"The west side of the mountain, for about a quarter of a mile, is covered with a mass of loose stone, of light colour, which reaches down to the bank of the river. By removing the loose stone, pure crystal ice can always be found in the warmest days of summer. It has been discovered even as late as the 15th of September; but never in October, although it may exist through the entire year, and be found, if the rocks were excavated to a sufficient depth. The body of rocks where ice is found is subject to the full rays of the sun from nine o'clock in the morning until sunset. The sun does not have the effect of melting the ice as much as continual rains. At the base of the mountain is a spring of water, colder by many degrees than spring water generally is." There are several other natural curiosities in this county.
"Caudy's Castle, the fragment of a mountain in the shape of a half cone, with a very narrow base, which rises from the banks of the Capon to the height of about 500 feet, presents a sublime and majestic appearance. The 'Tea Table' is about 10 miles below Caudy's Castle, in a deep ragged glen, 3 or 4 miles east of the Capon. This table is a solid rock, and presents the form of a man's hat standing on its crown. It is about 4 feet in height and the same in diameter. From the top issues a clear stream of water, which flows over the brim on all sides, and forms a fountain of exquisite beauty. The Hanging Rocks are about 4 miles north of Romney. There the Wappatomka River has cut its way through a mountain of about 500 feet in height. The boldness of the rocks, and the wildness of the scene, excite awe in the beholder."
THE NATURAL TUNNEL.
This great curiosity is in Scott County, about 12 miles west of Estillville, the county seat. The following description of it is from the "American Journal of Geology."
"To form an adequate idea of this remarkable and truly sublime object, we have only to imagine the creek, to which it gives a passage, meandering through a deep narrow valley, here and there bounded on both sides by walls or revêtements, rising to the height of two or three hundred feet above the stream; and that a portion of one of these chasms, instead of presenting an open thorough cut from the summit to the base of the high grounds, is intercepted by a continuous, unbroken ridge, more than three hundred feet high, extending entirely across the valley, and perforated transversely at its base, after the manner of an artificial tunnel, and thus affording a spacious subterranean channel for the passage of the stream.
"The entrance to the Natural Tunnel, on the upper side of the ridge, is imposing and picturesque, in a high degree; but on the lower side, the grandeur of the scene is greatly heightened by the superior magnitude of the cliffs, which exceed in loftiness, and which rise perpendicularly—and in some instances in an impending manner—more than three hundred feet; and by which the entrance on this side is almost environed, as it were, by an amphitheatre of rude and frightful precipices.
"The observer, standing on the brink of the stream, at the distance of about one hundred yards below the debouchure of the Natural Tunnel, has, in front, a view of its arched entrance, rising seventy or eighty feet above the water, and surmounted by horizontal stratifications of yellowish, white, and gray rocks, in depth nearly twice the height of the arch. On his left, a view of the same mural precipice, deflected from the springing of the arch in a manner to pass in a continuous curve quite to his rear, and towering in a very impressive manner above his head. On his right, a sapling growth of buckeye, poplar, lindens, &c., skirting the margin of the creek, and extending obliquely to the right, and upwards through a narrow, abrupt ravine, to the summit of the ridge, which is here, and elsewhere, crowned with a timber-growth of pines, cedar, oaks, and shrubbery of various kinds. On his extreme right is a gigantic cliff, lifting itself up perpendicularly from the water's edge, to the height of about three hundred feet, and accompanied by an insulated cliff, called The Chimney, of about the same altitude, rising in the form of a turret, at least sixty feet above its basement, which is a portion of the imposing cliff just before mentioned."
THE BUFFALO KNOB.