122 On Aricsian or Ovcrjlowing Wells. 



within three hours and a half it had filled the whole depth of 

 the shaft, which was 791- feet, and 5 ells square, and over- 

 flowed its margin. One of the workmen was caught by the salt 

 water, and, wonderfully enough, raised 252 feet high in the 

 shaft without being hurt. After more than 40 years, in the 

 years 1802-1805, the salt spring still exerted such a pressure, 

 that, according to the calculation of the Inspector of Salt-works, 

 Bischof, it could rise 5 ells above the highest margin of the 

 shaft. Also at Kosen the salt water reaches the surface from a 

 depth of 86 fathoms (516 feet)*. Similar overflowing wells 

 have also been lately bored at Nauheim, in the Wetterau, at 

 Unna, in Westphalia, and in several other places. 



This cannot be the place to prove the advantages of bored 

 wells over dug ones, in an economical point of view, nor in 

 what way they may be most advantageously employed ; this 

 must be left to technological treatises ; besides, complete infor- 

 mation on every thing which is important, in a practical point 

 of view, may be obtained from the work of M. Garnier, which 

 we have so often quotedf. Yet a few historical points regard- 

 ing the boring of fresh water wells still remain to be mention- 

 ed. It is unknown who first turned the miner's boring-iron to 

 this use \. Ramazzini's work, which was published in the year 



• Geognostische Arbeiten, v. J. C. Freiesleben. Baud. ii. S. 208. — Bischof 

 in Karsten Archis. Baud. xx. S. 17- 



-|- R. F. Selbman, on the Use of Miner's Boring-irons, Leipzig 1823, contains 

 a very particular detail of every kind of boring apparatus, as well as an enu- 

 meration of the principal works from which further information may be de- 

 rived. 



4: Possibly the spontaneous irruption of these waters first attracted attention 

 to overflowing wells. So it happened, in the year 1821, at Bishop Monckton, 

 near Ripon, England, afler a rattling noise of the ground, the water burst forth, 

 and immediately excavated a shaft for itself, which, on the evening of the same 

 day, had several feet in circumference, and, on sounding, shewed a depth of 58 

 feet. — (Jour, of Science, v. xi. p. 406.) Similar appearances have also occur, 

 red in the sandy soil of the Marck of Brandenburg. Thus, for example, in 

 175c, not far from Ziesar, at the foot of the sandy ridge which lies on the 

 left bank of the Bukan, a spring burst forth with an immense noise, which 

 the old people still remember perfectly. It has since flowed with undimi. 

 nished violence, and its quantity of water is very great, as is the case with 

 aU those of this region. By the continual washing of the loose sand, a large 

 excavation has been made, and the spring itself has retreated considerably, 

 and has formed a basin of more than 500 paces long, which sufficiently 

 shews that the source of the water is very deep in the sandy ridge. 



