332 Notice of an Ice Mountain in Wallingford, Vt. 
the burning rays of a summer’s sun, and the exercise of ascend- 
ing and descending the White Rocks, two thick coats were hard- 
ly sufficient to render me comfortable, as I sat upon a rock just 
above the spot where the ice is found, and received the cold air 
as it came up from the icy caverns beneath. 
Various attempts have been made by ingenious philosophers to 
account for the formation and preservation of such a vast amount 
of ice, and in sucha place. But no reasoning appears mie 
isfactory and conclusive than that offered in the account of the 
“Ice Mountain” in Virginia. That it is owing mainly to the 
fact, that rocks are poor conductors of caloric, must be evident to 
every one at all familiar with the well established laws of heat, 
and the many striking instances, which science has brought to 
light, of the non-conduction of heat by various substances. 
The Ice Bed and the White Rocks are well worthy of being 
visited by the lovers of science, and those who are pleased with 
the grand and wonderful in the operations of nature. In a letter 
just received from Dr. Ives, who has long resided in Wallingford, 
and often visited the Ice Bed and White Rocks, he says: 
“ Standing in the ravine near the Ice Bed, those who havea 
taste for the sublime scenes of nature, cannot fail to be gratified in 
contemplating one of the most wild and awfully grand views that 
are to be found in the whole range of the Green Mountains. If 
surpassed by any scene in the Union, I have failed to notice it; 
and I have crossed this range at various points, and examined it 
with some attention, from the northern part of this State to its 
termination at West Rock, near New Haven, Conn. My eye has 
rested upon a large portion of the Alleghany and Cumberland 
mountains, and surveyed with thrilling interest the Highlands 
above New York, East and West Rock near New Haven, and 
the far-famed elevations of the Blue Ridge at Harper's Ferry; 
Virginia. But these justly celebrated scenes, though highly in- 
teresting, failed to impress me with that deep sense of the sub- 
lime, that I have never failed to experience while wandering 
among the vast moss-covered fragments of rock that are confu 
sedly piled over the large space between the head of the glet 
and the foot of the riven cliffs.” ti 
At the bottom of the ravine described above, a small stream of 
water is formed, which varies but little during the year, and the 
temperature of which is very low. 
Middlebury, Vt., Nov. 25, 1843. 
