GEOLOGY, 261 



the gravel bed passes through the bottom of the well ; and from other 

 wells on both sides it was clear that this gravel bed does not go 

 through, and that it is quite a narrow belt. 



The well itself was found to be thirty-four feet deep, with two feet 

 of water in it, while around the bottom of the stone-walling of the 

 well was a thick rim of solid ice, a hole large enough for a bucket 

 only remaining open, as it had been cut the previous winter. (This 

 was in June, 1859.) The well is three feet in diameter. 



The temperature of the water in the well was 32^ Fahrenheit. 

 The temperature of the air in the well near its bottom was 



Fahrenheit. That of the air on the surface was 49^ Fah. The 



temperature of a spring just outside of the gravel bed was 

 Fah. A well belonging to Mr. Strong, a few hundred yards east of 

 Twombley's, was found to be fifteen feet deep, and the temperature 

 of the water was 46^ Fah. A spring south-west of the frozen well, 

 and not far distant, had a temperature of 9 Centigrade, or 48^ 

 Fah. None of the other wells in the town freeze in the winter, or are 

 remarkably cold. It is evident, therefore, that the geological forma- 

 tion around the frozen well determines its freezing character, and 

 that the gravel bed, in some way, causes the water in that well to 

 freeze, and to continue frozen through the summer months. 



A pit was then sunk in the garden, 70 feet south-east of the frozen 

 well, to the depth of twenty-nine feet. The strata were found to be 

 clay and sand near the surface, and the lower part consisted of gravel 

 and boulders. No frozen strata were found. After examining the 

 results of this digging, another excavation was made to the west of 

 the well, which gave more satisfactory results ; for the moment the 

 gravel and boulder bed were struck, they were found to be very cold, 

 and near the bottom of the bed frozen earth was found. This was 

 in the month of October, 1860, when the summer heat had penetrated 

 as far as possible into the earth. This time was chosen expressly for 

 the purpose of ascertaining whether the surface heat ever reached 

 the bottom, of this frozen bed. In the summer of 1859, the committee 

 visited the well often, and drew ice from it in the months of June, 

 July, and August ; on one day when the temperature outside of the 

 well was 93 Fah. in the shade. 



On the seventeenth of September, 1861, another shaft was sunk, 

 seventy feet from the cold well in a north-west direction, to the depth 

 of thirty-four feet. The material passed through was gravel mixed 

 with boulders. On the nineteenth of October, at a depth of twenty-six 

 feet no ice had been found. The average temperature of the atmos- 

 phere was 47 Fah., and of the bottom of the shaft 46 Fah. On 

 the twentieth the workmen reached a depth of twenty-nine feet, and 

 found a stratum of frozen gravel about two inches thick. On the 

 twenty-first they sunk to the depth of thirty-one feet, and found a 

 stratum of frozen ground about eight inches thick, below which no 

 frost was found that day. The day following, at a depth of thirty- 

 three feet, the gravel was frozen so solid that it was difficult to break 

 with a pick. The workmen supposed this to be only a crust or thin 

 stratum of frozen ground, such as they had before encountered ; but 

 it continued solid all day, during which they only sunk one foot. 

 Clear ice, in streaks, pervaded the gravelly mass. The external tern- 



