78 On the Ice Mountain of Hampshire County, Va. 
Arr. IX.—On the Ice Mountain of Hampshire County, Vir- 
ginia, with a proposed explanation of its low temperature ; 
by C. B. Haypen. 
A MOUNTAIN possessing a temperature so independent of all ex- 
ternal causes, as to permanently preserve ice, within a few inches 
of its surface, unaffected by the vicissitudes of the seasons, or the 
diurnal variations of temperature, was too singular and striking a 
phenomenon, not to have early attracted observation. The Ice 
Mountain has hence received frequent notice, but of so indefi- 
nite and frequently exaggerated a character, as to fail to pro- 
duce a general belief in its existence, or to secure it that in- 
terest which this rare curiosity so richly merits. "The Ice Moun- 
tain is one of the subordinate ridges of the Cacasson Mountains, 
and is a continuation of the North River Mountain; the latter 
consists chiefly of sandstones, and constitutes the western portion 
of an anticlinal axis, which at its commencement, many miles 
south of the Ice Mountain, is low and symmetrical. As this axis 
proceeds north it becomes more developed, and loses its symme- 
try, the rocks on the western side having a much greater inclina- 
tion than the corresponding oneson the eastern. ‘This inclination 
of the rocks, constituting the western side of the axis, rapidly. 
increases with its development, until they become perpendic- 
ular, and form a distinet ridge, which in its continuation forms 
the Ice Mountain. It rises to the height of seven or eight hun- 
dred feet, forming a mural precipice, whose cragged summits 
split and rent, shoot suddenly up into sharp turreted spires, ot 
jagged pinnacles, resembling the battlements of a Gothic cas 
tle, or the minarets of a mosque. At other times, losing this 
wildness, it is as remarkable for its singular symmetry, as before 
for its fantastic irregularity. Still retaining its precipitousness; 
it rises to the height of several hundred feet; its uniform summit, 
and rude massive symmetry, its steep rock: sides, devoid of veg- 
etation, save where some stinted pine has “cast anchor in the 
rifted rock,” all combine to give it the character of a huge Cyclo- 
pean wall. This singular structure has been thus minutely 
described, both from the unique and imposing scenery to which 
it gives rise, and from the connexion it is supposed to have with 
the phenomenon of the Ice Mountain. At the Ice Mountain, the 
