BRIEF NOTICES OF OTHER ICE-CAVES.[122]
On the Brandstein in Styria, in the district of Gems, there is an
ice-hole closely resembling some of the glacières of the Jura. It is
described by Sartori,[123] as lying in a much-fissured region, reached
after four hours of steep ascent from the neighbouring village, through
a forest of fir. Some of the fissures contain water and some snow,
while others are apparently unfathomable. From one of the largest of
these, a strong and cold current blows in summer, and in this fissure is
the ice-hole. Sartori found _crimpons_ necessary for descending the
frozen snow which led from the entrance to the floor of the cave, where
he discovered pillars and capitals and pyramids of ice of every possible
shape and variety, as if the cave had contained the ruins of a Gothic
church, or a fairy palace. At the farther end, after passing large
cascades of ice, his party reached a dark grey hole, which lighted up
into blue and green under the influence of the torches; they could not
discover the termination of this hole, and the stones which they rolled
down into it seemed to go on for ever. The greatest height of the cave
is about 36 feet, and its length 192 feet, with a maximum breadth of 126
feet. Towards the end of autumn, the temperature of the ice-hole rises
so much, that the glacial decorations disappear, and various wild
animals are driven by the cold of winter to take shelter in the
comparative warmth of the cave. The elevation of the district in which
this ice-hole occurs is about 1,800 German feet above the sea.
In Upper Styria, where the Frauenmauer overlooks the basin in which the
mining town of Eisenerz is situated, an ice-cave has been explored, and
a description of it has been given by certain members of the Austrian
Alpine Club.[124] The Brandstein is spoken of as one of the peaks in the
immediate neighbourhood; and as the cave previously described is stated
by Sartori to be on the Brandstein, that district would seem to be rich
in glacières. The cavern is most easily explored from Eisenerz, and on
that side the entrance is 4,539 Vienna feet above the sea. Its other
outlet, in the Tragöss valley, is 300 feet higher. The total length of
the cave is 2,040 Vienna feet. After passing the entrance, which is an
archway from 12 to 18 feet high, the main course of the cave is soon
left, and a branch is followed which leads to the _Eis-kammer_. This
ice-chamber consists of a grotto from 30 to 40 fathoms long, decked with
ice-crystals, pillars of ice, and cascades of the same material, the
floor being composed of ice as smooth as glass. In the summer,
pleasure-parties assemble in the cave and amuse themselves with the game
of _Eisschiessen_, so popular in Upper Styria as a winter diversion. The
hotter the summer, the more ice is found in the Eiskammer, and the
general belief is that it all disappears in winter.
The cave proper, which assumes stupendous dimensions in its long course,
shows no ice. It seems to be formed in the Muschelkalk of the Trias
formation, and so far no limestone stalactites have been discovered. It
has not, however, as yet been fully explored. The editor of the
proceedings of the Austrian Alpine Club gives a reference to Scheiner,
'_Ausflug nach der Höhle der Frauenmauer,' (Steiermarkische Zeitschrift,
neue Folge_, i. 2, 1834, p. 3.)
At Latzenberg, near Weissenstein in Carniola, there is another ice-cave,
described by Rosenmüller.[125] It is entered by a long dark passage in
which are pillars of ice arranged like the pipes of an organ, varying
from the thickness of a man's body to the size of a straw. All these are
said to melt in winter. Farther on are two other passages, one of which
passes upwards over _Stufe_, and is coated in summer with ice; the other
has not been explored.
Near Glaneck in the Untersberg, not far from Salzburg, is a cave called
the Kolowrathöhle, of which a description is given by Gümbel in his
great geological work on the Bavarian Alps.[126] It is a spacious
cavern, opening in a steep wall of rock above the _Rositenschlucht_
between the Platten and _Dachstein-kalk._[127] An ice-current rushes
from within, and ice is found on the threshold, becoming more prevalent
in the farther recesses of the cave. The lower parts are tolerably
roomy, and masses of ice of various shapes are found piled one upon
another, lighting up with magical effect when torches are brought to
bear upon them. Gümbel believes that the cold currents which stream into
the cave from the numerous fissures in its walls are the cause of the
ice; and though this is the only known ice-cave far and near, he
imagines that the icy-currents which are frequently met with in that
district, and in the _Hochgebirge_, would be found to proceed in reality
from like caves, if the fissures from which they blow could be
penetrated.
Behrens[128] describes two ice-caves near Questenberg, in the county of
Stollberg, on the Harz mountains. They both occur in limestone, and are
known as the Great and Little Ice-holes. The one is close to the village
of Questenberg, and consists of a chasm several fathoms deep, so cold
that in summer the water trickling down its edges is frozen into long
icicles. The opening is large and faces due south, and yet the hotter
the day the more ice is found; whereas in winter a warm steam comes out,
as if from a stove. The other cave is farther into the mountain; it is
spacious and light, and very cold in summer.
In Gehler's _Physik. Wörterbuch_ (Art Höhle), a small hole is mentioned
near Dôle, which is said to be remarkable for the large and
curiously-shaped icicles found there; but no sufficient account of it
seems to have been given.
