​Editor's note: The following article was originally published in the New York Tribune, November 19, 1858. Thanks to Contributing Scholar Carl Mayer for finding, cataloging and transcribing this article. The language, spelling and grammar of the article reflects the time period when it was written. {Ton is used to measure the weight of objects, while tun is used to measure the volume of liquids. Source: Engram]

SHIPMENTS OF ICE TO SOUTHERN (U. S.) PORTS AND TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
The business of exporting ice from places of its natural formation to southern ports and countries, was first commenced by Mr. Frederic Tudor of Boston. He began operations in the Fall of 1805 by sending agents to the West Indies to procure information, and soon after determined to make his first experiment in that region. But, when he sought to charter a vessel for his proposed cargo, he found no one willing to receive on shipboard so strange an article as this new commodity in commerce. Hence, he purchased one expressly for the purpose — the brig Favorite, of about 130 tuns. During the following February (1806) he shipped the first cargo of ice ever exported from this country, and probably from any other. He obtained it from a pond on the grounds of his father, in Saugus, which then formed a part of Lynn. It was cut with axes and saws and was taken in wagons to the vessel which was loaded at Gray's Wharf, Charlestown. From that time to this[,] Gray's Wharf has continued to be the center of the wharves from which ice is shipped in the port of Boston. This first shipment was dispatched to St. Pierre, Martinique, and, although Mr. Tudor went out with it, it resulted in a considerable loss, (stated at about $4,500.) This happened in consequence of the want of ice-houses, and the expense of fitting out two agents to the different islands, to announce the project and to secure some advantages. But a greater loss arose from the dismasting of the brig in the vicinity of Martinique.

The second shipment was made in 1807, and was to the amount of 240 tuns, per brig Trident to Havana, and this too was attended with a heavy loss. The enterprise, however, was continued until our second war with Great Britain, when the embargo was laid, and put an end to our foreign trade. To this period, 1812, Mr. Tudor had confined his operations mainly to Martinique and Jamaica, and had received no profit from them. In 1815, after the close of the war, Mr. Tudor recommenced his business by shipments to Havana, under an arrangement with the Cuban Government, by which certain privileges and a monopoly were granted. Thus he continued his undertaking, and extended it — in 1817 to Charleston, S. C.; in the following year to Savannah, Ga.; and in 1820 to New-Orleans. In the mean time it had been tried again (by other parties) at Martinique and St. Thomas, and failed; and by Mr. T. at St. Jago de Cuba, where it also failed after a trial of three years.  As late as 1823 successive disasters attended the business, which much impaired both the finances and health of its projector; but after an illness of two years he was enabled to prosecute his trade and to extend it to several of the Southern States and to various portions of the West Indies, In 1832 his whole shipment of ice amounted to 4,352 tuns, which was taken entirely from Fresh Pond, in Cambridge. On the 18th of May, 1833, he made the first shipment of ice to the East Indies, per the ship Tuscany, for Calcutta; and subsequently he commenced exportations to Madras and Bombay. This first cargo to Brazil was sent out to Rio Janeiro in 1834. The trade was almost wholly carried on by the originator until about the year 1836, when other parties engaged in it; and it was also established in other northern seaports, but at none has it been so extensive as at Boston. In fact the immediate vicinity of Boston is extraordinarily favored by nature for this business, since it contains numerous excellent and large ponds, and thus it can obtain supplies at very cheap rates, which advantage, with others, has kept this item of commerce at the port where it was instituted. Some years since the amounts shipped from New-York were relatively greater than at present. The quantity now annually consumed in New-York and vicinity is so vast, and the demand for it so active, that there is little or no inclination among the ice dealers to go south for better markets,

The following table exhibits the decennial progress of the aggregate export trade (coastwise and foreign) from Boston:
In 1805,   1 cargo ...                130 tuns
In 1815,   6 cargoes ...         1,200 tuns
In 1825,   15 cargoes ...       4,000 tuns
In 1835,   45 cargoes ...     12,000 tuns
In 1845,   175 cargoes ...   63,000 tuns
In 1855,   363 cargoes ... 146,000 tuns
At present, as has been the case for many years, the coastwise trade is considerably more important than the foreign. The ports of our southern cities are in several respects the best markets for ice. The quantity shipped to them is usually twice as much as that shipped abroad. However, there is proportionally a greater profit from the foreign trade, unless attended with unforeseen losses. The total amount of ice shipped from our northern ports to our southern cities cannot be stated correctly except by personally collecting statements from each firm or dealer in the trade. Vessels engaged in the coastwise trade are not required by law to enter or clear at the customhouse unless they have foreign goods or distilled spirits on board. The quantity thus reported as shipped from Boston during 1856 was 81,301 tuns; during 1857, 75,572; and in 1858 to August 31st, 42,468 tuns. The amount shipped and not reported exceeds 20,000 tuns yearly. We give the following summary of the reported shipments this year [1858]:
                                    Jan. & Feb.     March & April  May & June     July & Aug.      Total
Philadelphia ... tuns           .  .                    .  .               300                  700               1,000
Baltimore  ..............            .  .                    .  .                  675                  875               1,550
Washington, DC ....       200                   214                   .  .                  275                 689
Richmond ..............            .  .                    .  .                    .  .                  300                  300
Wilmington ............            .  .                   420                   .  .                    .  .                  420
Charleston ............       1,822                   777              2,520                  830               5,949
Savannah .............           563                   505                   .  .                  310               1,378
Florida, 4 Ports .....        346                   500                 380                    .  .               1,226
Mobile ...................            760                1,942                 250                  636               3,588
New Orleans .........       6,844             15,064                 550               2,739             25,200
Franklin .................            .  .                       244                   .  .                  120                  364
Galveston ..............             275                1,450                   .  .                    .  .               1,725
TOTAL ...................           10,810             21,104              4,675                6,879            42,483
[Some numbers were difficult to read. That may be one reason the totals are not quite accurate.]

According to The Boston Shipping List, the quantity shipped during July last to Southern ports, which was not entered at the Custom House, amounted to about 10,000 tuns, and this was sent principally to Philadelphia and Baltimore, and a considerable quantity was also sent to these ports during August.

Part of these shipments to southern ports are sent by railroad into the interior. This Summer we clipped a paragraph from The Knoxville (Tenn.) Whig, which mentioned the arrival at that place of a freight car through from Savannah in thirty-three hours, filed with ice from Boston. Its editor congratulates the citizens on being able to cool their parched tongues during the Summer with ice thus imported, when the mildness of the last Winter had prevented them from collecting it in their own vicinity.

California, some years ago, received considerable quantities of ice from the New-England States. In 1850 the shipments from Boston were — to San Francisco, 1,299 tuns; to Sacramento, 260; and in subsequent years larger amounts. But most of the ice contained in that State has been obtained from sources on the Northern Pacific coast and other places, and chiefly, we learn, from the Sitka Isles (Russian American possessions). Of the actual whole amount we have no information save by inference from a tabular statement of imports at San Francisco during the last quarters of four successive year, viz: in last quarter of 1853, 1,459 tuns; 1854, 375; 1855, 1,870; and 1856, 1,020 tuns. In a San Francisco paper of July 1st of this year a statement of imports at that place from the 14th to the 28th of June mentions 1,128 tuns of ice, but nothing further is specified about it.

The exports of ice to foreign countries were not specifically mentioned in the annual Treasury Report on Commerce and Navigation previous to 1848. The following table, compiled from the reports since that time, exhibits the estimated value, at place of shipment, of the amount shipped to foreign countries in each fiscal year ending June 30; also the number of tuns for the last three years:
 
Years.              Tuns.               Value.
1847-48 ........                          $75,517
1848-49 ........                            95,027
1849-50 ........                          107,018
1850-51 ........                          106,305
1851-52 ........                          161,086
1852-53 ........                          175,056
1853-54 ........                          202,118
1854-55 ........  41,117             170,791
1855-56 ........  43,150             191,744
1856-57 ........  51,593             219,816
 
These “values" are small, indeed, but it must be borne in mind that they represent only the cost of the cargoes when placed on board. It is, perhaps, impossible to make a reliable estimate of the sums realized for the same when delivered to eager consumers in tropical countries. To the original cost must be added the much greater expense for the shipment out and return trip, and a liberal estimate for profits to all interested.
 
Amount and Cost Value of Ice Shipped to Foreign Countries for Two Fiscal Years ending June 30:
 
                                                1855-6                                     1856-7
Countries.                  Tuns.               Dols.               Tuns.               Dols.  
Cuba                            8,399               33,666             8,846               25,849
Porto Rico                      460                    931                767                   1,681
British West Indies     3,608               11,503             3,009                 8,365
Danish West Indies        860                 2,050               638               ..1,550
French West Indies        641                 1,659                409                 1,002
Hayti                                                                                   50                     150
New-Granada               1,312                 3,247                845                 2,172
Venezuela                        228                   588                610                 1,431
British Guiana               1,177                 3,000                807                 2,142
French Guiana                                                                    15                      45
Dutch Guiana                 212                    529
Brazil                           2,607                 7,790             2,873                 8,990
Buenos Ayres             1,774                 4,909             1,365                 3,528
Chili                                                                               1,135                 3,513
Peru                             6,754               21,351              5,731               17,921
Equador                         730                 2,555             1,760                 5,535
England                          291                    657
Spain                              128                    290
Gibraltar                         187                    514
British East Africa          976                 2,931
British East Indies       9,236               82,165             18,531             124,262
Dutch East Indies         1,146                 3,661             1,997                 6,066
China                                 371                 1,295                310                 1,001
Manila and P. I.                 560                 1,700                517                 1,500
Australia                         1,485                 4,683                596                 1,800
Canada                                 5                        50             ....... 2                      20
British Am’n Colonies         3                        20                777                 1,293
Totals                            43,150               191,744           51,598             219,816
 
The next table is a statement of these exports by districts (no previous returns on this point have been published by the Treasury Department), and shows that nearly the whole were exported from Boston:
 
