Ice-Caves of France and SwitzerlandBrowne, G. F. (George Forrest)
Science
Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland
Browne, G. F. (George Forrest)
Ice caves
An ice-hole is also spoken of in the same article, which occurs on the
east side of the town of Vesoul.[129] The hole is described as being
small, with a little rivulet of water: this water, and also that which
trickles down the walls of the cave, is converted into ice, and so much
is formed on a cold day that it requires eight warm days to melt it.
Gollut, in his description of the _fré-puits_ of Vesoul,[130] observes
that the remarkable pit known by that name was so cold, that in his time
it had never been fully explored. Gehler's expression, however, 'a small
hole,' cannot possibly apply to the _fré-puits_; so that these would
seem to be two different examples of cold caves near Vesoul.
There is an interesting account in Poggendorff's Annalen[131] of a visit
made by Professor A. Pleischl to a mountain in the circle of Leitmeritz,
where ice is found in summer under very curious circumstances. The
mountain is called Pleschiwetz, and lies above Kameik, in Bohemia, not
far from the town of Leitmeritz. On the 24th of June in each year, large
numbers of pilgrims assemble at the romantic chapel of S. John the
Baptist in the Wilderness; and it is a part of their occupation to
search for ice under the basaltic rocks, and carry it home wrapped in
moss, as a proof that they have really made the pilgrimage. Professor
Pleischl visited this district at the end of May 1834. The weather was
hot for the season, as had been the case in April also, and there had
been very little snow in the winter. A path leads from the chapel of S.
John through the woods which deck the Pleschiwetz, and then over a small
plain to the foot of the basaltic rocks. Here the mountain slopes away
very steeply to the south, and the slope is thickly strewn with basaltic
_débris_. From east to west this slope measures about 40 fathoms, and
its length is about 70 fathoms. It is surrounded on both sides and at
the foot by trees and shrubs. The sun burned so directly on to the
_débris_, that the basaltic blocks were in some cases too hot to be
touched by the naked hand.
Professor Pleischl spent three hours of the early afternoon on this
spot. The upper surface of the basaltic blocks had a temperature of at
least 122° F. The presence of an icy current was detected by inserting
the hand into the lower crevices; and on removing the loose stones to a
depth of 1-1/2 or 2 feet, ice was found in considerable quantities. On
the 27th of August, he proceeded to make a further investigation of this
phenomenon; but he found the temperature of the blocks only 106° F., and
in the crevices, at a depth of 2 or 3 feet, the lowest temperature
reached was 38°·75 F. The external temperature in the shade was at the
same time 83° F.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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