Glacières; or, Freezing Caverns

by Edwin Swift Balch

Herr Kraus also says: “The Eishöhlen resemble so little the Windröhren, that for these a proper name is quite correct. Just as one cannot draw a sharp line between Einstürzschlünden and Einstürzdolinen, so one cannot draw a sharp line between eishöhlen and windröhren. A stagnation of cave air does not exist, and no cave student would pretend to say it existed. The circulation of air may in certain caves take place almost entirely through the mouth and it then depends largely on the shape of the latter; in other caves are crevices and erosion holes, which allow a circulation of air. Again in other caves air may come through the floor into the cave, as is proved by certain places always remaining free from ice.”

He also says: "The formation of dripstone is also diminished about thick roofs, when the cracks are too broad to permit a slow dripping process. In caves with sufficient air movements, that is ventilation, the dripstone formation takes place faster than in those in which the air is only slowly renewed. Also in such caves, in which the air is strongly filled with moisture, the dripstone formation process is materially hindered. Therefore in water caves and in eishöhlen one finds only rarely dripstone formations, and these mainly of poor appearance. But in all cases the carbonic acid of the infiltration water plays an important part."

In 1896, a Western newspaper published the following explanation about the presence of ice in the cave at Elkinsville, Indiana; and it shows how the idea—long since exploded—of the ice being due to chemical causes, serenely bobs up on the discovery of a new cave: “Some have advanced the theory that the air is forced through under passages of the earth with such pressure as to make the strange formation; some have attributed the cause to an underlying bed of alkali, whose chemical change to a gaseous form has produced the phenomenon. Others have thought that the interior heat of the earth, acting upon the iron pyrites, or fool’s gold, which largely abounds in this country, is the true source of this unparalleled discovery. Still others think that the sudden expansion of the carbonic acid gas given off by the heated limestone, which is also common in this country, could have easily produced the ice. But thus far the theories are nothing more than speculation, and further than the fact that the ice cave exists, and is, indeed, a remarkable phenomenon, none has been able to further determine.”

In 1896, Dr. A. Cvijic wrote that the cold air of winter is the source of cold in the glacières of Servia. The mountains have so little water that the shepherds constantly take the ice out in summer for their own use.

In 1897, numerous newspapers, among others, the Philadelphia Press of August 1st, romanced as follows about the cave at Decorah: “In the summer its temperature is far below freezing. * * * From some unknown source in the impenetrable rear of the cave comes a blast of cold air as chill as from the Arctic region. In the winter the temperature of the cave is like summer. * * * We followed the winding passage in and out for more than 1000 feet. * * * I took out the thermometer and laid it upon the floor of the cavern for three minutes. When I took it up again I found that the mercury had fallen to 5 degrees below zero.”

“What is it that causes this phenomenon? Scientific men are said to have visited the cave within the last day or two who have declared that it had in some manner a subterranean connection with the polar regions, and that the cold air from the North coming in contact with the warm moist atmosphere from outside converted the vapor into water on the walls of the cavern where it straightway congealed. * * * It seems to me possible after thinking the matter over carefully, that in some mysterious manner the same influences that work the changes in climate in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are operating in this cave. It is a well-known fact that in the regions referred to the seasons are the reverse of what they are here.”

Mr. W. S. Auchincloss writes in 1897: “We also notice the working of the same principle during summer days. The hottest part does not occur at the noon hour—when the sun is on the meridian—but several hours later in the afternoon. In this case the accessions of heat arrive more rapidly than radiation is able to carry off. Radiation, however, keeps on apace, and, at last attaining the mastery, temperature falls. Ice caves furnish another example of the gradual procession in the seasons.”

Mr. Alois F. Kovarik writes about Decorah in 1898 that "the length of duration of the ice in the cave during the spring and summer depends upon the quantity of cold stored up in the walls and this again upon the coldness and the length of coldness of the previous winter. If the winter be severe and long, the walls will store up a great supply of cold for the gradual dissipation in the spring and summer and consequently the phenomenon of the ice in the ice chambers will last longer. Last winter, with an exception of the fore part of December, was quite mild. As a result, the ice began to disappear with the latter part of June, and totally disappeared by the end of July. * * * The time of the lowest temperature in the cave depends upon how soon the cold spells of the winter begin; for the sooner the walls begin to freeze to a greater depth, the sooner have they stored up the greatest amount of cold. * * * February 28th, 1898, when the walls contained the greatest amount of cold, there was no ice in the cave, for the reason that no water made appearance. Could water have appeared, no doubt a great amount of ice would have formed; but as the conditions are, the water has to come from the ground outside, and this being frozen at the time, water could not in any natural way appear. If in early spring, sufficiently warm days should come to melt the snow and open the ground, the water not taken up by the ground would flow and seep through crevices into the cave and ice consequently would appear early. Somewhat such conditions prevailed this year, for warm days appeared quite early in the spring. If per contra the ground does not open until in April, as was the case in 1895 and 1896, the appearance of the ice is consequently delayed. * * * Naturally this opening [the entrance] was small, but to give easier entrance, it was enlarged to its present size. * * * If the entrance had been left a small opening, as it naturally was, it is my belief that the temperature of the interior of the cave would be lower in summer than it is, and the ice would not disappear as soon as it does."

Mr. Robert Butler, of San José, Cal., investigated the question of cold air draughts coming from the glacière cave and from the freezing shaft he examined in Montana. He wrote to me, in 1898, that he found that one notices or imagines to notice a draught of air, especially on hot days. Rapidly walking into the cave from the hot air without to the rapidly cooling air within produces the same nervous sensations as though one were to remain stationary and the air were to pass by from the warm to the colder portions. A distance of twelve meters finds a difference in temperature of fifteen degrees Centigrade. Twelve meters can be walked quickly, so quickly that the nerves cannot become accustomed gradually to the change of temperature. The rapidly cooling air does actually produce the sensation of cool air passing by one’s face. It produces somewhat the same sensation as the evaporation of ether on the surface of the body. Mr. Butler satisfied himself that as far as he had observed all the seemingly peculiar conditions and places where the ice has been found do not indicate any other causes when carefully investigated than those of the seasons of the year, and that the ice was formed by no other cause than the natural cold of winter.