CUALIv WATKU IN 1IEUT8. 11 



tilings liavc i:siially improved. But it is interesting to note that 

 complaints as to the decrease in the flow of streams arc no 

 now matters. 



In the course of my 8omL!\\'luit miscellaneous reading, I have 

 come across a note of some remarks in * The Chronicle of Roger 

 of Wendover,' to the following purport: — The same year (1178) 

 there was a certain man who lived at his native town, St. Albans. 

 This man was summoned by a glorious visitant to rise and follow 

 him, imd they went to Kedburn. To which a footnote, by 

 Matthew Paris, adds that on the way they conversed with one 

 another, as is the custom amongst friends travelling together, at 

 one time of the walls of the ruined city, at another of the decrease 

 of the river. 



Since this very early record of a meeting or excursion of our 

 Society (for the description of the conversation clearly points to 

 this) we seem to have improved, by the addition of various other 

 subjects of conversation amongst our members, and by having 

 somewhat larger meetings; but on the other hand we have fallen 

 off lamentably in the utter disappearance of the glorious visitant. 



Chemistky of Chalk "Waters. 



Let us now pass on to consider some facts regarding the mineral 

 contents of Chalk water. I allude to the marked difference shown 

 by chemical analyses between waters from wells in places where 

 the Chalk is bare or but very slightly covered by other beds, and 

 waters from wells in places away from the outcrop of the Chalk 

 and where that rock has not been reached until after a considerable 

 depth of Tertiary beds has been pierced through. 



A large number of analyses by many chemists show that the 

 waters of the open Chalk have a less amount of "total solid 

 contents" than those of the covered Chalk. They also show 

 that not only is there this difference in quantity, but also an 

 equally marked one in character : in the former waters the salts 

 of lime, and chiefly the carbonate, are the main constituents ; in 

 the latter waters we get a much greater amount of salts of 

 sodium, and also of potassium and magnesium. There is, too, 

 an increase in chlorides and sulphates. 



The deep-seated Chalk waters, indeed, often give an analysis 

 more like that of a sand water, and sometimes chemists have 

 been misled by this to describe these waters as from the Green- 

 sand, the mistake being perhaps the more readily made from some 

 of the Tertiary sand passed through in the wells or borings being 

 greenish, especially when moist. 



