126 
SUBTEKKANEOUS 'WONDERS. 
facdons, representing flo-werSj fruits, bee-hives, 
1 , _x* *tf: A.. the. 
short, a variety of objects, in many of which the ^ 
blance is nearly as accurate as if they had been sculp'^ 
In a wood, about five leagues from BesangoO? 
province of Prance, called Franche Comte, an ‘’P jJ/ 
formed by two masses of rock, leads to a caverP^^j; 
than nine hundred feet beneath the level of the c (f 
It is in widtfi sixty feet, and eighty feet liigh, 
trance, and exhibits withinside an oval cavity of 
dred and thirty-five feet in breadtli, and one hundf^S 
sixty-eight in length. To the right of the entra^^jr 
deep and narrow opening, bordered with festoonS j 
which, distilling in success-ive drops on the bottom 
cavern, form a mass of about thirty feet in diaina 
CrtVCTlll, ICfllll a lllciao AV..WW JAA V.«*— 
sunilar one, but somewhat smaller, produced by ‘d 
which drips in less abundance from the 
impejj^ 
fissures- in the roof, is seen on the left. The 
cavern is perfectly smooth, and covered with ice a'c /• 
inches thick ; but the top, on the outside, is 
stony soil, covered with trees, and on a level witli m v 
of the wood. The cold within this cavern is i)< ' 
that, however warm the external atmosphere 
the time it is visited, it is impossible-to remain in tt 
continuance. , ^ 
These natural ice-houses are not unfrequent m ^ 
and Italy, and supply this agreeable luxury at a ' 
rate. Thus, in the same province, in the vic'^^ [1^ 
Vesoul, is a cavern which, in the hot season vvh ^ 
eagerly sought, produce more ice in one day tb^ 
carried away in eight. It measures tliirty-five feet >p ^ 
and in width sixty. The large masses of ice wb> 
pendent from the roof, have a very pleasing j bfr 
mists are observed in this cavern, they are regaro^^^ f 
neighbouring peasantry as infallible prognostics “ 
and it is wortliy of observation, that although the 
the interior is always frozen in the summer^ 
liquid in tire winter season. 
A grotto near Douse, also in Franche Corntcj ^ 
similar ice-house, and is remarkable on accoot>|^/^ 
various forms of its congelations, which repre®®”^P 
of columns, sustaining a curious vault, which app^‘ 
««ved witli figures of men, animals, trees, &c. 
