The San Francisco call., 1898-11-20

the Rocky Mountains. as there are no indications of any volcanic action in the vicinity of the ice well. The Little Wolf Mountains are merely a high range of buttes apparently of the same origin as all the bad land buttes. Their summits towering above all the other buttes has given them the name of mountains, but they are only of slight ly over 4000 feet altitude.
 If ice were to be put into the we'll during the winter it would keep throughout the summer nearly as well as if stored away in the ordinary ice house. By chance nature has formed almost the identical conditions that man has made use of to preserve ice through the hot weather. The shaft is the cavity in which to store the ice; the volcanic ash filling into the open space between the loosely piled rock serves the purpose of saWdust in keep ng out the warm draughts of air; the altitude and the north slope are favor able to the preservation of the ice; the tall, dense forest prevents the heating of the surface rock by the direct rays of the sun; the rocks are too porous for the water to soak up, so to speak, from beneath; the facts are that in many places near the tops of the buttes on the sides where the rocks have fallen loosely together they are perfectly dry for many feet below the surface, be- ing moistened by the winter snow and rain as it may fall and run down from above.
 During the winter the we'll is nearly filled with snow; enough water from the early spring rains finds its way through between the rocks to mix with the snow and freeze into one solid mass of ice The ice in the well is formed by the cold of the winter season. but does not begin to form sometimes till @la {r, I,o1f in melted by the heat of the summer, but does not begin to melt until the sum mer is half over. In the early part or the summer it is still freezing In the we'll and during the first half of the winter it is still melting. The well acts as a refrigerator It receives the heat slowly and then gives 1t OH Juss as slowly. If the earth received and gave off heat readily the hottest weather would be in June and the cold est in December-in fact the seasons fellow nearly a month benlnd the sun; The conditions surrounding the ice well cause it to follow the seasons from six to eight weeks later. Those visiting the we'll during the first half or the winter find water and those Visltlng freezing, even finding small icicles forming as the water coming rom above. drips over the rocks on the sides down near the ice.
 It is a fact that, If on not oay' you walk rapidly into the cave to where the ice is, it feels as though strong cur rent of cold air were blowing against your face. The sensation is so decid- edly real that 1t requires careful dem- onstration to prove to the contrary, and even then it almost seems as though the demonstration had been mistake. It can be easily tested by using smoke, or. better still, rather heavy colored glass Again. if one should stand without the entrance to the cave on very warm day, near enough to feel any draught that may be stirring, none can be felt coming from the cave. If one should stand di- rectly above the Ice we'll on a hot, still day, even putting the face down to the very opening into the well, no upward draught of cool air can be felt; but go down into the we'll and one would state positively that there was an upward draught of extremely cold air.