The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-01-28
ROYAL BAKING powoaa g. co:. NEW YORK,


 , travelled great distances to witness the formation of icicles during the hot weather of July.
 This we'll is within few hundred feet of the summit of the Little Wolf Noun tains, on the north slope. at the very be- ginning of Greenleaf Creek, which emp ties into Rosebud eight miles from where the Rosebud joins the Yellow stone river. This portion of the noun taihs is covered with a growth of tall pines.
 Fourteen years ago three men prospect ing for silver, mistaklng certain colors in the rocks, began sinking a shaft; at fifteen feet it was disagreeably cold; at twenty feet the cold had increased so rapidly that they were thoroughly frightened.They could feel currents of cold air rushing up from the crevices in the rock; they imagined they were dig ging into some mysterious underground cavern: they had heard just enough of wonderful adventures of digging 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 grue- some powers hid beneath the rock, so thoroughly filled them with the fear of impending danger that they abandoned the work which has since gained such repown.
 The summits of the Little Wolf Moun- tains are covered with scoria, which has all the appearance and texture of a good grade of tiling. It is usually red but varies in color through all the shades down to black These varying colors give the beautiful tnts to the thousands of buttes throughout the bad 1 lands. In comparatively recent geologi- cal times vast beds of Ignite coal were | formed over the eastern half of Monta- na, extending into western Dakota The burning of these beds of coal was | the beginning of the bad land formation. The fine deposits of clay above the coal were burned as brick are burned in a kiln, and formed the scoria. Where the l heat was greater and rock and sand | were present, 1t melted and mixed with | the coal and coal ash, forming large cnder-like rocks, which are sometimes mistaken for lava. As the coal burned out from beneath the clay, now baked into scoria and melted into cinders It broke into small divisions and fell pro- miscuously down into the pits thus formed Volcanic ash Is found scat tered over the Little Wolf Mountains and the eastern portion of Montana. It must have drifted with the wind from powerful eruptions in the Rocky Noun tains, as there are no indications of any volcanic action in the vicinity of the ice we'll. The Little Wolf Mountains are merely rough range of buttes appa- af tbn ,i, oil hn ho land buttes Their summits, towering above all the other buttes. have given them the name of mountains, but they are only of slightly over four thousand feet altitude.
 If ice were to be put into the well dur ing the winter, 1t would keep throughout the summer nearly as well as if stored away in ordinary icehouses. By chance nature has formed almost the identical conditions that man has made use of to preserve ice throughout the hot wealth. CT. 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 saw dust in keeping out the warm draugths of air; the altitude and the north slope are vavorahle to the preservation of the ice; tall, dense forest prevents the heat ing of the surface rock by the direct rays of the sun; the rocks are too po- rous 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, being moistened by the winter snow and rain as it may fall and run down from above.
 During the winter the well Is nearly filled with snow; enough water from the early spring rains finds it's 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 the winter is half gone In turn, it is melted By the heat of the summer, but does not begin to melt until the summer is half over. In the early part of 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 q refrigerator It re- ceives the heat slowly and then gives it off just as slowly. If the earth re- ceived and gave off heat readily the hot test weather would be in June and the | coldest In Decemher-in fact the sea- sons follow nearly a month behind the | sun. The conditions surrounding the 1 ice well cause 1t to follow the seasons | from six to eight weeks later. Those | visiting the well during the first half of | the winter find water and those visiting during the early summer find it still | freezing, even finding small icicles form ing as the water. coming from above, drips over the rocks on the sides down near the ice.
 It is a fact that if on hot day you walk rapidly into the cave to where the ice is, it feels as though strong cur rent of cold aid were blowing against your face. The sensation is so decided ly real that it requires careful demon- stration to prove to the contrary, and