New-York daily tribune., 1858-03-05

bunrhee
B''"', ou"' nv, up for Christmas. The
VI iaO''' o' rn,nryr will recall to not lew
NO :. 80 cities or remote States memo ol
,,'1 - thew were boys at Cazenovia, ana
nc ."" 49,. Sstur,ays and sm afraid sometimes
-. SUNDAYS. on the CLASSY surface u Tue o"a"'
gepa. ,,;.u. % bo sad about frozen
.hicb are among the things not generally
-. " N those who so unlucky as TO nave no
,.rsonsl experience in them.
1bs lake "locked in the embrace OF Winter Is
oo always true to its poetic duty and "sent and SUI
a. death" on the contrary, is often very NOISY ana
obtreperous. Especially in severe weather when
there i. no snow and it lies bare OF It's usuai mccoy
beScokbes. it grumbes and groans amentaol5
o'n;yb,s. I remember seeing this fact noticed but
once IN the course of my reading; when ii was OBJ
served by John Bull temporarily soourning by frozen
lake in Canada who, at loss Tor an e1pianatlon'
considered il as the moaning OF impnsoned winds
beneath the ice" or invented some similar hatulent
hypothesis The thing is perfectly simple the vara-
lions of temperature in the air affect equally the ice,
which swels or contracts by the change, and in
default of other yielding must split. So 1t rends with
pne-long cracks in all directions and the huge sheet
i thus thrown into sonorous vibrations, so that,
especially from sunset to midnight, while the cold
mile away.
I noticed a curious circumstance while skating,
explanabe suppose, on acoustic principles Strk'
ing the ice two inches thick with stone, was
surprised TO hear sharp and distinct echo from to-
ward the middle of the lake, where no object capabe
of returning the sound could be seen. On gong TO-
svard the direction Of the echo its interval rapidly
dip;pshed until came to a long crack in the ice,
about half an inch wide, filled with water. on gong
hundred Yards beyond it, the blow OF the stone was
answered by the same echo from the opposite dlrec
fiop. proving that the sound commun Gated through
,e ;cy sbeet was reyerberaed from this tiny wall Of
pon-elastic fluid as distinctly as similar sound IS
returned through the air from the wall of building.
I commend the experiment to the attention OF more
critical philosophers.
One more remark about lake-ice. It's prevalent
opinion that it sinks in the Spring, and have heard OF
crave professor maintaining this notion before SCI
entic association. This opinion is founded on thing
OF common occurrence-the sudden disappearance in
The Spring of ice while yet of considerable thickness
The fact is undoubted but it is TO be explained IN
another way.
When bright sunlight falls upon clear lake ice it ds-
organizes it, or rather separates it in peculiar way,
splitting it in perpendicular seams until it divides in
rude prsms, something like basaltic columns. If
block Of thick clear iee cut in January lies exposed
20 the sun for few hours it becomes, in popular
preston "honey-combed, 80 that blow with an axe
will shstter into hundred irregular angular columns,
about the size of one finger The same change takes
psce over the whole lake in Spring. while the ice is
still perhaps three inches thick and though on sharp
morning it's prisms are cemented strongly together aud
will bear heavy weight, few hours OF warm sun VIII
loosen them 80 that stone thrown on breaks through
leaving straght-walled hole larger than ITSELF AT
such time heavy wind soon makes an opening al
che mouth of stream or some such weak point, the
Increasing waves break up the shaterng edges OF the
eheet Of ice faster and faster and in few hours
thousand acres Of surface will be changed to rolling and
beaying water. Then the remark s made that the
ice has all sunk TO the bottom but in fact the water is
yet 6led with its dssovng fragments aud on the lee
ward shore it is driven in until it forms grinding mass
several feet in depth.
Iremember that the once popular writer on rehslous
,ub;ects "Charlotte Elizabeth founded some grave
reflections on fictitious account OF the sudden dlsap
pearsnce of ice in Canadian lake, where no freshet
could remove it, and where obsnately resisted the
Kind persuasion of the geniasun But at last certain
lgns announced its yielding. The neghbOrs, thus
warned were in the habit Of collecting to view the
convulsion. The ice goaned, cracked, parted from
the shores, and sunk with a splash to the bottom. l
forget how this instance of instantaneous surrender,
after long and obstinate coldness, was improved,
and is of no consequence. II the stern belief OF the
fair beoogan sound, it is not the worse for iaua-
cous illustration
So much for the ice of our still waters. 1t plays
quite as fantastic tricks in running streams, as we
can well observe in the bed of the Chttenango, which,
leaving our lake at ts southern end turns around the
village and tumbes through its deep rayne nearly SUI
feet before its en-me TO the canal accom-
plished. The chilled water, prevented from freezing
the surface byits constant agitation deposits masses
Of spongy "anchor ice its sides and It's stony bot
tom. These increase and harden until, in prolonged
"cold snaps," we have seen the whole stream lifted
four or FIVE feet above its bed by its own icy deposit,
to overflow its banks and interrupt the adjacent
highway.
This process creates n strange and beautiful spec
tacle at the falls OF this stream, four miles below
village where it plunges over the limestone strata to
the depth of one hundred and forty feet broken in its
perpendicular descent only by few projecting rocky
shelves and platforms. On these the geld waters
CONCEAL as they fall in constantly growing piles of
"anchor ice spread still broader by the freezing
spray until the whole front of the precpice-l4O
feet in hight and probably 900 in width-there is built
mp gigantic screen of ice, rounded into hundred
swels and draped with million cices, from the size
OIL straw to that Of stout maple tree, and resembling
an enormous stalactte of alabaster. The water iu
the end finds passage beneath, and flows invsiby
and unheard.
BIyant's poem entitled THE Catterskill Falls
CONTAINS description perfectly applicable to the spot
Mid greens and shades the C.ter.liI leaps
rem Smns when IN IN, INV. wood &c. a,wsr clins.
With the sweet light spray OF the mountaip spring,
nd he shakes the woods n he mountain IL
When they dip with the dews O eventde
But W hen In the forest bare aud old.