276 JVater Supply. 



is necessarily raised with great labour. No districts suffered 

 more from lack of water to man and beast, during the summer of 

 1864, than the higher ranges of the chalk, from the failing of 

 the dew-ponds on the downs and all other surface supplies. The 

 failure being due to the quantities actually drawn from them 

 suggests an increase in the number of these ponds, or their 

 adoption in localities where they have not been tried, especially 

 where they would be easily formed in the tenacious soils found 

 on the upper levels. There is sometimes a Avaste of water in 

 these localities where it might be turned to good account. The 

 beds of sand or gravel and the clay on which they rest, are fre- 

 quently drained by means of shafts or dumb-wells, sunk through 

 them to the surface of the chalk, into which the water freely 

 sinks from the drains which converge to them as a central out- 

 fall. Necessary as draining is, this water might often be stored 

 in ponds sunk through the gravel into the clay, with an arrange- 

 ment of pipes to prevent its rising above a certain level, or sub- 

 terranean tanks might be formed where the clay is of sufficient 

 thickness below the gravel. Where the beds of gravel are deep 

 and extensive, it is obvious that water may be led away from a 

 hill-side and form a perennial stream of the greatest value. 



This is well illustrated on the well-known Tiptree Hall Farm. 

 When first occupied by Mr. Alderman Mechi, land-springs 

 issued from the slightly-rising ground to the north of the 

 house, the weepings of which generated a peat-bed. Deep 

 drains were driven into the hill-side, cutting through the margin 

 of the gravel into the clay beneath, v.hence so large a quantity 

 of water was gathered into one head as to supply all the ordinary 

 wants of the homestead, and furnish a volume sufficient to caiTy 

 out at all seasons the system of irrigation coextensive with the 

 farm, whilst its overplus carries health and comfort to a once 

 fever-stricken district in its course below. As the utilization of 

 this water is instructive, so in the source Avhence it flows a 

 lesson may be learned as to the geological and physical con- 

 ditions under wliich a like supply may be turned to good account 

 elsewhere. 



The village of Tiptree stands on an extensive bed of drift- 

 gravel and sand, resting on the tertiary clay, naturally drained by 

 streamlets which flow down the shallow valleys or depressions 

 by which it is flanked or intersected. As in all such cases, the 

 subterranean water is upheld in the soil at an angle above its 

 outfall, varying with, and dependent on the closeness of the sand 

 or gravel in which it lies. The water in the village wells stood, 

 in the autumn of 1864, 16 or 18 feet above the artificial and 

 ever-flowing vent given to it by Mr, Mechi's drains. It is on 

 record that, when these drains were first dug, many, if not all, 



