50 
plane of saturation of the freestone must there be very near the 
surface. If a well were to be sunk there, it would be necessary 
from the outset to exclude every drop of water immediately derived 
from the river gravels and other superficial deposits, as these, 
although likely to yield an abundant supply of water, are more 
than likely to be charged with objectionable impurities. It is not 
at all a difficult matter to stop out such surface water, and it ought 
to be done in the case of every weil situated near any possible 
source of pollution. I have no doubt at all that if a well were 
sunk only twenty or thirty feet into the solid freestone which 
underlies the Eamont pumping works, water of unexceptionable 
quality would flow in from the surrounding rock, just as it does 
invariably in other cases of the same kind elsewhere. It would 
not be necessary at the outset to make a large “head” to the well ; 
but when both the quantity and the quality of the water have 
proved satisfactory, it would then be advisable to keep the engines 
going as hard as they would go, and then, when the head of water 
is low, to enlarge the upper part of the well to the dimensions 
required. If this is done under the superintendence of a professi- 
onal well-sinker accustomed to work in the New Red Sandstone, 
I have not the slightest doubt about the ultimate success of the 
scheme. 
(2). Water Supply East of the Eden :—The district lying on the 
S.W. side of the Cross Fell Range as far as the Eden, consists 
almost entirely of St. Bees Sandstone, a higher member of the 
New Red Series than that on which Penrith stands. The St. 
Bees Sandstone is almost certainly the very same rock as that 
which furnishes the chief underground water supply of Manchester, 
and of many other large towns situated near the New Red Sand- 
stone. The St. Bees Sandstone behaves, hydrologically, much the 
same as the Penrith Sandstone, which passes underneath it. But 
it differs from the Penrith Sandstone in being somewhat closer 
textured, and therefore not so capable of transmitting water rapidly, 
and also in being interbedded at no very distant intervals with 
beds of marl. One result is, that springs are thrown out here and 
there all over its outcrop. But the general character, and the lie 
