Natural Ice House. 177 
in the parish of Northford, and township of Branford. The 
ice here also, (as we are assured) endures, the year round. 
This place we have not visited, but we are informed that it is 
at the bottom, or on the declivity of a trap ridge. Several 
years ago we had the ice of this place, brought to us, into 
New-Haven, in the hottest weather of mid-summer. Like 
that of Meriden it is very solid, but like that also it is soiled 
with leaves and dirt, and although it is unfit to be putinto 
liquids, which are to be swallowed, it is as good as any ice 
for mere cooling. 
These instances naturally induce the impression that other 
natural ice houses may exist in various parts of the trap re- 
gion of Connecticut, and of Massachusetts, and very possi- 
bly in other districts, abounding with precipitous, rocky and 
woody defiles, although the geological formation may not 
be the same. We should be obliged by any information 
respecting similar facts existing elsewhere. 
It is perhaps worthy of being mentioned in this connex- 
ion that an artificial ice house within the knwoledge of the 
writer is situated on the top of a ridge of trap in Connecti- 
eut. The excavation was made, simply by removing the 
_loose pieces of trap rock which are here piled in enor- 
mous quantities, but composed of fragments of very small 
size. ‘These loose pieces of stone, with the air in the 
cavities are better non-conductors of heat than the ground, 
which usually surrounds ice houses, for the ice keeps re- 
markably well in this elevated ice-house. Perhaps this will 
aid us also in explaining the phenomena of the natural 
ice houses that have been mentioned. 
ft may not be useless, before dismissing this article, to 
mention, that the roof of an ice house should be painted 
white, and that it should be thatched with straw beneath the 
ordinary wood roof :* the surface of the roof thus becomes 
reflecting, and non-absorbing, and the subtance non-conduc- 
ting, in relation to heat ; we can speak from experience of 
the efficacy of this arrangement. 
* A thatched roof as is well known will answer without any wood, bu- 
is less enduring and more exposed to fire. ' 
Vou. IV.....No. 1, 23 