                                                1855-6                                     1856-7
Districts.                      Tuns.               Value ($).         Tuns.               Value ($).
Portland                            175                    515                      
Saco                                                                                   777                 1,293
Boston                         41,414             187,374           48,888             214,109
Salem                                                                                 15                      45
New-York                      1,556                 3,805             1,916                 4,349
Detroit                                  5                      50           ..   .......2                      20
                                ________        _________      ________          _________
Totals:                         43,150               191,744            51,598             219,816
 
The succeeding table exhibits the destination and amount of the foreign exports of ice [in tuns] from Boston during the last two calendar years, and is compiled from the semi-official custom-house returns published in the Shipping List of that city:
                                    1856.               1857
Havana                       5,801               3,624
Cuba, indef                    314               5,382
Matanzas                       605                  454
St. Jago                          445                  . . .
Cardenas                       422                  . . .
Manzanillo                       57                  . . .
Remedios                         10                  . . .
Porto Rico                      181                    49
Kingston                      1,594               1,952
Barbados                       877                  250
Port Spoin [sic]              704               1,209
Nassau                           180                  180
St. Thomas                    793               1,037
Martinique                      211                  494
Guadeloupe                   . . .                   183
Vera Cruz                       . . .                    103
Bermuda                          40                  . . .
So. America                    375                  . . .
New-Granada                390                  . . .
Aspinwall                        557               1,125
Rio Hache                         10                  . . .
Porto Cabello                   50                  . . .
La Guayra                        218                  753
Demerara                      1,100                  625
Brazil                                   43                  220
Pernambuco                    257                  250
Bahia                                 375                  . . .
Rio Janeiro                     1,762               2,512
Buenos Ayres                  530                  . . .
Montevideo                     893                  . . .
Valparaiso                        614                  557
Peru                                1,194                  592
Callao                             6,744               2,150
Guayaquil                      6,023                  810
Liverpool                        . . .                      298
Malta                              . . .                      430
Egypt                              . . .                      761
Cape Town                    . . .                      498
Mauritius                        . . .                      654
East Indies                  14,330               8,843
Ceylon                            467                 1,352
Melbourne                      596                  . . .
Sidney                            520                  . . .
Totals: [sic]                  44,419             37,400
[Actual Totals:             49,282             37,347]
The corresponding amount for the present year, up to Sept. 1, [1858], is 25,764 [tuns], being a considerable decrease from last year.
 
For many years after its commencement, the business of shipping ice was decidedly of a bothersome character. The domestic business alone involved much expense and vexation — in devising and experimenting with instruments for cutting ice, machinery for storing it, and storehouses for preserving it. The outlay and work connected with shipping it was considerably greater. Ice-houses were required abroad as well as at home. Ship owners objected to receiving ice on freight, fearing its effect on the durability of their vessels and the safety of voyages. Peculiar arrangements were required for lowering it into the holds of vessels. Long-continued and costly experiments were made to ascertain the best modes of preparing vessels to receive cargoes. Various methods and materials were successively adopted. Formerly the holds of vessels were sealed up at the sides, bottom and top, with boards nailed to joist ribs secured to the skin of the vessel, and with double bulk heads forward and aft. The spaces thus formed were filled with refined tan, rice hulls, meadow hay, straw, wood shavings, or like materials. These spaces were made of a thickness proportionate to the length of the voyage, and with reference to the season. The immediate surface of the ice was covered with the same materials, excepting tan.

On the 4th of May, 1838, a patent for an improved method of packing and stowing ice was granted to Mr. Tudor, the projector of the trade. The improvement consisted simply in filling the spaces usually left between the separate blocks of ice, with any non-conducting material (such as saw-dust, chaff, pulverized cork, &c.), it having been found that by so doing the ice would be preserved from melting for a much longer period than usual. The interstices between the blocks would admit air, and whenever it might be of a temperature above the freezing point, of course the ice would melt.

In 1840 and 1841 the Patent Office authorities had under consideration a somewhat similar claim for a patent, which was denied. Beside its bearing on this subject of the ice-business, the case illustrates some features of Patent Office procedure. The following is a summary of it: — On March 20 [or 26]th, 1840, John F. Kemper, of Cincinnati, applied for a patent for “improvements in the manner of constructing vessels for the stowing and carrying of ice, and also for an improvement in the manner of stowing the same in “vessels and ice-houses.” No objection was made to that part of his claim relating to the novel construction of vessels for the transportation of ice, but the Commissioner (Hon. Henry L. Ellsworth), decided that he was not entitled to a patent for his manner of stowing ice, which consisted in placing all of the blocks edgewise, that is[,] upon their narrowest side. From this decision an appeal was taken in February, 1841, under the Act of March 3rd, 1849, to the Chief Justice of the District of Columbia, and this was the first appeal taken under that act to that court. On March 22d following, Chief Justice Cranch confirmed the decision of the Commissioner. The Commissioner, in defense of his decision, said:

"It had long been common to place blocks of ice edgewise in vessels for transportation, although it was not known that there was a very beneficial result from so doing, and although there was no custom of placing all the blocks edgewise.”
In illustration of his view of the claim he said:

“If apples keep best on end, a patent would not be granted for parking them thus. If cider keeps better by placing the bottles horizontally rather than perpendicularly, this could not be patented, as both methods are used. In neither case is there anything new.”

As the attorneys of the claimant had referred to the Tudor patent, the Commissioner remarked concerning it thus:
"This fact (i. e. about the air melting the ice,) was a discovery in distinction from an invention, and was not patentable. But Mr. Tudor contrived a mode of preventing the melting by filling up the interstices with non-conducting material, which was an invention, and, as such, the subject of a patent. Yet, if previous to that time, the interstices had been filled up with any non-conductor for some other purpose, and Mr. T. had merely discovered that it would prevent the admission of air, and thus the melting of the ice, he would not have been entitled to a patent. If the contrivance or invention patented by Mr. Tudor was not new at the time the patent was granted, then it only shows that the patent ought not to have been granted, but it is no argument in favor of the present claim.”

The Commissioner further said concerning the Tudor patent, ‘‘the novelty claimed in that case appears questionable.” He also ruled that Mr. Kemper's application covered two distinct inventions, which cannot be included in one patent. Judge Cranch in his decision referred to the Tudor patent thus:

"No judicial decision is produced affirming the validity of that patent, and it seems to me to rest upon very doubtful grounds; but it is to be presumed that the Commissioner who issued it was satisfied that the means used were a new invention.”

At the present day, in shipping ice for voyages of considerable length, saw-dust is used almost exclusively. It is placed immediately between the ice and the skin of the vessel. That used at Boston is obtained from Maine, and before its use for this purpose was entirely wasted at the saw mills, and [by]  falling into the streams[,] occasioned serious obstructions. Its average value as delivered at Boston is $2.50 per cord, and several thousand cords are required yearly. Not only do the sawmills find customers for their saw-dust which they are glad to be rid of, but the planing-mills likewise dispose of their shaving with which they formerly were bothered. The companies engaged in shipping ice from Boston now annually expend about $25,000 for shavings, saw-dust and rice-chaff. Thus these small things which were formerly a subject of cost to get rid of, now produce income.
There is a considerable variation in the original cost of the ice-crops of successive Winters, caused by the character of the seasons, which may or may not be favorable to securing ice. There is also a difference in the cost of stowing ice on board vessels caused by the greater or less[er] expense of the fittings required for voyages of different duration, or by difference of season when the shipments are made. Last year, 1857, the average cost of ice at Boston when stowed on board was estimated at $2 per tun, which is about the ordinary rate in common seasons.

Shippers of ice usually pay the expenses of loading and discharging their cargoes; and hence the freight money earned by a vessel is passed over to its owner or charterer without cost or deduction. The average rate of freights paid for ice shipped at Boston (for both coastwise and foreign ports) has been stated, in a report to the Board of Trade, to be about $2.50 per tun clean and clear to the ship owner. Vessels bound into the Gulf of Mexico take from 50,000 to 60,000 tuns annually, from which their owners derive on the average $120,000 freight. The receipts for a ship's cargo of ice to India are from 10 to 15 per cent of the earnings for the whole run of the ship out and home. It is considered that the ship owner generally derives as much profit from the business as the owners of the cargo, and often more.

The weight of ice for shipment is usually determined at the wharves immediately before being put on board, by scales constructed for that purpose; and this single operation settles the weight to be paid for by the party for whose account the ice is shipped, the amount due for freight on shipboard, for transportation to the wharf, and that which is to be received by the owner of the ice.

In the export as well as in the home trade there is always a large loss of ice from melting, breaking, etc. The waste varies according to circumstances, and ranges from 30 to 60 per cent. To deliver a shipment in India requires a voyage of 16,000 miles, occupying four or five months, during which the equator is crossed twice; and if one-half of the original cargo is delivered, it is considered a successful delivery.

The existence and increase of the export ice trade has materially benefited the commercial marine of Boston. Formerly, a large portion of the vessels employed in the freighting trade sailed from that port in ballast to southern latitudes, where they obtained cargoes of cotton, tobacco, sugar, rice, etc.; and the earnings of their return trips covered the expenses out and home. Now, something can be earned for the transportation of ice to those places where freighting vessels ordinarily obtain cargoes. The ice trade has generally been unsuccessful to places where profitable return freights cannot be obtained, because a considerable amount must be paid for conveying the ice to those places, and this it cannot bear; also because southern places which do not produce valuable exports are usually unable to consume expensive luxuries. It is probable that the ice trade of Boston has been one of the principal means of preserving to that city almost the whole of the American trade with Calcutta; and that it would effect an important increase of the Boston trade with China if that country was in a more quiet condition.

