220 REPORTS ON INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



Regarding a well in the Methodist Mission Compound, Dr. I. T. 

 Headland furnished the following facts : It is 210 feet deep, about 

 2}^, inches in diameter, and is supplied with a reservoir set in the 

 ground which is 15 feet deep and 3 feet in diameter. The well was 

 sunk by churning with bamboo poles shod with iron, without the aid 

 of machinery. Yellow clay was added with water to prevent the 

 sand from caving, but there was some trouble from that source. 

 The bore is lined with bamboo, the joints being secured together 

 with tin. The reservoir is built of cedar staves, and the bamboo 

 tube is packed around with cork to make a tight joint where it passes 

 through the bottom of the reservoir. The bottom of the well is in 

 black sand. The water is soft and the supply has been entirely 

 adequate for the demand of eight American families and about five 

 hundred Chinese. It has hitherto been drawn by hand, but a pump 

 and elevated tank are being installed. The well cost $1 ,200 in silver, 

 or something less than $600 gold. It was finished in the spring of 

 1902 and its life is estimated at twenty years at least. 



From the evidence of these three wells, which are somewhat widely 

 spaced, it may be inferred that there is beneath a considerable part 

 of Peking, at a depth of about 200 feet, a stratum of sand which is 

 water-bearing. As the water does not rise above the surface, it is 

 not confined in an artesian basin, or it comes from a source not 

 notably higher than Peking. As it is unlike the surface water in 

 the city, it is probably separated from the latter by an impervious 

 stratum of clayey loam, and, being soft, it probably enters the ground 

 in one of the sandy zones north of Peking, whence it flows, chiefly 

 in similar material, southward, underground. Its source may be in 

 the vicinity of the Sha-ho. 



Rainfall. — Inquiries regarding the annual rainfall at Peking have 

 not met satisfactory answers. It appears to be irregular in amount, 

 there being extremes of wet and of drought. Dr. N. S. Hopkins, of 

 the Methodist Mission, stated that measurements at a station some 

 distance northeast of Peking gave 56 inches one year and only about 

 one-eighth of that amount the next. During wet years the ground 

 becomes saturated. During the dry years it is to a greater or less 

 extent emptied by evaporation and seepage. The deeper waters are, 

 no doubt, more constant than those near the surface. 



There is good reason to believe that there is within reach of the 

 people of Peking an adequate supply of wholesome water which may 

 be reached by boring to moderate depth. 



December 15, i9°5- 



