Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-08-09
QUARRYING GLACIERS.
An Important Industry Established in
Switzerland.


Quarrying glaciers Is becoming an
important industry in Switzerland, and
wherever glacier in the Alpine dis
tricts can be connected by chutes with
some place having good transportation
facilities, companies have been or are
being formed to carry on the business,
concessions having been granted by
many Swiss communes. The French
city of Lyon Is the most important
consumer Of this glacier Ice, which,
owing to its purity and transparency.
commands a higher price than that cut
from lakes or rivers.
The ice Is blasted out Of the glaciers
by means Of black powder, which 1t
has been found does not discolor the
ice as giant powder does. The blocks
have to be stored for some time in Ice
houses, such as are used in this coun-
try, made Of two walls Of lumber, with
sawdust filling the space between them,
in order that a coating Of frosted or
nom transparent ice, which covers the
blocks after they have been removed
from the glacier, may be removed.
Much ingenuity is shown in building
the chutes which carry the blocks Of
ice down the mountain sides. In order
to reduce the great velocity they would
acquire were the chutes perfectly
straight, curves are introduced here
and there to impede 1t.
But ice quarrying Is not unknown in
this county. Cook county, Oregon.
especially the southern portion, is
pretty far removed from the tradition
al idea Of Paradise, although irriga-
ton in recent years has done some
thing to render it more habitable. The
region Is of volcanic origin and great
lava bed bounds one portion Of 1t, from
beneath which comes the sound Of
rushing waters, but inaccessible water
In this almost desert region one can
we'll imagine what godsend a lump
Of Ice would be. And there 1t Is close
at hand and not far from Bend, hidden
away in cave.
The entrance to this cave, which is
at least fifteen miles from any water,
is about 1000 feet above the level Of the
sea. The entrance Is small. From II
you go down a declivity Of some fifty
feet, when you reach a chamber with
a floor Of ice. From there you pass
through a narrow entrance into an in
ner chamber, which contains an in
exhaustible supply of ice. A block Is
quarried out and within three hours
the cavity is filled with water, which
is soon turned into solid ice.
Biologists are puzzled over an ex-
planation Of this extraordinary phe-
nomenon. The best offered so far
seems to be that the water trickles
through the volcanic rock from the
Deschutes river, which takes remark
able winding course at an elevation
much higher than that Of the cave.
But even more remarkable is 1t that
ice should be quarried on the sides Of
the famous Sicilian volcano, Mount
Aetna. Were the Sicilians little more
energetic no doubt Messina would
have been supplied before the earth
quake razed it with all the ice 1t need
ed by a Mount Aetna Ice Quarrying
company" and beautiful Taormina
would not have to rely on Sweden and
Norway for its supply.
AS 1t Is the industry Is carried on in
a desultory manner. Aetna Is 10.S40
feet high, and during the winter is
snow-capped. Whenever an eruption
occurs the fragments Of rock and
ashes thrown out OF the crater spread
over the snow, which is compressed by
the weight and so forms ice. Just as
the sawdust used in icehouses protects
the ice, so does the dust from the vol
cano form a nom conductor Of heat for
the compressed snow on Mount Aetna.
These deposits of ice have been form
ing for untold centuries and now and
then they are exposed through an
earthquake or the sliding down Of a
mass Of volcanic matter. On these oc-
casions IL the labor Is not too great
the lazy Sicillian will pick out a few
blocks of ice and sell them to Catania,
or Taormina.-New York Sun.