 86
Eisenerz, 37
Elkinsville, Glacière at, 180, 305
Ellenville, Freezing gorge at, 91, 185
Émery, Aymon, guide, 62, 65
Enfer, Glacière de l', 215
England, Glacières in, 192, 193
Entrances of glacières, 121
Eschholz, Dr., 167
Evaporation, 156, 275, 287, 296, 298, 300, 302, 304
Farrandsville, Cave at, 93
Farnum, Mr. G. L., 266
Farnum, Mr. J. E., 266
Fauna of glacières, 133, 207, 214, 216, 219, 246
Fee Glacier, Ice Cave in, 68
Flora of glacières, 80, 83, 85, 91, 134, 188, 222, 237, 240
Fondurle, Glacière de, 213
Forms of Ice, 126
Frainer Eisleithen, The, 33, 251
France, Glacières in, 193-208, 213-218
Frauenmauerhöhle, The, 37
Freezing mines and tunnels, 117
Freezing wells, 74, 77, 89, 117, 206
Friedrichsteinerhöhle, 51
Fugger, Professor E., 224, 226, 227, 228, 237, 249, 251, 294
Genollière, Glacière de la, 48, 219
Geographical distribution of glacières, 149
Germany, Glacières in, 246-250
Giant of the Valley, Talus of the, 81
Girardot, Mons. A., 204
Girod-Chantrans, Le citoyen, 272
Glacial period theory, The, 136
Glacière, Advantage of term, 110
Glacière caves, 118
Glaciers, 145
Gollut, Lois, 202, 269
Gorges and troughs, 146, 260
Great Barrington, Icy gulf near, 99
Gruber, J., guide, 18
Gsoll-Alp, 38
Guyot, Professor A., 281
Hablizl, 272
Hacquet, 271
Hager, Mr. A. D., 182, 282
Hall, Mr. W. Coleman, 187
Hart, Mr. B., 76
Hartenstein, Professor, 249
Haut-d'Aviernoz, Glacière de l', 2, 215
Hayden, Professor C. B., 280
Heilprin, Professor A., 93, 185
Herschel, Sir John, 141
Hitchcock, Professor E., 284
Hoar frost, 16, 30, 129
Holes in ice, 4, 42, 64, 130
Hollow ice stalagmites, 23, 127, 287, 290
Holschuh, Mr. F., 188
Hovey, The Rev. H. C., 186
Howell, Mr. E. I. H., 80, 83
Humboldt, Alexander von, 276
Ice floors, 4, 7, 11, 15, 19, 22, 30, 42, 54, 64, 72
Ice formed by radiation, 263-266
Iceland, Glacières in, 190, 191
Ice near entrance of caves, 152
Ice sheets, Subterranean, 115
Ice slabs on floor, 20
Ice slopes, 4, 17, 19, 23, 52, 67
Ice Spring, Oregon, The, 169
Ice stalactites and stalagmites, 3, 7, 12, 23, 30, 42, 73, 127
Italy, Glacières in, 208-213
Japan, Glacière in, 266
Jayne, Mrs. Horace, 189
Joly, Capucin Romain, 272
Karst, Glacières in the, 236-242
King's Ravine, Subterranean ice in, 1
Kirchhoff, Mr. T., 292
Klenka, S., guide, 51
Kolowratshöhle, The, 18, 226
Körber, Herr B., 222, 294
Korea, Glacière in, 266
Kovarik, Mr. A. F., 89, 178, 180, 307
Krain, Glacières in the, 236-242
Krauss, Regierungsrath F., 303
Krenner, Dr., 292
Lakes, Subterranean, 7, 43
Lamb, Mr. C., guide, 81
Lathrop, Mr. S. P., 280
Lava caves, Washington, 168
Learned, Mr., 86
Lee, Mr. C. A., 278
Legends about glacières, 135, 216
Lepechin, 258
Lerchenfeld, Freiherr von, 227
Lewis, Miss J. F., 93
Lewis, Mr. J. F., 129
Liptós Szt Miklós, 24
Lohmann, Dr. H., 302
Lowe, Mr. C. E., Jr., 83
Lowe, Mr. C. E., Sr., 1, 85
Lowe, Mr. N. M., 142, 292
Luce, Mr. C. O., 78
Lyell, Sir Charles, 116, 210
Manchester, Marble freezing cave at, 76
Marinitsch, Herr J., 236
Martel, Mons. E. A., 205, 207, 208, 214, 221, 300
McCabe, Mr. E., 94
Meehan, Mr. W. E., 165
Mercer, Mr. H. C., 143, 187
Metric system, 3
Mist in caves, 18, 55
Misura, F., forester, 27
Montana, Glacières in, 171-173
Montarquis, Grand Cave de, 70, 217, 286
Montarquis, Petite Cave de, 71
Moonlight effects, 24, 33, 132
Morin, Mons., 218
Motion in subterranean ice, 131
Movements of air, 122, 156
