380 ON THE SALT SPRINGS OF WORCESTERSHIRE. 



new spa near Tewkesbury, where formerly the mineral water at 

 shallow depths below the surface was very slightly saline, it was 

 recently found to be much more impregnated with salt, when the 

 sinking was carried to the depth of ninety feet; and I have no 

 doubt that a similar result would follow by deepening any of 

 the mineral sources which are so numerous in the vale of 

 Gloucester, at Walton, &c." Again, at Cheltenham, when ex- 

 perimental borings were made by Mr. Thompson to the depth of 

 260 feet below the surface, the water of the lowest stratum of 

 marl or clay was found to be more highly charged with the 

 chloride of sodium, or common sea salt, and to contain less of 

 the sulphates than the existing wells, none of which have been 

 sunk to a greater depth than 130 feet. Thus then we perceive 

 that human experience, in having found the healing effects of 

 saline mineral waters, has only confirmed what may he observed 

 generally in the animal kingdom, that salt is almost universally 

 employed for the preservation of health. But the bed of rock- 

 salt which exists in this county so extensively, and of which 

 there is probably a portion, though at a great depth under the 

 foundation on which this city is built, affords abundance of 

 springs of the same nature as those at Cheltenham and Leaming- 

 ton. I have already enumerated several, the most remarkable of 

 which are those of Hampton, Hasler, and Defford ;* and there is 

 no doubt that if the same fortuitous circumstances which occurred 

 at Cheltenham or Leamington were to arise to give notoriety to 

 the springs and to attract the attention of invalids to either of 

 these localities, numbers of persons would annually flock thither, 

 and would find the effects of these springs just as salutary as 

 those of the former watering places. In these days of suc- 

 cessful enterprize, when it has become so much more easy than 

 formerly to address the public through the medium of that 



* No. 1 — Hampton contains barely 5 grains^ in the fluid ounce, of the sulphate 

 and muriate of lime, soda and magnesia — no iron. 



No. 2. — Hampton, identical with No. 1 — containing full 5 grains of saline 

 matter, in the fluid ounce — no iron. 



No. 3. — Defford, contains 70 grains, in the fluid ounce, of muriate and sulphate 

 of soda, lime, and, I think, magnesia, but chiefly muriate of soda — no iron. 



Some enterprising individuals were mduced, about ten years since, to make 

 a very extensive attempt to procure brine at Ryall Hill, near Upton-upon-Severn. 

 The operations of sinking and boring were persevered in for upwards of twelve 

 months, and after an expenditure of several thousand pounds, without any success- 

 ful result, the works were abandoned. The inducements to select this situation 

 for the experiment were the neighbourhood of the surface brine spring of Defibrd, 

 which had been formerly worked for common salt, and the advantages of transport 

 afforded by the River Severn. The strata passed through were very similar to 

 those at Droitwich and Stoke Prior, consisting of 69 feet of red and blue marl 

 furnishing abundance of water, slightly impregnated with salt, but not containing 

 any gypsum. The pit was sunk further through 162 feet of marl containing 

 numerous veins of gypsum, free from water. The operations were further conti- 

 nued by boring 225 feet through similar marl. Thus, the whole depth passed 

 through was 456 feet, without arriving at any indications of salt. 



