Chapter XII: Part I: , page 98. (Dewey, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1819, (3)

Glacière Cave of Balagansk. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--A narrow cleft, 80 meters long; 192 kilometers downstream from Irkutsk on the left bank of the Angora River; at a distance of 2 kilometers from the river.

Glacière Cave on the Onon River. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 66.)--A small cave; 48 kilometers from the Borsja Mountain.

Mines of Siranowsk. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 126.)--In the Altai Mountains, on the Buchtorma River, an affluent of the Irtysch. Magnificent ice formations have been found in these mines.

Mines of Seventui. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 126.)--Near Nertschinsk, on the Amoor River. Two of the levels contain perennial ice and hence are called _Ledenoi_. These are at a depth of about 60 meters in porous lava. The rest of the mine is in more solid rock.

Glacière Cave near Lurgikan. (Fugger, _Eishöhlen_, page 67.)--Near the confluence of the Lurgikan and Schilka Rivers, in the province Nertschinsk. From 2 meters to 7 meters wide. Length 280 meters.

Basins or Troughs Retaining Ice. (Dittmar, _Ueber die Eismülden im Östlichen Siberien_; Middendorff, _Zusatz_; _Bulletin de la classe physico-mathématique de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg_, 1853, vol. XI., pages 305-316.)--These troughs are nearly akin to gorges and gullies, but their water supply seems to come from a cause which is not usually present in gorges. Their principal observer, M. de Dittmar, thought that a cold and snowy winter would add materially to the supply of ice, but he also thought that a necessity to the existence of the ice in these troughs was an abundant water supply from a spring, whose temperature should be so high as not to freeze in winter. The cold is supplied by the winter temperatures. Some of the most important are reported--

In the Turachtach Valley.

Near Kapitanskji Sasiek.

In the valley of the River Belvi.

In the valley of the River Antscha.

In the Kintschen Valley.

In the neighborhood of Kolymsk.

In the Werchojanski Mountains.

In the Stanowáj Mountains.

KONDOOZ.

Cave of Yeermallik. (Burslem, _A peep into Toorkisthan_, 1846, chaps. X., XI.)--In the valley of the Doaub, northwest of Kabul. The entrance is half way up a hill, and is about 15 meters wide and 15 meters high. This is a large cave, with many ramifications and galleries. In the centre of a hall far within, Captain Burslem found a mass of clear ice, smooth and polished as a mirror, and in the form of a beehive, with its dome-shaped top just touching the long icicles which depended from the jagged surface of the rock. A small aperture led into the interior of this cone, whose walls were about 60 centimeters thick and which was divided into several compartments. Some distance from the entrance of this cave there is a perpendicular drop of 5 meters. A short distance beyond this, in one of the halls, were hundreds of skeletons of men, women and children, in a perfectly undisturbed state, also the prints of a naked human foot and the distinct marks of the pointed heel of an Afghan boot. The moollah, who was acting as guide, said the skeletons were the remains of seven hundred men of the Huzareh tribe who took refuge in the cave with their wives and children during the invasion of Genghis Khan, and who defended themselves so stoutly, that after trying in vain to smoke them out, the invader built them in with huge natural blocks of stone, and left them to die of hunger. Some of the Afghans said that the cave was inhabited by Sheitan, a possibility denied by the moollah who guided Captain Burslem, on the philosophical plea that the cave was too cold for such an inhabitant.

HIMÁLAYA.

Glacière Cave of Amarnath. (Miss Mary Coxe of Philadelphia showed me a copy of a letter of Dr. Wilhelmine Eger describing a visit to this cave.)--It lies three days' journey from Pailgam in Kashmere, on the borders of Little Tibet. The altitude is evidently high as one crosses snow fields to get to it. A small path zigzagging up a grassy slope leads to the cave and is a stiff climb from the valley. The cave opens on the side of a mountain and has a large, almost square mouth at least as big as the floor area within. The floor of the cave is the continuation of the grass slope and slants upwards and backwards to the back wall, the only case of the kind so far reported. This cave is most curiously connected with religion. Dr. Eger says that there are two small blocks of ice in it which never melt. From time immemorial these blocks of ice have been sacred to the Hindoos who worship them--as re-incarnations--under the names of Shiva and Ganesh. Dr. Eger saw offerings of rice and flowers on them. Thousands of pilgrims come every year at the end of July or beginning of August from all parts of India. Thousands of miles have been traversed and hundreds of lives laid down through this journey. Every year people die either before reaching the cave or after. The trip from Pailgam in Kashmere takes three days up and two days down, if one returns by a shorter route where the way is unsafe because of avalanches. So many have perished there that the pass is called "The Way of Death." This must be taken by one class of pilgrims, _Sardhas_ or Holy Men, to complete the sacred circuit, but the Hindoos say any one dying on the pass will go straight to heaven.