Murchison, Sir R. I., 141
Nagel, J. N., 271
Naye, Glacière de, 221
Nicholson, Mr. C. J., 95
Niles, Mr., 81
Nixloch, The, 57, 226
Oetscher, The Seelücken on the, 231
Olmstaed, Professor D., 282
Otis, Mr., 81
Oudot, Dr., 272
Owego, Freezing well of, 74, 186
Paleontological remains, 134
Parmelan, Mont, 3, 5
Parrot, G. F., 125
Peasants, Opinions of, 33, 70, 139
Pelech, Dr. J. E., 252
Periods in glacières, Open and closed, 297
Peters, K. F., 246
Petruzzi, Professor, 241, 282
Phillips, Mr. G. B., 185
Pictet, Professor M. A., 277
Pit caves, 2, 3, 10, 48, 52, 63, 66, 119
Pleischl, Professor A., 250, 279
Poissenot, Benigne, 193, 269
Poprád, 13
Pralong du Reposoir, 70
_Press, The Philadelphia_, 306
Preston, Mr., 74
Prestwich, Mr., 248
Prévost, Professor P., 273
Prismatic ice, 64, 67, 129, 287, 289, 303
_Public Ledger, The_, 169
Randolph, The Ice Gulch,, 83
Raymond, Mr. W. R., 291
Reich, F., 279
Religious feeling about ice, 135, 176, 262
Ritchie, Mr. John, Jr., 76, 83, 85, 143, 181, 292
Rogers, Professor W. B., 281
Roth, Eishöhle bei, 35
Rudolf II., Kaiser, 232
Ruffiny, Herr E., 252
Rumney, Freezing talus at, 85
Russell, Professor I. C., 166, 299
Saint-Georges, Glacière de, 62, 219, 285
Saint-Georges, Village of, 62
Saint-Livres, Glacière de, 65
Saint-Livres, Pré de, 66
Sakharov, Dr. A., 257
Samuel, Mr. B., 192, 209, 264
Sartori, Dr. F., 276
Satter, Professor H., 241
Saussure, H. B. de, 209, 274
Scandinavia, Glacières in, 191
Schafloch, The, 21, 222
Schallenberger, C., 232, 269
Schellenberger Eisgrotte, The, 227
Schwalbe, Dr. B., 241, 253, 298
Scott, Professor W. B., 176
Scrope, Mr. G. P., 278
Seelisberg, The Milchhaüser of, 45
Selby-Hill, Mr. W. D., 88
Servia, Glacières in, 242-245
Skerizora, Cave of, 245
Skinner's Cave, 76
Siberia, Glacières in, 259-261
Sieger, Professor, 232
Silliman, Professor, 279
Sirar, J., guide, 56
Snow, Subterranean, 16, 129, 206, 247
South America, Subsoil ice in, 189, 190
Spruce Creek, Freezing talus at, 90, 188
Stockbridge, Icy glen near, 75
Strachey, Gen. Sir R., 263
Strein, R., 232, 269
Suchenreuther Eisloch, The, 55
Summer's heat theory, The, 138
Summit, Glacières near, 95
Switzerland, Glacières in, 219-223
Szilize, Cave of, 253
Tablerloch, The, 233
Taluses, 79, 81, 85, 90, 100, 116
Temperatures, Subterranean, 112
Teneriffe, Glacière on the Peak of, 190
Terlanday, Dr., 301
Terminology, 109
Thermometric observations, 151, 178, 219, 227, 228,
233, 237, 252, 253
Thury, Professor, 122, 139, 213, 217, 219, 220, 285
Time of formation of ice, 159
Townson, R., 275
Trouillet, Captain, 202, 297
Turrian, A. A., gendarme, 48
Umlauft, Professor F., 293
Ural, Glacières in the, 257-259
Valvasor, Freiherr, 238, 240, 270
Villard, Mons. L., 133, 214
Viré, Mons. A., 134
Wachtl, Forester, 252
Wagner, Mr. W. W., 173
Wallingford, The ice beds of, 99
Watertown, Cave at, 87
Watertown, Windholes at, 86
Waves of heat and cold, Theory of, 141
White, Dr. C. A., 291
Williams, Mr. W. F., 101
Williamstown, Caves near, 101
Williamstown, The snow hole near, 98, 183
Winter's cold theory, The, 147
Windholes, 61, 111, 117
Windholes, The theory of, 124
Wordsworth, Verses by, 192
Yeermallik, Cave of, 261
Ziegler, Herr J. M., 45
* * * * *
Transcriber Note
Images were moved so as to not split paragraphs. Accents were
standardized. Obvious punctuation errors and typos repaired.
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