Of a way, used in Italy, of preserving ice and snow by chaffe

The Ingenious Mr. William Ball did communicate the relation hereof, as he had received it from his brother, now residing at Livorne, as follows; The snow, or ice-houses are here commonly built on the side of a steep hill, being only a deep hole in the ground, by which meanes, they easily make a passage out from the bottom of it, to carry away all the water, which, if it should remain stagnating therein, would melt the ice and snow: but they thatch it with straw, in the shape of a saucepan-cover, that the rain may not come at it.