ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 31 



NOTES OX THE UNDERGROUND SUPPLIES 

 OF POTABLE AVATERS IN THE SOUTH 

 ATLANTIC PIEDMONT PLATEAU.^ 



BY J. A. HOLMES. 



It is a fact that is cnming- to be more widely recog-- 

 tiized bv the greneral public as well as b\' members of 

 the medical fraternity, that the health of persons liv- 

 ing- in our hill country depends in no small degree upon 

 the drinking- water obtained, — just as it has been found 

 that th«^ use of pure water in the lowlands and swamp 

 areas of the Southern states results in practical im- 

 munity from malarial diseases. Hence the problem of 

 how to obtain supplies of wholesome water for the 

 towns and manufacturing- establishments in the hill 

 country or Piedmont plateau region of the south-east- 

 ern states comes to be one of considerable interest, 

 the importance of which will continue to increase as the 

 favorable conditions for manufactures and agfriculture 

 in this reg-ion will m^ake it in the near future the most 

 thickly populated portion of the South Atlantic states. 



Water supplies from surface streams are unqestion- 

 ably of the first importance; and in the mountain coun- 

 ties where the regfion is still largfely forest covered and 

 the streams rapid and continually aerated by rapids 

 and cascades, the water is of superior purity and clear- 

 ness. This statement is also applicable to the more 

 elevated and sparsely settled portions of the Piedmont 

 pleateau; but in the less hilly and more thickly settled 

 portions of this reg-ion the streams are more slug-g-ish 

 and the waters more muddy and less pure owing- to the 

 fact that a much larg-er proportion of the surface is 



* From Trans. Am. Inst. Mining- Entrineers. XXV,. 1895. 



