Ice-Caves of France and SwitzerlandBrowne, G. F. (George Forrest)
Science
Ice-Caves of France and Switzerland
Browne, G. F. (George Forrest)
Ice caves
In the way of explanation, Reich mentions the possibility of rocks of
peculiar formation possessing actually a low degree of temperature;[140]
but he rejects this suggestion, preferring to believe that in some cases
the cold resulting from evaporation is the cause of ice, and in others
the greater specific gravity of cold as compared with warmer air.
In the _Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles_,[141] it is stated that a
large quantity of ice is found in one of the recesses of the grotto of
Antiparos--a fact which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. After
penetrating a long way through difficult fissures, a square chamber is
at length reached, measuring 300 feet in length and breadth, with a
height of about 80 feet. The walls and roof and floor are beautifully
decorated with ice, and reflect all the colours of the rainbow. There
are groups of pyramidal and round columns, and in some parts of the cave
screens or curtains of ice 10 or 12 feet broad hang down to the floor.
In a later volume of the same periodical,[142] there is a description of
a hill in Virginia where ice is found in summer. This hill lies near the
road between Winchester and Romney, on the North River, latitude 39º N.
One side of the hill is entirely composed of loose stones from ten to
twenty pounds in weight, and under these the ice is found, although
their upper surface is exposed to the full sun from 9 or 10 A.M. till
sunset. In all seasons there is an abundance of ice. A writer in the
'London and Paris Observer'[143] visited the spot on the 4th of July,
after a time of stifling heat, and in ten minutes he found more ice than
the whole party could have carried away. He did not explore any farther
than the foot of the hill; but the neighbours, who used the ice
regularly in summer, assured him that it was to be found high up also.
A constant and strong current issued from the crevices, stronger and
infinitely colder than the current in the famous 'blowing cave' of
Virginia. A man had built a store-room for meat within the influence of
one of these currents, and hard dry icicles were seen hanging from the
wooden supports inside: the flies, too, which had been attracted by the
meat, were found frozen on to the stones. This is not the only district
where ice is found within temperate latitudes in North America. In
Professor Silliman's 'American Journal of Science,'[144] in a sketch of
the geology of the township of Salisbury, Con. (latitude 43° N.),
'natural ice-houses' are mentioned. These consist of chasms of
considerable extent in the mica-state, where ice and snow remain during
the greater part of the year. The principal of these chasms lies in the
east part of the town, and is several hundred feet long, sixty feet
deep, and about forty wide. The slate is of a very compact kind; and the
walls are perpendicular, and correspond with much exactness. At the
bottom is a cold spring, and a cave of considerable extent, in which it
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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