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.
A third visit, in January 1835, gave no results; but on January 21,
1838, the Professor succeeded in determining some very remarkable
facts. A depression in the sloping plain is called, _par excellence_,
the ice-hole; and this is surrounded by firs and birches, which grow
within three or four fathoms of the edge of the hole, so that the
rays of the sun do not reach the hole in winter. Fresh snow lay on
these trees; and there was nowhere any sign of melted snow, or of the
formation of icicles. The basaltic _débris_, in which ice had been
found in the summer, covers here a space of 5 fathoms long by 3 or 4
broad, immediately at the foot of a steep basaltic precipice. At
eleven in the morning the temperature was 14° F. in the shade; and
snow lay all round the ice-hole, to a thickness of 1-1/2 or 2 feet.
The snow which covered the _débris_ was pierced by holes, which could
not have been caused by the sun, for its rays did not penetrate the
trees; and, indeed, no sun had been visible for some days. These holes
were generally turned towards the north, and were like chimneys. On
investigation, it was found that icicles hung down into them, showing,
of course, past or present thaw, and within the cavities no ice was
found. The thermometer gave here from 27°·5 F. to 25°·15 F.; but in
the crevices, into which the thermometer could not be pushed, the hand
discovered a warm air. The moss drawn from these crevices was found to
be steeped in unfrozen water, and it froze promptly when brought into
the outer air.
The party afterwards climbed up the precipitous basalt, and reached, at
3 P.M., a level covered with large blocks of the same material, where
the thermometer was slightly under 12° F. in the shade. The blocks were
for the most part stripped of snow, and in some cases thin shields of
ice were observed standing out two or three inches from them, forming
hollow chambers, in which an agreeable warmth was found. These shields
were invariably on the south side of the stones, the north side being
free from ice and snow alike. In some places vapours were seen to rise.
The thermometer gave 41° F. at a depth of six inches among the stones,
though the external temperature, as has been said, was 12° F. For eight
days previously, the thermometer had been always far below the freezing
point, and on the 17th (four days before) had been 13° below zero (F.).
On the 19th and 20th heavy snow had fallen. All these facts seem to show
that the warmth which had caused the chimneys in the snow over the
ice-holes, and the heated vapours on the higher parts of the mountains,
proceeded from within, and not from without.
The people of the district assured Professor Pleischl that the hotter
the summer, the more ice is formed; and that it disappears when the
nights become long and the days short. Dr. Weiss, for six years head of
the Gymnasium of Leitmeritz, stated that when one of the holes was
emptied of ice in the summer, it filled again in a few days. The
explanation given by the Professor of this phenomenon is, that the
blocks of basalt, that being an excellent conductor of heat, pass so
much warmth through to their under surfaces--which form the roof of
small chambers filled with a spongy mass of decaying leaves--that the
rapid evaporation thereby caused produces the cold air and the ice. He
omits to explain why there should be anything exceptional in the winter
phenomenon of the crevices among the stones.
There are two other places in Bohemia where ice is found in summer. One
is on the Steinberg, in the county of Konaged;[132] it is a small basin,
surrounded by trees, where, in the middle of summer, lumps of ice are
found under basaltic _débris_. This ice is only formed, according to
Sommer, in the hottest part of the year. The other is on the
Zinkenstein, one of the highest points of the Vierzehnberg, in the
circle of Leitmeritz. It is described by Sommer[133] as a cleft, five
fathoms deep, in the basaltic rock, where ice is found in the hottest
seasons. Professor Pleischl put this assertion to the test by visiting
the spot in the end of August, when he found no signs of ice.
Another writer in Poggendorff[134] describes a somewhat similar
appearance on the Saalberg. Here ice is found on the surface from June
to the middle of August; and that, too, with a west exposure and in
moderate shade. In July, the ice was so abundant that it could be seen
from some distance: it was half a foot thick, and yielded neither to sun
nor rain. In the middle of August there was no ice on the surface; but
when the loose _débris_ was removed, the most beautiful ice appeared,
and at a little depth all was frozen as hard as if it had been the depth
of winter.[135] The people who work in the neighbourhood declare that
the place remains open, and free from ice or snow, in the greatest cold,
and that no ice begins to form till the month of June. When the writer
of the account in Poggendorff visited the ice-hole, the peasants were in
the habit of carrying large masses of ice down to their houses, through
a temperature of 81° F.
Reich[136] gives a detailed and valuable account of the prevalence of
subterranean ice on the Sauberg, a hill which forms one side of a ravine
near Ehrenfriedersdorf. The surface is about 2,000 feet above the sea,
and its mean temperature, as determined by many careful observations,
about 45° F. There are several tin-mines in this district, and the
extended observations made by the authorities establish the curious fact
that the mean temperature is considerably lower beneath than at the
surface. For instance, in the S. Christoph pit, it is found that the
mean temperature, at 15 fathoms below the surface, is only slightly
above 42° F.; while at the Morgenröther cross-cut the same mean
temperature is found at a depth of 46 fathoms. The annual change of
temperature is very small in these mines, and the maximum and minimum
are reached very late; so that, if a point could be found with a mean
temperature of 32° F., ice would increase there up to June or even July,
and then diminish until December or January; in which case the
phenomenon so often said to be observed in connection with subterranean
ice--the melting in winter and forming in summer--would really be
presented.
