88 
STArUBAXi ICE-HOUSE. 
hours’ toil, we reached a small plain, which, on account of it* 
elevated position, bears the name of Alta Yista. This is the 
station of the neceros, those natives, whose occupation it is 
to collect ice and snow, which they sell in the neighbouring 
towns. Their mules, better practised in climbing mountains 
than those hired by travellers, reach AltaVista, and the 
neveros are obliged to transport the snow to that place on 
their backs. Above this point commences the Malpays, a 
term by which is designated here, as well as in Mexico, Peru, 
and every other country subject to volcanoes, a ground des- 
titute of vegetable mould, and covered with fragments of 
lava. . „ . 
We turned to the right to examine the cavern ot ice, 
which is at the elevation of 1728 toiscs, consequently below 
the limit of the perpetual snows in this zone. Probably 
the cold which prevails in this cavern, is owing to the same 
causes which perpetuate the ice in the crevices of Mount 
Jura and the Apennines, and on which the opinions of 
naturalists are still much divided. This natural ice-house of 
the peak has, nevertheless, none of those perpendicular 
openings, which give emission to the w arm air, while the 
cold air remains undisturbed at the bottom. It would seem 
that the ice is preserved in it on account ot its. mass, and 
because its melting is retarded by the cold, which is the con- 
sequence of quick evaporation. This small subterraneous 
glacier is situated in a region, the mean temperature ot 
which is probably not under three degrees ; and it is not, 
like the true glaciers of the Alps, fed by the snow waters that 
how from tho summits of the mountains. During w niter 
the cavern is filled with ice and snow; and as the rajs ot 
the sun do not penetrate beyond the mouth, the heats ot 
summer are not sufficient to empty the reservoir. The ex- 
istence of a natural ice-house depends, consequently, rather 
on the quantity of snow which enters it in winter, and the 
small influence of the warm winds in summer, than on the 
absolute elevation of the cavity, and the mean temperature of 
the layer of air in which it is situated. The air contained in 
the interior of a mountain is not easily displaced, as is ex- 
emplified bv Monte Testascio at Pome, the temperature of 
which is so different from that of the surrounding atmos- 
phere. On Chimborazo enormous heaps of ice are found 