The exportation of American ice to England has now almost wholly ceased. The main reason for this is that the London and Liverpool dealers obtain large supplies from Norway more quickly and at cheaper rates than from any other foreign source. The cost, when delivered in the Thames, is from four to five dollars per tun. The great difference in the price has rendered the American article unsalable, although it is superior in quality to the Norwegian. Another reason is, that a difficulty has always existed about obtaining suitable storehouses in London; and this with other drawbacks has frequently been productive of much loss to shipping. Some years ago the St. Katherine's Dock Company built a dock warehouse expressly for ice, but it proved to be an imperfect protection. Mr. Lander, who first introduced the Wenham Lake ice into London, and Mr. Gould, who succeeded him in a large business, were pecuniarily ruined by the trade, though both were shrewd and experienced men; and several London ice dealers became bankrupts [sic] at subsequent periods.

In some of the cities of Italy the use of ice is more general among all classes than in any other portion of Europe. In Naples, Catania and the adjoining towns[,] the sale of ice and snow preserved in the caverns of Vesuvius has long been a considerable branch of trade. A recent letter from Turin refers to the warmer weather there, and contains the following:

"There is an abundance of ice, and the price is exceedingly low. The vendors do not weigh it, but give a large block for two or three sous [a French coin]. Generally speaking, it is perfectly clean, and as transparent as crystal; it is cheap enough to be in common use among the poorer classes. One sees fruit-women eating their dinners by their stalls, with a large lump of ice in their drinking jugs. The evenings, until 10 or 11 o'clock, are nearly as warm as the days; and the demand for frozen drinks in the cafés is prodigious.”
​
We have but few items relative to the trade among other nations. The actual importance of the business in any community where it has been established, may best be estimated by a consideration of the result which would follow from the immediate discontinuance of it. In the United States a complete failure of the ice crop for any reason would occasion a positive loss of many millions of dollars. But no such disaster can be anticipated. So long as the earth endures[,] the seasons will continue their circling succession, and each will forever be characterized by the reproduction of its peculiar blessings.

The preceding part of this article describes the general features of the ice business as carried on alike, or nearly so, by all the companies and firms dealing extensively in the article, whether they supply the market of New-York, or Boston, or other large cities; and we will now proceed to give separate accounts of the business in each city.

Nearly all the ice used in New-York and Brooklyn is furnished by two extensive joint-stock companies — the Knickerbocker and the New-York — which, as they now exist, were organized about three years since by the union of several of the principal firms in the business. By thus consolidating their capital, and placing the direction of the various departments of the business in the hands of a few experienced persons, there is such a command of facilities as almost to defy competition.

The Knickerbocker Ice Company was formed of three leading firms —  viz., Messrs. John  D. Ascough & Co. (previously known as the Knickerbocker Ice Company), Alfred Barmore & Co., and C. R. Wortendyke & Co. — and its business dates from March 1, 1855. Its capital is $900,000, divided into 9,000 shares, at a par value of $100 each. Its officers are: Richard T. Compton, President, and Wm. J. Wilcox, Secretary. Its office is at No. 432 Canal street.

The New-York Ice Company was organized in 1856, from the former New-York and Brooklyn Ice Company, (which had been formed a year before, with a capital of $130,000) and from the Independent and the People’s Companies. Its present capital is $500,000, divided into 2,000 [sic: 20,000?] shares, having a par value of $25. It is incorporated under the general laws of the State of 1855, and its affairs were managed by nine Trustees, &c. Its officers are: A. Thorp, President; Wm. Jackson, Secretary and Treasurer. Its office is at No. 440 Canal street. Its stock is pretty widely distributed, and perhaps not more than one third is held by ice-dealers.

The amounts gathered by these Companies are so immense that whatever is provided by other parties seems small in comparison, even if it is, of itself, a large quantity. The greatest amount collected last winter, outside of these Companies, was taken, as we are informed, at Athens and Catskill, by a dealer formerly interested in the New-York Ice Company, and was somewhat more than ten thousand tuns.

According as the businesses has increased, attempts have been made in each successive season to secure a greater supply for the New-York market. The whole amount actually obtained during the last four seasons has been about as follows:
In Winter of 1854-'5 .... 200,000 [?]  tuns.
 "          "  1855-'6 ........ 363,000         "
 "          "  1856-'7 ........ 500,000          "
 "          "  1857-'8 ........ 500,000          "
The greater part of the last season was quite unfavorable, much more so than the preceding, or a greater quantity would have been secured. Until near its close, the ice-dealers expected a very short yield; and some offered 75 cents a hundred pounds, to be supplied.

The sources of these supplies are situated at considerable distances from the city, and mainly at different points upon the Hudson River, or near it. From the following statements, one may form an approximate estimate of the amount of ice that now is housed (or is sought to be housed) annually, from each source:

The Knickerbocker Company have ice-houses with storage capacity as follows: at Rockland Lake, houses covering four acres, and capable of containing 120,000 tuns; at Highland Lake (Fort Montgomery), 30,000; at Esopus, 23,000; and at Rhinebeck and other points on the Hudson, over 60,000 tuns. Rockland Lake is at a distance of 33 miles from New-York, and about a mile from the Hudson River. Its shape is somewhat elliptical, and resembling an egg; its length is about a mile; its circumference two and three-fourth miles and twenty rods; and its area 285 acres. Its area is indeed much less than than is generally supposed, even by those familiar with its appearance — and we have heard doubts expressed as to the correctness of its surveyor's report. Its surface is 146 feet above high tide in the Hudson. It is surrounded by a graceful sweep of hills. To the north of it is Verdrietege's Hook — a bold headland, which rises majestically from the river, just below Haverstraw Bay. This lake consists of unusually pure water, and the ice obtained from it is as clear and solid as possible. Its outlet is one of the sources of the Hackensack River. Highland Lake, near the Hudson (almost half a mile from it), is opposite Anthony's Nose, and a few miles below West Point. It has not been accurately surveyed, and its exact area is unknown, but it is not probably more than one third of that of Rockland Lake. Its vicinity is called Fort Montgomery, after the old fort of that name of Revolutionary celebrity, which was there erected. Near it was old Fort Clinton, of equal renown.

The New-York Company obtain most of their ice from the upper part of the Hudson. Last winter they gathered in Athens about 75,000 tuns; at Catskill, some 60,000; at New-Baltimore, 12,000, &c. This company owns Crystal Lake at New-Rochelle, from which about 15,000 tuns were taken last winter, though the usual yield is more. This lakelet has a cutting surface of about forty acres, and the storehouses there erected cover an acre of ground. This company also obtain[s] ice from near New-London, Conn., as well as other sources in this State. In March last, several of their storehouses at Athens were destroyed by fire, involving a loss of over 25,000 tuns of ice.

The conveyance of ice to this city is effected entirely by barges, towed by steam-tugs. These are of peculiar construction, and in several respects are very different from those formerly used for the same purpose. A few years ago they were built to carry two hundred tuns — but now to carry six hundred. On each barge there are usually three hands, regularly employed for the season. In taking the ice out from the storehouses and loading the barges, from fifty to sixty men are sometimes engaged, and a portion of these are employed permanently. The Knickerbocker Company has 14 barges, with an aggregate capacity of 6,000 tons. The New-York Company has twelve barges, with aggregate capacity of 5,000 tons, half of them old and half new. The latter cost from $12,000 to $13,000. The companies sell at wholesale to the ice dealers, who come with their wagons to the barges, and obtain their supplies. Ice-dealers who are stockholders, in either or both companies, pay the same rates for ice as those who have no stock in them. At the barges all ice is sold by weight, excepting the shovel ice. The prices of this year are — From 100 to 2,500 lb, 30 cents per 100 lb; for 2,500 lb and upward, 20 cents per 100. Shovel ice is sold by the basket (holding a bushel or so), and the price for that quantity is 25 cents.

The New-York Company sells at wholesale entirely, and thus has no wagons nor horses except those used at the storehouses. The Knickerbocker Company has a retail business, supplying its customers daily like any ice dealer, but this part of its business is much more extensive than that of any single firm. It has 100 or more wagons, of which about 75 are in regular use; 50 in New-York and 25 in Brooklyn. The number of wagons and horses kept by dealers depends, of course, upon the extent of their business. Most of the dealers have from 12 to 20 horses; some not more than two or three. The whole number of dealers is in the vicinity of 40. The list given in Wilson's Business Directory for this year, comprises 23 names, beside the companies, which have in all ten offices at their barges, &c.; but, as just intimated, there are a considerable number of extensive dealers whose names should have been given. The whole number of ice wagons used in the city is over 300; of which about one-sixth, perhaps more, are drawn by two horses. The most noticeable feature about the ice-wagons is their solidity of construction and consequent weight. A single wagon averages from 1,700 to 1,900 lb; and some weigh 2,100 lb. A double wagon will average from 2,500 to 3,000 lb. The average cost of the single wagons is $185, and of double wagons of the same class, $200; for spring wagons the prices are $200 to $250.

The following is a comparison of the retail rates of this Summer and of the last. It is a statement of the number of pounds of ice furnished daily during the season, to families, counting-houses, offices, etc., for certain fixed sums:
                                           1858.              1857.
For 6 cents ................... lbs. 8 to 10           12
For 9 cents ................... lbs. 14 to 15         20
For 12 cents ................. lbs.  ---    20         30
For 15 cents ................. lbs. 25 to 30          --
The prices of larger qualities are compared thus:
                                             1858.              1857.
For 50 lb  daily ................... 26 cts.             20 cts.
For 100 lb  daily ................. 50 cts.             38 cts.

The great hotels, and the ocean and river steamers are the largest consumers of ice; and, after these, come the butchers, fish dealers, confectioners, &c. These classes of customers are charged for ice by the tun, as delivered, viz: in 1858, $3.30; in 1857, $3. The consumption of ice at the very largest hotels probably averages, for the whole year, as much as two tuns a day; in Summer amounting to three tuns or more daily, and in Winter to only a tun or sometimes less. The Cunard and other ocean steamers take twenty tuns or more for each trip.