The ice on the Sauberg is frequently found to commence at a depth of 3
or 4 fathoms, and in the years 1811 and 1813 it extended to 24 fathoms
below the surface: this depth, however, was exceptionally great, and as
a rule the limit is reached at about 14 fathoms.[137] The ice is usually
not very firm, and can be broken by stout blows with a stick; but
between the years 1790 and 1800, when it was found at a depth of from 3
to 9 fathoms, it was so hard that blasting became necessary, and at that
time the miners were with difficulty protected from the effects of the
severe cold. The greatest quantity of ice is found in the interstices of
the rubbish-beds of old workings, and here it assumes a crystalline
form, the rocks being covered with a 'fibrous' structure, arranged
perpendicularly to their surface.
Reich reports the universal presence of cold currents of air in these
shafts and mines, and, in consequence, takes the opportunity of
contradicting a statement in Horner's _Physik. Wörterbuch,_[138] that
the absence of all current of air is essential to the formation of
subterranean ice. He quotes the case of the cheese-caves of Roquefort as
a further confirmation of his own observations with regard to the
connection between ice in caves and cold currents of air; but of the
many accounts which I have met with of the curious caves referred to,
both in books and from the lips of those who have visited them, not one
has made any mention of ice.[139] He states, too, that when the strength
of the current is diminished, its temperature is increased; a fact which
all observations of the cold currents in caves, especially those made
with so much care by M. Saussure, abundantly establish.
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
is probable that the ice lies--for the writer does not specify the
position in which it is found. The chasm is a favourite retreat in
summer, and is called the Wolf-hollow, from its having formerly been a
famous haunt for wolves.
Similar receptacles for summer-ice are found in several places in North
America. In the forty-ninth volume of the _Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserl.
Akademie in Wien_ (1te. Abth.), a list of references to various
ice-holes is appended to a paper by Dr. Boué on the geology of Servia.
Many of the passages referred to have nothing to do with ice-caves, as,
for instance, the sections of De Saussure's book describing his
observations of 'cold caves', or the account of the mass of ice and
snow from which the river Jumna springs, for which Dr. Boué refers to
the 'Philosophical Magazine' for November 1823, meaning, in fact, the
'London Magazine'. The 'Description des Glacières' of M. Bourrit is also
given as a part of the literature on ice-caves; whereas (see the account
of the Glacière of Montarquis, in the Valley of Reposoir) by 'glacière'
M. Bourrit meant only a locality where ice is to be found, or a glacier
district. Dr. Boué, however, gives some references to the 'American
Journal of Science' which it is possible to make out by a careful search
in the neighbourhood of the volume and page he mentions. In vol. iv.
(1822,--Dr. Boué says 1821) there is an account by the editor[145] of a
natural ice-house in the township of Meriden, Con., between Hartford and
Newhaven, at an elevation of not more than 200 feet above the level of
the sea. The ice is found in a narrow defile, which is hemmed in by
perpendicular sides of trap-rock, and displays a perfect chaos of fallen
blocks of stone. The defile is so narrow, that the sun's rays only reach
it for an hour in the course of the day; and even the trees and rocks,
and beds of leaves, protect the ice from any very material damage. Dr.
Silliman visited this defile on the 23rd July, 1821,[146] with Dr. Isaac
Hough, the keeper of a neighbouring inn, and found that the ice was only
partially visible, in consequence of the large collection of leaves
which lay on it: they sent a boy down with a hatchet, and he brought up
some large firm masses, one of which, weighing several pounds, they
carried twenty miles to Newhaven, where it did not entirely disappear
till the morning of the third day. Seven miles from Newhaven, in the
township of Branford, there is a similar collection of ice. In both of
these cases, the ice is mixed with a considerable quantity of leaves and
dirt.
In the same volume (p. 331,--Dr. Boué says p. 33), two accounts are
given of a natural ice-house near the summit of a hill in the
neighbourhood of Williamstown (Mass.). In the next volume there is a
further account of it by Professor Dewey, stating that since the trees
in the neighbourhood had been cut, the snow and ice had disappeared
each year about the first of August.
In vol. xlvi. (p. 331) an ice mountain in Wallingford, Rutland County
(Vt.), is described, which is ordinarily known in the neighbourhood as
the ice-bed. An area of thirty or fifty acres of ground is covered with
massive _débris_ of grey quartz from the mountains which overhang it;
and here--especially in a deep ravine into which many of the falling
blocks of stone have penetrated--ice is found in large quantities. It
appears to be formed during the melting of the snow in February, March,
and April, and vanishes in the course of the summer, in hot years as
early as the last days of June.