Icicles Formed by Radiation. (General Sir Richard Strachey, _Geographical Journal_, 1900, vol. XV., page 168.)--On the Balch pass of the Balch range in Tibet, General Strachey, in 1848, saw icicles of which he says: "On the rocks exposed to the south were very curious incrustations of ice, icicles indeed, but standing out horizontally like fingers towards the wind. I was not able to understand how they were caused, nor can I tell why they were confined to particular spots. The thermometer stood at 41°[F.], and though the dew point at the time would probably have been below 32°[F.], and the cold produced by evaporation sufficient therefore to freeze water, yet it is evident that no condensation could ever take place simultaneously with the evaporation. * * * It has since occurred to me that these icicles were formed by radiation. I found, subsequently, in a somewhat similar position, that a thermometer suspended vertically, and simply exposed to the sky in front of it, was depressed as much as 20° F. below the true temperature of the surrounding air. This result was, of course, due to the radiation through the extremely dry and rarefied atmosphere at the great elevation at which the thermometer was exposed. As radiation takes place freely from a surface of ice, the growth of such icicles as those described might be due to the condensation of vapour brought up by the southerly day winds that so constantly blow over these passes, and its accumulation in the form of ice on the exposed extremity of the icicle, the temperature of which might thus have been greatly reduced."

INDIA.

Ice Formed by Radiation. (T. A. Wise, _Nature_, vol. V., page 189; R. H. Scott, _Elementary Meteorology_, Third Ed., pages 61, 62.)--Mr. Bunford Samuel called my attention to the mode of manufacturing ice by radiation in India. It is as follows:--

"A very practical use of nocturnal radiation has been made from time immemorial in India in the preparation of ice, and on such a scale that about 10 tons of ice can be procured in a single night from twenty beds of the dimensions about to be given, when the temperature of the air is 15° or 20° [F.] above the freezing point. * * * The locality referred to is the immediate neighborhood of Calcutta. A rectangular piece of ground is marked out, lying east and west, and measuring 120 by 20 feet. This is excavated to the depth of two feet and filled with rice straw rather loosely laid, to within six inches of the surface of the ground. The ice is formed in shallow dishes of porous earthenware, and the amount of water placed in each is regulated by the amount of ice expected.

"In the cold weather, when the temperature of the air at the ice fields is under 50°, ice is formed in the dishes. The freezing is most active with N. N. W. airs, as these are driest; it ceases entirely with southerly or easterly airs, even though their temperature may be lower than that of the N. N. W. wind.

"No ice is formed if the wind is sufficiently strong to be called a breeze, for the air is not left long enough at rest, above the bed, for its temperature to fall sufficiently, by the action of radiation.

"The rice straw, being kept loose and perfectly dry, cuts off the access of heat from the surface of the ground below it, and, when the sun goes down, the straw being a powerful radiator, the temperature of the air in contact with the dishes is reduced some 20° below that prevailing some two or three feet above them. The rapid evaporation of the water into the dry air above creates also an active demand for heat to be rendered latent in the formation of steam, and the result of all these agencies is the formation of ice, under favorable circumstances, on the extensive scale above mentioned."

KOREA.

Glacière Cave on the Han Gang.--Messrs. J. Edward Farnum and George L. Farnum, of Philadelphia, inform me that they saw a small cave containing ice on the banks of one of the Korean rivers. It is about 75 kilometers from Seoul, nearly northeast, near the ferry where the old road leading from Seoul towards northern Korea crosses the Han Gang, the river which passes by Seoul. The entrance is small; perhaps 2 meters wide. The cave is not thoroughly explored. Ice lies near the entrance, and as far back as the Messrs. Farnum could see.

JAPAN.

Glacière Lava Cave near Shoji. (_Evening Telegraph, Philadelphia, January 2d, 1896._)--The cave is about 12 kilometers from Shoji, and is in lava. First there is a pit in the forest, some 5 meters wide by 15 meters deep. The cave opens into this. It seems to be some 400 meters long and from 2 meters to 12 meters high. There is an ice floor in places, also many ice stalagmites. At the furthest point reached there is a strong air current, which extinguishes torches and so far has prevented further exploration. Ice from the cave has been cut by the country people for sale at Kofu, which is not far distant.