Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-08-12

The AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION l.
holding its thirteenth Annual meeting at
Springfield Mass. From report Of some Of
It's proceedings in the Boston Advertiser, we
take the following. ON the frozen well at
Brandon Vt
Prof. Edward Hitchcock of Amherst, read
a paper upon Il Frozen Deposit OF Modified
Drift" j. e., the Frozen Well at Brand n,
Vt. which be had examined with his assist
ants. A D. Uagar and c. II. Hitchcock.
The paper forms part Of his report OF the
geology Of Vermont, and he read 1t now by
permission of GOV. Hall The Well is situa-
ted about one mile southwest of Brandon vi
la.e. from an eighth TO a quarter Of mile
east Of the creek. The surface is not raised
very much above the river and IS composed
of sand gravel. with one of the varieties the
lower silurian limestone showing itself 0c-
castonally in byosses and low ridges breaking
,i.r,.usl, tire ground. and doubtless underly-
ing the whole superficial deposit at no great
depth. 1t Is what is called modified drift
and lies above genuine drift. having been the
result of aquous agency. subsequent 70 the
Der. ISIS For about ten feet itpassed thro
soil and gravel, then about t feet of clay.
Below this lay deposit from - to Is feet
thick of frozen gravel, with quite large boul-
ders iutermixed Continuing the excavation
two feet farther in the same material, water
was reached. The whole depth is not far
from 80 feet. The frozen part passed thro
appeared precisely like the same materials
frozen at the surface in winter.
Immediately west OF the well rises "a hill
of gravel and sand which may be 30 feet
above the WELL at its south end 80 to o feet
high. THIS ridge is an eighth Of a mile
long, and runs northeast and southwest.
Near its northern end it Is crossed by road
which has been cXcavated TO a depth OF 90
feet. At the top Of the ridge the bed of clay
and the layers of sand and gravel are nearly
horizontal, but lower down they dip easterly
fifteen or twenty degrees. At tta foot of the
hill they take a horizontal position. The
pebbles in the strata WEI bout three inches
in diameter, and rema~k4 ly free from sand
and gravel The dip of those beds of gravel,
sand and clay, make it almost certain that
this ridge OF drift was formed by a current
from the northeast.
The we'll was stoned up late in the au-
tumn, and during the winter Ice formed up
on the water in one night two inches thick.
1t continued to freeze till April, since which
time no ice has formed on the surface. but
when visited June 25th, the stones of the
well for some four or FIVE feet above the wa
ter were mostly loaded with ice, and the
temperature OF the water was only one de
gree above freezing July 18th there was
Ice in the well. The water at that time was
- inches deep. About 100 rods distant is
another we'll, the TEN perature Of which, on
the 25th of June, was 81. Another well Il
feet deep, 60 rods distant, had a temperature
of As.
In this connection, Psf. Hitchcock entered
at length upon similar phenomena which
had been observed in other places;-of well
in Ware, Mass, dug last year through gravel
and sand. 1t froze last year, though not to
the extent OF that at Brandon. There were
other instances Of frozen wells on record -
one in the 36th volume. first series of the
American Journal Of Science. This well is
in Owego n. Y. In this, at Owego, the
flame of candle was DETECTED, indicating a
current of air passing through the gravel
strata The well was on the table land of the
Susquehanna, about 80 feet above the riv-
er. There was also an account Of an ice
mountain in Virginia. Sir Roderck Muir
Gibson has mentioned a similar mountain in
Siberia
The subject presented two leading inquiries:
lst, When. and by what agency was the
congelation. produced so deep beneath the
surface? ID, By what means is the frost
preserved from external and internal heat.
In reply there were two suggestions to be
made
LIST. These frozen deposits may have been
produced during the glacial period that ac-
companied the formation of the drift He
contended that frozen deposit of any past
period might De indefinitely preserved. Ex-
periments had showed that tven thin layer
of clay was a powerful resistant to heat. The
clay on the surface at Brandon would ex-
clude the external heat, while the gravelly
strata, free from sand, would carry the as
cending internal heat upward not allowing
it to reach the frozen deposit The arrange
ment at Brandon was, in many respects.
similar to the most approved ice-houses. But
after all, he was not sure that this was the
true theory.
ID, We maintain (said the Professorl
that in porous deposits, especially when in
tiers ratified with those nearly impervous to
air, ice may be formed in large quantities at
any depth and remain unmelted for great
length of time. This position was elaborated
showing that when porous mass was
0veriaid by clay, the heat of summer could
have little effect upon it. 1t had been stated
and not disproved, that there were subterra-
mean currents of air. At 0wego, the candle
flame was detected at the depth of 80 feet
Upon the whole, though it is possible that
the Brandon deposit Isl remnant of glacial
period, he looked with more favor upon the
supposition that it was the result of opera
tons now going on, produced by currents Of
air through the porous deposit.