These descriptions call to mind the Glacière of Arc-sous-Cicon, in which
many of the features of the American ice-caves are reproduced. An
American photograph is current in this country, in the form of a
stereoscopic slide, representing an ice-cave in the White Mountains, New
Hampshire; but it is only a winter cave, and in no way resembles any of
the glacières I have seen. It is merely a collection of long and slender
icicles, with beds of ice formed upon stones and trunks of trees on the
ground; nothing more, in fact, than is to be seen in any tolerably
severe winter in the neighbourhood of a cascade in a sheltered Scotch
burn.
The 'American Journal of Science' (xxxvi. 184) gives a curious instance
of a freezing-well near the village of Owego, three-quarters of a mile
from the Susquehanna river. The depth of the well is 77 feet, and for
four or five months in the year the surface of the water is frozen so
hard as to render the well useless. Large masses of ice have been found
in it late in July. A thermometer, which stood at 68° in the sun, fell
to 30° in fifteen minutes at the bottom of the well; 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. No other well in that
neighbourhood presents the same phenomenon. A lighted candle was let
down, and the flame became agitated and thrown in one direction at a
depth of 30 feet, but was quite still at the bottom; where, however, it
soon died out. The water is hard or limestone water.
Rocks of volcanic formation would seem to afford favourable
opportunities for the formation of ice. Scrope mentions this fact in an
account of the curious district called Eiffel or Eifel, in Rhenish
Prussia, which was published originally in the 'Edinburgh Journal of
Science,'[147] and has since been translated in Keferstein's
Deutschland.[148] The village of Roth, near Andernach, is built on a
current of basalt, derived from the cone above it, which has at some
time sent down a stream of lava to the north and west. A small cavern
near the village, forming the mouth of a deep fissure in the
lava-stream, half-way up the cone, displays a phenomenon which the
writer says he has often observed in volcanic formations. The floor of
the cavern was covered with a crust of ice at the time of his visit,
about noon on a very hot day in August. The peasants report that there
is always ice in summer, and never in winter, when the sheep retreat to
the cave on account of its warmth. Steininger[149] found a thickness of
3 feet of ice on September 19, 1818, but it was evidently in a melting
state, and the thermometer stood at 36·5 F. in the cavern. He describes
it as possessing a narrow entrance facing north, entirely sheltered from
the sun by lava-rocks, and by the trees of a wood which covers the cone
of scoria.
Scrope believes that this is the mouth of one of the arched galleries so
frequently met with under lava in Iceland, Bourbon, and elsewhere; and
on this he founds his explanation of the phenomenon. If the other
extremity is connected with the external air at a much lower level, a
current of air must be constantly driven up this gallery, and in its
passage will be dried by the absorbent nature of the rock--which is
perhaps partly owing to the sulphuric or muriatic acid it
contains[150]--and the evaporation caused by this current produces a
coating of ice on the floor of the grotto, where there is a superficial
rill of water. The more rarified the lower external air, the more rapid
will be the current of cool air; and, therefore, the greater the
evaporation. The winter phenomenon is to be explained by the fact that
the current of air will be about the mean annual temperature of the
district, taking its temperature, in fact, from the rocks through which
it passes; and, therefore, by contrast the grotto will appear warm.
The same writer mentions a similar example of summer ice in
Auvergne.[151] There is a natural grotto in the basalt near Pont Gibaud,
some miles to the north-west of Clermont, in which a small spring is
found partly frozen during the greatest heats of summer, while the water
is said to be warm in winter; probably, Scrope observes, only seeming to
be warm by contrast with the external temperature. The water is
apparently frozen by means of the powerful evaporation produced by a
current of very dry air proceeding from some long fissures or arched
galleries which communicate with the cave. In this case also the writer
suggests that the air owes its dryness to the absorbent qualities of the
lava through which it passes: he repeats, too, the remark that the
phenomenon is of common occurrence in caverns in volcanic
districts.[152]
There is a remarkable instance of ice occurring under lava, near the
_Casa Inglese_ on Mount Etna, which it may be as well to mention, though
the causes of its existence have probably nothing in common with the
phenomena of ice-caves, or summer ice. An account of it is to be found
in Sir Charles Lyell's 'Elements of Geology.'[153] It appears that the
summer and autumn of 1828 were so hot, that the artificial ice-houses of
Catania and the adjoining parts of Sicily failed. Signer M. Gemmellaro
had long believed that a small mass of perennial ice at the foot of the
highest cone of Etna was only a part of a large and continuous glacier
covered by a lava current, and from this he expected to derive an
abundant supply of ice. He procured a large body of workmen, and
quarried into the ice; but though he thus proved the superposition of
lava for several hundred yards, the ice was so hard, and the expense of
quarrying consequently so great, that the works were abandoned. This was
on the south-east of the cone, not far from the _Casa Inglese_. Sir
Charles Lyell suggests that, probably, at the commencement of some
eruption, a large mass of snow has been thickly covered with volcanic
sand, showered upon it before the arrival of the lava itself. This sand
is a non-conductor of heat, and would therefore tend to preserve the
snow from complete fusion when the hot lava-stream passed over it, and
thus the existence of the underground glacier may be explained. The
peasants of the district are so well acquainted with the non-conducting
properties of volcanic sand, that they secure an annual store of snow,
for providing water in summer, by strewing a layer of sand a few inches
thick upon a field of snow, thus effectually shutting out the heat of
the sun. It is curious that when De Saussure visited Chamouni for the
first time, his attention was arrested by the sight of women sowing what
seemed to be grain of some kind in the snow; but, on enquiring, he found
that it was only black earth, which the inhabitants spread on the snow
in spring, in order to make it disappear sooner. He was told that snow
thus treated would melt a fortnight or three weeks before the ordinary
time for its disappearance in the valley; but it will be seen that this
does not contradict the theory of the Sicilian peasants.[154]
Sir Charles Lyell adds that, after what he saw on Mount Etna, he should
not be surprised to find layers of glacier and lava alternating in some
parts of Iceland.
