THE SHALLOW AND DEEP WELL WATERS OF ESSEX. T,^ 



something was done at the well itself (I do not know what), and at 

 my next visit the water taken gave no indication of impurity. 

 Recently, however, I was told that the water was again very hard, 

 and, upon examining a sample, I found it as bad as at first. 



Before considering the variations in character of the deep well 

 waters throughout the county, it may be instructive to consider to 

 what extent such waters may differ in composition over a much 

 more limited area. As I recently examined the waters from all 

 the wells in the parish of Latchingdon, we will take this area as 

 an example. The analyses of fourteen waters are embodied in 

 Table VII. These waters varied in total solids from 85 to 582 

 grains per gallon : the hardness from 3'' to far over 100°. In fact 

 the hardness of the water from Hitch's well is so excessive as not to 

 be capable of estimation by the ordinary process. The alkalinity, 

 due to the presence of carbonates, varied from 17 to 34*5° per 

 gallon; the chlorine from i4'8 to 71 grains per gallon. All these 

 wells are said to be about 300 feet deep, save the one at Tyle Hall, 

 the surface elevation there being much higher than in the other 

 portions of the parish where the deep wells are found. In all cases 

 the water is said to come from the Tertiary sands : yet some con- 

 tain, as we have seen, only 3 to 4 grains of lime salts per gallon, 

 and no magnesia salts; whilst others (Snoreham Hall, Bullock's, and 

 Hitch's) contain so much sulphate and chloride of magnesium as to 

 unfit them for any domestic purpose. I know of no other district, 

 however, in which the variation in character is so marked as around 

 Latchingdon. Many of the wells bored here have been closed 

 because the water was unusable ; and anyone wishing to sink a well 

 must take the risk as to what the character of the water will be. Up 

 to the present time I have only met with these magnesia waters in 

 the district between Foulness Island and Latchingdon. What is the 

 origin of these magnesian salts, or of the water containing it? It 

 resembles closely the water referred to as contained in small beds of 

 sand in the upper portion of the London Clay. Do such beds also 

 occur at various depths or beneath the clay ? The water from 

 Hitch's well, for a great many years, was as soft and good as any 

 deep well water in the parish. The supply, however, began to fail, 

 owing, it is said, to the sinking of a similar well on Bridgemarsh 

 Island, and the owner decided to have the tube " shelled " and the 

 well bored a few feet deeper. This was done ; but it was then 

 discovered that the water was totally altered in character, and it has 



D 



