292 Dana on Electrical Battery. 



would immediately rush in through any fissure, and this hy- 

 draulic and hydrostatic effort would force the air out at any 

 orifice, and thus blow the water up with it. This was proba- 

 bly the cause of the agitation of the water, and of the bubbling 

 of air, and of the throwing up of the water at interv^als, ob- 

 served by the boys on the 3d of March. 



The effect of the water covering the ground, would be to 

 weaken its cohesion derived from frost, and as there were pro- 

 bably hundreds of tons of pressure, the vaulted ground, when 

 sufficiently weakened, gave way with a loud explosion and a 

 violent concussion, as heard by Mr. Sheldon's family, a few 

 hours after the facts observed by the boys. The parts of the 

 arch now fallen in, (so to speak) necessarily either overlap- 

 ped, or rose in ridges, piece being pressed against piece, as de- 

 scribed and figured by Mr. Hitchcock. 



We are indebted to this gentleman for his delineation of this 

 singular case. 



The freezing of water, and its attendant expansion, are pro- 

 ductive of multiplied and very diversified phenomena upon our 

 globe, whether we contemplate them in the delicate spicule of 

 hoarfrost, the six-rayed stars of snow, or in the stupendous 

 glaciers of the Alps, and the awful icebergs of Greenland. 



Cambridge, January 25, 1819. 



Professor Siluman. 



Dear Sir, 

 IF the following observations are worthy of a place in your 

 valuable Journal, please to insert them, and oblige yours, with 

 real esteem, J. F. Dana. 



Art. XIV. On a New Form of the Electrical Battery, by 

 J. F. Dana, M. D. Chemical Assistant in Harvard Uni^ 

 versity, and Lecturer on Chemistry and Pharmacy in 

 Dartmouth College. 



JL HE Electrical Battery in its common form is an unmanage- 

 able and inconvenient apparatus. When the coated surface is 