Something similar was observed by Von Kotzebue, near the sound which
bears his name.[155] His party was encamped on a large plain covered
with moss and grass, when they discovered a fissure which revealed the
fact that the moss and grass were but a thin coating on a layer of ice a
hundred feet thick. This was not mere frozen ground, but aboriginal ice;
for, in the ice which formed the walls of the fissure, they found the
bones and teeth of mammoths embedded.
The frozen soil of Jakutsk, in Siberia, has for many years attracted
considerable attention. The ordinary law of increase of temperature in
descending below the surface of the earth would appear, however, to be
only modified here; for it is found in sinking a well which has
afforded opportunities for observing the state of the soil, that the
temperature gradually increases with the depth.[156]
Two ice-caverns were examined by Georgi, in the course of his travels in
Russia.[157] One occurs near the mines of Lurgikan, on the east side of
a hill about 450 feet high, not far from the confluence of the Lurgikan
stream with the Schilka (a tributary of the Amur), in the province of
Nertschinsk. In the course of driving an adit in one of the lead-mines,
in the year 1770, the workmen were struck by the hollow sound given
forth by the rock, and, on investigation, they found an immense grotto
or fissure, of which the entrance was so much blocked up by ice that
they had much difficulty in sliding down by means of ropes. The fissure
extended under the hill, in a direction from north to south, and was 130
fathoms long, from 1 to 8 broad, and from 3 to 12 high. Where it
approached nearest the surface, the thickness of the roof was about 10
fathoms. The rock is described by Georgi as _quarzig, bräunlich, und von
einem starken Kalkschuss_. He found the greater part of the walls
covered with ice, and many pillars and pyramids of ice on the floor. The
cold was moderate, and was said to be much the same in summer and
winter. Patrin has given a fuller description of the same cavern in the
_Journalde Physique_.[158] The lead-mine is in limestone rock,
containing a third part of clay. The entrance to the glacière was still
difficult at the time of his visit, and it was necessary to use a rope,
and also to cut steps, for the descent was made along a ridge of ice
with almost perpendicular sides. The spectacle presented by the
decoration of the roof was remarkably beautiful, long festoons and tufts
of ice hanging down, light and brilliant as silver gauze: this ice was
supposed to be formed from the abundant vapours of the beginning of
winter, and resembled glass blown to the utmost tenuity. It was
crystallised, too, in a wonderful manner. Patrin found long bundles of
hexahedral tubes, the walls of which were formed of transverse needles:
the diameter of these tubes was from two to six lines only, but at the
lower extremities they opened out into hollow six-sided pyramids, more
than an inch in diameter, so that the festoons, sometimes as large round
as a man, presented terminal tufts of some feet in diameter, which
glittered like diamonds under the influence of the torches. Towards the
farther end of the fissure, stalactites of solid ice were found,
displaying all the forms and more than all the beauty of limestone
stalactites. The other instance mentioned by Georgi occurred in the
mines of Serentvi, where two of the levels yielded perennial ice, and
were thence (Georgi says) called _Ledenoi_. A spring of water flowed
from the rock at a depth of thirty fathoms below the surface, and was
promptly frozen into a coating of ice a foot thick. Patrin[159] visited
Serentvi, but he did not observe any ice in the mines. He believed the
rock to be very ancient lava.
Reich[160] mentions a cavern on Mount Sorano which contains ice, quoting
Kircher;[161] but he seems to have misinterpreted his author's
Latin.[162] He also refers to the existence of ice in the mines of
Herrengrund in Hungary, and Dannemora in Sweden. Kircher, who has the
credit of having been the first to call attention to the increase of
temperature in the earth, made full enquiries into the temperature of
the mines at Herrengrund, but he was not informed of the existence of
ice.[163]; Townson visited these mines in the course of his travels in
Hungary, and neither does he make any mention of ice in connection with
them. He describes them as lying south of Teplitz, in a limestone
district, with sandstone in the more immediate neighbourhood. The mines
themselves (copper mines) are in a kind of mica-schist, which the people
call granite. The superintendent of mines informed Reich that one of the
shafts is called the ice-mine, from the fact that when the workmen
attempted to drive a gallery from south to north, they came upon ice
filling up the interstices of the _Haldenstein_, within five fathoms of
the commencement of the gallery. The temperature was so low, and the
expense caused by the frozen mass so great, that the working was
stopped.
