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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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