On Artesian Wells, 4-c. 297 



plants and bivalve shells ; branches of the thorn, several inches 

 long, and blackened, owing to their residence in the water ; fur- 

 ther, fresh stems and roots of marsh-plants, seeds of many diffe- 

 rent plants, and also fresh water shells, as Planorhis margina- 

 tus, also Helix rotundaia, and Heliv striata. All these re- 

 sembled those which are found after floods, on the sides of 

 smaller rivers and brooks. This fact is so remarkable, that the 

 truth of it might be called in question, had it not been accu- 

 rately determined. There result from it the following conclu- 

 sions : 



1. The water of the artesian well of the city of Tours must 

 occupy not moi'e than four months in flowing through its sub- 

 terranean canals, because the ripe seeds of harvest have reached 

 the mouth of the well without being decomposed. 



2. As the water carries along with it shells and pieces of 

 wood, it cannot reach its place by filtration through the layers 

 of sand, but must have flowed through more or less irregular 

 canals. 



3. The source of this water is to be looked tor in some moist 

 valleys of Auvergne and the Vivarais. 



The remains of the plants and animals are deposited in the 

 mineral cabinet of the city. As soon as the seeds, five or six 

 in number, are referred to their plants, naturalists will, in 

 places situated higher than the basin of the Loire, be able to 

 make out the points where these subterranean waters are poured 

 out. 



It is to be wished that French observers would state how they 

 prove that the waters of this well come from Auvergne, about 

 130 miles distant. If this shall be proved, the considerable 

 rise of artesian water in other places, where no hills occur near, 

 or where they are bored in the most elevated points in the 

 neighbourhood, will loose every thing puzzling. 



This rising is sudicicntly remarkable to induce us to comnui- 

 nicalc some examples from Ilcrioart. 



JULY — SEPTl'MnF.U 1831. 



