It was
perfectly clear, and disposed in hexagonal prisms, separating readily at
the natural joints. The ice had a slightly saline taste,[204] the ground
above it being impregnated with salt, and the water near tasting of
sulphur. The upper surface of the stratum of ice was perfectly smooth.
In Poggendorff's _Annalen_ (1841, Erganzsband, 517-19,--Boue, an old
offender in that way, says 1842) there is an account of ice being
found in the Westerwald, near the village of Frickhofen at the foot of
the _Dornburg_, among basaltic debris about 500 feet above the
sea.[205] Commencing at a depth of 2 feet below the surface, the ice
reaches from 20 to 22 feet farther down, where the loose stones give
place to dry sand. The ice is in thin layers on the stones, and is
deposited in the form of clear and regular hexagonal crystals. The
lateral extent through which this phenomenon obtains is from 40 to 50
feet each way, and is greater in winter than in summer. As in other
cases that have been noticed in basaltic debris, the snow which falls
upon the surface here is speedily melted.
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