Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-10-21
THE BREATH OF A Girl.
AN INDIAN LEGEND ABOUT
CALIFORNIA CAVES.
How tho savages Explain tho Cause OF
the Natural Ice Found In the
Caverns-Scientists Fall to
Give the Cause.


In 800 miles.
There are holes in the ground
crevices and cracks in the lava beds
where ice forms the year round.
No one knows how or why the ice
forms there. There is no water to be
seen. and If there is anything hotter
than lava bed in July it must be
the same place in June.
There are a good many OF these
natural ice factories in the remote
corners of Shasta Modoc and Slski-
you counties.
The one that is the most patronized
is about fifty miles east OF Sissou.
fifteen miles from Little Hot Spring
valley.
Anybody that wants to can go there
and study the mystery notwithstand-
ing the man with the rifle VINO APP
pears to be standing guard. or his
stern. threatening partner who stands
with menacing block OF ice in his
hand.
These are not the guardians OF tho
mysterious ice caves protecting the
frozen fairy queen. who has been i'm
prisoned there by the ogre OF the
snow. They are simply natives who
guided your correspondent TO this tav-
ern and who wanted TO have their
picture took.
Once upon a time this country was
a trembling, bubbling sea-not a sea
o. water but of boiling. seething
molten rock. And the waves. as they
rose and broke, became solid and fell
back as blocks OF lava And when
the surface was all cool the liquid fire
inside burst through and tore it apart
and now for twenty miles and more
the country is covered with these torn.
irregular blocks piled in fantastic
shape on every side and among them
are strange gorges and corridors out
OF which come vague uncanny sounds.
The blocks ring like metal when
your horses hoofs strike them. 1t is
country of unexplained noises
From the bowels OF mountains comes
the noise of escaping steam. Out of
the seemingly bottomless pits and
gorges rises the rumble OF what may
be rivers but peer into the depths I'M
Til your head swims and you cannot
see the water.
The ringing ground sounds hollow
to your steps. 1t is hot walking over
the lava beds for OF course you
cannot traverse much OF 1t on horse
back.
1t is rather weird to toll over them
under the blazing sun until you are
almost ready to drop from heat and
exhaustion and then step down into a
break and find yourself standing on
ice no man knows how thick. 1t is
cool in the caverns-cooL though the
sun that has caused you so much
trouble and fatigue outside shines
right in upon the glass floor.
There is a lava cliff thirty feet high.
and at the base OF it is an opening
right into the rock. 1t is arched. and
generally bears resemblance TO a
prospector's tunnel. The floor OF the
tunnel inside the cliff is hardly four
feet below the level OF the entrance.
You have to be careful how you step
down. Your correspondent was not
and his feet flew from under him.
The floor was OF perfectly smooth ice.
and the sun beating in at the open
arch seemed to make absolutely no
impression on it.
The cave is probably sixty feet long
and one third as wide. The roof is
ten feet above the floor which Is all
OF clear ice.
| The mystery OF its formation is
what first strikes visitor to the ice
cave. There is no water tn ere. The
ice is dry and clear. You can strik o
a match anywhere on the walls.
1 There is a col draucht that comes
/ from you can't say where. 1t is re-
! freshing after the heat outside. but by
ho means chilling. Maybe the mois-
ture-for, of course the deposit mu st
be water before it is ice-comes out
OF the atmosphere.
The science sharps tell us that rain
is precipitated by the sudden contact
OF warm and cold current OF air. So
possibly the meeting OF that draught
| from somewhere in the cellars OF this
earth with the sun-heated air that
comes In through the mouth OF the
cave wrings the moisture from the
atmosphere and it freezes on the floor
But there is another problem even il
this is an explanation of part OF the
phenomena. Why does it freezer
This temperature in the cave was
little cooler than it was in the shade
anywhere about.
We remained in the cave for over
an hour and wero not chilled.
At last wo loft the cave. The man
with the gun and the man with the
block OF ice took up their positions,
and another picture was 'toolS. ~
There are several caves in the viclu-
ity and all have the same features
the floor OF ice and the apparent alb
sence OF reason for it.
OF course the Indians have q story
by way OF explain alton of the mystery,
though the. skcptic white man may
not believe IT,
Under the leo there Is chief 8
daughter who. when the big pines
were little shoots was the most beau
tiful aeetest and finest generally in
the world. She had lovers-oh. any
quantity OF them; but she was as cold
as the snow on Shasta's summit and