For the successful prosecution of the ice-dealing business in New-York, quite a large amount of capital is (or hitherto has been) requisite, because of the system of giving long credits to customers. During this season, however, the ice dealers have to some degree introduced a system of collecting their bills from families oftener than formerly — say monthly, and in some cases weekly. The independent drivers (i. e., those having each but one or two wagons) have hitherto been the only class that collected once a week or month. Part of the butchers pay monthly, while others (of a higher class) pay quarterly, or as often as their customers pay them. A great many families do not pay their ice bills but once a year; but this numerous class is among the best portion of Ice customers.

Some of the New-York ice dealers have been in the business for over ten years, and a few for a longer period. These have fairly earned whatever competence they have thereby acquired. As a general matter, persons do not remain long in the business; they find that the profits of one season are counterbalanced by the losses of another; and with that natural love of change which affects all Americans, they engage in some other pursuit, that promises a more uniform remuneration for equal labor.

Senator Preston of South Carolina said of Massachusetts that, though she was the most prosperous State in the Confederacy, she literally exported none of the products of her soil but her rocks and her ice. The succeeding tabular statement concerning the ice business in Massachusetts was prepared in 1855, and its statistics refer mainly to the preceding Winter. It lacks much of being a complete return for that period, and still more of representing the present condition of the business in the State:
                             Tuns of Ice
Countries        prepared for market.      Value  annually.          Capital invested.      Hands employed.
Essex ................     13,900                                 $76,200                       $25,000                       65 
Middlesex ........ 366,200                                550,400                       660,700                    362
Bristol ...............      16,200                                   10,000                         16,000                       10
Plymouth .........          800                                     2,500                          3,000                         8
                        -----------------                   ----------------            -----------------         ----------
                        397,100                                   $639,100                     $704,700                     445
 
Every county of Massachusetts contains several beautiful sheets of water from which ice may be gathered. At short distances from Boston there are a score or more ponds of considerable size, from which are yearly obtained the vast quantities of ice used in that city, and exported from it. If these were at greater distances in the interior, there would be additional cost for bringing their ice into the city, or to the wharves for shipment, which would enhance its retail price and diminish its consumption. As matters are, the transportation of ice to the seaboard from the towns where it is now obtained, forms one of the largest items in the business of some of the railroads entering Boston.

The County of Middlesex has much the largest share of the ice business of the State, as is evident from the preceding imperfect table for 1855. The returns for 1850 show that the value of the ice obtained in Middlesex, “as an article of merchandise,” was $148,000; but this did not cover one-half the value of what was that year gathered in the county, even if we suppose that the merchandise ice was all returned, which probably was not the case, for the amount collected for private use was certainly not less than that exported. In 1853 several more ponds and streams were operated on than there were three years before; and from these new sources there was taken in 1853 a larger amount of ice than, according to the returns, formed the entire Middlesex crop of 1850. The county contains[,] with the exception of Wenham Pond, all the most celebrated ponds from which ice is taken in Massachusetts for exportation. These we will enumerate and briefly describe. The most noted are Fresh and Spy Ponds (and with these, adjoining the latter, is Little Pond), which cover an area of about 200 acres, Until about 1846-7, the ice used in the Boston trade was almost wholly (say nine tenth) taken from these ponds, and mainly transported from their houses to Charlestown and Boston on the Fitchburg Railroad, which passes midway between them, and the branches constructed from it to them. Fresh Pond, the most important, is about five miles north-west from the State House in Boston, and half a mile from Mount Auburn Cemetery. It is pleasantly nestled among hills of a moderate height, and ties within the limits of Cambridge, Watertown and West Cambridge, about one third in each. It is one of the principal resorts around Boston at all seasons, the route to it being one of the most attractive drives in the city's suburbs. In Summer, boating and fishing are the chief amusements. From a description of the scene at this pond at the time of gathering ice, written in 1855, we condense the following:

"On a pleasant afternoon of a Winter's day, hundreds of sleighs may be found there filled with well-dressed persons of both sexes, full of life, on the qui vive to witness the wonderful operations before them. If they are making their first winter visit, the sights before them are strange indeed — the silvery pond glaring under the oblique rays of the sun; the dark blue water from which the ice has already been removed; the curious and huge buildings that fringe its shores; the hundreds of laborers with scores of horses that almost darken the pond; the methods of removing the snow and snow-ice; of cutting the marketable solid, of floating it through narrow canals, and of storing it by steam power. All these operations fill the crowds of spectators with admiration, and they feel paid if they have made a journey of thirty miles merely to witness them. It is quite common to cut and, by steam-power to house, two tuns a minute, and this is only a moderate rate; and when a sufficient force is at work together, six hundred tuns are often stored in a single hour. When there are several parties on a single pond, each laying up ice at this rate, the scene cannot but be exciting.”

Spy Pond, in West Cambridge, is a mile N. N. W. from Fresh Pond, and is somewhat smaller than that. About a mile north of Spy Pond is the southern end of Mystic Pond, or Medford Lake, which stretches northward for a mile or so, and lies partly in West Cambridge, Medford and Winchester. Horn Pond, in Woburn, one and a half mile north from Mystic Pond, is surrounded by evergreens, and is so remarkable for its beauty as to attract many visitors from a distance. Souhegan Lake, or Reading Pond, in South Reading, eleven miles north of Boston, is large and beautiful, and the source of Saugus River. Spot Pond, in Stoneham, eight miles north of Boston, is a beautiful sheet of soft and pure water. It covers an area of 283 acres, and is 143 feet above high-water mark at Boston. Beside these, are Eel, or Long Pond, in Melrose, (formerly north part of Malden); Malden’s Pond and Asabet [sic: Assabet] River, in Concord; Sandy Pond, in Groton; Mill Pond, in Townsend;  —  all noted for their ice crops, and there are several others, though as yet less celebrated places.

Wenham Lake, in Essex County, was for a consid[er]able period of much celebrity for the ice, resulting from it having been used for export to London, and having received the “special approbation” of Queen Victoria. It is otherwise called Enon Pond, and received this name about 1636 [WIKI says 1638], from the circumstance that the first sermon in the town was then preached on its border by the celebrated Hugh Peters[,] Minister of Salem, from the text: “At Enon, near Salem [Aenon near Salim] because there was much water there,” (John Iii., 23.) It is about a mile square, and is probably the most beautiful pond in the county, presenting an exceedingly romantic appearance. It is six miles north of Salem, and twenty from Boston. In the town of Salem there are three pretty ponds, one of which, Spring Pond, on the border of Lynn, has a surface of 60 acres.

But we have not space to notice severally all the valuable sources whence ice is obtained in large quantities around Boston. Silver Lake, Plympton, Plymouth County, is one of these. Jamaica Pond, which formerly supplied Boston with water, is another, and from which 10,000 to 12,000 tuns of ice are gathered yearly to supply Roxbury, Brookline, &c.

During the last ten years the aggregate storage capacity of the ice-houses at the ponds in the vicinity of Boston has been more than doubled. In 1847 the total (exclusive of the ice houses on the wharves at Charlestown and East Boston, in which ice is stored for short periods) amounted to 141,332 tuns, of which at Fresh Pond 86,732 tuns; at Spy Pond, 28,060; Little Pond, 2,400; Wenham Pond, 13,000; Medford Pond, 4,000; Horn Pond, 4,000; Eel Pond, 2,000; and at Saumer’s [SP?] Pond, 1,200. In 1848 the total was 159,600 tuns, showing an increase in year of 18,228 tuns, of which at Fresh Pond, 2,228 tuns; at Spy Pond, 3,000; Silver Lake, Plympton, 5,000; and at at Souhegan Lake, South Reading, 8,000. In 1854 the total capacity was 300,000 tuns; and there has since been some increase.

In January, 1856, the report of the Boston Board of Trade stated the following: “The money permanently invested in wharves, ponds, ice-houses, tools, &., for carrying on the ice business in and near Boston amounts to about $600,000. This, of course, does not include the working capital, nor the money invested in ice-houses abroad. There are twelve Companies engaged in the business, employing in the Winter, when all are at work, 1,200 to 1,500 men. The business has trebled within ten years.”

The domestic consumption of ice in Boston and vicinity has, for the last few years, been about 60,000 tuns annually, supplying 18,000 families, hotels, stores, and factories, and employing (in 1856) 93 wagons and about 150 horses in distributing it. In 1847 the domestic consumption was but 27,000 tuns.

The amount of ice yearly exported from Boston is usually two to three times greater than that used in supplying the city (in some years a still larger proportion). This export business brings in vastly greater receipts, and usually proportionate profits. In a subsequent and separate account we will give a full exhibit of this export trade.

The following is a summary of the whole ice business of Boston as reported to the Board of Trade in January, 1857, by Messrs. F. Tudor (the originator of the trade) and T. T. Sawyer, formerly Mayor of Charlestown: The gross sale, at home and abroad, approaches a million of dollars. In the preceding year, 1856, there was paid for railroads and wagons, $100,000; to laborers, $160,000; towns for taxes of ice-privileges and ice in store, $1,500; wharves, $20,000 to $25,000; aggregate so far, $281,500 to $286,500;  for materials used in shipment and otherwise useless, $25,000; for freight on ice shipped, $365,000 -— or in all over $570,000.

The ice-dealers in Philadelphia have for the least two or three years done very well. In the season of 1857, the companies and firms on the Schuylkill, 25 in number, obtained 120,500 tuns. This was a somewhat greater quantity than was obtained in 1856; and its quality was also far better. It ranged from 6 to 18 inches in thickness, and was very clear and solid. Even in the best seasons, Philadelphia imports considerable quantities of ice from Boston.

Baltimore and Washington, in favorable seasons, secure in their respective vicinity a large portion of the ice used by their inhabitants; but, in unfavorable seasons, the greater portion is imported from Boston, &c.; and, in all seasons the best and thickest ice, such as is used in the first-class hotels, is likewise brought from northern lakes.

To Charleston, Mobile and New-Orleans, great shipments of ice are now made for each season with much regularity, particularly to the latter city, where there is at least $200,000 invested in ice-houses, wharves, &c. To some extent ice has been sent to New-Orleans, and to other towns on the Mississippi River, in flat-boats from Illinois and other northern States which have access to that river.

