i^g3» on nuiJclng ice in India. 171 



The ice maKer belonging to me at Allabahad, (at 

 ■which place I principaUy attended' to this inquiry,) 

 made a sufficient quantity in the winter for the sup- 

 ply of the table during the summer season. " Tlie 

 methods he pursued were as follow ; on a large 

 open plain, three or four ejwavations were made, 

 each about thirty feet square, and two deep, the 

 bottoms of which were strewed about eight in- 

 ches or a foot thick with sugar canes, or the stems 

 of the large Indian corn dried. Upon thfs bed 

 were placed in rows, near to each other, a number 

 of small Ihallow earthen pans, for contaiiiin*:; 

 the water intended to be frozen. These are ungla- 

 zed, scarce a quarter of an inch thick, about an incli 

 and a quarter in depth, and made of an earth so 

 porous, that it was visible from tlie exterior part o:" 

 the pans, that water had penetrated the whole sub- 

 stance. Towards the dufk of ihe evening, they ere 

 filled with soft water, which had been boiled, and 

 then left in the afore-related situation. The ice m?.- 

 kers attended the pits usually before the sun was above 

 the horizon, and collected in bafkets wliat was frozen 

 by pouring the whole contents of the pans Into them, 

 and thereby retaining the ice, which was daily con- 

 veyed to tiie grand receptacle, or place of preser- 

 vation, prepared generally in some high dry situation, 

 by sinking a pit fourteen or fifteen feet deep, line<l first 

 with straw, and then with a coarse kind of blanket- 

 ing, where it is beat down with rammers, till its own 

 accumulated cold again freezes, and forms one soli.l 

 mafs. The mouth of the pit is well secured from the 

 exterior air with straw and bir.nkcts, in the mannec 



