86 



OwEGO, Tioga Co., N. Y., May 31st, 1859. 



Dear Sir: — I write now simply to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 

 of the 23d inst., as some time may yet elapse before I can make as full an 

 investigation of the facts referred to in your letter as I wish to make in order 

 fully to meet the scope of your inquiries. 



The well in question is about four miles and a quarter west of this village, 

 and is familiarly known to the people here and in this vicinity as " The Deep 

 Well." It does not, however, lie in this town, but just beyond our limits, in 

 the town of Tioga. 



It has not been in use within the past four or five years, in consequence of 

 the earth having caved in so as partially to fill it; and the phenomenon to 

 which you refer will soon be only a matter of tradition, as the well wUl not 

 probably be reopened. 



I can now only state, in general, that every winter this well, being of the 

 depth you state, was regularly frozen over about the time the running streams 

 in its vicinity were closed by ice, and as regularly thawed out about the 

 month of June, though ice would be occasionally drawn from it as late as the 

 month of July. 



When it was once closed by the ice, no force at the command of those in its 

 vicinity could re-open it. A blacksmith in its vicinity used to try to break the 

 crust of the ice by raising a large blacksmith's anvil twelve or fifteen feet from 

 its surface, and then suddenly letting the anvU drop upon it; but without 

 eff"ect. 



I regret to acknowledge that the facts connected with this well have not 

 before this been of such interest to me as to make it now only necessary to 

 give you the results of past investigations ; as it is, I will pursue the inquiry 

 with such means as I can, and give you the fruits, if any, hereafter. I only 

 write now lest you might suppose from the delay that I had either not received 

 your letter, or was unpardonably inattentive to your request. 



Very truly yours, 



GEORGE SIDNEY CAMP. 



Hartford, Conn., July 4th, 1859. 

 Dr. C. T. Jackson, 



Boston, Mass. 



Dear Sir: — Yours of the 16th ult. found me at 

 the beginning of a college annual examination, followed by a college com- 

 mencement, with all the distractions thereunto belonging; and up to this time 

 I have hardly had leisure to answer correspondents. Under these circumstan- 

 ces, I beg you will pai-don my seeming neglect. 



In answer to your inquiry if I know of any localities in Owego where you 

 can obtain information, I can only reply that, in addition to the correspondents 

 mentioned in my paper on the frozen well of Owego, Mr. John C. Dickinson, 

 who resides at Owego, is interested in this matter. Besides the famous freez- 

 ing well, there are several others in Owego remarkable for their coldness. One, 

 twenty-five feet deep, was in the following condition March 28th, 1856: — tem- 

 perature of air, 22» Fah. ; ice two feet thick above the water, then about a 

 foot depth of water, and on the bottom of the well the ice about six inches 

 thick. Another, thirty feet deep, freezes when the thermometer in the air 



