26 REPORT—1848. 
has, It is under one degree of hardness of Clark’s test. No doubt there 
are other streams as good, and the whole of that and similar districts gives 
the most beautiful water. The same may be said of a great deal of the 
water of North Wales, and in such places as have very insoluble rocks. I 
said as pure as the average distilled water; it may not be known to all per- 
sons, that a number of distillations are necessary in order to obtain pure 
water. For this purpose, a water from a great depth, or a spring-water 
from a rock is best to use, as there is less volatile and organic matter in it ; 
the first distillation of the usual waters about Manchester giving a very im- 
perfect product. 
Purity of water and fertility of soil are not to be expected together, if we 
may judge from the facts above. Freedom from both inorganic and organic 
matters is got only in water from very insoluble rocks, which are not the 
fittest for vegetation ; or it is got where there is much sand or gravel con- 
taining little soluble matter, and of course little food for plants. If however 
these s strata be together, as soon as the water comes from the insoluble to the 
soluble it will change. 
The Thames water is at first pure, as far as freedom from organic matter 
occurs, and takes its course through a rather level country. The stream is 
soon filled with plants; and at Kemble the water has already taken up some 
organic matter, enough to form a slight green deposit on standing. The 
water here is still beautifully clear, and is good water ; it is 15°5 degrees 
of hardness. 
When we come down to Pangbourne, the water cannot be said to have 
become much worse ; it is still so pure as to require a considerable time to 
form a deposit, and that only. small, containing a few plants and some small 
animalcules from gg5p tO gasq Of an inch. Here there is a slight but still 
decided trace of organic matter from animals. There has been an increase 
in the hardness also. 
Grains of Soap, 
Seven Springs..........++ 12°75 of hardness 262 
Andover Ford............ 13°88 be 283 
Thames Head at Kemble .. 15:5 He 812 
Church at Cirencester .... 15°7 9 315 
ORIN G tune ota micns e's sc ccbelioe * 340 
Pangbourne was only 15*4 in November 1847 ; the others are of February 
1848, when the water was harder down to London. ‘There is seen here an 
increase in hardness, and there is also an increase in soluble salts not con- 
tributing to the hardness, At Seven Springs the hardness is equal to the 
whole amount of insoluble salts and a fraction more, which may arise from 
an excess of carbonic acid. 
Grains. 
At Seven Springs inorganic matter in a gallon 12°25 
FAL. PAMZDOUITIC » aia > eins edna veenne cess ao 
At Reading ..... ve necsgoesoercsecess ao Lis 
At Windsor animalcules begin to show themselves more prominently in 
the water, and these rather large Hydatina. There are also at Reading and 
Oxford some of the smaller green Navicule, and several other smaller green 
Bacillaria. Oxford water had more of these than Reading, and also a large 
amount of matter in solution; it is probable that the soil through which the 
Isis flows is rather different from the other part of the Thames. The river 
was rather high at the time. 
From Richmond downwards the case is much altered, and the water, although 
