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learned that after sinking through the soil, about twenty feet, 

 they came to frozen earth, consisting of coarse gravel, rounded 

 pebbles, and lumps of clear ice, from the size of an egg to that of 

 a twelve pound cannon-ball, and that this frozen stratum was be- 

 tween twelve and fifteen feet in thickness. Mr. Strong, one of 

 the nearest neighbors, who saw the well every day, brought 

 lumps of the frozen gravel to the village, and showed them to his 

 friends. 



During the past winter and spring, this well has given Mr. 

 Trombley much trouble, owing to its freezing over every night, 

 so that he was obliged to send his boy down in the bucket to cut 

 through the crust of ice, in order to be able to draw water for 

 family uses. This boy has become so expert in this service, as to 

 be quite useful to the committee ; and he readily went down into 

 the well for us, and cut off the ice from its sides, while we were 

 making our examinations. % 



We sent down a candle and illuminated the well, so as to see 

 the crust of ice on its sides, where he had bi'oken it off with the 

 hammer, and drew up the pieces of ice in the bucket. We found 

 that this crust extends from the surface of the water, which is 

 2^ feet deep, to the height of five feet, and is of considerable 

 thickness. 



The water which su2:)plies the well comes in from three differ- 

 ent directions, under the frozen stratum, and the sand at the bot- 

 tom of the well is not frozen, and water was free in it when the 

 well was first sunk. 



The water which spatters up against the sides of the well, and 

 that which runs down from above, freezes on its sides near the 

 bottom, showing that the temperature there must be considerably 

 below the freezing point of water, for thawing ice could not freeze 

 water of a more elevated temperature. 



On drawing buckets of water from the well, and immediately 

 taking its temperature with well proved Centigrade thermometers, 

 of which we had three, we found that the temperature of the 

 water from the well was ^° Centigrade, while the air in the bot- 

 tom of the well stood at 2°, and the outside air at the surface 

 stood at 9^° C. These experiments were several times repeated, 

 with the same results. We next made an examination of the 

 nearest wells and springs in every direction around this w€ll. A 



