can return into the state of water. Whatever
warmer substance comes into its
neighbourhood, it robs, and so it robs creams of the
confectioner, converting them into ice. as it
converts, with the stolen warmth, a few drops
of its own substance into water. The freezing
point of water is at thirty-two degrees, but it
is at thirty-nine degrees that the freezing
process has commenced. Down to the
temperature of thirty-nine degrees water becomes
denser as it cools, in common with the law that
regulates all other substances; but, from that
point, as it cools, it becomes lighter, and the
water, when solidified, is enabled thus to float.
This is not caused by air enclosed within the
solid substance; for water that has been boiled,
from which, therefore, air has been expelled,
makes better ice than water with air in it.
It is the peculiar arrangement which the ice
crystals take among each other from which
ice derives the lightness of its structure.
Why it is light, is obvious; for, if it were
heavy, and sank to the bed of the water, no
summer's sun would penetrate to melt it;
year by year it would accumulate, and thus
our waters would be rapidly blocked up.
Upon the land, when the moisture on the
rock or in the soil is frozen, the expansion of
its innumerable particles is a mighty power
that assists in preparation of the soil for
human purposes. Very well; ice forms at
thirty-two degrees, then; but it need not stop
at that temperature. It remains solid; but in
cold latitudes, more and more of that heat
may be abstracted from it, until not only all
the thirty-two degrees are gone, but a few
besides upon the minus scale; until it becomes
cold beyond all calculation, for no thermometer
can register it. Now, to restore such ice
to fluidity, every degree of heat has to be given
back. Of Wenham ice, which is trebly cold,
a great deal is imported. Importation is,
however, an expensive process; and in good
truth, there are some things to be said in
favour of our own ice, and its quality, which
practical men tell us is superior by virtue of
the greater toughness and slowness of the
first freezing process; for the more slowly
ice freezes, the more slowly it melts. The
grand thing, however, in favour of English
ice, is that it lies at English doors, and
in a favourable winter costs us little but
the storage room and trouble of collection.
In dairy farms, ice is a necessary article, and
ice-houses are constantly connected with them.
The construction of an ice-house is sufficiently
well known; the general idea corresponding
to that of the Roman ice-wells which we just
now talked about. " But," exclaims the
farmer or dairyman, " I can't afford to build
ice-houses." Perhaps not; though it would
pay you well if you could; but poverty need
not deprive you of ice all the summer; for it
may be preserved quite well without ice-
houses.

Ice may be stacked—plain English ice, or
snow well beaten down into a mass, after
the Roman fashion, which answers for all
economic purposes every bit as well. This is
the mode of stacking ice or snow which has
been found to succeed most thoroughly at
Chatsworth;—in the first place, let the owner
of the dairy-farm select, not the coolest and
shadiest spot, as he inevitably would do without
better instruction, but the openest and
sunniest, because driest, bit of ground he can find
—the sunnier the better. At Chatsworth the
first trials were made in shady places; and proved
far less satisfactory, because a dry place is
required, and the dryness which the sun occasions
more than compensates for the temperature of
its beams. The platform having been judiciously
selected, dig all round it a sufficient trench,
which is to contain the water that will, more
or less, inevitably drain from the completed
stack; let the bank of the trench be lower on
the outer side, and, if necessary, a siphon tube
may be put in to drain off any excess. The
object of the trench is, firstly, to prevent any
of the drainage water from spreading over the
platform; therefore to keep the platform dry;
and secondly, to preserve this drainage water,
which is very cold, and can be used for making
butter. Then lay over the whole platform a
bed of straw, six or nine inches thick. Straw
is a sufficient and convenient non-conductor,
and ice wrapped in straw is tolerably well
protected from external influence. Upon the
straw bed make your stack, building it with
sides perfectly upright. The sides are to be
thus perpendicular, in order that whatever
melts may flow at once into the trench, and not
soak into and spoil the ice which remains otherwise
unmelted. If the stack happen to be
long, partitions of straw should be inserted at
convenient distances, for the protection of one
part while another portion is in use. The
stack being erected in this manner, coat round
the whole outside of it, and thatch it with a
straw defence of eighteen inches thick. If
you build the stack of snow, build in the
same manner, but take care to batten it
well down. A stack of ice or snow, so
made and so defended, will remain good
through the hottest summer, and will
obviate necessity for any ice-house. Remember
that all this will be done in mid-winter,
when your labourers have comparatively
nothing to do; when your horses are eating
their heads off, and your cart-tires are rusting
from idleness.

It is not only to the confectioner and dairy
farmer that ice is an important article. The
fishmonger, the butcher, and many more who
deal in perishable articles, should press it
into service. Ice is an effectual antiseptic.
How thoroughly it acts as a preservative
is illustrated by the oft-told tale of the
mammoth, which made its appearance fifty
years since, in his body, as he lived perhaps be-
fore the birth of Adam. " In the latter part of
the summer of 1799, a Tungusian fisherman"
—I am now quoting from Professor Ansted's
"Ancient World "—" A Tungusian fisherman,