found it to be a regular ice house, with 

 snow and ice packed in solidly among 

 the chips. I tried the pile in other places 

 and found the same conditions everywhere. 

 A foot or two beneath the surface the ice 

 remained as perfectly preserved as if it were 

 January instead of midsummer. Here were 

 shade and coolness such as no sun could 

 disturb, and in a moment it came to me how 

 the queer thing had come about. 



All winter long the lumbermen had 

 chopped their fire-wood on the same spot, 

 using axes only, and making an enormous 

 amount of chips and rubbish. When heavy 

 snows fell, instead of clearing it away, they 

 simply cut more wood on top of it, tramp- 

 ing the snow beneath into a solid mass and 

 covering it over with fresh chips. So the pile 

 grew, first a layer of chips, then a thick 

 blanket of snow, then more chips and snow 

 again, growing bigger and bigger until in 

 April the lumbermen locked their shanty 

 and went out on the spring drive of logs. 



When the spring sun melted the snow in 

 the woods the big pile remained, settling 



