1871.] 307 [Jackson. 



made a very full report of their explorations to the Society, which re- 

 port is published in the number of the Proceedings for the month of 

 May, 1862, pages seventy-two to eighty-seven. 



They would gladly have closed their examination at that time, but 

 owing to the prediction made by a very eminent man of science, 

 Prof. Loomis, that the ice would soon cease to form in the Brandon 

 well, it was thought best to'wait a few years to see if this prediction 

 would come to pass. We have now to report that for twelve years 

 the ice has remained in the Brandon well during the hot months of 

 summer, and that notwithstanding the openings we have made in 

 the soil, and a tunnel into the gravel bed near to the well, giving 

 more free access to warm surface water, the ice does not diminish in 

 the well. 



Even the cutting away of the Hogback gravel hill nearly to a 

 level with the ground around the well, has not caused the heat to 

 penetrate sufficiently to melt the ice hoop that clings to the stones 

 just above the surface of the water, and it remains as it was when 

 we first visited the place. It seems that the wave of heat is still un- 

 able to overcome the intense cold of the gravel bed. 



Among the suggestions thrown out by some who have attempted to 

 solve the problem of the frozen well is the idea, that the water dis- 

 solves something from the rocks that makes it a freezing mixture. 

 This conjecture is disproved by the chemical analysis of the water. 



Chemical Analysis of the Water of Brandon Frozen Well. 

 By C. T. Jackson. 



One wine gallon of this water contains 25.2 grains of solid matter, which 



was resolved into grs. 



Vegetable matter 6.80 



Mineral salts 18.40 



25.20 

 Of this, 2.8 grains forms an adhesive crust on the capsule in which the evapora- 

 tion took place, and consists of. carbonates of lime, magnesia and iron, derived 

 from their bi-carbonates. 



The water was found to contain bi-carbonates of lime, magnesia and iron, sul- 

 phate of soda and a little chloride of calcium and of sodium. 



There is nothing in its composition that will explain its freezing any more 

 readily than other water. 



Others have imagined that electricity had something to do with the 

 freezing, taking the idea probably from the fact that electricity 

 favors, if it does not actually cause, hail. 



