Subterranean Ice Sheet, Mount Etna, Sicily. (Lyell, Principles of Geology, 11th Edition, chapter XXVI.)—This ice sheet is near the Casa Inglese. Sir Charles Lyell ascertained the fact of its existence in 1828, and in 1858 he found the same mass of ice, of unknown extent and thickness, still unmelted. In the beginning of the winter of 1828, Lyell found the crevices in the interior of the summit of the highest cone of Etna encrusted with thick ice, and in some cases hot vapors actually streaming out between masses of ice and the rugged and steep walls of the crater. Lyell accounts for this ice sheet by the explanation that there must have been a great snow bank in existence at the time of an eruption of the volcano. This deep mass of snow must have been covered at the beginning of the eruption by volcanic sand showered on it, followed by a stream of lava. The sand is a bad conductor of heat and together with the solidified lava, preserved the snow from liquefaction.
Glacière on the Moncodine. (Fugger, Eishöhlen, page 13.)—The Moncodine is described as a Dolomite near the Lago di Como. The cave lies up the Val Sasina, two hours from Cortenuova, at an altitude of 1675 meters. The entrance faces north, and is 2.5 meters high and 1.5 meters wide. The average diameter of the cave is 16 meters. The floor is solid ice, which has been sometimes cut for use in the hotels on the Lago di Como and even been sent to Milan.
La Ghiacciaia del Mondole. (Fugger, Eishöhlen, page 8.)—The Mondole is a mountain 2375 meters high, near Mondovi, south of Turin. The cave lies on the eastern slope, at an altitude of about 2000 meters. It is hard to get at. The entrance is to the east, and is 2 meters wide and 1.5 meters high. A passageway some 25 meters long leads to a large chamber where there is plenty of ice. In hot summers ice is brought from the cave to Mondovi. Ghiacciaia means freezing cavern in Italian.
La Ghiacciaia del Val Séguret. (Fugger, Eishöhlen, page 8.)—It lies near Susa at the base of chalk cliffs, at an altitude of about 1500 meters. The cave is said to be about 40 meters deep, 50 meters wide and 50 meters high. Bonetti in May, 1874, found many icicles and ice cones.
La Borna de la Glace. (Chanoine Carrel, Bibliothèque Universelle de Genève, 1841, vol. XXXIV., page 196.)—It lies in the Duchy of Aosta, commune of La Salle, on the northern slope of the hills near Chabauday, in a spot called Plan Agex. The altitude is 1602 meters. The entrance opens to the east and is 60 centimeters wide and 80 centimeters high. One can descend for 4 meters. There are two branches in the rear of the entrance. Chanoine Carrel found an ice pillar 1 meter high in the western branch. He recorded these temperatures on the 15th of July, 1841: Outside +15°. Entrance +2.9°. East branch +0.9°. West branch +0.5°.
Windholes in the Italian Alps. (Fugger, Eishöhlen, pages 94-97.)—A number of these seem to have abnormally low temperatures. Some are in the mountains around Chiavenna, and are sometimes, by building small huts over them, utilized as refrigerators. Some are reported in the neighborhood of the Lago di Como near Dongo, near Menaggio, and in the villa Pliniana near Curino; in the neighborhood of the Lake of Lugano at the base of Monte Caprino, near Melide, near Mendrisio and near Sertellino; and in the Val Maggia near Cevio.
The Glacière de Font d’Urle, or Fondurle, Dauphiné. (Héricart de Thury, Annales des Mines, vol. XXXIII., page 157; G. F. Browne, Ice Caves, etc., page 212; E. A. Martel, Mémoires de la Société de Spéléologie, vol. I., page 37; L. Villard, Spélunca, 1896, vol. II., page 39.)—It lies on the Foire de Font d’Urle, 16 kilometers north of Dié, 48 kilometers east of Valence, and 80 kilometers south of Grenoble. The glacière consists of two large pits, lying east and west, and with underground communication. From this tunnel a long low archway leads to a broad slope of chaotic blocks of stone, which is 60 meters long and 42 meters in greatest width. The ice begins half way down this slope, fitfully at first and afterwards in a tolerably continuous sheet. Thury found many icicles hanging from the roof. Browne found four columns of ice, of which the largest was 5.80 meters across the base. On his visit, in the middle of August, the ice was strongly thawing. Both explorers noted the extremely prismatic character of the ice. Browne found a temperature of +0.5°. Martel gives a section and plan of Font d’Urle. Mons. Villard says about this cavern: “A curious thing: I found in this cave, motionless on a piece of rock, entirely surrounded by ice for a distance of several meters, a blind specimen of a coleoptera, Cytodromus dapsoïdes.”
The Chourun Clot. (E. A. Martel, Sous Terre. Annuaire du Club Alpin Français, vol. XXIII., 1896, pages 42, 43; Mémoires de la Société de Spéléologie, vol. I., page 31.)—In Dauphiné, half way between Agnières and the Pic Costebelle, at an altitude of 1,740 meters. There is first a pit 18 meters long, 4.50 meters wide and 25 meters deep. In the bottom of this is a vertical hole 15 meters deep and from 1 meter to 2 meters in diameter, in which there was much ice on the 31st of July, 1896. Then the pit changes to a sloping gallery which terminates in a little hall, full of ice, at a depth of 70 meters. Martel gives a cut and section of this glacière.
The Glacière du Trou de Glas. (E. A. Martel, La Géographie, 1900, vol. I., page 52.)—In the range of the Grande Chartreuse.
The Chourun Martin. (E. A. Martel, La Géographie, 1900, vol. I., page 53.)—In the range of the Dévoluy, Hautes-Alpes; altitude 1,580 meters. An extremely deep pit, which on July 31st, 1899, was much blocked up with snow.