251 



Mr. G. Symons, "British Eainfall"* and other returns, and 

 conclude their observations thus : "In estimating for the supply 

 of London and the intermediate towns, the water producing 

 capabihties of the district, we take it to avoid question at 

 somewhat less than its minimum, viz. : at 80 inches. In a 

 precipitous hill and rocky district, such as this, the loss from 

 evaporation and absorption will be small, probably not more 

 than 12 inches. We take it, however, at 14 inches, leaving 

 66 inches as the minimum depth of available rain during a 

 continuous period of dry seasons," 



Much, therefore, as we cherish our Cotteswolds, the birthplace 

 of the Silver Thames, and fully as we appreciate the description 

 of our friend, Mr. Hull, when he says : " The Cotteswold Hills 

 may be called emphatically the land of rivers and fountains of 

 waters. From the bases of their Mural Cliffs, from the sides 

 and heads of their deUs and valleys, copious streams gush forth 

 of the clearest water, supplied by the underground reservoirs, 

 which remain unexhausted long after the surface of the ground 

 is parched." It must be admitted that these rivers and fountains 

 of waters, of which he speaks, do not attain the force and volume 

 which characterize occasionally the early sources of the Severn 

 in North Wales, or of those streams which descend from the 

 mountains to supply the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland. 

 The available rainfall of the Upper Thames district, or the 

 waters which, (as I understand Mr. Bra vender to mean,) become 

 effluent down the surface-drainage channels, being taken by 

 him at 9 inches per annum, each square mile of the district, 

 produces 5280 x 5280 x -75 x 6-23 = 130,261,724 gallons in the 

 year, and in this way a drainage area of 272 square miles would 

 produce water enough in the year to supply nearly 100,000,000 

 gallons per diem. 



* Of which, as an example, the Seathwaite Gauge, 422 feet above the sea, recorded :- 



