58 Linnccati Society. 



falling from the hill into the water, and it appeared probable that the 

 storms of the coming winter might utterly destroy the whole island. 



Dec. H. — A letter was first read «' On the Influence of Season 

 over the Depth of Water in Wells," from William Bland, jun., Esq. 

 of Hartlip, near Sittingbourne, and addressed to the Rev, William 

 Buckland, D.D. V.P.G.S. &c. 



The writer directs attention to a fact, which he has confirmed 

 by numerous observations, that the depth of water in wells, within 

 the district which he has examined, is almost invariably gieator in 

 summer than in winter. His observations were made on his own 

 well at Hartlip, in Kent, during twelve successive years, namely, 

 from 1819 to 1830 inclusive; and the general result is, that the 

 depth of water gradually increases from Christmas to June, attains 

 a maximum at Midsummer, and then gradually decreases until 

 about the shortest day, when its depth is a minimum. From the 

 regularity of the phsenomena Mr. Bland was induced to extend the 

 inquiry to other localities ; and with the aid of Sir J. M. Tylden, 

 of Milsted, and the Rev. F. Wollaston, of Upton House, near 

 Sandwich, he has supplied a large collection of facts, which are 

 comprised in tables and illustrated by drawings. The observations 

 were made principally in the county of Kent, and coincide with 

 what had been previously ascertained at Hartlip. The strata per- 

 forated in digging the wells, consisted of chalk in some situations, 

 of green sand at others, of Weald clay at others, and in some places 

 of iron sand. The depth of the wells in water, their depth below 

 the surface of the ground in which they were dug, and their height 

 above the level of the sea, varying with the general elevation of the 

 country in which the wells occur, were very various; and yet they 

 were all uniform in having the greatest depth of water about Mid- 

 summer, and the least about Christmas. 



A paper " On the stratiform Basalt associated with the carboni- 

 ferous formation of the North of England," by William Hutton, 

 Esq. F.G.S. was begun. 



LINN^AN SOCIETY. 



Dec. 6. — A paper was read, " On the Means by which certain 

 Animals ascend the vertical surfaces of highly polished bodies," 

 by John Blackwall, Esq. F.L.S. 



Ihis paper corrects an error in the author's Notice of several 

 recent discoveries in the structure and economy of Sjnders, and in his 

 Remarks on the Pidvilli of Insects*, printed in the forthcoming 

 seventeenth volume of the Society's Transactions : the opinion 

 therein enunciated, that this extraordinary fact is to be explained 

 on mechanical principles exclusively, the author now abandons ; 

 and substitutes for it what he considers to be an unexceptionable 

 theory, founded on numerous well-established facts, ascertained 

 by a careful and extensive investigation of the subject made by him 

 during the last summer. He details the experiments from which 



• See Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. ix. p. 138 and 210. 



