360 WENHAM LAKE ICE. [CHAP. XL. 



attributed the durability of the Wenham Lake ice, 

 or its power of resisting liquefaction, to the intense 

 cold of a North American winter. It is perfectly 

 true that this ice does not melt so fast as English ice ; 

 but the cause of this phenomenon is, I believe, very 

 different from that assigned for it by the late Gover 

 nor of Upper Canada. &quot; People in England,&quot; he 

 says, &quot; are prone to think that ice is ice ; but the 

 truth is, that the temperature of 32 Fahrenheit, that 

 at which water freezes, is only the commencement 

 of an operation that is almost infinite ; for after its 

 congelation, water is as competent to continue to 

 receive cold, as it was when it was fluid. The 

 application of cold to a block of ice does not, 

 as in the case of heat applied beneath boiling water, 

 cause what is added at one end to fly out at the 

 other : but, on the contrary, the centre cold is added 

 to and retained by the mass, and thus the tempe 

 rature of the ice falls with the temperature of the air, 

 until in Lower Canada it occasionally sinks to 40 

 below zero, or 72 below the temperature of ice just 

 congealed. It is evident, therefore, that if two ice 

 houses were to be filled, the one with Canada ice, 

 and the other with English ice, the difference be 

 tween the quantity of cold stored up in each would 

 be as appreciable as the difference between a cellar 

 full of gold and a cellar full of copper ; that is to say, 

 a cubic foot of Lower Canada ice is infinitely more 

 valuable, or, in other words, it contains infinitely 

 more cold, than a cubic foot of Upper Canada ice, 

 which again contains more cold than a cubic foot of 

 Wenham ice, which contains infinitely more cold 



