'i W. WmTAKER — ADDRESS : 



in this direction. This is a very pretty theory, on the whole too 

 pretty for a matter-of-fact Englishman, for it involves either an 

 absence of filtering power in a great length of the Chalk, or a direct 

 and fairly open channel through the Chalk for a distance of some 

 nine or ten miles, and a speed of flow, down a by-no-means rapid 

 incline, which does not allow of the subsidence of the suspended 

 particles. 



It seems to me that a simpler reason can be given, and it is 

 the true scientific method to take simple explanations rather than 

 elaborately ingenioiis ones. The casual observer likes to adopt 

 grand views, and often does not like to have these jiut aside for 

 very commonplace ones. I trust that I may not be treading on 

 anyone's pet mental corn in suggesting that the fact of the Chalk 

 hill directly above the Chadwell Spring having a capping of gravel, 

 is enough to account for the cloudiness of the water after heavy 

 rain. Possibly, too, the communication with surface-water, by 

 means of the gravel under the marsh, above alluded to, may help 

 towards this undesirable result. 



Another spring in a like position to that of Chadwell also has its 

 water clouded soon after rain, as Mr. Urban Smith, with whom 

 I saw it, tells me. This is Arkley Hole, in Spring Wood, at the 

 eastern edge of Woolmer's Park, in the parish of Hertingfordbury, 

 close to and on the northern side of the River Lea, the surface 

 of the water of which is, I believe, about 6 feet below that of 

 the spring. Here again the Chalk is capped by Drift, and the 

 cloudiness can thus be accounted for. 



At Hoddesdon (again on the information of Mr. TJ. Smith) the 

 water of the Lynch Spring, on the eastern side of the New River, 

 clouds after rain. But in this case there is a still more apparent 

 explanation, as the Woollens Brook, which receives the drainage of 

 a small tract of Drift and London Clay north-westward of the 

 town, passes by the springs, 



I believe that Mr. R. W. Mylne was the first to suggest that the 

 Chadwell Spring derives its water, or part of it, from the Mimms 

 swallow-holes, in e'^ddence given in 1867, and it may be well to 

 reprint part of his remarks on some of our Hertfordshire springs, 

 especially as they are in a Blue Book, and therefore practically 

 hidden from nearly all our members.* "As respects the springs 

 between Amwell and Rye House, they vary in volume and are 

 affected in colour in wet weather." Here again there is plenty 

 of Drift above the springs. Their origin he thinks " it is not 



* Eoyal Commission on Water Supply. ' Minutes of Evidence,' pp. 281, 282. 

 Fol. London, 1869. 



