IVater Supplf/. 287 



open cuttings into troughs or tanks. Moreover the fall of water 

 facilitates the use of hydraulic rams, by which reservoirs and 

 whole establishments, as at Blenheim, Cornbury Park, Sarsden, 

 and other places, are supplied with water at comparatively small 

 cost. The delivery of water throughout the oolitic series favours 

 the extension of this practice in a district where sinking for water 

 through limestone and other rocks is an expensive process. It 

 has been said that the marlstone intervenes between the upper and 

 lower lias clays. This, if the lower beds of limestone or lias lime 

 are excepted, is the only deep-seated source of water in the lias 

 formation. 



The new red sandstone, beneath the lias, which forms so large 

 a portion of the surface of England to the west, contains large 

 quantities of water ; but much of it is excluded from ordinary 

 uses by the mineral salts and impurities with which it is charged. 

 The levels at which it is found in the upper marls or in the 

 substance of the extensive sand-rock varies very much : in some 

 cases the underground passage of the water is very free, in others 

 very much confined. The exhaustion by mines is also a cause of 

 disturbance to the supply. Though very many towns are supplied 

 from deep wells in this stratum, where large quantities are re- 

 (juired, as at Liverpool, recourse is had to storage at higher levels 

 in the older formations, where rainfall is in excess and the physical 

 features of the country favour this arrangement. The variable 

 quantities and quality of the water, as ruled by the local geolo- 

 gical condition of the new red sandstone, make it impossible to 

 point out any rules except those which are suggested by local 

 experience for increasing such supplies for agricultural or domestic 

 purposes. 



The increased rainfall, as well as the geological condition 

 of the older formations, place the district to the west of the 

 new red sandstone (as was suggested in the opening remarks) 

 beyond the limit of this inquiry. 



The writer, in revising the foregoing pages, finds that what 

 he has said on a subject which has long engaged his attention 

 has assumed the character of an essay on the water-supply ol a 

 great part of England rather than the specific point on which 

 information was required ; nevertheless, feeling the importance 

 of the whole question, he has determined to submit this notice 

 to the judgment of the Royal Agricultural Society, 



Long WlttenJiam^ Aliiigdoii. 



VOL. I.— S. S. 



