Ice Sheets on Mount Chimborazo. (A. von Humboldt, Travels to the Equinoctial Regions, London, 1814, vol. I., page 156.)—“On Chimborazo, enormous heaps of ice are found covered with sand, and in the same manner as at the Peak [of Teneriffe] far below the inferior limit of the perpetual snows.”
Tierra del Fuego. (A. Winchel, Walks and Talks, 1898, page 122.)—“On Tierra del Fuego ice and lava are found interstratified for a great depth, each winter’s snow being covered by a new lava sheet.”
TENERIFFE.
La Cueva de la Nieve or del Hielo. (Humboldt, Travels to the Equinoctial Regions, 1814, vol. I., pages 154, 156. C. Piazzi Smyth, Teneriffe, an Astronomer’s Experiment, 1858, page 348.)—La Cueva de la Nieve lies at an altitude of 3267 meters in the Malpays on the Peak of Teneriffe, just below the snow line. It is in obsidian. The entrance is 3.6 meters high and 2.7 meters broad. The grotto is 36 meters long, 6 meters wide, and 4 meters high. The descent into the cave is so steep that it is necessary to be lowered by ropes. Professor Smyth found in July an ice floor about 60 centimeters thick which was covered with water. A good deal of snow was lying near the mouth of the cave. The walls were covered with ice and icicles and a few small ice cones rose on the ice floor.
ICELAND.
The Surtshellir or Cave of Surtur. (Olafsen and Povelsen, Voyage en Islande, Paris, 1802. Henderson, Iceland, 1819, 2d ed., page 420. Guimard, Voyage en Islande, page 481.)—The Surtshellir lies in the volcanic waste of Westisland, and is in lava which has flowed from the Bald Jokul. The approach is through an open chasm. The length of the cave is 1534 meters, with an average width of from 15 meters to 17 meters, and a nearly uniform height of from 9 meters to 11 meters. In four places the roof is broken and allows daylight to enter. A great deal of ice is sometimes found in the cave, in the shape of an ice floor, transparent icy pillars, hanging icy pendants, and columns and arches of ice along the walls. Some of the pillars have been found 2.50 meters high.
Kutlagaya. (A. Winchel, Walks and Talks, 1898, page 122.)—“In 1860 the crater of the mountain Kutlagaya, in Iceland, hurled out simultaneously into the air lumps of lava and ice, all intermingled together.”
SCANDINAVIA.
Ice in the Mines of Nordmark. (Jars, Voyages Métallurgiques, 1774, page 105.)—13 kilometers north of Philipstadt, Wermeland, Sweden, a number of holes were dug, some to a depth of 120 meters. Ice of some thickness formed in some of these towards the end of winter, and lasted until about September, despite the fires of the workmen.