At Chicago, the principal supply of ice is obtained from Lake Michigan; but a portion is received from sources in the interior.

We have now presented the principal facts concerning the business of gathering ice in this country, and of preserving it until used, with the details of its consumption in the principal cities. In another article we shall give an account of the export trade, coastwise and foreign, and trace its progress to the present time.

In this age of the world, each succeeding generation employs some means of increasing the pleasures of living that were unknown or unused by its predecessors. In regard to the subject of this article, Ice, we cannot say, with correctness, that its use was not known before the present century; but it is quite certain that it never came into general use in civilized nations until within a very recent period.

The domestic use of ice, to a limited extent, is very ancient. Among the Greeks and Romans, various means were used to preserve snow and ice to cool their drinks; but their methods were simple and of little account in comparison with those of the present day. By freezing mixtures[,] the ancient Romans cooled their Tiberian and other wines that the poet Horace so graphically describes. In some tropical countries, particularly in India, several processes of forming ice have been known for many centuries; so that those who had this knowledge could, with but little trouble and expense, readily prepare ice, and enjoy its benefits.
​
About the middle of the sixteenth century, the custom of cooling drink with saltpeter was introduced into Italy. Afterward, the method of increasing the cold of snow and ice by a mixture of saltpeter became common. In the fore part of the seventeenth century, ice-cups were introduced, and fruits frozen in ice were brought upon the tables. Soon after this, the French began to freeze the juices of all savory fruits for desserts.

In this country, ice was used for domestic consumption previous to the present century. An account before us, referring to the year 1799, mentions that some farmers in Maryland and Pennsylvania then had ice-houses, and it is probable that farmers in other sections of the country also had them. In course of time, the custom of housing ice in the Winter increased, and yet very slowly, because it was regarded as luxurious, or at least was practiced only by the wealthy. But, during the period of the last twenty years, we may safely say that the general consumption of ice, especially in our American cities and large towns, has increased in a rapid ratio annually.

Ice is now considered as one of the inexpensive comforts of life, desirable to be secured during the warm months by every family; indeed, it is a necessary article, and one of the most economical for any household. Hence, the use of it at the present period in this and many other cities is general with all who can afford it, as the saying is, or, in fact, with all who properly appreciate its value.

In regard to the actual extent of the ice business throughout the United States at the present time, we have but little reliable information, our facts being confined to the Cities of New-York and Boston and a few other large places. In that part of the Census of 1850 which relates to the "occupations of the free male population over fifteen years of age” (the statistics of which embraced about half of the free population above that age), we find the following statement of persons reported as ice dealers:
New-Hampshire.......   2
Massachusetts... ....  30
New-York................  88
Pennsylvania..........  72
District of Columbia..  2
South Carolina.........  2
Louisiana................. 13
Mississippi...............   1
Kentucky..................   2
Ohio.........................   5
Indiana.....................   2
Total....................... 219

At the close of 1854, a gentleman of Boston, writing on this subject, stated the following:
“Already, from all that we can learn, there is invested, in this branch of business, in all parts of the United States, not less than from $6,000,000 to $7,000,000. And in ten years, judging from the past, it may be twice as great as at the present time. The number of men employed more or less of the Winter, in the business in Boston and vicinity, is estimated at from 2,000 to 3,000, and in the whole country there are supposed to be from 8,000 to 10,000 employed.”

In 1856, one familiar with the business compiled the following estimate of the annual domestic consumption of ice in the larger cities, to which was added this remark:
“In the smaller towns, especially in those where water is introduced by reservoirs, the consumption of ice is about two-thirds as great in proportion to their population.”
Boston....... tuns 60,000
New-York.......  300,000
Philadelphia...  200,000
Baltimore.......    45,000
Washington...    20,000
Charleston....    15,000
Mobile...........    15,000
New Orleans.    40,000
St. Louis........    25,000
Cincinnati......    25,000

As will be seen from subsequent statements, the amount consumed in this city [New-York], at the present time, is much greater than in 1856, and so probably in other cities.

The common uses of ice are so well known that it is unnecessary to particularize them. It is a general cooler of most articles of food and drink. One writing on this subject of ice, in illustrating its usefulness, says, and rather enthusiastically: "Take a large city that uses aqueduct water, how could the inhabitants use it for their daily beverage unless it were cooled, for  six or eight mouths of the year? If they could subsist without ice, so they could without fresh meat, and without fruit. But a people highly civilized must more than subsist; they must live — they must live comfortably; they must have the necessaries and some of the luxuries that a gracious Providence has cast into their path. Fruits of the most delicate kind, and flowers are preserved fresh and blooming by the use of ice.” Every year many extensive cargoes of fruits, vegetables and provisions, being surrounded with ice, are shipped to tropical countries, where otherwise these articles could not be sent. The benefit of ice to steamers and passengers is very great, in enabling them to take on board a large supply of fresh provisions, and keep them fresh for the entire voyage, and has almost entirely abolished the nuisance of live stock at sea. Many fishermen carry ice with them to the fishing banks, and return with their fish as fresh as when first caught. There are several branches of manufactures [sic] which derive aid from ice. In some towns of New-England, engaged in the oil business, Winter-strained oil is no more heard of, it being now strained better in Summer than in Winter, by means of a freezing mixture made with salt and ice. Ice has its medical uses. It is a tonic, and almost the only one that in its reaction produces no injury. In its common use for beverages, taken in moderate quanties [sic], it serves to keep the system in such healthy condition that food gives it more strength. Frequently in India the first prescription of a physician to his patient is ice, and it is sometimes the only one.
Almost the whole returns from the ice business are a gain to the country. If there was no demand for ice, it would be worthless; no labor would be used in collecting it, no expense would be incurred in preserving it. Because it is in regular demand, the business of gathering it gives employment at fair prices to a great number of men at a season of the year when employment is the scarcest, and to many persons throughout the whole year. In the preservation of the ice there is a demand for a large stock of building materials, and this promotes the trade in those articles. This preservation also calls into use some articles for filling store houses — such as sawdust, rice-chaff, &c. — which would otherwise be valueless. The transportation of ice not only requires the labor of men, but brings about the construction of vehicles, vessels, &c.; and, like the other branches of the business, gives additional activity to many departments of productive industry. In the exportation of ice, ships frequently receive it for freight, and earn their expenses and profits when they could not otherwise obtain any cargo. Thus it is seen that the money and labor expended in the ice business contributes in a very considerable degree to the development of other interests. The amount directly expended by the public for ice as delivered, not merely rewards the ice-dealer for his labors and the investment of his capital, but more or less benefit all who have in any way been connected with the work of collecting, preserving and selling it, and those who are dependent upon their labor.

Fortunes have been made in the ice business and others have been lost. It is a department of human effort that requires the strictest attention and the most judicious management. Formerly, the trade, though not suffering from competition, was so now [sic: new] as not to be well understood; now, the ice dealer is liable to suffer by the active competition that he meets on all sides. Still, as the use of ice is constantly increasing, both at home and abroad, and as the crop is often a partial failure, he who thoroughly understands the business will find it about as safe and remunerative as any other.

The bodies of water from which ice is taken are, on that account, regarded as very valuable, and are taxed as the property of the abutters. Their valuation has advanced as the business has increased, and the value of real estate in their vicinity has augmented in a similar ratio.
When the land surrounding a valuable ice-pond is owned by different parties, it is customary to determine the exact proportion of the pond to which each is entitled. The rule is, that each owner has the right to the same proportion of the contiguous surface of the pond as the length of his shore line is to its whole border. At some ponds near Boston, where the ice privileges are very valuable, the boundaries of each party are accurately marked. This system of division originated at Fresh Pond, Cambridge, Mass., in the year 1839. Owing to the great quantity of ice that was secured there and the absence of any arrangement as to boundaries, differences arose among the proprietors of its borders as to where each should take ice. This induced them to agree to distinct boundary lines, and the matter was referred to three Commissioners —Messrs. Simon Greenleaf, Levi Farwell, and J. M. Felton, who settled it on the plan just mentioned. This settlement was made by partition deed, executed by all the owners, and recorded in the registry of deeds of Middlesex County. Published maps were also placed in public institutions and private hands. These maps show the direction and length of the boundary lines and the area of each owner. This arrangement proved to be of great advantage to the parties, enabling them to secure more ice than they otherwise could.

At Rockland Lake, some years ago, there were three companies, previous to their consolidation, that took ice from it, and though they had boundaries, &c., they would open and take the ice together, from agreement, since it was found that the opening of a side by one of the parties would frequently allow the wind to open the whole of the Lake.

The instruments and machines used in securing ice are especially constructed for the purpose. As the business increased, various implements were devised, and different methods were adopted, which were successively superseded by better ones. Those now used on the ice-field are the wooden scraper, snow-plane (or snow-ice plane), ice-marker, ice-plow (or ice-cutter), ice-saw, ice-splitting bar, ice-hock, &c. The plane costs about $75, the marker about the same, and the plow (of which there are different sizes) from $60 to $90. Of the latter there are several, say half a dozen, for each large ice-house. At West Cambridge, Mass., there is an establishment extensively engaged in the manufacture of the implements; and at Rockland Lake there is another. These and their uses are subsequently described. Their importance in saving labor is very great. In the Winter of 1854-5, it was estimated that by means of the ice-plow, or cutter, the reduction in the cost of cutting the ice in the neighborhood of Boston was equal to $15,000 per annum. By the labor of forty men with twelve horses, some 400 tuns can be cut and stowed away in a single day.

The yearly crop of ice is collected mainly during the latter part of January and the greater part of February. In the vicinity of Boston, February is the month most relied on for the bulk of the annual yield. At Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, ice is secured in the early part of the Winter, as far as then formed, and afterward, if possible. The New-York ice-dealers generally secure most of their crop in January. About the middle of that month those experienced in gathering ice can estimate approximately the value of the Winter’s crop. The portion of an ordinary Winter which is really favorable to securing ice is comparatively short — generally not more than twenty days in the season. Hence, during this time the ice companies are very active; and in some locations near Boston they sometimes carry on their operations both day and night. This is more particularly the case when there is a prospect of unfavorable weather. In this region such rapidity has but rarely been necessary.

