694 



Ice-Houses. 



Ice is applicable to economical purposes 

 in hot weather, especially in country fami- 

 lies. 



In 1771) I built an ice-house in the 

 peninsula of Chesapeak, where the ground 

 is flat, and the surface only seventeen feet 

 above the high- water mark of a salt-water 

 river, and eighty yards from it. It was 

 constructed with great care to prevent en- 

 trance of air, according to the then univer- 

 sal practice ; and it was filled with 1700 

 aolid feet of ice, the pit being twelve feet 

 square and twelve feet deep : but it failed 

 of keeping the ice till summer, because of 

 its moisture and closeness. When the 

 pit was dug it shewed some appearance 

 of moisture near the bottom : the least 

 moisture is too much for an ice-house. 

 Moisture at the sides or bottom of an ice- 

 pit, is raised to the inside surface of the 

 dome by a heat which, in the deepest pits 

 that can be dug, is much above the freezing 



