282 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Looking down the Shaft, showing the Ice-covered Steps. 



was nearly free from the summer's product. This phenomenon has 

 regularly been repeated each year since its discovery. 



Mr. Dodd, who owns the land; had a small building erected around 

 the mine, leaving the roof, directly over the shaft, open so as to allow 

 the rays of the sun to beat in upon the ice formation. The beautiful 

 woods surrounding this spot make an ideal place for picnics and it has 

 become a favorite place for visitors to spend an afternoon, and inci- 

 dentally cool off. 



Two years ago (1910) the bottom of the shaft settled eighteen 

 inches, leading to an experiment by Mr. Dodd. He says that two sticks 

 of dynamite were placed about eight feet back into a crevice at the 

 bottom of the shaft and fired without turning a stone or dislodging any 

 earth in the shaft. A possible conclusion is that there is a cave under- 

 neath the mine large enough to absorb the shock of the explosion. 

 Nothing more has been done in the way of investigation. 



The Dingman Run Ice Mine is a more recent discovery, being 

 found on June 15, 1905, on Dingman Run on the farm of Mr. Pelchy. 

 Mr. Pelchy, with the help of another man, was clearing up some brush- 

 land for farming when, in order to get a better foothold on the steep 

 hillside, he tore away a little of the moss, which was several inches deep 

 at that place, and found pieces of ice. 



Having heard of the ice mine at Sweden Valley he began to dig 

 in the hope of discovering a similar phenomenon on his own farm. 

 He made an opening in the hillside ten feet deep by twenty across, 



