Show ICE CAVES in california with their product as clear aa crystal in dodoo county cal is an immense field of lava covered with a beautiful forest of conifers which is inhabited by deer bear panther lynx coyote porcupine and numerous far bearing animals choso whoso pelts are of value to the trapper it was in these lava beds that the Modoc indians made their stand against the government troops some years ago and were with very great difficulty destroyed it is here that alie ice caves aro found and from them the bodocs drew their water supply while besieged by the troops one never having been over a lava field can form but little idea of tho chaotic manner in which tho ingenious workmen havo left the products of their labor the only order observed is disorder of tho most exaggerated kind wherein every mass of rock has been twisted or raised or depressed or arched over some cavern in a different way from that of its neighbors the caves scattered throughout those lava beds are of very varying shapes and dimensions some are mere covert way with an arch of stone thrown over them others aro immense chambers some yards from the surface another kind is sunk quite deeply and may 0 in a series of chambers united by a corridor that opens at the surface while another kind seems to go directly to the center of tho earth without stopping it is here that tho stores of ice are found which is formed from water that filters in annually from the melting snows above every winter the lava beds aro covered with a fall of snow which varies from two to ten feet in depth the temperature over this region in tho coldest weather is often 20 or more degrees below zero eo that any water that might bo in the caves is frozen solid unless the caves mouths should bo entirely covered with enow which is not often tho case now when spring cornea and the snow melts the water percolates through into the cold storage chambers beneath aud is there congealed by the prevailing cold it is in this way that the ice has been made and stored for years and were cheso caves accessible to market they would furnish the purest of ice to many cities for years to come popular science news |