504 



MISCELLANEOUS GARDEN STRUCTURES. 



foliage exposed to the light and air will 

 be continually giving off water in the 

 form of vapour, which, in its transforma- 

 tion from water to vapour, will have taken 

 up 950° of heat in a latent state more than 

 the water contained, and expanded into 

 about 1.690 times its former volume, 

 having in effect destroyed 950° of sensible 

 heat for all the water given off, (the quan- 

 tity of which is known to be very great in 

 hot and very dry weather.) A coolness is 

 therefore produced under the shade of 

 large trees, which is not to be found in 

 exposed situations, produced, it may be 

 presumed, not only from the shade of 

 their foliage, but from the evaporation of 

 water from their surfaces ; but the still 

 air beneath being an excellent non-con- 

 ductor, the earth below will be found 

 several degrees colder than that which is 

 exposed. Again, the drip of trees from 

 accumulated dew, <kc, instead of being 

 injurious, must be beneficial; because the 

 surface of the soil will be partially wet 

 when that of exposed ground will be quite 

 dry. The evaporation from the surface 

 will produce a coldness below. But it 

 may be said, that though the mere sur- 

 face of the earth under large trees is often 

 damp when exposed surfaces are dry, yet 

 the earth below is much drier under and 

 about the roots of large trees than any- 

 where else. This I consider a great advan- 

 tage : dry earth is a much better non- 

 conductor of heat than wet ; and I contend 

 that the rain which falls where large 

 trees are is evaporated in a larger propor- 

 tion from that surface than if it fell in an 

 exposed situation. It appears to me that 

 the best of all places for an ice-house is 

 the side of a hill covered with large trees, 

 three-fourths of the house being sunk be- 

 neath the surface of the ground, and the 

 top being covered over with earth and 

 planted with ivy." 



The Chinese, who differ widely from 

 Europeans in many of their operations 

 and artifices, even when the same end is 

 in view, do so conspicuously as regards 

 the subject at present under considera- 

 tion. We learn, from " The Chinese Re- 

 pository," that the ice-houses around 

 Ning-po are numerous, and in general on 

 the banks of the river. They are not 

 built underground, but above the surface, 

 and generally upon a platform of earth so 

 elevated as to be out of the reach of the 



freshes or i( floods," whether of the river 

 or of the surrounding swamps. Upon 

 this mound a bamboo frame is thrown, 

 which is well and closely thatched with 

 paddy straw. The ice is collected from 

 the surrounding fields, or from tanks and 

 ponds, which the proprietors of the ice- 

 stores fill with water during the winter 

 season. When it is of a sufficient thick- 

 ness it is collected ; and, as it is brought 

 in, each layer is covered with dry straw, 

 which preserves it during the whole sum- 

 mer. Each ice-house has its drain to 

 carry off the meltings. This article is 

 not used at Ning-po but as an antisep- 

 tic for flesh and fish during the heat of 

 summer. The people know nothing of 

 cooling their liquids, except as they have 

 observed foreigners use it for that pur- 

 pose, and they are quite content to retail 

 it at a very low rate." 



Mr Fortune, who resided some time in 

 China, describes a Chinese ice-house, of 

 which he has given drawings, one of 

 which we have copied, fig. 721, from the 

 Fig. 721. 



" Gardeners' Chronicle," 1845, p. 576, as 

 well as the following account of the build- 

 ing : " The bottom of the ice-house is 

 nearly on a level with the surrounding 

 fields, and is generally about 20 yards 

 long by 14 broad. The walls, which are 

 built of mud and stone, are very thick, 

 12 feet in height, and are, in fact, a kind 

 of embankment rather than walls, having 

 a door through them on one side, 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 em- 

 bankment a tall span-roof is raised, con- 

 structed of bamboos, thickly thatched 

 with straw, giving the whole an appear- 

 ance exactly like an English haystack. 

 And this is the simple structure which 

 keeps ice so well during the summer 

 months under the burning sun of China. 

 The Chinaman, with his characteristic 

 ingenuity, manages also to fill his ice- 



