106 ICE-HOUSES. [Cuar. VIL 
of our best English ice-houses as well as it does 
the constitution of an Englishman in China. 
“ The bottom of these ice-houses is nearly on a 
level with the surrounding fields, and is generally 
about twenty yards long, by fourteen broad. The 
walls, which are built of mud and stone, are very 
thick, twelve feet in height, and are, in fact, a kind 
of embankment rather than walls, having a door on 
one side level with the floor, for the removal of the 
ice, and a kind of sloping terrace on the other, 
by which the ice can be thrown into the house. On 
the top of the walls or embankment a tall span 
roof is raised, constructed of bamboo, thickly 
thatched with straw, and in appearance exactly 
like an English haystack. And this is the simple 
structure which keeps ice so well during the summer 
months, and under the burning sun of China! 
“The Chinaman, with his characteristic in- 
genuity, manages also to fill his ice-houses in a 
most simple way, and at a very trifling expense. 
Around the house he has a small flat level field 
connected with the river. This field he takes care 
to flood in winter before the cold weather comes 
on. The water then freezes and furnishes the 
necessary supply of ice at the very door. Again 
in spring these same fields are ploughed up and 
planted with rice, and the water which drains from 
the bottom of the ice-house helps to nourish the 
young crop. Of course here, as in England, when 
the house is filled the ice is carefully covered up 
with a thick coating of straw. Thus the Chinaman, 
