202 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
pe conimunication of Capt. Lay- 
man in page 122, although well- 
intentioned, and however correctly its 
facts may be stated, with respect to 
his having procured fresh water by 
shallow diggings on the sandy shores of 
the acean, Capt. L. so essentially errs 
in stating the principles on which he 
attempts to account for the phenome- 
non, and as to the general applica- 
bility of his method for supplying 
shipping, that I am induced to request 
your permission tosay a few words on 
the subject, which I hope may prove 
useful to mariners, and guard them 
against grievous and perhaps danger- 
ous disappointments. . 
A very slight acquaintance with 
chemical facts will satisfy any one, 
that there is not the slightest ana- 
Jogy between the gazeous ascent of 
water to form clouds, or in the 
practice of evaporating or distil- 
ling, and the percolation of water 
through sand, or its filtration through 
any other substances. And it is not 
true, that beneath the line or level of 
high-water, fresh water can be obtain- 
ed by digging on the sandy shore, ex- 
‘cepting only in those cases or. spots 
‘where large quantities of land water 
(derived in all instances from previous 
rains, snows, or dews,) are passing 
through such sand in its way to the 
ocean, as its lowest vent or place of 
‘discharge: in all other cases, a hole 
sunk in the sea-sand, would be wholly 
or partially filled with salt water, 
left in such sand by the retiring tide. 
The loose sand on the sea-shore is 
not often of any great thickness, and, 
in a large proportion of cases, it rests 
on some sub-stratum, less porous or 
less fitted for percolation than itself; 
and in very numerous instances this 
stiffer or less porous substratum, rises 
in a cliff or bank, above high-water 
level, so as to preclude the percolation 
of fresh water fromthe land, except 
at the mouths of valleys or ravines, 
which are furrowed into the surface of 
such impervious substratum. It should 
become the business, therefore, of the 
mariner, who would land on a sandy 
“shore in search of fresh water, to exa- 
‘mine the cliffs or banks rising above 
high-water level; and, if they prove 
clayey, or so compact as apparently 
to be water-tight, it will be almost 
hopeless for him. to sink for fresh wa- 
ter opposite to.any such impervious 
Mr. Farey on Procuring Fresh Water on the Sea-shore. 
‘to be borne in mind, that fresh water 
(Oct.1, 
shore ; but in searching along the cliffs 
or banks, it will not often be far before 
such clayey bank will be found to de- 
cline in height and sink down, and 
disappear under the loose gravel or 
sand, at the mouth of a vale or ravine, 
which comes down out of the country. 
Such a mouth of a valley being found, 
having a course of some miles in land, 
and the centre or deepest place in the 
mouth of such vale being selected, by 
a comparison of the slopes of the sides 
of such valley near to its mouth, a 
sinking for water may with some con- 
fidence be there made, at or about the 
high-water line, however dry or unpro- 
mising the surface of the gravel or 
sand of the selected spot may appear. 
Provided the water, which springs up 
in the bottom of any hole which may 
be sunk, proves fresh and without any 
mineral taste, besides that of muddi- 
ness, the turbidness occasioned by the 
digging of the hole should not dis- 
hearten the operator; because, on 
finishing the hole, a moderate degree 
of baling and throwing away of the 
water, will wash in the mud or fine 
earthy particles which may have been 
loosened by the digging, and clear 
water will mostly follow. In order to 
allow time for these operations, unin- 
terrupted by the tide, it is plainly de- 
sirable to have the hole sunk rather 
above than below high-water level. 
There is another principle of search 
for fresh water on the sea-shore, which 
may often be had recourse to, when the 
method already pointed out may have 
failed, and that is, searching along the 
sands, as near as may be to low-water 
line, and noticing any places where 
the sand may appear wetter, and to 
be discharging more water than usual, 
at a spot from whence the ascent of 
the surface of the sand is regular to- 
wards the beach or cliffs, and where 
no pools of salt water could have been 
left behind a ridge, to soak away into 
the sand, and so occasion the local 
wetness observed. 
The water oozing from the sand, in 
any such places as described, should 
-be tasted, and if it proves fresh, or even 
in any material degree less salt and 
bitter than the adjoining sea-water, a 
hole sunk in an eligible place between 
this spot and the beach or cliffs, (of 
whatever material such cliffs may be 
composed,) may with some confidence 
be expected to fill with, and afford a 
supply of fresh water: it being always 
out 
