176 Natural Ice Houses. 
support) are now growing on some of these fragments of 
rock. Leaves also and other vegetable ruins have accumu- 
lated among the rocks and trees, and choked the mouths of 
many of the cavities among the ruins. This defile, thus 
narrow and thus occupied by forest, and by rocky ruins, 
runs nearly N. and S. and is completely impervious to the 
sun’s rays, except when he is near the meridian. Then in- 
deed, for an hour, he looks into this secluded valley, but 
the trees and the rocks and the thick beds of leaves scarcely 
permit his beams to make the slightest impression. 
It is in the cavities beneath the masses of rocks already 
described, that the ice is formed. ‘The ground descends a 
little to the South, and a small brook appears to have formed 
a channel among the rocks. The ice is thick and well con- 
solidated, and its gradual melting, in the warm season, 
causes a stream of ice-cold water to issue from this defile. 
This fact has been known to the people of the vicinity for 
several generations, and the youth have, since the middle of 
the last century, been accustomed to resort to this place, in 
parties, for recreation, and to drink the waters of the cold- 
flowing brook. 
It was on the 23d of last July, in the afternoon ofa 
very hot day when the thermometer was probably as high as 
85° of Farh. that under the guidance of Dr. Hough we en- 
tered this valley. After arriving among the trees, and in 
the immediate vicinity of the ice, there was an evident chilli- 
ness in the air and very near the ice, the air was, (compared 
with the hot atmosphere which we had just left) rather un- 
comfortably cold. ‘The ice was only partially visible, be- 
ing covered by leaves, and screened from view, by the 
rocks, but, a boy descending with a hatchet, soon brought 
up large firm masses. One of these, weighing several 
pounds, we carried twenty miles to New-Haven, where it 
was exhibited to various persons, and some of it remained 
unmelted during two succeeding nights, for it was in being 
on the morning of the third day. 
The local circumstances which have been detailed will 
probably account for this remarkable locality of ice, and 
scarcely need any illustration or comment. 
This is not the only instance of the kind existing among 
the trap rocks of Connecticut. ‘There is a similar place 
seven miles from New-Haven, near the Middletown road, 
