20 
Remarks on Dr. Paris's 
[Jan. 
and was become a solid mass of 6 feet thick, not touching the matted circle, and 
loosely covered with whisps of straw. When filled, these ice houses are thickly 
thatched over, and the Ice is taken out by a little matted door, and sent down by 
water to Calcutta, in quantities proportioned to the demand, every day, while it lasts, 
which is usually till the latter end of April. There is no store kept in Calcutta be- 
yond the daily consumption, and that in the houses of the retailers. Between the re- 
servoirs are deep holes of two feet diameter, communicating with them, laterally, by 
a small hole to receive the drainage water, which is not allowed to accumulate, and is 
occasionally lifted out. 
I was informed, by the intelligent dealer to whom the pits belong, that the demand 
for ice, in Calcutta, had greatly fallen off. A few years ago there was a sale for eight 
or nine thousand maunds, at the present price of ten to twelve Rupees ; but now the 
market would be overstocked with three or four thousand. Many fields had conse- 
quently been abandoned, and the whole supply of last season,' not reckoned an 
unproductive one, was only 2100 maunds. There remained but five sets of works 
m activity, belonging to the different parties, viz. 4 beds already described • 2 simi- 
lar ditto, on the opposite side of the road; 7 ditto further 'on; 6 ditto ditto; 
and 16 ditto, about 200 yards distant, on the right of the road, the property of a 
medical gentleman, who has built a square brick ice house, coated with a thick mound 
of earth on every side,and protected from the sun above by an elevated thatch raised 
over it, hke an umbrella. I did not visit his works ; but I was told that his ice 
grounds were laid out like the rest, and of the same dimensions 
„lthn e J UXU 7 ° f iCC d ° eS n0t CXiSt ’ 1 bdieVe ’ any where on other side of India • 
although in Lruzzerat trostis often seen upon the ground, and the nights are sufficV 
ently dear and cold to produce it by the Bengal process. I„ many p f rts 0 p , he De"- 
kan, notwithstanding the high temperature of the day in the winter months when I 
was at Poonah several years ago, in the month of December, I was surprise’d at the 
intense coldness of the nights, (colder than in Calcutta ;) after a hot day in which the 
Thermometer had risen sometimes as high as 82°, the usual range of the afternoon 
n that month being 76 to 80°. No dew, however, was perceptible upon the grass at 
sunrise, nor did it ever freeze. One night I nlaced mv c *11 S 1 
httie cotton, in a hollow of the ground favourable for unintenmpted^aZtTo'nTthe 
38^ the temper^u^of th^air^a^ertaineTby passin 0^ tT n ^ , *** ^ merCur > r stood at 
it, being then 46. I have no doubt, therefore \hfTln * <l uickl y through 
tained upon the surface of large beds of straw * • ngelatl ° n m, S ht have been ob- 
drymess of the atmosphere, 
such means the influence of the ground heat r P . dt e] evated plain, when by 
experiment, should be intercepted. Mr. Scott °™ m " mCated b y the cotton in my 
»n making ice when the temperature of the I* n ee ’ states » that he did not succeed 
Davy supposes it may be obtained under a 41 ’ althou & h Sir Humphry 
appears to be confirmed by my observations • ”7, ° f 5 °‘ The latter °P inion 
state of the atmosphere is much less favourable than at Poonah^ ^ hygrometric 
Sir, 
vr — Remarks mi Dr. Paris'. « pi •; 
ansa Philosophy in Sport." 
To the Editor of Gleanino-c • c • 
meanings in Science. 
— ... NJnciiee. 
the especial necessity of e: 
5tyle " deCOratio ". the extension Si* ^cheapness or by , 
sctul knowledge among those < 
