88 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



am persuaded that it had been loaded witli hoar-frost, and its precipita- 

 tion into the river formed tlie floating spicula which he observed; they 

 could have no other origin; and their being brought into contact with 

 the stones by the gyrations of the stream, is exactly what I had given 

 two years ago as the theory of the formation of ground-ice, by the 

 congelation and precipitation of the moisture of the atmosphere. 



It is always delightful to explore the mysteries of nature, and 

 the Author of our being has provided in such researches unbounded 

 exer-cise for the highest powers of our understanding and reason. Even 

 brute matter gives us some idea of the immensity of its Creator; for 

 notwithstanding the immense strides that have been made in inves- 

 tigating the properties of matter, we may be said to 1)e at this moment 

 only on the threshold of science, and future generations, if the mind 

 goes on to improve, will look back on our most profound researches 

 merely as forming thte rude elements of that more perfect knowledge 

 which they will have reached. Perhaps much remains to be known 

 even with regard to the common phenomena to w^hich I have this day 

 directed the attention of this meeting; and, although I think we have 

 nearly reached the solution of our problem in the process of freezing, 

 yet that you may not think the mysteries of congelation exhausted, I 

 conclude with mentioning a fact, which the illustrious Frenchman, 

 whom I have so often quoted, leaves without even attempting an explan- 

 ation. " During the congelation of the bottom of the Aar, M. Hugi 

 immersed pitchers filled with hot and cold water; the first, on being 

 brought up, was covered with a layer of ice one inch iliich; the other 

 had no marks of congelation. Bullets covered with cloth, warm as 

 well as cold, afforded similar results." 



On the Ice Formed, under peculiar circumstances at the 

 Bottom of Eunning Water. 



By the Eev. James Farquharson, of iVlford, F.E.S. 



From Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 125, p. 329 (1835). 



Ice formed at the bottom of rivers and streams, frequently in 

 great quantities, is a phenomenon quite common in this climate. I 

 made for several years past a numlier of incidental and desultory 

 observations upon it, and became convinced that the principal explan- 

 ation of its occurrence is the radiation of heat from the solid opake 

 materials of the bottom ; but as I conceived this to be also the gen- 

 erally admitted one, T took no note of the observations, with the view 

 of vindicating the theory of the radiation. It appears, however, from 



