Artesian Springs or Wells. 77 



and on all occasions the temperature has never been found to 

 vary, it being bV. 



It may be remarked with regai'd to the mean temperatm^e 

 of the district in vs^hich the two last-mentioned springs are to 

 be found, and which may be considered the same with regard 

 to those which we are just about to mention as occurring in 

 Clackmannanshire, that, unfortunately, no thermometric obser- 

 vations have been made on that district. 



On looking at the situation of the district on the map, we 

 shall find that it lies about 25 miles NW. of Edinburgh, and 

 that it is at the level of the sea, the tide often rising so high 

 as to ovei-flow some of the farms ; and it may be remarked, 

 that the crops are generally observed to be a few weeks later 

 than in the neighbom-hood of Edinburgh. I have tried the 

 temperature of many of the sm'face springs, but in none of them, 

 with the exception of one, did I find any thing like satisfac- 

 tory results. In this spring, which is situated at a low and 

 central pai't of the Carse, shaded by a few trees, and comes 

 ripphng out from among some loose stones, the temperature, 

 in the month of April 1837, was about 45°, and in September 

 1838, 465°. This difference is not great, when we consider 

 that it is a surface spring ; it might have been found to pos- 

 sess a much more varied temperature, had it been tried during 

 other months ; this, however, I had not an opportunity of 

 doing. Reasoning, therefore, from the circumstances which 

 I have just mentioned, I think we may consider the mean of 

 this district to be about 46°. 



The artesian wells of Clackmannanshire owe then* origin 

 paiiily, to some proprietors being anxious to ascertain if coal- 

 strata existed on their estates, but chiefly to the circumstance of 

 the surface-springs becoming frequently brackish from the 

 height to which the tide rises in that locality. The first per- 

 foration which I can ascertain as having been made in the 

 neighbourhood of Kincardine, is to be found at Loanside House ; 

 it was sunk by the proprietor for the pm'pose of supplying his 

 establishment with water, free from an admixtiure of salt ; it 

 succeeded at the depth of 120 feet, and is now to be seen in 

 the centre of the stable-yard of that mansion, affording an 

 abundant supply of water of excellent quality. 