Occasionally, while the ice is forming in December and January, the icemen pass over its surface, after it is thick enough to bear their weight, and break holes in it, if there is no snow on it. In this way the formation is accelerated by the overflow of the water, and the ice itself forms faster at the bottom. The surface is kept as free as possible of snow, because this greatly retards the formation. Ordinarily snow falls before there has been cold enough to form ice of suitable thickness. If this occurs when the ice is four or more inches thick and the snow is not heavy enough to sink the ice, it is usually removed by the “snow-scrapers,” which are made of wood and are drawn by horses, one or two to each scraper — in New-York, generally two horses, On some ponds in Massachusetts, from which several different parties take ice, it was formerly, if not now, customary to pile up the snow on their respective boundaries. This plan is objectionable, since the  snow, by its weight, tends to sink the ice, and in New York is not practiced, but the snow is entirely removed. If the snow falls so heavy as to bring the water above the surface of the ice[,] it congeals with the water into what is termed “snow-ice,” which is not fit for market but is removed by another scraper, called in New-York the “snow-plane,” in some parts of Massachusetts the "ice-plane." This is made of iron, with a sharp cutting instrument of cast steel attached to its bottom; it is drawn by two horses and a man rides upon it. It is guided by inserting its “guides” into grooves previously made with the "ice-marker.” It takes off a roll of snow-ice about two inches thick and twenty-two wide, which breaks up and is scraped off in the same manner as dry snow, or it may be removed into the water from the surface of which the ice has already been taken.

These preliminary operations are often very costly. Frequently, after much expense has been incurred to remove a body of snow or snow-ice, the weather becomes warm, and melts the ice, and this previous labor is wholly lost. And, on the other hand, if it is not done, and the cold continues, there will be little or no increase of thickness to the ice, which is equally a disaster. 

The cutting of the field of ice may be commenced when it has formed to a thickness of six inches, or more. If its thickness is less than six inches, it cannot be cut by the machines with the use of horses, since it will not bear their weight. The ice companies of this city usually commence cutting when the thickness has reached seven inches, unless there is, at the time of being ready to commence, a prospect of there being colder weather immediately, and consequently of an increase to the thickness. In the Winter of 1855-'56, the ice cut for the New-York market had an average thickness of fifteen inches, and considerable quantities were twenty-two inches; in 1856-'57, the blocks were from twelve to fifteen inches thick; but the last Winter was a very poor season, and the average thickness of the ice was still less. For the retail trade thin ice is preferred on account of the diminished waste in cutting it up. Of the ice cut around Boston, the thickest is always reserved for foreign shipment, because of its greater solidity, or compactness and durability.

Having cleared the field of whatever snow and snow-ice there was upon it, and being otherwise ready for cutting, the next process is to mark it off into blocks of uniform size by the "marker." The first part of this process, however, is actually done by hand, viz: the cutting of two straight grooves (one at right angles to the other) in the ice, to which all the other grooves produced by the marker are to be parallel. A man cuts these first grooves in the same way that a carpenter draws straight line on a board with a pencil, or nail, alongside his mule; he lays down a board or plank as a guide, and draws alongside of it, through the ice, a chisel sufficiently sharp and large to cut a groove of the desired size, and continues to extend them until they reach across the pond, or as far as wished. (When the plane is previously used to remove snow-ice, grooves of this sort, or one of them, are cut by hand before the plane is used, and in that case, as previously remarked about the plane, the marker forms grooves for the guides of the plane.) This marker is drawn by horse. To it handles are attached, and a man holds and guides it as he would a plow. With it he marks and cross-marks the field. The grooves formed by the marker are parallel, which is effected by its having a guide that is placed in the groove last made. When they have been made in one direction, others at right angles with them are produced in the same manner. When the ice is quite thin, this marker cute it sufficiently deep to allow of its separation by the ice-splitting bar into the blocks that are stored in the icehouses; but this is not often the case. The size of the blocks for both New-York and Boston markets, for a long period, was 22 inches square. This size, we believe, is still used at Boston. For the last two or three years, the New-York Companies have cut to the size of 22 by 27 inches, the extra amount for length having been found more convenient for packing in wagons.

The next and the main process is the use of the plow (or cutter, as it is otherwise sometimes called), which is also drawn by one horse, and follows directly through the grooves made by the marker. This instrument is generally similar to the marker (and both remind one of a carpenter's plow) but its knife or chisel is longer, or rather its chisel is compounded of a series of small cutting chisels, one succeeding another and deepening the groove. At one passage it cuts about two inches deep (each small chisel cutting about one-forth of an inch); and at each succeeding passage another equal amount. For ice of different thickness, there are plows of different sizes — chiefly 9 inch and 12 inch — the latter serving for a thickness of 20 inches, When the field of ice has been cut through in one direction by the plow, it in cut through in the other grooves, at right angles; and thus it is all cut into regular blocks.

These are then completely separated by sawing slightly between them with handsaw, and are floated by the men to the shore of the pond through little canals cut in the ice for that purpose.

At many places the ice-houses are built upon the immediate borders of the water, and then the blocks are floated up directly to their receiving doors. In other cases the blocks are drawn off from the pond or creek or river on sleds, and from the shore are conveyed to their storehouse.

Various modes of elevating the ice into its houses are practiced. The New-York companies, and many of those around Boston, now use the endless chain in combination with the inclined plane, and steam power chiefly, this having been attended with better success than horse power. Some years ago the latter was chiefly used. In some instances, where the ice-house in pretty near the shore, the blocks are immediately taken by steam power, piece by piece, up an inclined plane to a sufficient elevation, and are thence directed down a more moderate inclined plane to the doors of the buildings into which they are lowered by steam, and packed away by the requisite number of men. In Massachusetts, where the blocks are cut square, they are laid in the storehouse in regular courses, every block exactly covering the next below it. In New-York, where the blocks are 22 by 27 inches, there is an alternate arrangement of the courses — in opposite directions — to prevent their pressing against the house and breaking it open. When a vault of a New-York house has been filled, it is covered with a layer of salt-marsh hay, from New-Jersey, four to five feet thick, and the receiving doors are fitted up to prevent waste until the contents are required for use. Near Boston, wood shavings and other articles have been used for covering material.

The storehouses of the ice companies often are immense structures, but they vary considerably in size. The largest in this State is at Athens, and will hold 58,000 tuns; it belongs to the New-York Ice Company. The Knickerbocker Company have two at Rockland Lake, which will each contain about 40,000 tuns, one at Highland Lake holding 30,000, and one on the Hudson River holding 20,000. Generally, these buildings are very broad, and from 100 to 200 feet and upward in length. They present a singular appearance, neither looking like storehouses nor barns, and one unacquainted with the ice business would be almost certain, on seeing them for the first time, to ask, “What are they?” Most of the valuable ice-ponds have several of these structures on their borders. Fresh Pond, Cambridge, has its shores almost covered with some fifty of them.

The construction of these storehouses must be regulated by several circumstances, viz: by the climate, the amount to be stored, the material nearest at hand, and their nearness to the sources of supply. It is especially desirable to have a cool location, where the influence of the sun and warm atmosphere shall be least. The ice must be preserved as much as possible from wasting, and this is effected by surrounding it with materials that are poor conductors of heat, such as sawdust, rice-hulls, hay, leaves, charcoal, tan, shavings, &c. Any or all of these are used, according to circumstances, both in the ice-houses and on board vessels that export ice.

Most of the storehouses are built of wood, [and] because of its relative cheapness. Their walls, or sides, are double, and are formed by placing two ranges of joist upright, which at the bottom are set in the ground, or framed into sills, and at the top are framed into plates. These two ranges are ceiled [sic: sealed?] with boards, secured to that side of each range which is nearest the other. In the New-York houses, the space between the boardings is at least fourteen inches (enough to readily admit a man), and is generally filled with sawdust alone, but sometimes with saw-dust mixed with pulverized charcoal, &c. Occasionally rice chaff is used, but this is seldom obtainable in large quantities; in fact, it is out of sale now, as we are informed, and cannot be had at all. The saw-dust is procured from New-York, Albany, &c., at an average price of $4 per cord. This kind of filling never needs to be changed, as some others do. Filling with tan was formerly practiced near Boston, more than any other method, according to the following description. “The space between the two boardings is filled with refuse tan wet from the yards. This wet tan is frozen during the winter, and until it is thawed in the spring and summer, little waste occurs; afterward the waste is more rapid, but, as a large portion of the ice is taken out, for domestic consumption or shipment, before this takes place, the loss in quantity is small, and occurring before the expenses of transportation have been paid is of less pecuniary importance. So long as the mass of the tan remains frozen, it answers well enough; but since it will melt each summer there arises the necessity of re-freezing it every winter.

Very few of the large ice-houses in the Northern States are constructed of brick or stone. Such material is, of course, far more costly, but has the advantage of durability, a well as of safety from fire, to which these structures are much exposed, from the light, dry materials used in them to preserve the ice.  At Cambridge, one of this kind covers 36,000 square feet of ground; its vaults are forty feet deep, and its walls are four feet thick from outside to inside, inclosing [sic: enclosing] two sets of air-spaces.

These storehouses in southern countries, where ice is most valuable, are constructed at greater expense, usually of brick or stone; and the protection to the ice consists in air-spaces, or in dry, light vegetable substances enclosed between two walls. The ice-houses in New-Orleans, Mobile, etc., are among the most substantial buildings in those cities. We have an extract from a number of The Bengal Hurkarn in 1845, containing a notice of an ice-house erected at Calcutta, by Mr. Wyeth of Cambridge, Mass. It is capable of holding 30,000 tuns of ice, and incloses more than three-fourths of an acre. Its walls are 198 feet long, 178 wide and 40 high; these are of brick, and triple, with flues or air-spaces between; and the whole is covered by five roofs, also with air-spaces between.

