337 



A letter of envoy was received from the Meteorological 

 Office, London, Nov. 1876. 



Donations for the Library were received from the Verein 

 fiir Kunst at Ulm ; Geographical Society and Revue Poli- 

 tique, Paris; Meteorological Committee and London Nature; 

 Canadian Naturalist ; Vermont Historical Society; Boston 

 Natural History Society ; E. L. De Forrest and Silliman's 

 Journal; Editors of the Sanatarian, and American Chemist, 

 New York; Penn Monthly; American Journal of Phar- 

 macy and Medical News ; and Bureau of Education at Wash- 

 ington, 



A letter being read from the Deputy Secretary of the Com- 

 monwealth, dated Bellefonte, Pa. Dec. 2d, 1876, asking per- 

 mission to copy the MSS. journal of Colonel Bard in 1756, 

 at Fort Augusta, in the library of the Society, for publica- 

 tion in the new series of Archives of Pennsylvania, which 

 was granted. 



Mr. Walter made a communication to the Society upon 

 the erroneous nature of certain statements respecting the- 

 foundations of the great tower ot the Public Buildings at 

 the corner of Broad and Market Streets. 



Mr. Walter called the attention of the Society to some remarks which 

 were made at the Stated Meeting held January 21, 1876, in which the 

 foundations of the Tower of the New Public Buildings were referred to in 

 a manner calculated to lead to erroneous impressiohs, and to shake the pub- 

 lic confidence in that great work. 



The remarks alluded to are found on page 181, Vol. xvi, No. 97, of the 

 Proceedings, and are as follows : "Mr. Blodget recounted the experience 

 of those who laid the foundation of the Masonic Temple, Broad and Filbert, 

 where two gravels were found separated by three feet of quicksand, which 

 required two powerful steam pumps 6" and 8" working night and day. 

 The top of the quicksand layer was accidentally uncovered at the corner of 

 the lot 40 feet deep, and this obliged the plan for laying the foundation to 

 be entirely changed, at an expense of say $30,000. 



"The great Tower of the Public Buildings, opposite to the Masonic 

 Temple, has its foundation laid in the upper gravel, and there is a pos- 

 sibility of future disaster from the subjacent quicksand." 



Mr. Walter stated that the foundations of the tower of the Masonic 

 Temple were laid in what was formerly a ravine, as the dip of the strata 

 underlying the Penn Square site clearly indicates, so that the vertical sec- 

 tion of the excavations for the towers of the Temple will be found to be 



