674 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



for their interest to remove most of the snow layer. A little snow-ice 

 on the cakes, however, makes them keep better. We shall see by and by 

 that there are really very good reasons why the snow-ice from certain 

 sources should not be used for drinking purposes. 



At last the vicissitudes and anxieties of the growth of the ice-crop 

 are over, and the " boss " decides that the cutting shall begin. A good 

 deal of responsibility attaches to this decision, and many factors must 

 be considered. If a good thick mass has formed, say from ten to 

 fourteen inches, the sooner it is under cover the better. But if the 

 weather has been tickle and warm, and the layer is only from four to 

 six inches thick, it is a more difficult matter to decide. It is better to 

 have six-inch ice in the houses than none at all; but if by a little delay 

 two or three more inches could be secured, it would be an immense 

 gain. But, on the other hand, while waiting for the added increment, 

 warm weather or a freshet may suddenly come on, and the whole crop 

 be lost. Repeated snows upon the ice are bad ; an untimely breaking 

 up of the ice by a freshet is worse. But if, during the freshet, the 

 whole field is swept away, there is often still a chance for a new crop 

 to form. About the worst combination of misfortunes — and it is not 

 so very infrequent — is for the ice to soften, to be all jumbled up and 

 mixed with dirt and debris of various kinds from above by a freshet, 

 and then, before this mongrel and well-nigh useless mass can be swept 

 down stream and away, to have the whole thing freeze solid on the 

 spot. 



The first step in the ice-gathering is to draw two long, straight 

 lines on the ice at right angles to each other. With these as a guide, 

 a part of the field is marked off into blocks of the proper size, and it 

 then looks like a gigantic checker-board. Then other teams come on, 

 drawing the ice-plows, which are long, narrow-toothed blades, run- 

 ning along the ice like great horizontal saws. One plow follows 

 another along these narrow grooves until they are deep enough, so 

 that long strips of the outlined cakes may be readily loosened by a 

 saw. These separated strips of ice grooved off into cakes are pushed 

 along in a channel which has been cleared through the ice up to the 

 foot of the endless chain that runs up an incline to the houses. Here 

 the strips are broken apart along the deep cross-grooves into cakes by 

 hand-bars shaped like great chisels. The cakes are now caught upon 

 projections from the elevating chain, moved by steam, and up they go 

 one after another to the platforms at varying heights around the ice- 

 houses, or directly in at the main door. When the cakes enter the 

 storage-rooms they are shoved along wooden runs or movable tracks 

 to various parts of the chamber where layer by layer they are stowed 

 away. Sometimes a single inclined plane with its endless chain leads 

 up to a scries of platforms along the front of the building, which tier 

 above tier slope gently away from the top of the incline, so that the 

 ice-cakes, leaving the chain at the center, are slid down the platforms 



