676 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



When the cakes approach the storage-houses they enter the top of a 

 great wooden tower, in which the runways form a huge spiral, Down 

 this they slide with diminished velocity, and may be switched off at 

 any desired level directly into the houses. 



In good seasons a considerable quantity of ice is usually "stacked" ; 

 that is, })iled up in great heaps outside of the houses and covered up 

 with hay or straw. This ice is shipped eai'ly in the season, and the 

 housed stock saved for later use. Sometimes a considerable quantity 

 of ice is carried over from one year to another, and serves as an insur- 

 ance against bad seasons. When winter is coming on and navigation 

 liable to close on the river, all the available boats and barges are filled 

 with ice and sent down stream, and from this stock the early winter 

 deliveries are made. When this is exhausted, the supply may be drawn 

 from the houses which are in communication with the city by rail, or 

 the ice may be cut near these houses, put into the cars, and forwarded 

 directly. 



The insurance of ice-houses against fire, and in many regions against 

 wind, is an important matter. For, singularly enough, the destruction 

 of these buildings by fire is of such frequent occurrence that the insur- 

 ance rates are quite high. They seem to be favorite playthings of 

 the lightning, and it is probable that the shelter which the lee and 

 sunny sides of these large and often isolated structures afford to that 

 most disgusting combination of man, brute, and devil, the modern 

 tramp, would account for a considerable number of ice-house fires. 



The ice used in New York is largely brought to town in barges or 

 canal-boats, though a considerable quantity, notably that called Croton 

 Lake ice, from Ice Pond and Tuckahoe, comes in by rail. The ice- 

 barge, so familiar an object upon the river, is a singular, awkward 

 craft, with a great square house upon the deck, with slender derricks 

 in line fore and aft, and a small windmill at one end for pumping out 

 the water as it accumulates from the melting of the ice. The New 

 York ice-dealers are greatly favored by the extensive water-front of 

 the city, which enables them to almost entirely dispense v/ith expen- 

 sive storehouses in town, the ice being for the most part loaded from 

 the barges directly into the delivery-wagons. 



The delivery of ice in New York is largely controlled by the com- 

 panies which harvest it, by whom drivers are employed to su])ply their 

 customers. There are other concerns which make contracts for ice on 

 the large scale from the harvesters, and sell and deliver to their own 

 customers. But there is still a large number of men called "bush- 

 whackers " and " guerrillas," who work up custom in various sections 

 of the town, and get their ice where they can from the regular dealers. 



We are all familiar with the appearance of the ice-wagon, heavy 

 and usually clumsily built, a slight tilt of the body forward, painted 

 with any of the colors of the rainbow, or more commonly with colors 

 which the rainbow would blush to acknowledge, and adorned with 



