son should be made of the number of murders each
year for several years before and after the aboli
tion of capital punishments in each of these stales,
together with the like statistics for neighboring
States in which the same general conditions, cus
toms and sentiment prevail. Until this can be
done with'care and precision, more or less doubt
and uncertainty must necessarily shroud the whole
subject; and yet I believe an unprejudiced observ
er would find much in the consideration and facts
here advanced to incline him to earnestly desire
and strive for the final abolition throughout our
fair land of the barbarous and inhuman custom
of slaughtering human beings upon the scaffold or
in the electric chair.
THE ‘ICE HOLE" AT CO LERA IN
FORGE.
That part of the Appalachian mountains be
tween the west branch of the Susquehanna and
the Juniata would be thought rather tame and
uninteresting by the lover of mountain scenery.
Although erosive action has been enormous here,
as in other, mountain regions, the absence of any
but local glacial action has left a surface but little
varied. There are no lakes or ponds, and but
few and small marshes, while the low mountain
ridges are frequently so close together as to leave
only long and narrow valleys, or even none at all.
But the interesting features ip any region are al
ways multiplied by search and careful examina
tion, and if extensive surface waters are here un
known, the great springs in the limestone districts,
and the frequent “sinks” or disappearance be
neath the ground of streams of considerable vol
ume are sure to attract the attention of the traveler
and excite his curiosity and interest.
Years ago I was told that somewhere in these
mountains ice accumulated so abundantly, and
was so well protected from waste, that it remained
throughout the whole year. As time went on
and no such place could be found, it was put down
THE FREE LAtfCE.
as one of those exaggerations to which new com
ers are so often treated. But one day picking up
Gen. Brisbin’s “Trees and Tree Planting” this
astounding stateinent was found in the imroduc
tion, where the natural features of this very dis
trict were being described. “If we turned over a
rock in the mountain side we found ice beneath it
even in the hottest days of August.” Having turn
ed over a good many rocks on that particular moun
tain side, and never having found any ice in
August, the whole matter was cast out of the mind
as useless rubbish, when within a very short time
an interesting botanical discovery was made.
The twin flower (Linnaea borealis) was found in the
college woods, woods which have been searched by
botanical students for many years, and yet I knew
of no record that the plant had ever been found
there before. Running over the back numbers
of the Botanical Gazette to see if this or other
northern plants had been recorded from this pait
of the State, an interesting note was found from
Mr. J. R. Lowrie, of Huntingdon county, in
which not only were such species named, but their
persistence in a given instance was credited to the
“perpetual ice which was found among the rocks
in late summer about three feet below the sur
face.” The precise locality was named, and
visits to it have shown much of botanical interest,
besides confirming in the main, what was said re-
J. R. Root
garding the ice.
Spruce Creek is asmall tributary of the Juniata,
running parallel to Tussey Mountain for several
miles. About three miles above its mouth, near
Colerain Forge, in Huntingdon county, it cuts
close in to the mountain side, and by wearing
away the easily evaded Utica Shale has exposed a
nearly vertical wall of the overlying Oneida. sand
stone. For ages this cutting and scouring has
been going on until at the base of the wall, and,,
running into and choking the stream itself, lies a
heavy talus of broken rock from the undermined
cli ff. In the interstices of these rocks ice forms
readily and in great quantity in cold weather,
and such is the protection offered by the sweep of