FIGURE OF TREES ON ICE. 34 



IV. 



Curious Fact of the Outlines of Trees, accurately sketched on 

 the surface of the ice on the Bog Lakes of Ireland, In a Let- 

 ter from John Chichester, M. D. of Bath. 



To W. Nicholson, Esq. 

 SIR, 



THE account given in your Journal for April last, of the Trees buried 

 remarkable appearance of the ice in a pond in which a «° dcl Lj[£ eg 

 man lay drowned, brought to my recollection the following are marked 

 analogous, and perhaps no less curious phenomenon, occurring J? v t,ie ,10ar 

 in the Bog Lakes of Ireland, communicated to me some years j n g j ess per . 



since by the Rev. Mr. Mangin. The following are Mr. Man- «l»iible o*et 



; , « them, 



gin s own words :— 



"On the 24th of December, I8O9, 1 was in company with 

 a gentleman from Ireland, who mentioned what appeared 

 singular, and was then new to me : speaking of the bogs in 

 his neighbourhood, and of the large trees so frequently found 

 in them, he said, that at those periods of the year, when the 

 hoar frost fixes on the surfaces of the small lakes with which 

 those morasses abound, he had repeatedly observed the form 

 of a tree, (lying, perhaps, at a depth of fourteen or twenty 

 feet beneath,) sketched most accurately on the ice above j that 

 is to say, its iength, breadth, and ramifications denoted by the 

 frost not settling with equal force on those portions of the fluid 

 under which the tree was extended, while the congealment was 

 every where else more, dense and complete." The gentleman 

 added, that it was well known to the country people, who were 

 accustomed to search for and find timber when thus indicated. 

 The trees discovered in these places are of various kinds, 

 oaks, elms, &c. and very commonly yew trees of vast size, 

 their position invariably horizontal." 



Without any comment, I beg leave to subscribe myself. 

 Sir, 

 Your obedient Servant, 



JOHN CHICHESTER, M. D. 



And Physician at Bath. 



May nth, 1813. 



