?)02 



Rev. Theodore Parker said, that in one of the Biogra- 

 phies of Pythagoras it is stated that on a certain occasion, 

 when in the south of Italy, he looked into a deep well, tasted 

 the water, and foretold an earthquake. Governor Winthrop, 

 also, mentions that the water of a well in the eastern part 

 of Massachusetts, which had been remarkably pure, became 

 brackish just before an earthquake. These facts, he thought, 

 had some bearing on the question of the thinness of the 

 earth's crust, as the water was probably charged by gases 

 coming up from below. 



Mr. Parker presented from forty to fifty shells of the 

 Ohio and its tributaries, together with a number of fossil 

 shells from the same neighborhood. 



Dr. Gould presented a volume of Descriptions of Shells 

 and IMollusca, brought home by the United States Explor- 

 ing Expedition. 



February 3, 1853. 



The President in the Chair. 



Prof. Wyman introduced a series of Resolutions, urging 

 upon the Government of the United States the importance 

 of a Geological Survey of Oregon and Nebraska by a com- 

 petent naturalist, as follows : 



Understanding the Commissioners of the General Land Office, 

 at Washington, have included in their estimate for the land sur- 

 veys of the approaching season, an item for the geological sur- 

 vey of Oregon and the Mauvaises Terras of Nebraska, in which 

 previous surveys have led to the discovery of one of the most 

 remarkable tertiary geological deposits in the world, therefore, 



Resolved, That the Boston Natural History Society respect- 

 fully recommends the prosecution of the surveys of one of the 

 most interesting and important geological regions of this country, 