The yearly crop of ice varies considerably, accounting to the character of the season, and is much influenced by many circumstances. In the winter of 1852-3, the first half of the season was extremely unfavorable, and in the latter part of January, Rockland Lake was but just frozen over in good condition, when it was completely buried by a heavy snow. Similar and other mishaps not unfrequently occur in every locality; and hence there is a great variation in the cost of securing ice, which thus produces a corresponding change in the price of the article in different years.

                                                     Construction of Ice-Houses

Ice is a cheap luxury in this country, and the Ice House very justly begins to be reckoned one of the necessary buildings on every complete farming establishment. Indeed it is indispensable to the proper preservation of the products of the Dairy and the Garden, as well as of meats, pastry, & c. It would be a gain to many a family, in one year, of what one that would answer every purpose would cost. We recommend the matter, at once, to the attention of our readers.

The following excellent suggestions on Ice Houses are extracted from the "Horticulturist":
To build an ice house in sandy or gravelly soils, is one of the easiest things in the world. The drainage there is perfect, the dry porous soil is of itself a sufficiently good non-conductor. All that it is necessary to do, is to dig a pit, twelve feet square, and as many deep, line it with logs or joists faced with boards, cover it with a simple roof on a level with the ground, and fill it with ice. Such ice houses built with a trifling cost, and entirely answering the purpose of affording ample supply for a large family, are common in various parts of the country.

But it often happens that one's residence is upon a strong loamy or clayey soil, based upon clay or slate, or, at least, rocky in its substratum. Such a soil is retentive of moisture, and even though it be well drained, the common ice house just described will not preserve ice half through the summer in a locality of that kind. The clayey or rocky soil is always damp – it is always an excellent conductor, and the ice melts in it in spite of the usual precautions.
Something more than the common ice house is therefore needed in all such soils. "How shall it be built?" is the question which has frequently been put to us lately.

We desired Mr. Wyeth's hints for building an ice house for family use, both above ground and below ground.

In the beginning, we should remark that the great ice houses of our ice companies are usually built above ground; and Mr. Wyeth in his letter to us remarks, "we now never build or use an ice house underground; it never preserves ice as well as those built above ground, and costs much more. I, however, send you directions for the construction of both kinds, with slight sketches in explanation." The following are Mr. Wyeth's directions for building:

"1st. An Ice House above ground. An ice house above ground should be built upon the plan of having a double partition, with the hollow space between filled with some non-conducting substance.

In the first place, the frame of the sides should be formed of two ranges of upright joists, 6 x 4 inches; the lower ends of the joists should be put into the ground without sill, which is apt to let air pass through. These two ranges of joists should be about two feet and one-half apart at the bottom, and two feet at the top. At the top these joists should be morticed into the cross-beams, which are to support the upper floor. The joists in the two ranges should be placed each opposite another. They should then be lined or faced on one side with rough boarding, which need not be very tight. This boarding should be nailed to those edges of the joists nearest each other, so that one range of joists shall be outside the building, and the other inside the ice room or vault.

The space between these boardings or partitions should be filled with wet tan, or sawdust, whichever is cheapest or most easily obtained. The reason for using wet material for filling this space is, that during winter it freezes, and until it is again thawed, little or no ice will melt at the sides of the vault.

The bottom of the ice vault should be filled about a foot deep with small blocks of wood; these are levelled and covered with wood shavings, over which a strong plank floor should be laid to receive the ice.

Upon the beams above the vault, a pretty tight floor should also be laid, and this floor should be covered several inches deep with dry tan or sawdust. The roof of the ice house should have considerable pitch, and the space between the upper floor and the roof should be ventilated by a lattice window at each gable end, or something equivalent, to pass out the warm air which will accumulate beneath the roof. A door must be provided in the side of the vault to fill and discharge it; but it should always be closed up higher than the ice, and when not in use should be kept closed altogether.

2d. An Ice House below ground. This his only thoroughly made by building up the sides of the it with a good brick or stone wall, laid in mortar. Inside of this wall set joists, and build a light wooden partition against which to place the ice. A good floor should be laid over the vault as just described, and this should also be covered with dry tan or sawdust. In this floor the door must be cut to give access to the ice.

As regards the bottom of the vault, the floor, the lattice windows in the gables for ventilation, etc., the same remarks will apply that have just been given for the ice house above ground, with the addition that in one of the gables, in this case, must be the door for filling the house with ice.

If the ground where ice houses of either kind are built, is not porous enough to let the melted ice drain away, then there should be a waste pipe to carry it off, which should be slightly ben, so as always to retain enough water in it to prevent the passage of air upwards into the ice house."

​If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!​

One of the major industries along the upper Hudson River, prior to World War I, was the natural ice business. The ice, once it had reached a desired thickness of at least 12 inches, was cut, or harvested, and stored in huge double-walled wooden structures known as ice houses.
           
The invention and marketing of the home electric refrigerator quickly brought the industry to an end after World War I. Prior to this, almost every household would have had an ice box and used natural ice. Most of the ice for New York City came from the upper Hudson and was delivered to the market by special barges in long river tows.
           
Before World War I, the River would normally begin to freeze over by mid December, at which time all navigation on the River would cease. This was due to two factors. At that time, virtually all commercial vessels were made of wood and new ice would raise havoc with a wooden hull. Also, coal was the most common fuel used for heating and coal all virtually came into the area by railroad, eliminating the need to keep the river open in the winter.
           
During the warmer months of the year, a common sight in city residential areas was an ice wagon pulled by a horse delivering ice in quantities desired by the home owner.
           
In November, most of the horses owned by the ice companies would be taken to the steamboat piers and put on board the freight and passenger boats for transportation to the up-river ice houses. The steamers would stop at the ice house docks, and there a number of horses put ashore for later work on the ice, clearing snow, marking out the ice fields, pulling large pieces of ice through a cut channel to the ice house for storage, etc. The following spring, the process would be reversed and the horses returned to their summer employment of delivering the ice to the city dwellers.

Working on the ice was hard, back breaking, and cold wet work, the work day starting, during the harvest, at dawn and ending at dusk, six days a week. Most of the work, sawing the ice, pushing and pulling the ice cakes by long pike poles, and storing the ice inside the ice houses was pure manual labor. The pay was often but a $1.50 a day. It was not unusual at the peak of the ice harvest for the workers to strike for more money. The settlement would depend on how much ice was already in the ice house and the weather forecast- -since during a mild winter it was crucial to harvest the ice at the right point in time.
           
​The electric refrigerator and artificial ice making brought the natural ice industry to an abrupt end. The large ice houses gradually passed from the scene. Some were torn down, others burned to the ground in impressive fires and a very few survived until World War II for the growing of mushrooms.

Rockland Lake is a large, freshwater lake located quite close to the Hudson River, just across the river from the city of Ossining. Throughout the 19th century, it was the primary source of natural ice for New York City. South of Newburgh, the Hudson River is brackish - as a tidal estuary it contains a mix of fresh and salt water in the lower part of the valley, making it unsuitable for ice harvesting. Rockland Lake, on the other hand, was fed by a spring and remained largely unpolluted. In 1831, the Knickerbocker Ice Company formed at Rockland Lake, where it remained in operation until the turn of the 20th century. (Learn more about ice harvesting on Rockland Lake)

A large steamboat landing was built on the Hudson River near Rockland Lake to accommodate the ice trade. The need for a lighthouse at Rockland Lake was first reported in October of 1899 by the New York Herald, which noted that "many of the new steamers are propellers of such draught as to make the shoal dangerous."

​On December 7, 1892, the Brooklyn Union Daily Standard reported that an appropriation of $35,000 was made "[f]or establishing a lighthouse and fog signal at or near Oyster Bed Shoal," off of the Rockland Lake dock. The brief noticed continued, "Steamers lay their course near there, making an important turning point, and it is said that the placing of this lighthouse at that point may have an effect in preventing wrecks there." 

A year later, the New York Herald reported that the Lighthouse Board had completed the plans for what would become the Rockland Lake Lighthouse, to be located "1,100 feet northeast of the northeasterly end of Rockland Lake landing." 

In July, 1894, the Rockland County Times reported on the construction of the new lighthouse. "The structure, when finished, will be a facsimile of the Tarrytown lighthouse, with the addition of several recent improvements." The article noted, "There is at present no lighthouse between those at Tarrytown and Stony Point, and boatmen traveling between those two points are now troubled at times to find their bearings. This will be obviated by the Rockland Lake lighthouse, which will afford them a safe guide on the darkest nights." 

Before it could be completed, however, it was struck by the steam canal boat Richard K. Fox, which had four barges in tow and destroyed the wooden construction dock "together with the workshop and other buildings connected to the works." According to the August 1, 1894 report from the New York World, the steam canal boat Richard K. Fox managed to carry "away on its bow part of one of the buildings and an Italian laborer who was sleeping in his bunk." An article from The Sun on the same incident named him as Guiseppe Luigi. Other workers dove into the water or clung to the iron lighthouse caisson to escape the wreck, which destroyed their living quarters. The lighthouse workers speculated that the captain of the Fox must have been asleep at the wheel. The Richard K. Fox appeared largely unharmed, though some reports indicate she "lost her pilot house," and continued on her way to New York City. The New York World article ends with this sentence, "Hudson River navigators think the lighthouse a menace to navigation." The Sun indicates, "It [the lighthouse, upon completion] will then prove dangerous in foggy or misty weather, boatmen say." 

By September 5, 1894, notice was given to mariners that the light would be lit "on or about October 1, 1894, a light of the fourth order, showing fixed white for 5 seconds, separated by eclipses of 5 seconds." The cast iron caisson was to be painted brown on the lower half, and white on the upper.

Like the lighthouses at Tarrytown and Jeffrey's Hook, the Rockland Lake lighthouse structure was pre-fabricated. 

