95 



dent some interesting facts and questions as to the nature 

 of springs and wells. 



It was impossible, he said, to account for the water in the wells 

 of Boston, by the supply afforded by rains alone. Water is 

 found abundantly in places at so great an elevation that mere 

 drainage could not have furnished it. It would seem, therefore, 

 that it must have been brought by underground currents, perhaps 

 from a great distance, following the course of an impervious 

 underlaying stratum. Such an underground current he stated to 

 exist at the south part of the city. The President also stated 

 that in the vicinity of the state-house, there is a very deep well 

 which rises and falls with the tide. 



Dr. Cabot called the attention of the Society to a com- 

 munication which had appeared in several newspapers of 

 this city, over the signature of Prof. Horsford, of Harvard 

 University, in which he attributes the form in which the 

 gold is found in California, to the grinding action of gla- 

 ciers. Dr. Cabot wished to know whether those gentlemen 

 of the Society most conversant with such subjects, coincided 

 with Prof. Horsford in his views. 



Mr. J. D. Whitney said he saw no sufficient reason for 

 calling in the glacial theory to explain the phenomena in 

 question, since gold is very commonly found in vein rock, 

 either in the form of rounded grains or scales. Simple de- 

 composition of the rock would liberate it in the shape in 

 which it is found in California. 



Mr. Desor said that the movement of glaciers is so slow, 

 he doubted if they could by any possibility produce such a 

 violent disruption and grinding to powder of the rock for- 

 mation, as Prof. Horsford supposes to have taken place. 

 Neither does it appear that there are any striae on the sur- 

 face of the rocks in place, such as are invariably found in 

 the track of a glacier. Nor was Mr. Desor aware that any 

 evidence had been heretofore adduced, of the existence of 

 glaciers at a point so far to the south, on the North Amer^ 

 ican continent. 



