20 BURTON WATERS—DRINKING AND BREWING. 
Brown that the quantity of sulphates varies considerably 
in Messrs. Salt’s tubes, and is much lower than the amount 
in Messrs. Robinson’s, which remains fairly constant. 
Messrs. Allsopp’s, Truman’s, Charrington’s, Evershed’s, 
Peter Walker’s, Bell’s, Marston’s, Bindley’s, and possibly 
other firms, have tried deep bores in the marls with varying 
successes, and at the present time there are a considerable 
number of tubes drawing large quantities of water from 
these beds, so that the conclusion drawn by Mr. Molyneux 
that ‘the Marl beds underlying Burton are not to be 
considered as water bearing beds” must certainly be qual- 
ified, as there is undoubtedly a fairly large and regular 
supply of water of a very distinct character. But it is 
evident that this supply is very considerably reduced, for 
whereas, when these tubes were first sunk, the water often 
rose up much higher than the level of water in shallow 
wells in the immediate neighbourhood, xow, most of the 
tube waters stand several feet lower than they did, and 
frequently at the same level as the shallow wells, which 
have been lowered as much as 20 feet in many places. 
The continued reduction in the average rainfall of the 
district, as shewn by the accompanying table kindly supplied 
me by Mr. Gibbs, must have had a very important effect 
upon the amount of water in these beds, as well as in the 
gravel beds. 
These bore holes or ‘‘Deep Bores,” as they have been 
usually called, supplied water almost free from even traces 
of organic matter, and of constant composition and temper- 
ature (52° F.) Although suitable for the production of pale 
and strong ales, which were allowed plenty of time to 
condition, these very hard waters were quite unsuitable for 
running mild ales and light bitter beers, the increased 
demand for which has so markedly altered the character of 
the average trade of the town during the past 20 years, 
and consequently the water from this source is mostly used 
