316 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



I shall not proceed at present with these inferences into the American 

 Devonian system, although there is no want of interest. I may just remark 

 that many Silurian Brachiopoda and some other molluscs work themselves 

 up into the Devonian as representatives of a common period. They may 

 even be found in the carboniferous system, as has been proved by D'Archiac 

 and De Yemeni!, to be not uncommonly the case in Europe. 



The great ruling zoological principles of the Silurian system are continued 

 into the Devonian; but in the latter we have the introduction of Vertebrates 

 in profuse variety, and of new and complex types of Invertebrates in 

 unwonted abundance, the old forms dying out. S illiman's Journal, March 

 1859. 



BEAUTIFUL APPLICATION OF GEOLOGICAL SCIENCE TO MINING 



ENGINEERING. 



One of the most beautiful and successful applications of geological 

 science to mine engineering has recently been made in England, on the 

 estate of the Duke of Newcastle, near Nottingham. In 1853, it was con- 

 sidered desirable to open a particular vein of coal, known as the " top- 

 hard," at a point removed from its outcrop and workings; and, under the 

 advice of experienced geologists, a location on the new red sandstone 

 formation, five miles distant, was selected, and the work of sinking a shaft 

 commenced. The confidence entertained in the geological estimates is well 

 illustrated by the fact, that nearly five years of uninterrupted labor have 

 been required to reach the proposed depth, where the vein has been struck 

 (during the past year), as was predicted. The strata passed through, in 

 sinking the shaft, were as follows : 54 feet of new red sandstone and marl ; 

 112 feet of Permian limestones, shales, and sandstones; and 1364 of strata 

 belonging to the Carboniferous formation: total, 1530 feet. One sandstone 

 (sixty -six feet thick) in the coal-measures was so full of water, that nearly 

 twenty months were taken up in working through it, the Avatcr being 

 stopped, step by step, with iron tubing. 



THE FROZEN TVELL OF BRANDON, VERMONT. 



At the meeting of the American Association for the Promotion of Science, 

 1859, Prof. Hitchcock presented the following paper on the curious frozen 

 well of Brandon, Vt. : 



This well is situated about one mile southwest of Brandon village, from 

 an eighth to a quarter of a mile east of the creek. The surface is not raised 

 very much above the river, and is composed of sand and gravel, with one 

 of the varieties of the lower Silurian limestone, showing itself occasionally 

 in bosses and low ridges, breaking through the ground, and doubtless 

 underlying the whole superficial deposit at no great depth. It is just such 

 a region of sand and gravel as may be seen in many places along the west- 

 ern side of the Green Mountains, and indeed all over New England. It is 

 what is called modified drift, and lies above genuine drift, having been the 

 result of aqueous agency, subsequent to the drift period. The well was dug 

 in November 1838. For about ten feet it passed through soil and gravel, 

 then about four feet of clay. Below this lay a deposit, from twelve to 

 fifteen feet thick, of frozen gravel, with quite large boulders intermixed. 

 Continuing the excavation two feet farther in the same material, water was 

 reached. The frozen part passed through appeared precisely like the same 



