New-York daily tribune., 1855-08-20
xurpycAy AssocfA T7ON FOR THE AD-
yANcEMENT OF SCIENCE.


s.t NIGHT The hall vas filed and nearly one-thud
Of the persons present were ladies.
The President Prof ToRREY announced that tne
.ddre,s Of the retiring President, Prof. james d.
Dana, would be delivered on Friday evening" lie
also gave notice that the discussion Of dec'm Sy'
srn Of weights and measures postponed st the " we
,sad and Washington meetings, viii take place in
general session on Monday afternoon, AMI chat the
standing Committee recommended 70 the Association
xhat when IL divided the division he n' two sections
,cs of Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, the
ether Of Chemistry, Geology and Natural History.
No1rcE or EARTHQUAKE WAYS on he Western
Coast of tie Uh.ted States on the 23d and 2sh Of
DscemJey, 1854. By Prcjessor A. ID. BAcHs.
On the 23d Of December, s54, at A. NJ, earth
suake occunei al Simods, on the Island Of Nippon,
Japan. that resulted in the wreck Of the Russian
fioa,o Diana. The hars,or est ernptied Of water
then came 10 an enorno us wave which sgaa recedei
at appeared from the Rev. Mr.. Jones that the whole
character Of the harbcr Of Simeda previously surveyed
by the Pcwhatsn, has beer changed BY the earth
srake.) A report from the Bonn Isa1Gs il not suh-
ceny exact to for our mai1 purpose, but points
to simoda as the center Of di-turbaoce. tSme1a,
cosding to the Rev. Mr. Zones, s volcanic Boun ap
pears not 10 bel Nov the Coast Survey kas three
pelf-ectrg tide gauges Q. Astoria, eH Columbia River
San Francisco aud Ssz Diego. Trey record the rise
of the tide oE a cylinder turned by clock. The sp
paratus II lgot cled less rOm the csc lan0ns
u,at ~ind-Haves wocd cause, which oriy cause
trembling ef the indoy or stylus. The gs1ge at Asto
no was bst slightly effected by The earthquake wave
owing 10 the Der the river egd the dc ance IL het
10 ascend. At Ssn Francisco 200 miles from Simece-
tte wave arrived ~ hours l6 minutes aaer the begn
Mug Of the earthquake. series o. seven waves,
each about half hour 10 Duration, or 3J minetos
each series successively smaller and sep rated By
euiet time OF an hour from the preceding, recorded
az San Francisco. At San Diego the wave had lsv-
IN hon a md iUco
likewise series of waves eceh nearly ceres
pending TO those al San FrancisoO, but the second
series stronger Than the frat and itrd la hight hey
were lees tit highest at San Frsacisc0 being = of
foot at San Diego 6. The Al San Diego could
not have come from Sen Francisco, os they YOU'D
have srrived much Later. The velocity with which
wave travelS depends the depth of the ocean The
second and third seres but repeons OF ,e first
wave that had read ed the seme points, trsve ing
through sballOwer water. The calculations based Oh
these dat& give for the Pacific Ocean depth of from
l4OO0 To 81, 900 fatbcms. IL % remarkable nov the
estimates Of the oceans depGh have gro~n less. La
Place ats1med il at 10 miles Whewell at3.5 while this
estimate bringsit down to about miles.
Prof WV. B. RoDGiRs dcubted the date on which
the conclusions rested and 20 his doubts Prof Bsehe
made very reeJy and satisfactory reply. Prot.
Agassiz saw in this paper evidence thes there was
n wide difference between en- earthquake Ike this and
q catacysm tbst extemiDates entire Species cOnsgn-
ing their remans to the Eeepng of the depths Of the
ocean and leaving none of their race alive. He
Therefore Obieces entirely the theory geological
changes the result of causes now IN operation.
TBE FROZEN WELLS Of O~cgo TNga County,
N. Y, By FRET. JoHN BRocKLEsBY.
These are two or deep wells tbst eeem TO freeze
IN the latter pat of Winter and TO remain frozen till
July while in September the water is represented to
be too warm TO drink. Mr.. Macomber visited one OF
them In February 1t bas since fallen AZ. He found
ii feet down TO the water, which frozen over 80
h1rd that they tried in vain to break he icewith
lead at the end Of line. The wal was covered with
ice Cor some distance up Thermometer a the bottom
There seemed to be current OF sir blowing lateraly
in the well, and candle was eItingUisle ned before
reaching the ice. The well was dry IN the Summer
time and at that time the ground wee said TO be 30
cold as to sender it impossible to work lcag in il with
out being warmly clothed MIR. Rankin had observed
the ice TO form in the form of basins and said that
on covering the wells they were protected from frcez
mo A chain pump was put IL QUE Of them, but was
soon renewed as the ice rendered 1t rseess. The
paper contained eccount of ice caves IN Russia but
the whole paper contained but very few reliable obser
vations.
Prof GUror alluded TO the ice caves ia the Jurassc
formation in many parts of Europe. he instanced
one of these caves sbout 90 feet deep whose bstom
was always covered with ice several feet in thickness
while staIac,iies of ice depended from the roof The
whole small glacier The stalacu'es wore
formed by water pezoolang through the covering of
the cave.
A gentleman stated that there a clea in the
mountain not far west of Williams College called the
Srowhoe, where snow might sIways be found.
Prof. W. b. RonGERs had TO state simGr occur
renoes in a range of mountains cOmposed of porons
aand rock in Southern Virgins. Bs. he could not zee
that any accumulation of snow at the bottom of well
should generate ice about iis sides An open vel was
a receptacle for the coolest air in the neighborhood
which might chill its walls profoundly as 10 give
them entirely abnormal temperature, and preserve
the ice during the SUMMER months.
Pro-. 0LssrEAD supposed that there was current
of air circulating through the earth its surface.
In the Winter it would be below the freezing poist and
in the Summer it would lot melt the ice as tue evapo
ration would produce cooling effect.
Prof. AGAssz said that he had never been able TO
find any large accumulaticns Of ice with temPera-
tuIe much below the freezing point lie would ssk ii
there were any such.
Prof HENRY said that during the psst Winter he
had been struck with the fact that pieces Of ice
wrapped in Goth frozen to IT, although not O2e
cut Of the several thermometers would 60 down 10 b.
II appeared from this from the old observation Of
La Place, who found that the ice surrounding the
worm through which they were transmitting gases
soon frozen the worn, that melting ice produced
certain degree Of cold
Prof GrYoT stated that the ice caves which he
had reenod n were 600 feet above the level of the
sea- where the quantity cf falling very great
Prof BRocKLEsBY could not see the anslcgy be-
tween an ice cave and a frozen well. The tenpera
turc Of deep wells generally being abeut the tenn
perature OF the place; The temperature of wells in
Owego could not vary much from 40 or ~. Ec did
not thnk that the phenomenon had been explained.
DIR. GouLD alluded to the ordinery method OF
eat fiar.k .k,,u. Il