Mr. Williams's Account of making Ice at Benares. 57 
have even seen ice, of a considerable thickness, formed when 
the thermometer was not lower than 40 degrees. 
The method of making ice at Seerore, near Benares, is as 
follows. 
A space of ground of about four acres, nearly level, is divided 
into square plats, from four to five feet wide. The borders 
are raised, by earth taken from the. surface of the plats, to 
about four inches ; the cavities are filled up with dry straw, 
or sugar-cane haum, laid smooth, on which are placed* as 
many broad shallow pans, of unglazed earth, as the spaces 
will hold. These pans are so extremely porous, that their 
outsides become moist the instant water is put into them ; 
they are smeared with butter on the inside, to prevent the 
ice from adhering to them, and this it is necessary to repeat 
every three or four days ; it would otherwise be impossible to 
remove the ice without either breaking the vessel, or spending 
more time in effecting it than could be afforded, where so much 
is to be done in so short a time. In the afternoon these pans 
are all filled with water, by persons who walk along the borders 
of ridges. About five in the morning, they begin to remove 
the ice from the pans ; which is done by striking an .iron hook 
into the centre of it, and by that means breaking it into se- 
veral pieces. If the pans have been many days without 
f smearing, and it happens that the whole of the water is 
frozen, it is almost impossible to extract the ice without 
breaking the pan. The number of pans exposed at one time, 
is computed at about 100,000, and there are employed, in fill- 
ing them with water in the evenings, and taking out the ice 
in the mornings, about 300, men, women, and children ; the 
l 
MDCCXCIII. 
