77 



a mixture of clay. The shaft was now filled with the material which 

 was thrown out. 



On the 28th of September a new shaft was commenced, about 

 seventy feet from the cold well, in a north-westerly direction. Found 

 gravel and cobble stones at the surface, which continued mixed with 

 water-worn boulders to the depth of thirty-four feet, when the work 

 was discontinued. This gravel was a little finer than that in the shaft 

 previously sunk, and more like that passed through in digging the 

 cold well. The stones were encrusted through a part of the distance 

 with carbonate of lime as before mentioned, but much less than in the 

 other shaft. 



During the time occupied in sinking this shaft to the depth of 

 twenty-six feet, the temperature of the air was less and less, — " the 

 weather growing colder." The average temperature of the atmos- 

 phere was 47.011° Fah. The temperature in the bottom of the shaft 

 was uniformly 46° Fah., and on the 19th of October, at the depth 

 before named (twenty-six feet), no ice had been found. 



On the 20th the workmen reached a depth of twenty-nine feet, 

 and found a stratum of frozen earth (gravel) about two inches thick. 

 No more frost was seen this day. On the 21st they sunk to the 

 depth of thirty-one feet, and found a stratum of frozen ground about 

 eight inches thick, below which no frost was found that day. The 

 day following (22d) reached a depth of thirty-three feet, and found 

 the ground frozen solid and hard to break with the pick. 



The workmen supposed this to be only a crust or thin stratum of 

 frozen ground, such as they had before encountered ; but it continued 

 solid all day, during which they sunk only one foot. 



In the afternoon Mr. Higgins, who kindly volunteered his services 

 of supervising the work of sinking both of the shafts referred to, 

 visited the shaft in company of E. N. Briggs, Esq., and drew up from 

 the bottom, after removing some loose gravel which had caved down 

 from above, a bucketful of frozen ground, in which appeared clear 

 ice in streaks, and in the interstices of the gravelly mass, clearly per- 

 ceptible. Some of this frozen earth and ice was taken to the village, 

 and exhibited to many persons before it had time to melt. The tem- 

 perature of the air this day, October 24th, was in the morning 47° 

 Fah., at 3 p. m. 52° Fah., at 5 p. m. 48° Fah. During the night 

 previous, water froze sHghtly on the surface ; but in some post-holes, 

 eighteen inches deep, recently dug in the same neighborhood and 

 containing water, no ice formed. 



The lowest depth reached in this shaft was thirty-four feet. The 

 men before leaving tried to drive an iron bar thorough the frozen 

 ground in the bottom without success, it being frozen too deep and 

 too solid. 



