Notice of an Ice Mountain in Wallingford, Vt. 331 



Art. XV. — Notice of an Ice Mountain in Wallingford, Rut- 

 land County, Vermont; by S. Pearl Lathrop, M. D. 



Messrs. Silliman — Having read, in a late number of your Jour- 

 nal, an interesting account of the " Ice Mountain" in Virginia, I 

 have thought that an account of a similar mountain in Walling- 

 ford, Rutland County, Vt. would not be uninteresting to your 

 readers. 



The " Ice Bed," as it is usually called by the inhabitants of 

 the town, is on the west side of the Green Mountains, about 

 two miles west of Otter Creek, and half a mile south of the road 

 leading from Wallingford to Mount Holly. The mountain at 

 this place rises to the elevation of one thousand five hundred feet 

 from its base, and about two thousand above the level of Otter 

 Creek, presenting to the west an almost perpendicular mural front 

 of light gray quartz rock, which may be seen at the distance of 

 several miles, and called, from its color, " White Rock." From 

 this high and hoary cliff have been precipitated to the foot of the 

 mountain below, large masses of rock, varying in form and size, 

 and weighing from a few to many hundred tons. An area from 

 thirty to fifty acres has been covered by these masses, confusedly 

 piled upon one another. In a deep and narrow ravine, opening 

 to the southwest, and into which many of these rocks have been 

 thrown, the ice is usually found. It is to this part, particularly, 

 that the significant appellation of Ice Bed is given, as it is among 

 the huge folds of this vast rocky drapery, that a large amount of 

 ice coolly and calmly sleeps, during the hot months of summer, 

 while its kindred element, in other places, melts with fervent 

 heat. The ice is here formed every year, during the melting of 

 the snow in the months of February, March and April, and dis- 

 appears, in different seasons, from the last days of June to the 

 first of September, varying in time according to the quality of 

 the ice deposited and the heat of the spring and summer. From 

 this bed large quantities of ice may be obtained, sufficient to sup- 

 ply the inhabitants of the adjacent towns. It is often visited for 

 the purpose of getting ice, and by those who are invited thither 

 by the refreshing atmosphere of the mountain, and the truly sub- 

 lime picture the place affords. I know not the usual temperature 

 of the atmosphere among the rocks, as indicated by the thermo- 

 meter, but full well do I know that after being nearly melted by 



