LOCUS GLACIALIS—CAVE OF DECORAH.
From a Photograph by Mr. A. F. Kovarik.
The freezing talus is situated at the foot of Tussey Mountain: it is big, and is composed of small sandstone (?) rock débris. The talus is at least thirty meters high and one hundred and twenty meters long. As I stood at the bottom, I was reminded strongly of the talus at the Dornburg. At the base were a number of small pits, evidently dug by man. From the interstices between the rocks, icy cold draughts issued in some places, and there was no doubt that there was plenty of ice beneath the stones. In one place we thought we could see ice, and I poked at the white substance with my stick, but I am not positive that it was ice. All over the talus, the temperature was strikingly colder than a few meters away, and in the pits we could see our breaths distinctly. Although I am not much of a botanist, yet it seemed to me that the flora immediately near the talus was somewhat different in character from that of the surrounding country.
Mr. Benner told me that he saw, three or four weeks before, plenty of ice in the pits; that they were made by farmers who formerly came to this spot to get ice; and that parties occasionally picnic here in the summer and make ice cream. He stated also that he saw, some years ago, a small cave or hole containing ice near Mapleton, Pennsylvania, but that it was destroyed by quarrying the rock away.
FREEZING GORGE NEAR ELLENVILLE.
On Sunday, October the 9th, 1898, with a young man from Ellenville, I visited the well known Ellenville Gorge, in the Shawangunk Range, Ulster County, New York. We left the hotel at eight-forty A. M. and reached the gorge, known locally as the Ice Cave, at ten-five A. M. It is about four kilometers northeast from Ellenville. The path rises steadily uphill and is of the roughest description; it is covered with loose stones, and looks as if it might become the bed of a mountain brook in wet weather.
I call this place a gorge, instead of a cave, because it is uncovered at the top, but probably originally it was covered. It is shaped like a pit cave minus a roof, and it reminded me of the Friedrichsteiner Eishöhle, and the Glacières de Saint-Georges and du Pré de Saint-Livres. It is entered by a long slope from the western end, the gorge turning northward further back. I estimated its width, at the bottom at some five to seven meters, at the top at some three to four meters; its length at some thirty meters and the deepest point we reached, at some twenty meters below the surface. These are guesses, however. In one place, a great rock slab overhangs the gorge. At nearly the lowest point of the rock floor, there is a hole which extends perpendicularly downwards some five or ten meters more; this opening is partly blocked up with fallen masses of rock which would make a further descent perilous. The north end of the gorge is also filled up with a mass of great broken rocks; in fact, the whole place is out of repair, as the rocks are cracked and creviced on both sides to a great extent. The rock is friable and seems to be all breaking up, or rather down, and I think there is some danger from falling stones, although I did not see any fall. There is a good deal of moss on the sides of the gorge, and on some ledges small evergreens are growing. The gorge is sheltered thoroughly from winds by its formation and position, and somewhat by the scrub forest surrounding it. There are several long, deep crevices a few meters further up the mountain side, and I think one of them is an extension of the main gorge.