126 Personal and ScientiHc News. 
It is well to be careful in coming to any definite conclusion in regard 
to these phenomena, but they are certainly worthy of scientific atten- 
tion. 
Long years of careful study of the drift formations have convinced 
the writer that the glacial area in America is more extensive than has 
been imagined, and that no well defined terminal moraine can wall in 
its extreme southern limits. 
Strife here and there may guide us in determining the general flow 
of the glacier, but they are not an infallible guide as to its extent, as it 
has been demonstrated that glaciers move over surfaces without erod- 
ing or leaving scratches of any kind ; yet to maintain that none of these 
signs are produced by the motion of glaciers would be very absurd. It 
would be equally so to say that there were no terminal moraines be- 
cause they cannot always be well defined. The "backbone" of Long 
Island is very much broken and disjointed, but it would hardly be 
just to say that it had no vertebral column at all. There are wide 
gaps to be filled in along the line of the terminal moraine of the great 
American continental ice-sheet, and prudent geologists will be careful 
in drawing the line until more of the facts are known in relation to 
glaciers, especially one so startling and confounding as that which 
covered more than half of the north American continent. 
Louisville, Ky. John Brysox. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
Another Burning Gas- Well has recently been discovered 
near Albert Lea, Minnesota. A well was being drilled, and at 
the depth of 63 feet a copious flow of gas was encountered. All 
these Freeborn county gas wells are shallow, not exceeding 75 
feet, and it appears in the light of the deep-well lately drilled 
at Freeborn through the Trenton to the St. Peter sandstone, 
and even to the Lower Magnesian limestone, not finding any 
increase in the supply, that the source of all of the gas thus 
far discovered in Freeborn county is in the drift or in the 
Cretaceous, with the greater probability in favor of the drift. 
In boring for water on the farm of Mr. Charles Estle near 
Columbus Junction, Iowa, gas was encountered at a depth of 
about 120 feet. The well was bored in superficial deposits of 
sand and clay which have been laid down in post-glacial times 
by the Cedar River. The gas was almost odorless, and burned 
with a yellowish blue flame. The flame is reported to have 
been fifteen feet in length and three feet or more in diameter. 
After flowing for about twenty-four hours the supply suddenly 
ceased. Evidently the drill had reached a small reservoir of 
marsh gas which had been imprisoned under a capping of clay. 
Prof. Seth E. Meek of Coe College, Iowa, contributes to 
the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences an interest- 
