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in the well, the flame of a candle placed near the stony walls not 

 being in the least deflected. 



2d. — The descent of cold air into the well, in mid-winter, commu- 

 nicating the degree of cold to the walls of the well. 



This conjecture is insufiicient, since the ice existed before the well 

 was sunk, and when there was no opening for the air to descend into. 

 This fact was not only ascertained at the time the well was sunk, as 

 witnessed by credible persons residing in the vicinity, but has also 

 been fully verified by sinking a shaft into the boulder bed by this 

 committee, and by. the discovery of an extensive frozen stratum in 

 October. 



3i>. — Radiation from the bottom of the well. 



K this conjecture was well founded, other wells in the vicinity, 

 many of which are more favorably situated for such radiation, should 

 also be frozen ; and yet such is not the case, and they never do freeze 

 in the coldest winters. 



4th. — It has also been imagined that some natural freezing mixture 

 exists in the frozen strata, or in the water of the well. 



This is not the case ; the water being exactly hke that of other wells 

 in the neighborhood, and the boulder bed containing nothing but 

 rocks, clay, and sand. 



5 th. — That this boulder bed is the moraine of an ancient glacier, 

 the ice and cold of which still remains. We doubt not that the boul- 

 ders were rounded and accumulated by the action of moving ice ; 

 but it would appear improbable that ice should remain for many 

 thousands of years, when liquid water exists both above and below 

 this mass of drift, and percolation of warmer water is constantly tak- 

 ing place from the surface, and it is also introduced from below quite 

 freely. 



6th. — The well having been stoned up in the latter part of No- 

 vember, it has been supposed that the stones were very cold when 

 placed in the well, and that they have retained their low tempera- 

 ture ever since, and thus, by conducting the heat away from the 

 water in the well, they have caused it to freeze. 



On this hypothesis one observer predicted that " our curiosity would 

 soon disappear," as the equilibrium of temperature would soon be 

 restored between the water and the walls of the well. This hypothe- 

 sis has required the committee to leave the question to be solved by 

 time, and three years have passed, with the regular recurrence of the 

 icy belt, and its equally regular disappearance in the autumn. Now, 

 if It was the original coldness of the stones in the well that caused 

 the ice to form, when those stones were once warmed above the freez- 

 ing .point, they ought never again to fall below it and cause the con- 

 gelation of the water. The doubts which this observer entertained 



