The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-01-31
K FREAK OF NATURE.
MoNTANA's PULLING AND CONTRA
DlCToRY WELL.

d. SSISnI VGIks
In the Summer Its Water Freezes
and In the Winter the Ice MeIts
aud the Water Becomes Warm-A
Mysterious Current of Air.
Seven miles to the north and little to
the east Of the Cheyenne agency in Custer
county, Mon, Is a well filled with ice that
excites much curiosity among the ranchers
and cattlemen of that section. Every cow
| ~ Who visits the well has much to tell
81 Invariably advances his own explana-
tion.
Many ingenious theories arc given
which tend to indicate that mankind of
all degrees of scientific knowledge put
forth an effort to find the origin of things.
However, they all agree that the ice forms
in the well during the summer and that
it actually thaws during the winter. This
apparent contradiction of the natural laws
that govern the outside world has carried
the fame of this well for miles around and
people have travelled great distances to
witness tho formation of icicles during the
hot weather Of July.
This well Is within few hundred feet
Of the summit of Little Wolf mountains,
on the north slope, at the very beginning
of Greenleaf creek, which emptics into
Rosebud eight miles from where the Rose
bud joins the Yellowstone river. This
portion of tho mountain is covered with
growth of tall pines.
Fourteen years ago three men prospect
ing for silver installing certain colors in
the rocks, began sinking shaft. At Is
feet it was disagreeably cold, at 20 feet
the cold had increased so rapidly that they
were thoroughly frightened. They could
feel currents of cold air rushing UP from
the creyices in the rock. They imagined
they were digging into some mysterious
underground cavern. They had heard just
enough of wonderful adventures of dig
ging into caves and underground lakes,
and being alone in this wilderness, where
the very Stiffness permitted the ears to
hear and the mind to imagine all manner
of grcwsomc powers hid beneath the rock,
SO thoroughly filled them with fear of i'm
pending danger that they abandoned the
work which has since gained such renown.
Tho SUBMITS Of Little Wolf mountains
are covered with scoria, which has all tho
appearance and texture of II good grade of
filing 1t Is usually rcd, but varies In col
or through all the shades down to black
These varying colors give the beautiful
tints to the thousands of buttes through
out the bad lands. In comparatively re-
cen geological times vast beds Of ignite
cC3l were formed over the eastern half of
Montana, extending into western Dakota.
The burning OF these beds Of coal was the
beginning nf the bad land formation. The
fine deposits Of clay above the coal were
burned as brick are burned in kiln and
formed the scoria. Where the heat was
greater and rock and sand were present it
melted and mixed with the coal and coal
ash, forming large cinderiike rocks, which
are sometimes mistaken for lava. As the
coal burned out from beneath the clay,
now baked into scOria and melted into Gin
dcrs, it broke into small divisions and fell
promiscuously down into the pits thus
formed. Volcanic ash is found scattered
over the Little Wolf mountains and the
eastern portion of Montana. 1t must have
drifted with the wind from powerful erup-
tons in 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 II rough range
OF Duties apparently Of the same origin as
all the bad land Duties. Their SUBMITS,
towering above all the other b,ttca. have
given them the name Of mountains, but
they are only of slightly over 4, uuo feet al
titude. If ice were to be put into the well
during the winter, itwould keep through
out the summer nearly as well as if stored
away in ordinary icehouscs BY chance ma
ture has formed almost the identical con-
ditions that man has made use of to pre-
serve ice throughout tho hot weather. The
shaft is tho cavity in which to store tho
ice. Tho volcanicush filling intoth open
space between the loosely piled rock, serves
the purpose Of s,iwdust in keeping out the
warm drafts Of air. The altitude and tho
north slope arc favorable to the rrescrva-
ton of the ice. Tall, dense forest prevents
the heating Of the surface rock by the d.
rect rays of the sun. The rocks are too
porous for tho water to soak up, so to
speak, from beneath Tho facts arc that in |
many places near the tops Of the Duties,
on the sides where tho rocks have fallen
loosely together they are perfectly dry for
many feet below the surface, being mois-
tened by tho winter snow and rain as it
During tho winter the we'll is nearly !
filed 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 i
ice in the well Is formed by the cold of /
the winter season, hut docs not begin to
form sometimes till the winter is half
gone
In turn, it is melted by the heat of tho
but does not begin to melt until
the summer is half over. In the carly
part Of the summer 1t is still freezing in
tho well, and during tho first half Of tho
winter it is still melting The well acts
rs a refrigerator. 1t receives the heat
slowly and then gives it off Just as slowly.
If the earth received and gavo off heat
readily, the hottest weather would be in
June and thu coolest in Drcember--in
fact, the seasons follow nearly q month
behind the sun.
1t is fact that if on a hot day you walk
rapidly into the cave to where the leo Is it
feels rs though q strong current of cold
,ir were blowing against your face Tho
Is SO decidedly real that it re-
luires careful demonstration to prove to
he contrary, and even then it almost
seems as though the demonstration has
been mistake, 1t can be easily tested by
using smoke, or better STILL q rather
eavy colored glass. Again, if one should
stand without the entrance to the cave on
! very warm day near enough to feel any
lraft that may be stirring, none can be
elt coming from the cave. II one should
tand directly above the ice we'll on a hot,
till day even putting the face down to |