The iron mines of Dannemora, eleven leagues from Upsal, contain a large
quantity of ice, according to a manuscript account by Mr.
Over-assessor-of-the-board-of-mines Winkler:[164] Jars, however, in his
_Voyages Métallurgiques_,[165] gives a full description of them without
mentioning the existence of ice. He states that ice is found in the
mines of Nordmarck, three leagues from Philipstadt in Wermeland, a
province of Sweden: these mines are merely numerous shafts sunk in the
earth, reaching to the bottom of the vein of ore, so that they are fully
exposed to the light, and yet the walls of the shafts become covered
with ice at the end of winter, which remains there till the middle of
September. Jars believed that, if it were not for the heat caused by
blasting, and by the presence of the workmen, the ice would be
perennial. Humboldt[166] speaks of the ice in these mines and on the
Sauberg. Reich states that ice is found in the mill-stone quarry of
Nieder-Mendig, quoting Karsten's _Archiv für Bergbau_.[167] The ice is
found in the hottest days of summer, although the interior of the quarry
is connected with the outer air by many side shafts. The porous nature
of the stone is assigned as the cause of the phenomenon. Daubeny (On
Volcanoes) describes the remarkable basaltic deposits at
Niedermennig--as he spells it--but says nothing of the existence of ice.
Daubuisson[168] speaks of a _Schneegrube_, on a summit of the
_Riesengebirge_, in Silesia, 4,000 feet above the sea; but such holes
are common enough at that elevation, and I have seen two or three
remarkable instances on the Jura, within the compass of one day's walk.
Voigt[169] describes an _Eisgrube_ in the Rhöngebirge, on the
_Ringmauer_, the highest point of the _Tagstein_, where abundant ice is
found in summer under irregular masses of columnar basalt. Reich had
received from a forest-inspector an account of an ice-hole in this
neighbourhood, called _Umpfen_, which is apparently not the same as that
mentioned by Voigt.
In the Saxon Erzgebirge there are three points remarkable for their low
temperature,[170] in addition to the mines on the Sauberg mentioned
above. These are the _Heinrichssohle_, in the Stockwerk at Altenberg,
where the mean of two years' observations gives the temperature 0°·54 F.
lower at a depth of 400 feet than at the surface; the adit of
_Henneberg_, on the Ingelbach, near Johanngeorgenstadt, where the
temperature was again 0°·54 F. lower than in shafts some hundred feet
higher; and the _Weiss Adler_ adit, on the left declivity of the valley
of the Schwarzwasser, above the Antonshütte. It would appear that there
are local causes which affect the temperature in the Erzgebirge, for
Reich found that in several places the mean temperature of the soil was
higher than that of the air: for instance--
Soil. Air. Height above the sea.
Altenberg ... 42·732° Fahr. 41·27° 2,450 feet
Markus Röhling ... 43·542° " 41·832° 1,870"
Johanngeorgenstadt. 43·115° " 41·09° 2,460"
The temperature at Markus Röhling is peculiarly anomalous, considering
the elevation of the surface above the sea.
There is said to be an ice-cave in Nassau, but I have been unable to
obtain any account of it, unless it be the same as the _ice-field_
mentioned on page 303.
There is a cave in the south-east of Hungary[171] which presents the
same features as several of the glacières I have visited. It is called
the Ice-hole of Scherisciora, and is described as lying in the
Jura-kalk, at a distance of 2-1/2 hours north-east from the
forest-house of Distidiul. The approach is by ladders, down a pit 30
fathoms wide and 24 deep; and when the bottom of this pit is reached,
an entrance is found to the cave in the north wall, in the
neighbourhood of which is congealed snow which shortly becomes ice.
The floor of the first chamber is composed of glacier-ice, separated
from the side walls by a cleft from 1 to 3 feet wide, where it shows a
depth of from 4 to 6 feet; it is as smooth as glass, and about 6
fathoms from the entrance a cone of ice stands upon it, 8 or 9 feet
high. Both the floor and the cone are at once seen to be transformed
remains of ancient masses of snow, and are of a dirty yellow colour.
At the back of this chamber, a narrow passage opens towards the interior
of the mountain, and winds steeply down with a height of 4 feet, and a
length of a few fathoms, till a magnificent dome is reached, on the
beauties of which Herr Peters becomes eloquent. The floor is so smooth
that crimpons are necessary, and stalagmites and stalactites of ice are
found in rich profusion, the latter being generally formed on small
limestone stalactites, while the former have no such nucleus.
There is another opening near the original entrance to the cave, a sort
of fissure covered with elegant forms of ice, leading to a steep shaft.
The imperial forester of Topfanalva was bold enough to let himself down
the slope of ice which formed the edge of the shaft, on a rope ladder 60
feet long, notwithstanding the difficulty of grasping the iron steps
which of course lay pressed on to the ice; but when he had descended
about 30 feet, the shaft became perpendicular, and stones thrown in
showed a very considerable depth. There appeared to be no sound of water
in the abyss below.
