^amt d lj)c a&tattr-gcariitg Strata 

 mxa Witlh Bxxnh in siiim, 



®itlj spmnl xthxma ia Widh hx l^e |tijlxi 



By HENHY WILLIAM PEAESON, M.I.C.E. 



IN selecting this subject for a paper, I have been led to 

 give it this title, and also to treat somewhat upon 

 rainfall, as the two are so intimately allied that it would be 

 difficult to describe the sinking of wells through any strata 

 without at once associating them with the rainfall. 



If it should appear, therefore, that the subject has been 

 too lengthily gone into, I trust it will not prove tedious. 



The practice of well-sinking is of very early origin, and 

 we have records in Scripture of the wells in the plains of 

 Syria and in Egypt, which doubtless were excavations of no 

 great depth into the sides of rocks, from which the water 

 was raised by hand buckets. 



Boring for water is also of very ancient origin, and there 

 are described records of its existence in Egypt. Mons. 

 Dejousee, a French engineer, mentions, in his Guide die Son- 

 deuVj that he delivered to the Pacha of Egypt machinery for 

 opening wells of probably 4,000 years' existence. 



In China, too, the practice of boring has long been known, 

 and many thousands of wells and borings have been con- 



327 



