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passage of the water into the rock, even during the period 

 most favourable for that object. Now, taking all these 

 conditions, natural and artificial, that exist at all times on 

 the surface, into consideration, I am disposed to believe that 

 the maximum quantity that ultimately finds its way into the 

 strata cannot be more than a ninth part of the mean annual 

 fall, viz., four inches. This would give over the whole 

 district, could it be made available, a daily supply of twelve 

 millions seven hundred and thirty thousand gallons. 



But, in order to obtain this quantity, it would be 

 necessary to sink wells three or four miles apart, over the 

 whole district, and the erection of steam-engines to pump 

 the water up from these wells, and the connection of mains 

 with the different workings, besides the deprivation of the 

 people over the district (excepting the people of Liverpool) 

 of their accustomed sources of supply, are obstacles too 

 formidable to be surmounted. 



It would, therefore, appear from these remarks that 

 there is no practicable plan of obtaining from the district, 

 by wells and pumps, the maximum supply of water that 

 passes into the strata. 



Thirdly. — I now proceed to show the relation in which 

 the division of the new red sand stone of the district stands, 

 with the outlying and inferior formations, and the impos- 

 sibility of obtaining from these formations any supply of 

 water by Artesian boxings or other subterranean operations. 



Under the first head I stated that the aggregate thick- 

 ness of the new red sand stone division of this district, 

 when entire, is from 600 to 1000 feet ; and I am inclined 

 to believe that there exist between the sand stone and the 

 coal measures, the lower beds of the division composed of 

 clay and sand stone to the thickness of 400 feet. These 

 are impermeable to water, and the coal measures that 

 underlie the red sand stone formation in the Lan- 

 cashire coal fields, when entire, measure from 6000 to 