Both entrances, that to the shaft as well as that to the second chamber,
were ornamented with delicate ice crystals, which occurred both on the
limestone stalactites and on the walls, and presented almost the
appearance of plants of cauliflower. The ice-floor of the first chamber
is described as consisting of a 'coarse-grained' material.
In the south-east of Servia, on the western slope of Mount Rtagn, is a
pit 20 feet in diameter, and 40 or 50 feet deep, the bottom of which is
reached by a succession of trunks of trees with the branches lopped off,
a sort of ladder called _stouba_ by the natives.[172] The peasants
assert that the snow and ice disappear from this pit in September, and
do not reappear before June. The Swiss peasants have never yet got so
far as to say that the _snow_ in their pits disappears in winter and
returns in summer. Boué[173] found the temperature of the bottom of the
pit to be 28°.4 F., while that of the air outside was 76° F. The same
writer[174] mentions a source in a mill-stone quarry in Bosnia which is
frozen till the end of June.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 122: Several of these caves are referred to by Reich,
_Beobachtungen über die Temperatur des Gesteins in verschiedenen Tiefen
in den Gruben des Sächsischen Erzgebirges;_ Freiberg, 1834.]
[Footnote 123: _Naturwunder des Oesterr. Kaiserthums_, iii. 40.]
[Footnote 124: _Mittheil. des Oesterr. Alpen-Vereins_, ii. 441. I am
indebted to G.C. Churchill, Esq., one of the authors of the well-known
book on the Dolomite Mountains, for my knowledge of the existence of
this cave, and of the Kolowrathöhle.]
[Footnote 125: _Beschreibung merkwürdiger Höhlen_, ii. 283.]
[Footnote 126: _Geognostísche Reschreibung des bayerischen
Alpengebirges_; Gotha, 1861.]
[Footnote 127: These constitute the upper bone bed and Dachstein
limestone beds of the uppermost part of the Trias formation.]
[Footnote 128: _Hereynia Curiosa_, cap. v. The same account is given in
Behren's _Natural History of the Harz Forest_, of which an English
translation was published in 1730.]
[Footnote 129: See also Muncke, _Handbuch der Naturlehre_, iii. 277;
Heidelberg, 1830.]
[Footnote 130: See page 58. The more modern spelling is _frais-puits_.]
[Footnote 131: liv. 292.]
[Footnote 132: Described by Schaller, _Leitmeritzer Kreis_, p. 271, and
by Sommer, in the same publication, p. 331. I have not been able to
procure this book.]
[Footnote 133: _Böhmens Topogr._, i. 339. This reference is given by
Professor Pleischl.]
[Footnote 134: _Annalen_, lxxxi. 579.]
[Footnote 135: I was told, in 1864, by a chamois-hunter of Les Plans, a
valley two hours above Bex, that some years before he was cutting a
wood-road through the forest early in September, when, at a depth of 6
inches below the surface, he found the ground frozen hard. We visited
the place together, but could find no ice. The whole ground was composed
of a mass of loose round stones, with a covering of earth and moss, and
the air in the interstices was peculiarly cold and dry.]
[Footnote 136: _Beobachtungen_, &c. (see note on p. 258), 181.]
[Footnote 137: Reich found the temperature of the ice to be 31·982° F.,
that of the air in the immediate vicinity 34·025°, and the rock, at a
little distance, 32·765°.]
[Footnote 138: iii. 150.]
[Footnote 139: See many careful descriptions of these caves in the
_Annales de Chimie_; also, an account by Professor Ansted, in his
_Science, Scenery, and Art_, p. 29. M. Chaptal (_Ann. de Chimie_, iv.
34) found the lowest temperature of the currents of cold air to be 36º·5
F.; but M. Girou de Buzareingues _(Ann. de Chimie et de Phys_., xlv. 362)
found that with a strong north wind, the temperature of the external air
being 55º·4 F., the coldest current gave 35º·6 F.; with less external
wind, still blowing from the north, the external air lost half a degree
centigrade of heat, while the current in the cave rose to 38º·75 F. The
cellars in which the famous cheese of Roquefort is ripened are not
subterranean, but are buildings joined on to the rock at the mouths of
the fissures whence the currents proceed. They are so valuable, that
one, which cost 12,000 francs in construction, sold for 215,000 francs.
The cheese of this district has had a great reputation from very early
times. Pliny (_Hist. Nat_. xi. 97) mentions, with commendation, the
cheeses of Lesura (_M. Lozère_ or _Losère_) and Gabalum (_Gevaudan,
Javoux_). The idolaters of Gevaudan offered cheeses to demons by
throwing them into a lake on the Mons Helanus _(Laz des Helles?_) and it
was not till the year 550 that S. Hilary, Bishop of Mende, succeeded in
putting a stop to this practice.]
[Footnote 140: It would seem from his own account of the Sauberg, and
from the description given above of the presence of ice among the rocky
_débris_, as well as from the account on this page of ice in Virginia,
that a formation of loose stones is favourable to the existence of a low
degree of temperature. See also the note on p. 263, with respect to the
loose stones near Les Plans. Forchhammer found, on the Faroë Islands,
that springs which rise from loose stones are invariably colder than
those which proceed from more solid rock at the same elevation, as
indeed might have been expected.]
