9 ; 
An Account of the Ground of a Water-Pit, hored at Amsterdam, 
presented to the Society hy Mon. Huygens de Zulichem. 
In the year 1605, the 15th of July, a water pit was bored at Amsterdam, in the hospital of 
old men, 232 feet deep, (which is some 32 feet higher than the steeple of the old church there) 
and the ground was found as followeth : 
Feet. 
1 
Stony and garden ground, 
7 
2 
Fen and dairy (turf) 
9 
3 
Soft clay 
9 
4 
Sand 
8 
5 
Earth 
4 
6 
Clay 
10 
7 
Earth 
4 
51 
8 
Here followeth the sand on which most part of 
Amsterdam is founded 
10 
<1 
Clay 
2 
10 
White sand 
4 
11 
Dry earth ... ... 
5 
12 
Turf bruised ... 
1 
13 
Sand 
14 
14 
Sandy clay 
3 
15 
Sand and clay mingled 
5 
16 
Sand and sea shells 
4 
48 
17 
After these ninety-nine feet, there is a 
couch of 
clean clay of 
... 
102 
18 
Sand, in which the boring ended ... 
... 
31 
IQQ 
133 
232 feet 
In the foregoing account, Mr. Huygens remarks, one thing is par- 
ticularly observable, the occurrence of turf twice in the same boring, 
once immediately below the vegetable mould and gravel (stony 
ground), and again at the depth of seventy-two feet. 
Various opinions have been adopted respecting the origin of 
peat, arising from the different appearances yielded by it in dif- 
ferent situations. Many were of opinion, that it had obtained the 
VOL. I. o 
