Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-02-03


of the journey; intending also to prepare
a detailed account Of it to be published in
one our leading magazines. -Hd'pcTS
Weekly.
.uOU.rT U.TSuI.vG TO.V ~ IsT.'-
TER.
1t is well known to our readers that
party of scientific gentlemen are spending
the winter on Mount Washington, using
the depot building for their dwelling place.
This building has been made as thorough
ly com fortable as was possible, and is am
ply provisioned. Communication with
the world "down below" is made by tel
egraphic wire, and daily written reports
up there are sent to the papers. y few
hardy visitors have found the way to this
party of gentlemen during the winter,
stopping with them a few days and then
descending again. These ascents and de-
scents are made with great difficulty and
no small peril. The party on the railroad
are not free from considerable danger.
The thermometer one night in their house,
with two fires, the best they could furnish,
stood at only nineteen above zero; it be-
ing very cold with considerable wind. Not
many days ago the wind reached the rate
of one hundred miles an hour, and al
though their house is chained down, it
swayed to the extent of six inches, and so
alarmed were they that they had their saws
and axes in hand to cut their way out of
the ruins, if necessary. When they wish
to register the rate of the wind, one of the
party creeps out of the warm quarters and
stands braced against barrels of water froz-
en- solid, also solid with the ground, where,
with instruments in hand, he remains five
| minutes and then returns, or is dragged in
covered with ice from head to foot, the in
struments being self-recording beneath
their covering of the frozen moisture of
the air. This moisture in the air at low
| temperature and high wind from the north
freezes in icicles, which point horizontally
towards the wind and sometimes reach one
and one half and two feet in length. The
same moisture coming from the south
freezes in masses.
A recent letter gives an interesting de-
scription of the "frost work" which we
copy below;
The frost work" is one of the most re-
markable phenomenon of this high alti-
tude. As few have ever seen it, and none
have attempted to describe it, and as the
causes that produce are but imperfectly
understood, we shall perhaps be pardoned
if we present some rather crude ideas in
regard to it, 1t is difficult also to convey
in words any idea of its wonderful form
| L I,a ,riyn In
last winter, and the opportunities we have
had of observing its formation this, we are
able ito give what seems to us plausi
bic, if not a correct theory to account for
this, the most plastic of all the handiwork
of nature. At our very first observation
We sec that it forms only when the wind is
northward, i. c. at some point between
north and west or north and east, and new
or when the wind is southwark. 1t begin'
with mere points, on everything the wind
reaches, on the rocks, on the snow, on thu
Hallway and on every part of the building
even on the glass. on the south side it il
very slight, as the wind reaches there only
in eddying gusts. When the surface il
rough, the points as they begin are al
|
most entirely covers tho surface at the yer,
beginning, but soon only few points eon
gate, so, on whatever surface it begins tC
form, it has very soon the same genera
appearance, presenting everywhere tn
same beautiful teatherylike forms. Ii
going up the mountain we do not see it un
til we get some distance above the limit G
the trees it is nearly mile before 1t
seen in its characteristic forms, and it
only Immediately about the summit that
presents its most attractive features. w
notice also that it always forms toward
the wind, never from it, aud the rapidit
with which it forms and the great length
: the horizontal masses is truly wonderful
We placed "A round stick, an inch in dian
7 eter, In a vertical position, where it wa
exposed to the full force of the wind, an
in less than two days some of the horizon
tai icicles-we call them icicles for til
; want of a more appropriate name-wel
two feet in length and scarcely any thick
) err than the stick itself They formed q
10 every part of the stick that was expose,
: but Of course some points were much lonl
err than others. They remained sever
days, but with n change of wind wen
@ blown oil. On some of the piles of ston,
u south of the house, these horizontal mas
: es are now more than five feet in lengt
u On the southern exposures, instead of I'll
c frost work" there are only masses of pu
e ice, which always have u peculiar hue
II greenish blue. In the early part of d.
: cember, when the thermometer rang,
d from 25 to 20 degrees and the wind w
l. southwark, the ice formed to the thickne
4 of foot or more on the telegraph pol
l. near the house. These icy masses a.
s formed evidently by the condensation
e the vapor Of the atmosphere as it is n
II uncommon for it to be above the point
y saturaton. The "frosl work" is also forI
(. ed by the condensation of vapor, but
N sides the vapor, the air must be filled wi
# minute spcule of ice. As the vapor co
II denses these are caught and thus the no
zontal feather masses are formed. III
accounts for the facts that we have obser
d ed namely, that it forms when the wind
II northward and always toward the wind.
10 Freeman.
70 The Massachusetts, legislative comm