70 
Art. VIII. An Account of ihe Overflowing Well in the 
Garden of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick. (Com- 
~ municated by Joseph Sabine, Esq., S.H.S. &c.), 
[The specimens adverted to in the following paper are deposited in the 
Mineral Room, at the Royal Institution. ] 
In consequence of the success which had attended the opera- 
tions of several persons in the vicinity of Chiswick in boring for 
water, it was determined by the Council of the Horticultural 
Society that an attempt to procure an overflowing well should be 
made in the society’s garden, for the purpose of obtaining a supply 
of water for various purposes; but more particularly to form an 
ornamental canal in the Arboretum for the growth of hardy aquatic 
plants. 
After the necessary inquiries had been made, it was determined. 
that Mr. John Worsencroft, a person who had previously suc 
ceeded in making an overflowing well for Messrs. Bird, of Ham- 
mersmith, should be empioyed to execute the experiment. He 
commenced his operations upon the first of September last; and 
after boring for five weeks without material interruption, tapped 
the spring on the 18th of October, and finally completed his task 
on the following day. The depth from which the water first rose 
was 317 feet, and the whole depth of the well, when completed, 
was 329 feet; the additional 12 feet of boring having been made 
in order to gain a perfect opening into the bed of the spring, which 
flowed when first tapped less copiously than after the final depth 
was obtained. The chalk from which the water immediately comes 
is soft, but the bottom of the well is in hard chalk. The water in 
all the neighbouring wells appears to have been obtained at about 
the same depth; and the strata through which the perforations 
were made are nearly similar to those met with in the present 
instance, 
The tackle and instruments used were very simple. A scaffold- 
ing was raised 20 feet above the proposed orifice of the well, on 
which a platform was fixed to support a windlass, by which the 
