ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 35 



feet a laro-e supply of water was tapped, and it rose to 

 within about 17 feet of the surface. For several years 

 this well constituted the w^ater supply for a consider- 

 able part of the city, but the water was pronounced 

 unsafe by the medical authorities, and the w^ell has 

 been abandoned for a water supph^ from the Chatta- 

 hooche river. In a few other cases exceptionalh' large 

 supplies of water have been reached; but as a rule the 

 boring" of these wells has failed of satisfactory results. 



Some professional well borers, like some professional 

 miners, with a laudable desire to be kept busy, urge 

 that the deeper the hole the better are the chances of 

 success; an opinion that has frequently but slight foun- 

 dation in the case of the mines, and in the case of well 

 boring it is, in this region of crystalline rocks, con- 

 trarv to both theory and experience. The possibility 

 of exceptions no one wmU deny, as we see that in a few 

 of the deeper mines of this region considerable streams 

 of water are tapped; and in some cases there is a bare 

 possibility that the hole to be drilled for a water sup- 

 ply may tap such an underground stream of water, as 

 was the case in Atlanta; but the chances are more 

 than 10 to 1 against such "luck." As a rule these 

 crystalline rocks become harder and more solid as w^e 

 descend, the chances of securing a reasonable supply of 

 water — never good after the hole enters the real mass 

 of rock — may be said to decrease as the hole descends. 

 There is, however, one certaintv about this operation, 

 and that is, other things being equal, the deeper the 

 hole the more rapidily the cost increases. 



During the past few years the tube well system 

 mentioned above has been introduced in a number of 

 communities in this piedmont region and \vith decided 

 success in furnishing a good supply of drinking water 



