Scientific Intelligence. — Geology. 435 



GEOLOGY. 



4. On the Frozen Soil of Siberia, by Professor Baek of 

 St Petersburgh ; communicated to the Geographical Society, 

 through Vice-Admiral Von Krusenstern. — It has long since 

 been ascertained, says M. Baer, that over a great extent of 

 country, the soil in Siberia is never entirely free from ice; du- 

 ring the summer, the surface of the ground is, to a greater or 

 less depth, thawed ; but at some distance from the surface, a 

 bottom of perpetual ice is met with. Gmelin the elder, in his 

 travels in Siberia, states, that shortly after the foundation of 

 the town Yakutzk* (in Lat. 62^° North, Long. 130° East near- 

 ly), at the end of the seventeenth century, the soil at that place 

 was found to be frozen at a depth of 91 feet, and that the peo- 

 ple were compelled to give up the design of sinking a well. 

 Many other facts of this description were collected by travel- 

 lers about the middle of the last century, but these facts seem 

 not to have been generally credited ; and even in 1825, 

 Leopold von Buch, a philosopher whose opinion is of the 

 greatest weight in all questions connected with the physical 

 condition of the globe, rejected these statements as entirely 

 erroneous ; yet they have been corroborated in our days by the 

 travels of Erman and Humboldt. Until very lately, nothing 

 was known respecting the thickness of the frozen surface ; but 

 within these few years a merchant of the name Schargin, ha- 

 ving attempted to sink a well at Yakutzk, was about to aban- 

 don the project in despair of obtaining water, when Admiral 

 Wrangel persuaded him to continue his operations till he had 

 perforated the whole stratum of ice. This he did, and kept a 

 complete journal of his work. The well or pit of M. Schargin 

 had been sunk to the depth of S82 feet, and at that distance 

 from the surface, the soil was very loose, and the temperature 

 of the earth A° Reaumur (31° Fahr.), but nearer the surface it 

 had been much lower, and had increased as follows : Reaumur, 

 6° at some feet below the surface ; 5° at 77 feet ; 4° at 119 feet ; 

 2 at 217 feet ; 11° at 305 feet ; |° at 350 feet ; i° at 382 feet. 

 As the soil had already become loose at 350 feet, and as the 

 aperture of the well was eight feet square, and the work carried 



* For remarks on this subject by Frufessor Bischof, see this Journal, 

 vol. xxiii. p. 238. 



