On the Ice Mountain of Hampshire County, Va. 79 
steepness and walled structure is retained, and the mountain 
forms an abutment or support to an enormous glacis or bank of 
rocks, which is thrown up against it on its western side. The 
following section, without pretending to topographical accuracy, 
will show the structure of the mountain and the relative position 
of the talus heap containing the ice. 
rt WES 
ie Ice Mountain. 
This natural glacis lies along the direction of the mountain, 
reaching high up towards its summit, and extending laterally 
several hundred feet from its base; the debris consists of frag- 
ments of sandstone, varying in size from a few inches to many 
feet in diameter, loosely heaped together, and from their irregular 
angular shape generally separated by large interstices. ‘The main 
ridge seen in the section is known as the Ice Mountain, though 
it is only in the interstitial cavities of the talus, that the ice is 
formed and preserved. 
The Ice Mountain was visited by the writer in the summer of 
1838, a season memorable in the annals of western Virginia for 
its long and distressing drought, so fatal to the crops. The 
heat of this season, though unparalleled in that region for duration 
and intensity, but slightly affected the temperature of the Ice 
Mountain, as ice was found in great abundance by the writer, by 
removing the rocks to the depth of a few inches. A thermom- 
eter on being introduced into one of the cavities between the 
rocks, so as to be exposed to the air without being in contact with 
the rock, rapidly sunk to below 40°, and would doubtless have 
been still further depressed had it been permitted to remain. 
The general low temperature of the rocks was evinced by the 
moisture which either bedewed their surface, or trickled from 
their sides; the result of the condensation of the atmospheric va- 
por by the low temperature of the rocks, although at the time, 
the dew point must have been extremely low. During the pre- 
vious winter, the rocks had been removed from a portion of the 
heap, to the depth of three or four feet, and the cavity thus 