[Footnote 141: xvii. 337. The account is taken from a Dutch journal.]
[Footnote 142: xix. p. 124.]
[Footnote 143: October 11, 1829.]
[Footnote 144: viii. 254.]
[Footnote 145: Pp. 174-6.]
[Footnote 146: Thermometer about 85° F.]
[Footnote 147: v. 154.]
[Footnote 148: iv. 300.]
[Footnote 149: _Die erlöschenen Vulkane in der Eifel_, S. 59.]
[Footnote 150: Dr. Gmelin, of Tubingen, detected the presence of ammonia
both in clinkstone lava and in columnar basalt (_American Journal of
Science_, iv. 371).]
[Footnote 151: _Geology and Extinct Volcanoes of Central France_, p. 60
(second edition).]
[Footnote 152: Mr. William Longman has informed me that some years ago
he had ice given him in summer, when he was on a visit to the inspector
of mines at Pont Gibaud, and he was told that it was formed in a
neighbouring cavern during the hot season.]
[Footnote 153: Original edition of 1830, i. 369.]
[Footnote 154: See Professor Tyndall's _Glaciers of the Alps_, for an
account of glacier-tables, sand-cones, &c. Anyone who has walked on a
glacier will have noticed the little pits which any small black
substance, whether a stone or a dead insect, sinks for itself in the
ice.]
[Footnote 155: Gilbert, _Annalen_, lxix. 143.]
[Footnote 156: According to the latest accounts I have been able to
obtain, a temperature of 29·75° F. had already been reached some years
ago; the temperature, a few feet from the surface, being 14° below
freezing. The soil here only thaws to a depth of 3 feet in the hottest
summer. Sir R. Murchison wrote to Russia, in February last, for further
information regarding this well.
Since I wrote this, Sir Roderick Murchison has applied to the Secretary
of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg for further information
respecting the investigations at Jakutsk. The Secretary gives a
reference to Middendorff's _Sibirische Reise_, Bd. iv. Th. i., 3te
Lieferung, _Klima_, 1861. I have only been able to find the edition of
1848-51; but in that edition, under the heading _Meteorologische
Beobachtungen_, elaborate tables of the meteorological condition of
Jakutsk are given (i. 28-49). Also, under the heading _Geothermische
Beobachtungen_, very careful information respecting the frozen earth
will be found (i. 157, &c., and 178, &c.). The point at which a
temperature of 32° will be attained, is reckoned variously at from 600
to 1,000 feet below the surface.]
[Footnote 157: Reise im Russischen Reich_, i. 359; St. Petersburg,
1772.]
[Footnote 158: xxxviii. 231 (an. 1791), in an article called _Notice
minéral, de la Daourie]
[Footnote 159: L.c., p. 236.]
[Footnote 160: _Beobachtungen_, &c., 194.]
[Footnote 161: _Mundus Subterraneus_, i. 220 (i. 239, in the edition of
1678).]
[Footnote 162: 'Vidi ego in Monte Sorano cryptam veluti glacie
incrustatam, ingentibus in fornice hinc inde stiriis dependentibus, e
quibus vicini mentis accolæ pocula æstivo tempore conficiunt, aquæ
vinoque quæ iis infunduntur refrigerandis aptissima, extremo rigore in
summas bibentium delicias commutato.']
[Footnote 163: Both here and at Schemnitz, Kircher made particular
enquiries on a subject of which scientific men have altogether lost
sight. At Schemnitz he asked the superintendent, _an comparcant
Dæmunculi vel pygmæi in fodinis?--respondit affirmative, et narrat plura
exempla_; and at Herrengrund, _utrum appareant Dæmunculi seu
pygmæi?--respondit tales visos fuisse, et auditos pluries_. (Edition of
1678, ii. 203, 205.)]
[Footnote 164: Reich, 199.]
[Footnote 165: i. 108 (Lyon, 1794).]
[Footnote 166: _Ueber die unterirdischen Gasarten_, 101.]
[Footnote 167: xvii. 386.]
[Footnote 168: _Mém. sur les Basaltes de la Saxe_, p. 147.]
[Footnote 169: _Mineralog. Reisen_, ii. 123.]
[Footnote 170: Reich, 200, 201; Bischof, _Physical Researches on the
Internal Heat of the Globe_, 46, 47.]
[Footnote 171: Peters, _Geologische und mineralogische Studien aus dem
sudöstlichen Ungarn_, in the _Sitzungsberichte der kais. Ak. in Wien_,
B. xliii., 1te Abth., S. 435. See also pages 394 and 418 of the same
volume (year 1861).]
[Footnote 172: Such ladders are in ordinary use in the Jura.]
[Footnote 173: _Turquie d'Europe,_ i. 132 (he quotes himself as i. 180,
in the _Sitzungsb, der k. Ak. in Wien_, xlix. l. 324).]
[Footnote 174: L.c., p, 521.]
* * * * *