Glacières; or, Freezing Caverns

by Edwin Swift Balch

Mr. Ira C. Chatham, postmaster at Farrandsville, wrote to me on the 19th of October, 1898, as follows: “Your paper on Ice Caves [Journal of the Franklin Institute, March, 1897] at pp. 177 and 178 describes the Farrandsville Cave as near as is possible, as the ice forms in the spring from the snow melting and dropping through the rocks into the cave, and the rocks face directly north as stated.”

As we went up, I noticed, in one or two places, cold draughts issuing from crevices in the rocks. We soon came to a hollow under a rock, where there were a number of cracks and crevices: the boy spoke of it as the lower cave. It is some sixty meters above the Susquehanna River and cold draughts flowed from the cracks, although we saw no ice. The cave was about twenty meters higher up. One could crawl into it for a couple of meters, and all round it the rocks are somewhat creviced; in fact, I think there are a good many cracks in the entire hill. There was no ice in sight in this hole, but a strong, cold draught poured from it. After an exposure of fifteen minutes the thermometer registered 6° C.; while outside, in the shade, it stood at 15° C. This decidedly sub-normal temperature proved unmistakably, in my opinion, the presence of ice a little further than we could see in. Both holes face about north and are sheltered, by their position and by the sparse forest which covers the ridge, against all winds except those from the north.

I talked to the postmaster and the railroad agent at Farrandsville on my return, and they stated that there was no ice in the hole in winter, but that it formed about April and remained over until towards September, showing that the cave is a normal glacière on a small scale.

GLACIÈRES NEAR SUMMIT.

In the search for coal, the mountains of the Appalachian Chain between the little town of Summit, and the neighboring village of Coaldale, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, were mined and tunneled in every direction. Owing to the caving in of some of these mines, depressions formed in certain places along the ridge in the upper surface of the ground, and in two of these hollows natural refrigerators occur. These were brought to my notice by Mr. C. J. Nicholson of Philadelphia, and I visited them on May the 5th, 1899, in company with two coal miners of Summit.

Starting from Summit, we passed across some rough ground under which there was a mine on fire; and the miners showed me the tops of two pipes sticking out of the ground, from which issued a smoke or steam, too hot to hold the hand in more than a few seconds. Going beyond through brushwood, for a couple of hundred meters, we came to the first glacière, which was also the nearest to Summit. It faced almost due north and looked as if it was formerly the entrance to a mine. It was fairly big, and my companions assured me that, until within about a year, ice was always found in it. Recently, however, part, of the rock roof fell in, blocking up the entrance with a mass of débris and making it unsafe to venture in. Formerly parties of tourists constantly visited this place, after coming over the Switchback, but this is no longer done and there has been some talk of cleaning away the broken rocks and making the glacière accessible. The men also said that occasionally people living in the neighborhood had dug out the ice for their own use.

The other glacière was a short distance further, in the direction of Coaldale. It is in a pit, which may have been the mouth of a disused shaft or only a depression resulting from a cave-in. A scrubby forest, which surrounds the hollow, acts as a windbrake. A rather steep slope leads down into the pit, and at the end passes under the wall of rock of the opposite side for a short distance, forming a small cave, which faces almost due south and whose floor is choked up with broken rock fragments. At the bottom of the slope we found some snow, and among the boulders a good deal of snow-ice as well as several long icicles hanging from the rocks. All the ice and snow lay on the north side of the rocks, or underneath them, so that it was in shady places where the sun could not reach it. The temperature was not at all uncomfortable, although somewhat cool and damp.

Fig. 9. Vertical Section of Pit near Summit.