By the 1910s, the Rockland Lake lighthouse had acquired a serious tilt. Most theories blame the oyster beds under the foundation. A the time, newspapers speculated that the shoals had washed out from under the lighthouse. Later historians speculate that the weight of the structure could have compacted the shoals, destabilizing them.

Righting the lighthouse was considered too expensive a project, so the clockwork mechanism which turned the light was simply adjusted to account for the angle of tilt. One can only imagine what it was like to live there as keeper.

By the 1920s, ice harvesting was also in decline, starting to be replaced by electric refrigeration. Perhaps this decline in traffic to the Knickerbocker Ice Company Landing played a role in the decision to decommission the lighthouse in 1923. That same year, a red-painted skeleton light was built adjacent to the lighthouse before that structure was demolished. A skeleton light still exists at that spot today. 

​If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!​

Editor’s Note: The following text is a verbatim transcription of an article featuring stories by Captain William O. Benson (1911-1986). Beginning in 1971, Benson, a retired tugboat captain, reminisced about his 40 years on the Hudson River in a regular column for the Kingston (NY) Freeman’s Sunday Tempo magazine. Captain Benson's articles were compiled and transcribed by HRMM volunteer Carl Mayer. See more of Captain Benson’s articles here. This article originally published July 4, 1976.

When I was pilot and captain of the tugboat “Callanan No. 1” from 1946 until 1954, we had a steward by the name of Ed Carpenter from Port Ewen.  In addition to being the best cook on the river, he was also an excellent story teller.  On more than one occasion, he would recall the summer months of 1910 when Halley’s Comet was streaking through the heavens.  He would also recall the days of another generation when the natural ice business was a big employer of men along the Hudson.  

At the time when Halley’s Comet was at its most spectacular, Ed Carpenter was cook on a repair barge of the Knickerbocker Ice Company by the name of “Beverwick.” During the summer of 1910, the “Beverwick” was tied up at the old ice house dock on Rattlesnake Island, just north of Coxsackie.  

Ed would relate how, night after night, he and other members of the ice house gang would sit on deck and watch with awe as Halley’s Comet would go through the skies.  Apparently, the comet had a fiery tail that never failed to amaze the comet watchers.  

A more earthly sight that also enthralled the comet fans was the passage of the big Albany night boats — the “Adirondack” and the “C.W. Morse,” the largest steamboats on the river.  Along the upper reaches of the Hudson, where the river is so narrow, they, too, were a particularly impressive sight.

In the narrow channel the huge steamers would dwarf everything else.  As they glided past with their hundreds of electric lights, their names spelled out in large electric signs on their hurricane decks, and their search lights probing the darkness of the night, they would appear to be one of mankind's most wondrous achievements.  

After the Albany night boat would pass from sight, Ed would turn in for a night’s rest, for it was up at 3:30 a.m. to start the hearty breakfast for the men working at the ice house, loading the ice barges for the New York market.  
​
In those days, before the invention of the home electric refrigerator, almost everyone used ice.  And most of the ice for the New York City area would come from the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie.  A traveller on the upper Hudson would never be out of sight of an ice house — those huge wooden structures with double walls filled with sawdust that housed the winter’s harvest.  

The ice harvest would follow a fixed and then familiar pattern.  In the fall of the year, after pulling ice wagons through the streets of New York all summer, the ice company’s horses would be herded to the New York piers where they would board a steamboat to the upper Hudson ice houses.  

There they would be stationed until needed on the ice.  

Once the river froze over, generally in January, the ice harvest would begin.  Large numbers of men, usually boatmen layed off for the winter months, would be hired.  The horses would then be put to work and used to pull plows to scrape off the snow covering the ice, pull the markers to lay out the ice field, and to help pull the cut ice through the ice channels to the ice house elevators.  During a good winter, the same ice field might be harvested several times in order to fill the ice house.  

In the spring of the year, the horses would go back to New York by steamboat to resume their summer job of pulling the ice wagons through the city streets.  The ice itself would all be transported to New York by ice barges and a gang of men would be employed at the ice houses to load the barges.  

An ice barge was somewhat like a floating box.  The ice would be loaded on the inside of the box — the barge's hold — so that as much of the barge as possible, when loaded, would be set low in the water to use the lower river temperatures to keep the ice melting to a minimum.  

A river watcher could always spot an ice barge for it would invariably have a wind mill atop the barge.  The wind mill served the practical purpose of operating the barge’s pumps to pump overboard the water from the melting ice as the barge was towed down river.  There would be tows on the river during the summer that would consist solely of dozens of nested ice barges.  
​
The electric refrigerator and artificial ice making brought the natural ice industry to an abrupt end.  The ice barges soon disappeared from the scene.  The huge ice houses gradually passed from the river's banks.  Some were torn down, others burned to the ground in rather impressive conflagrations, and a very few survived until the 1940’s for the growing of mushrooms.  Like Halley’s Comet, the natural ice industry was a great show while it lasted.

Belledoni’s Latest Fad. New York Girls Now Make Trips In Canoes and Become Heroines.
Special Correspondence of The Post.
New York, June 3. – The canoe threatens to become femininely  fashionable. A woman and a canoe – the two ought to go well together, for ever since there were women and canoes they have both had the reputation of being cranky.

“The fact of the matter is, the canoe has been slandered,” said a belle, in talking about canoing for women, “until it has got the reputation of being unsafe. That is what makes it popular among the more dashing of our girls.” She and her brother have made the trip up the Hudson to Albany and back, camping out on the way, and otherwise taking advantage of all the opportunities for roughing it.

“What did you wear? And what did you do with your clothes?” I asked. “You surely didn’t take  Sunday bonnet along.”

“I wore a blue flannel dress made all in one piece, with a blouse waist, no drapery, the skirt reaching to the tops of a pair of extra high boots. It weighed a pound and a half. I wore a sailor hat and carried a light jacket, to be ready for changes of weather. Our canoe is rather small to be used as a tandem – it measures fourteen feet by thirty inches – so that one could not have taken much luggage if we had wished. All that we carried weighed only about thirty pounds, and of this our photographic materials, plates, camera, etc., weighed between fifteen and twenty pounds.”

“What did you do at night, sleep on the ground and cover with your canoe, or go to a hotel?”

“We started with the intention of camping out every night, but camping places between here and Albany are not numerous and we sometimes had to stop at a hotel. But we did camp out about two-thirds of the time. We carried a small tent – made of sheeting, so that it would be of less weight than one of canvas – a blanket apiece and a rubber blanket to spread on the ground. We had a tin pail apiece, and a tin cup, tin plate and a knife each, and a few other primitive and strictly necessary articles. Then we carried a few canned meats, but not much in that line, as we expected to be able to buy most of what we would want at our camping places. In that we were sometimes badly disappointed. One evening we camped near Esopus, tired and hungry after paddling all day, and walked over the hill to the country store to find something to eat. But all that was to be had was a loaf of baker’s bread and a bundle of wilted beets. On another occasion all that we could get was some bread and milk and green plums. But usually we fared reasonably well. Then the numerous ice houses along the Hudson and the ice barges constantly going up and down made it easy to keep a tin pail full of ice chips, which seemed quite a luxury.”

“You did not feel afraid tossing about in all that wind and water in such a tiny shell of a boat?”

“Not in the least. I knew the canoe, and I felt just as safe there as I would on dry land. If the persons in a canoe know how to handle it and are reasonably prudent in their actions there is absolutely no danger. If they only sit still in the bottom of the boat they can’t overturn it if they try. One day we went aboard a brick barge, and the astonishment the men who ran the big, clumsy thing showed over our tiny craft was quite amusing. They considered us miracles, of course, because we were willing to go on the water in such a cockle shell and were absolutely sure that we would be upset in less than half an hour. And as for me, they could hardly believe the evidence of their eyes that I had been aboard the canoe, and nothing could have convinced them that there was another woman on the face of the earth who would dare venture in on the water.”
​
So the belle in a canoe is something of a proud heroine. – Clara Belle

                                                       Poison in the River
Large Amounts of Sewage Filth is Being Dumped into the Hudson at Albany
[By telegraph to the Herald}
Albany, N.Y., Oct. 17, 1888 - Danger threatens our river towns and possibly the metropolis. It arises in the wholesale contamination of the Hudson River with tons of festering filth now being dredged from the Albany basin.

For years complaint has been made of this basin as a plague spot. Once a valuable part of the canal system, it has become gradually filled up and useless. The filling was chiefly the silt from the spring freshets, the refuse from mills and factories, and, worst of all, the washings from the city sewers.

When the health of the city was threatened by the accumulated nastiness the State Board of Health rose up and demanded that something be done. The city officials joined in the demand and an appropriation was secured to clear out the basin and restore it to the canal system.

                                  A Large Mass of Sewage Deposit
An amount of filth, nearly equal to 150,000 cubic feet, is to be removed, and dredges are now at work upon it. Sanitarians recommended that steps be taken to compost this filth as it lay, but nothing of the kind was done. It is simply scooped up, loaded into scows and tugged off down stream.

The workman say these scows are dumped some distance below the city. This leaves tons of putrid matter to be spread out along the shores by the tide or by every slight freshet, or to be carried on down stream by the current.

The danger arising from such a proceeding is that the filth is likely to contaminate the water to an extent which should fill with alarm all residents of cities and villages whose water supply is taken from the river.

                                        Contaminating the Ice Crop
Nor does the danger stop there. The same source of contamination threatens the ice crop. The officials of the State Board of Health agree that this danger is even greater than the other. The ice crop is gathered for distribution over a large territory and can easily be contaminated by sewage poison. Physicians recognize ice gathered from impure water as a frequent source of enteric troubles, and warn the public against it as strongly as against the use of polluted water itself.

The work of dredging out the Albany basin is well under way, and unless prompt action be taken by the proper authorities, a large increase in typhoid troubles may result in the section of country to which the filth is likely to be carried by the river.