At length, Professor Wheatstone referred them to the
memoir by Professor Pictet, in the _Bibliotheque Universelle_ of Geneva,
where that _savant_ improves upon De Saussure's theory, and applies it
in its new form to the case of caves containing permanent ice, in tracts
whose mean cold is above the freezing point. This they seem to have
accepted, adding that the climatological circumstances of Orenburg--a
wet spring, caused by the melting of the abundant snows, followed by a
summer of intense and dry Asiatic heat--must be particularly favourable
for the working out of the theory, and must also act powerfully in
producing the refrigerating effects of evaporation.[114]
The traveller Pallas visited Illetzkaya in July 1769, and describes
this gypseous hillock.[115] In his time the entrance by the side of
the hill was unknown, as also was the existence of ice in the cavern.
He saw at the top of the Kraoul-nai-Gora, or Watch-mountain, as it was
called, a fissure which had once formed a large cavern, into which the
Kirghis were in the habit of throwing furs and other materials as
religious offerings.
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