Report of the Select Committee on Steam-Boais. 83 
tive, comparatively speaking, by giving free vent to the waters 
from below the clay, instead of leaving it to ooze through, which 
keeps the soil always weeping ;—consequently damp, cold, and 
unproductive. In an age of improvement like the present, it is 
to be wondered that this has not been attended to. There is no 
mode of draining a clay soil equal to boring, particularly when 
lying on a substratum of gravel: whenever this is the case, water 
may always be procured by boring in the dipping of the gravel 
stratum; on the contrary, by boring in the cross levels, a stream 
may be turned into the bore, and disappear. Hence the Scotch 
ee of “driving the bottom out of a well,” by sinking too 
eep. 
St. Winifred’s or Holy Weil in Flintshire is the discharge of 
waters collected under similar circumstances ; and probably at 
no great distance from its source, the waters being muddy and 
whey-coloured after heavy rains. These waters now, instead 
of working miracles, are turned to a more rational though per- 
haps not a more profitable account,—-that of turning useful ma- 
chinery: and I have no doubt whatever, but by sinking or boring, 
and casing with cast-iron boxes, a quantity of water might be 
procured, in the neighbourhood of Bridlington, sufficient for, 
and which might be most profitably applied to, the working of 
even heavy machinery, either by applying the water direct from 
the pit or bore, raised sufficiently to cover the wheels of ma- 
chinery, or by throwing it into reservoirs, and applying it in pro- 
portion to the weight required for the machinery to be driven. 
It is impossible to conceive to what extent this might be car- 
ried, and to what a pitch of commercial greatness this simple 
discovery may raise Bridlington. 
Strathendry Bleachfield, Fife, July 22, 1817. 
XII. Report of the Select Committee appointed to consider of 
the Means of preventing the Mischief of Explosion from hap- 
pening on board Steam- Boats, to the Danger or Destruction 
of His Majesty’s Subjects on board such Boats. 
[Continued from p. 65.] 
The Evidence of Seva Hunt, Esq. 
Anz you concerned with the province of Louisiana ?>—I have 
been in Louisiana; I formerly was commandant in Upper Loui 
siana. 
Can you furnish the Committee with any information in re- 
spect of the safety of steam-boats ?—In the United States a great 
F 2 number 
