ON ARTESIAN AND FISSURE WELLS IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 143 



ARTICLE VII. 



ON ARTESIAN AND FISSURE WELLS IN 

 NEW BRUNSWICK. 



Hy G. F. Matthew and S. W. Katn. 



Read March 7th, 1899. 



One of the authoi's of this paper has for several years been engaged 

 in gathering information in reference to deep wells, bored in New 

 Brunswick, and in the following pages the writers have endeavored to 

 compare these borings, with a view to deduce practical results, that 

 may be of general interest. 



To show the full range of possibility in the origin and mode of 

 flow of such wells, we have included some of less than ICO feet, which 

 are often true artesian wells, penetrating only the surface deposits of 

 the country. 



With such inclusions we may divide the wells, referred to in 

 this paper, into two principal classes. 1st. Those penetrating the 

 surface deposits only, and those bored in the Carboniferous and Lower 

 Carboniferous rocks, in which the sandstones, especially those of the 

 Coal Measures, are porous, and so afford sources for artesian flows. — 

 2nd. Those which penetrate the deeply buried Lower Carbonifer- 

 ous rocks, and those bored in the still older rocks which have suffered 

 more or less metamorphic change, and in which the sandstones have 

 been made impervious to water by the calcareous or silicious cement 

 which has been deposited between the grains of the rock. From these 

 latter rocks it is clear we cannot have true artesian flows, and must 

 depend upon such water to supply the wells as may penetrate through 

 fissures of the rock. In many of these wells there is usually no spon- 

 taneous flow, but the water has to be obtained by pumping. 



Wells of the first class have not received the notice they deserve, 

 for in many localities in the lower levels of the province, from sea 

 level to two hundred feet above it, there are extensive plains and 

 valleys of clay land, from beneath which the purest and best water for 

 household and farm use may be obtained. 



