Glacières; or, Freezing Caverns

by Edwin Swift Balch

The cold air affects a large area of land around the boulders. Mr. Howell called my attention to the flowers of the bunch-berry, which he said were at least two weeks behind those on the surrounding mountains. The same was true of oxalis, a pretty white flower, of which we found several beds in full bloom.

Mr. Howell went to this talus, on the 4th of July previous, with Mr. Niles, President of the Appalachian Mountain Club, on which occasion they found plenty of snow near the entrance of the larger hollow. Mr. Howell, indeed, has repeatedly visited this place, and always found ice, which must, therefore, be looked on as perennial. At all times also he has felt cold draughts flowing out; sometimes they were so strong as to lower the temperature over the lake to a distance of thirty meters or more: on hot days he has seen occasionally a misty cloud form on the lake in front of the boulders. Mr. Howell considers that the draughts so affect the surrounding air, that an artificial climate is produced, and it is owing to this that spring flowers bloom late in July and sometimes in August. Another fact well known to him, is that in hot weather, the spot in front of the boulders is the best in the whole lake to catch trout, as they always congregate in the coldest water. The Adirondack guides use these ice retaining hollows, which they call ice-caves, as refrigerators for their provisions and game in hot weather: they say that the ice is formed in winter and remains over during the summer, as it is so well sheltered.

FREEZING TALUS OF THE GIANT OF THE VALLEY.

On the indications of Mr. Otis, chief guide of the Adirondack Reserve, I explored with Mr. C. Lamb, a guide from Keene Valley, the southern base of the Giant of the Valley Mountain, Essex County, New York, on the 14th of July, 1898. A road runs from Keene Heights to Port Henry, through the gap between the south base of the Giant of the Valley and the north base of Round Mountain, and passes close to a small lake called Chapel Pond. Some three hundred meters west of this lake, we left the road and struck north, across the brook, into the thick, mossy woods. After perhaps one hundred meters, we came to a talus of great boulders of Laurentian rock, with the cliffs of the Giant, whence the boulders had fallen, rising steeply above. We found ice under several of them, although never in any quantity. The thermometer, after an exposure of fifteen minutes in one of these little hollows, registered 6° C., although not more than one meter from where the sunshine fell on the moss. In the shade of a tree one meter distant from the same hollow it registered 26° C.; a difference of 20° C. at a distance of only two meters.

Perhaps one kilometer east of Chapel Pond, there is a place, where the bases of the mountains come much nearer together, which bears the name of “The Narrows.” Here we crossed the brook again, and, after some fifteen or twenty meters of scrambling through rough woods, reached once more the talus of the Giant, composed of tremendous boulders. Among these we found ice in many places and this time in large quantities. Within one boulder cave we found an ice slab some four meters in length, by two meters in width, and one meter in thickness. This was pure, hard and non-prismatic ice, and was evidently not formed of compressed snow: in fact snow could not have drifted in under the boulder. We broke off a large piece of ice and took it back to Saint Hubert’s Inn, and it melted rather slowly. From the mouth of this cave an icy draught issued, and, as it struck the warmer air outside, a slight mist was formed. Mr. Lamb said that from the road itself he had sometimes seen mist rising from this talus. Further explorations of the talus of the Giant would probably reveal ice in many other places than those we examined.[7]

[7] Mr. E. I. H. Howell examined several times, in 1899, the talus of the Giant of the Valley. He found ice in many places; also cold air currents blowing out. At one spot, there is a spring which flows all through the summer, and the water is so cold, that its temperature is little above that of melting ice. Mr. Howell found, as at Ausable Pond, spring flowers growing in mid-summer among the rocks of the talus.

Mr. Lamb told me of two other places in the Adirondacks, where he found ice in similar boulder formations. One was in the talus of Mount Wallface in Indian Pass, between Mounts Wallface and McIntyre. The other was in the talus of Mount McIntyre in Avalanche Pass, between Mounts McIntyre and Colden. At the latter place, he found it near the trail going round the lake in the pass.

THE ICE GULCH, RANDOLPH.

The Randolph Ice Gulch is situated in Randolph Township, New Hampshire, about eight kilometers from Randolph Station, on the Boston and Maine Railroad.[8] I visited it on August 11th, 1898. At the Mount Crescent House, I found a guide in the person of Mr. Charles E. Lowe, Jr. The excursion took us about six hours. The trail was a rough bush path, cut by the Appalachian Mountain Club, and which had not been cleaned out that year. It was a cloudy but hot day and this, combined with the badness of the road, made the walk fatiguing.

[8] I first heard of the Ice Gulch from Mr. John Ritchie, Jr., of Boston. Some years ago in the middle of July, he found ice plentiful in the second chamber. He thought the Gulch only a refrigerator.