Hun *-J 486 [April 21, 



The donation of the original specimen of Leucosticte atri- 

 rosea Ridg., by Mr. C. E. Aiken was announced, and the 

 thanks of the Society were voted for the gift. 



April 21, 1875. 



The President in the chair. Sixty-two persons present. 



The following papers were read : — 



On the Boston Artesian Well and its Waters. By T. 

 Sterry Hunt. 



It is known to many that a well has within the last few years been 

 sunk at the works of the Gas Light Company in Causeway Street in 

 Boston. This boring was carried to a depth of 1 750 feet, and though 

 I have not been able to obtain an exact record of it, it is said to have 

 been almost wholly in argillite or clay slate, though at the bottom a 

 crystalline rock was reached. This argillite, which appears in vari- 

 ous outcrops in this vicinity, both on the mainland and in the islands 

 of the harbor, is supposed to belong to the horizon of the similar 

 argillite s of Braintree, Mass., which, as is well known, contain the 

 remains of a Lower Cambrian (Menevian) fauna. 



The water from the boring rises into a well of about fifty feet in 

 depth, sunk in the superficial soil. This is not far from the shore of 

 the bay and but a few feet above tide-level. The water, which is 

 raised by pumping from this upper well, and is in daily use for 

 quenching the coke drawn from the gas - retorts, differs widely in 

 composition from sea-water, and contains, according to Prof. J. M. 

 Merrick, besides bromids a sensible quantity of iodids and a large 

 proportion of chlorid of calcium, besides some carbonates of lime and 

 of iron, in all of which respects it is unlike modern sea-water, and 

 closely resembles the waters from the lower paleozoic strata of the 

 St. Lawrence basin, in which, as I have shown by numerous analyses, 

 the united chlorids of calcium and magnesium sometimes exceed the 

 chlorid of sodium in amount, while iodine is present in notable 

 quantity, and the proportion of potash salts is less than in modern 

 sea-water. I am indebted to Prof. Merrick for a quantitative analy- 



