Glacières; or, Freezing Caverns

by Edwin Swift Balch

Subterranean Ice Sheet on Kotzebue Sound. (Otto von Kotzebue, Entdeckungsreise in die Südsee, etc. Weimar, 1821. Vol. IV., page 140.)—Dr. Eschholz discovered near Kotzebue Sound, in 1816, a mass of ice more than 30 meters thick, and entirely covered with a layer at least 15 centimeters thick of clay, sand, and earth, on which heavy, long grass was growing. In the ice and in the soil overlaying it, were many remains of extinct animals. On the side towards the ocean the ice was entirely bare, exposed to sun and air, and much of it was melting away in streamlets.

Freezing Lava Caves, Washington. (R. W. Raymond, Overland Monthly, 3d November, 1869, page 421. Th. Kirchhoff, Reisebilder und Skizzen aus America, 1876, vol. II., page 211. Philadelphia Ledger, September 25th, 1899.)—These caves are distant about four hours from the foot of Mount Adams, and about 56 kilometers from the mouth of the White Salmon River, where it falls into the Columbia River. The caves are in basalt, and they are connected at both ends with the open air. Only a few of them contain any ice, which in the largest cave is about 6 meters below the entrance, from which one descends by a ladder. The cave opens on one side and is some 15 meters in depth, 6 meters or 8 meters in width and 3 meters or 4 meters in height. This part contains the most ice. The other side gradually narrows from the entrance, is longer, and reaches out through fallen rocks and rubbish to daylight. In the lower portion, there are a few ice stalactites and stalagmites: one a superb, transparent hillock, which rises nearly to the roof, is called the Iceberg. A strong draught flows into the cave in summer through the open arm.

The following paragraphs from the Philadelphia Ledger probably refer to the same locality:—

“Ice for the cutting, and that in August and early in September, is a novelty not often found in regions as far south as the Columbia River basin; but the novelty is enjoyed every year by people who visit the ice caves under the shadow of Mount Adams, about 100 miles northeast of Portland. It is a very extensive region. Frank McFarland, who has just returned from a six weeks’ vacation camping trip there, gives an interesting account of its general make up.

“At the ice caves, which are six miles from Trout Lake, the stalactites are more beautiful and wonderful this year than ever before, and this was Mr. McFarland’s fifteenth trip there. He broke off and took to camp chunks of ice weighing 100 pounds. Pleasure parties who come to the lake use considerable of the ice for packing their trout to take home. All you have to do is to take a torch of pitch pine or a lantern, and go into the big caves and pack off all the ice you want. It is a sure crop, and never fails.”

Ice Spring in the Rocky Mountains, Oregon. (G. Gibbs, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1853, Second Series, vol. XV., page 146.)—The Ice Spring is about 60 kilometers from the South Pass to the right of the Sweetwater River. It is situated in a low marshy swale, where the ground is filled with springs; and about 60 centimeters below the turf is a sheet of horizontal ice, some 10 centimeters to 30 centimeters thick, lasting throughout the year. The ice is clear and is disposed in hexagonal prisms; it has a slightly saline taste, the ground above it being impregnated with salt and the water near by tasting of sulphur.

Freezing Lava Caves in Modoc County, California. (Dispatch, Frankford, Pennsylvania, 22d January, 1897, reprinted from another paper.)—The lava beds, where the Modoc Indians made their last stand against the United States troops, are described as an immense field of lava covered with a beautiful forest of conifers. Numerous caves of varying shapes and dimensions are scattered throughout these lava beds. Some are mere covert ways, with an arch of stone thrown over them; others are immense chambers some meters from the surface; another kind sinks deeply and may be in a series of chambers united by a corridor that opens at the surface; while another kind seems to go directly to the centre of the earth without stopping. Some of these caves contain ice and from them the Modocs drew their water supply while besieged by the troops. Judging from what is reported of the caves the quantity of ice in them must be large. The thermometer in winter in the region is said to go as low as -30° C.

Freezing Lava Beds near Medicine Lake, Siskiyou County, Northern California. (M. S. Baker, Sierra Club Bulletin, 1899. Vol. II., page 318.)—"One other feature of the lava region must be mentioned—the ice caves. There are several of these known, and very likely many more remain undiscovered. Those located along the edge of the lava, near the cinder cone, I have known to contain ice and water as late as August. The largest I have seen is on the Mayfield Road, about twenty miles east of Bartles. It is situated in the barren lava, and in one of the warmest localities of the region,—and there are few cool spots in the lava anywhere. One enters the cave by crawling down a hole none too large. The instant the interior is reached the temperature falls in a surprising way. Not more than ten feet below the surface of the hot rocks is a bed of ice, covered by a foot or so of ice water. The body of ice was perhaps twelve or fifteen feet long, by five feet across in the widest places. This cave is formed by a fissure that extends a distance of twenty miles from the ice cave to Pittville, and nearly coincides with the 4000 foot level, as shown in the map. Along the southeastern half of this earth fissure the southwest wall has faulted, leaving a cliff, which, in places, must be nearly 200 feet high."

Freezing Shafts, Montana.—Mr. Robert Butler, of San José, Cal., has given me much information about glacières in Montana. He visited one miners’ shaft which is situated about 80 kilometers up the Rosebud River from Rosebud Station on the Northern Pacific R. R., and about 10 kilometers northeast of the Cheyenne Indian Agency. It is on the north slope of the Little Wolf Mountains, near the summit, at the head of Greenleaf Creek. The canyon and surrounding slopes are covered with a dense growth of pine. The rock has the appearance of scoriæ caused by the burning of immense beds of coal in recent geological times. The rock is broken into comparatively small pieces. The altitude is some 1200 meters. The forest, the volcanic ash and the altitude, besides the loose rock formation, makes this place a natural ice house. Ten or twelve years ago three prospectors, looking for silver, sunk a shaft here. At a depth of about 4 meters it began to grow cold, and at 6 meters they found ice and imagined they could feel an upward draught. Being ignorant and superstitious, they became frightened and abandoned the shaft. During the winter, the snow fills the shaft half full of ice, which then remains over through the summer. There is a general report and belief among those who have visited the well, that it freezes in summer and thaws in winter. There are thousands of mining shafts in Montana, and if they are on the north slope of a mountain of considerable altitude and under a dense forest and not too deep, they generally have ice at the bottom during the summer. It is also said to be nothing new for a miner in following crevices to find them filled with ice, especially if near the surface on the north slope of a mountain.