Glacière Cave near Lazhna-gora or Latzenberg. (Valvasor, Die Ehre des Herzogthumes Crain, vol. I., pages 242, 243; Hacquet, Oryctographia Carniolica, 1778, III., page 159.)—In the neighborhood of Vishnagora in the Krain. The entrance is under a church. It is a large cave, 40 meters long and 20 meters high, where the ice all melts by the end of the summer. Valvasor gives the following account of this cave in 1689, which seems the first printed notice of a glacière in German:—
“Near to Lazchenberg up by the church of St. Nicholas, where a Thabor stands, one finds a big hole, which sinks into the stony rocks. Through this one descends deep with torches: there opens then underneath as big a cavity as the biggest church could be, and the same is extremely high, in the form of a cupola. One sees there different teeth, formed and hardened from the water turned to stone. Further down one arrives to a deep gully: into which, however, I have not been. On the other side one must again ascend, and then one comes again to a cupola: in which cupola ice stands up like an organ from the earth.
“There also one sees icicles of pure ice of different sizes and heights, of which many are one or two klafters high and as thick as a man; but many only two or three spans high or higher, and as thick as an arm, and some also thinner. This ice is formed from the drops of falling water; and indeed in summer; for in winter there is no ice therein. Over such ice one must then ascend, as there are then said to be separate holes and grottoes. But no one has been any further.”
Glacière on the Dini Verh. (Petruzzi in Haidinger’s Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 67.)—Near Tomischle in the Krain. Small glacière.
Eiskeller near Rosseck. (Petruzzi in Haidinger’s Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 64.)—On the Pograca Mountain in the Krain, northeast of the Hornwald, near the Meierhof Rosseck. Small glacière cave.
Gorge near Rosseck. (Valvasor, Die Ehre des Herzogthumes Crain, vol. I., page 243 and page 517 ; Petruzzi in Haidinger’s Berichte, etc., vol. VII., page 64.)—Behind the ruined castle of Rosseck, on the Pograca Mountain in the Krain, is a gorge, at whose bottom are four little holes containing ice most of the year.
Valvasor wrote of this cave in 1689: “Near Rosseck immediately back of the castle there opens a mighty cavern entirely in stony rock, and yawns in the shape of a cauldron down into the earth. Above as wide as a good rifle shot, but below quite narrow. And there underneath there are many holes where the ice remains through the whole summer. From such ice have Duke Frederick Graf and Duke von Gallenberg daily made use in summer to cool their wine. Six years ago I descended there in the month of August, and found ice enough in all the holes.”
In the same volume Freiherr Valvasor elaborates his remarks about this cave and that at Latzenberg, repeating in the main the observations in the paragraph just given. He says: “There hang also long icicles which are quite pleasant to look at. * * * This ice breaks all too easily and quickly. * * * Contrarywise, however, this ice lasts much longer in the sun and the heat than other ice. * * * Some might think it would eventually turn into stone: this, however, does not happen: for it remains only in summer and disappears in winter: as I can say for certain, as I have been in myself in the winter as well as in the summer time. * * * For as in the summer the floor is quite covered with ice: it makes walking so dangerous and bad that one cannot take a step without climbing irons; but in the winter time one goes safely and well. * * *”
Freiherr Valvasor was evidently an accurate observer, and, if for his word “winter” we substitute “autumn,” his account will be much more nearly correct than might have been expected two centuries ago.