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.