Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/285

Rh topic of conversation whenever two or more persons got together. Another search was organized which resulted in the discovery of the Sweden Valley Ice Mine.

Mr. John Dodd and Mr. William O'Neil were prospecting near Sweden Valley when, underneath four or five inches of moss, they found a thin layer of solid ice. After leveling off a space about fifteen or twenty feet square they dug a shaft about six feet square by twelve feet deep. At a depth of nine feet they found petrified wood, impressions of leaves, ferns and other vegetation, also bones which were pronounced to be human. At a lower depth a peculiar kind of rock was found which they thought might contain gold or silver. Some of this

was assayed and found to be of no value. At a depth of twelve feet an aperture was found from which came a cold draught. This was thought peculiar, but nothing was done to investigate farther and the work was abandoned.

The following spring Mr. Dodd found a considerable amount of ice in the mine, but thought that it had gathered there during the winter and had not yet melted. However, as the warm weather advanced, the quantity of ice instead of melting as was expected, began to increase, and by the middle of July the sides of the shaft were covered with a coating of ice a foot or more thick and large icicles were forming from the opening at the top.

As winter again came on, the ice began to disappear until the cave