FROZEN WELL. 



193 



FIG. 97. 



The frozen well was dug in this deposit in November, 1858. As stated to us by Mr. 

 Twombley, the proprietor, and the man who aided him in digging it, for about 10 feet it 

 passed through soil and gravel, then succeeded 4 feet mainly of clay. Below this lay a 

 deposit from 12 to 15 feet thick, of frozen gravel, with quite large bowlders intermixed. 

 Continuing the excavation 2 feet farther in the same materials, water was reached. The 

 well was carried only a few feet deeper ; its whole depth being not far from 35 feet. The 

 frozen part which was passed through, appeared precisely like the same materials frozen 

 at the surface in the winter. 



Immediately west of the well rises a hill of gravel and sand, which is 30 feet above the 

 well at the north end, and at its south end some GO feet. This ridge A A (Fig. 97), is an 

 eighth of a mile long, runs nearly north- 

 east and southwest, curving towards the 

 south at its southwestern extremity, and 

 having a slope on its west side nearly as 

 great as on its east side. Near its north 

 end it is crossed by a road R R, which has 

 been excavated to the depth of some 12 

 feet. Advancing southerly on this ridge 

 we find it increasing in height (as repre- 

 sented on Fig. 98, on which the letters 

 stand for the same things as on Fig. 97, 

 and which is a vertical section of the 

 ridge), till at length it stops suddenly, 

 leaving the southern slope very steep. A little north of the road rises a ledge of lime- 

 stone, B ; another shows itself on the west side, some 

 distance south of the road (B, Fig. 97.) These ledges 



B 



Fio. 98. 



B doubtless had something to do with the formation of the 



ridge of gravel. 



On the south side of the road where it crosses the ridge, a good section is exhibited of 

 the materials of which the latter is composed. It is shown below on Fig. 99. It will be 

 seen that gravel and coarse sand, with an irregular stratum, A, of light colored highly 

 calcareous clay, varying in thickness from one foot to four feet, constitutes the deposit. 

 At the top, the beds and Iamina3, seen partly on their basset edges, however, seem nearly 

 horizontal, C, but lower down they dip easterly, sometimes as much as 15 to 25 as much 

 certainly as the slope of the hill. But at the foot of the hill doubtless the strata take a 

 horizontal position, as the well-diggers thought them to lie, and as is usual in all similar 

 cases. The gravel at the road cut is coarsest above the clay, the pebbles rarely being 

 more than 3 or 4 inches in diameter, and in some layers being almost free of sand or 

 loam, like the washed pebbles of a beach. Below the clay we find a considerable thick- 

 ness of coarse sand, B, which also dips southeasterly. But at the lowest point, D, where 

 the bank disappears beneath the road, it changes into gravel of the same character as 

 above the clay. 



