THE SWEDEN VALLEY ICE MINE 



283 



finding crevices in the rock from which he took chunks of ice weighing 

 twenty and twenty-five pounds. Nothing moie was done to bring this 

 mine to the notice of the public and consequently it is known to but 

 very few people even in Coudersport. 



Although the Sweden Valley Ice Mine was discovered in 1898, it is 

 practically unknown to-day. It is astonishing how many people within 

 a few miles have never visited it nor heard of it. Recent inquiry 

 (March, 1912) at the United States Geological Survey, Washington, 

 brought forth the following response : 



There are in northern Pennsylvania, on the high plateau, several localities 

 where, during the winter, snow and ice accumulate in large quantities under the 

 protection of cliffs and caves, so that ice is obtainable from these sources during 

 the succeeding warm season, but the Geological Survey has no knowledge of any 

 ice mine in which ice is actually forming during the warm season. 



The reason the U. S. Geological Survey has no record of these phe- 

 nomena is that their survey in Potter County has never been completed 

 and no atlas of the county has ever been published. 



Further inquiry brought the following reply: 



Icicles forming from the Top of the Shaft. 



