516 Oj)crations to Find Water in the Desert. 



ACCOUNT OF OPERATIONS TO FIND WATER IN THE DESERT 

 BETWEEN CAIRO AND SUEZ. 



From the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 



We have been favoured with an interesting account of some 

 successful attempts, made with great energy and perseverance, 

 by Mr. Samuel Briggs, of Alexandria, to find water in the Desert, 

 between Suez and Cairo. This is not only an important discov- 

 ery for the natives of the country, but will also prodigiously fa- 

 cilitate the intercourse with India by steam. 



The first experiments were made in the valley of Kesche, 

 where the workmen bored, in one instance, to the depth of one 

 hundred and sixty ieeA, through a fine sandstone, mixed with 

 clay, without finding any humidity ; and in another place to the 

 depth of fifty feet, principally through a rock composed of frag- 

 ments of silex and jasper, where they met with a hard rock 

 which broke the instruments, and the attempt was consequently 

 relinquished on that spot. The operations were transferred to 

 the valley of Candelli. Here water has been found in a clayey 

 stratum, at the depth of only thirteen feet, where a v^'ell is al- 

 ready established, to which the Arabs come for their daily sup- 

 ply. Above the clay is a bed of calcareous sandstone, five feet 

 thick, through which the water filters ; and in the stratum of 

 clay three lateral galleries have been ingeniously struck to the 

 extent of twelve or fourteen feet, which not only serve to collect 

 the water, but, together with a further continuation of the well, 

 to the total depth of twenty-one feet, form a reservoir of one 

 thousand two hundred cubic feet of water. The whole is to be 

 lined with stone and mortar, which will render it a work of per- 

 fect art; and what is most important is, that the water be- 

 ing found so near the surface, neither the labour of camels nor 

 of machinery will be required to draw it. 



Two other wells have been commenced in the same valley, 

 with the same prospect of success. It is believed that, as the 

 spot is only an hour, or an hour and a half's journey from the 

 great chain of mountains which stretches across the Desert from 

 the Nile to the Red Sea, the waters have there their source. 



This enterprise has been projected by, and carried into exe- 

 cution at, the sole expense of Mr. Briggs. He has in his employ 

 an able mineralogist, Mr. Albert Gensberg (a Swiss, we believe,) 



