32 JOURNAL OF THE 



under cultivation. Furthermore, many of the towns 

 and manufacturing- establishments are located at dis- 

 tances from the larg-er rivers and creeks too g-reat to 

 permit of the water being- lifted and transported to 

 them by pipe lines at any reasonable cost. 



Rain w^ater caug'ht from the roofs of houses, under 

 favorable conditions, and kept in properly constructed 

 cisterns, is probably the safest for drinking- purposes, 

 but under unfavorable conditions and when not prop- 

 erly attended to, cistern water must be considered as 

 not altogfether safe; and in any case the supply is in- 

 adequate for large establishments. 



Such being- the case with regfard to surface supplies 

 of water, it will be seen that, in a number of cases, we 

 must depend for potable waters upon underg-round sup- 

 plies. These may be obtained either from springs or 

 wells. Of the latter we may consider three varieties: 

 The ordinary open well such as is often seen about pri- 

 vate residences; deep bored wells which penetrate the 

 crystalline rocks, in the endeavor to obtain artesian 

 supplies of water; and the shallow bored wells which 

 are put down throug'h the soil to the surface of these 

 crystalline rocks in the hope of striking underground 

 currents along the lines of contract between the lower 

 portion of the soil and the upper portion of the unde- 

 composed rock. In this latter case generally several 

 such wells are bored within a short distance of each other 

 and these are connected by iron pipes, and water is 

 pumped from the various pipes throug'h a common pipe 

 to a common reservoir or tank. This is what is g'en- 

 erally known as the tube well S3^stem. 



The open springs iurnish an excellent but limited 

 supply of water for family use; a supply, however, which 

 while it is sufficient for the needs of isolated residences, 



