154 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



finds the lowest place, whether it s the bottom of the well 

 or the lower end of a brook. We see this when we dig a 

 ditch, or lay down a tile. If it is put down four feet in 

 the earth, it will draw the water on each side, for a rod or 

 more, right into it. If the soil is very compact, or made 

 up mainly of black earth, it would probably absorb all 

 offensive matters in the water, until it became saturated 

 or charged with the foul gases, when a good deal of filthy 

 water would go down into the drain and be carried off. 

 Now I do not want to disgust any of your readers, by 

 telling them that the contents of their sinks, vaults, and 

 stables, drain into their wells. They might take it as an 

 insult. But let them just look at the location of their sinks 

 and vaults. If a drain four feet deep will draw water say 

 twenty-five feet distant, how far will a well of thirty or 

 forty feet draw it ? 



Seth Twiggs thinks he cured his well by putting tile in 

 to his garden. That is only a part of the story, for the 

 next season, he cemented his privy vault, and its contents 

 now go regularly to the compost heap. The sink drain, 

 too, that used to empty within ten feet of the mouth of 

 the well, is now intercepted by a row of tiles, carrying the 

 water after it leaches, through the soil, off into the brook. 

 The soil about his well is loose gravel, after you get down 

 some four or five feet, and this has been made still more 

 loose by the digging and stoning of the well. The water 

 would go through the whole circumference back of the 

 stones four or five feet, about as readily as through a sieve. 

 There is a great absorbing power in soils, but after a while 

 they will not take up any more of the foul gases, and the 

 sink water and other offensive matters must go down to 

 the level of the water in the well, with very little filtering. 



How far a well must be removed from the sink and 

 other offensive places, to keep the water pure, will depend 

 somewhat upon the circumstances, as the depth of the 

 well, and the character of the soil. A deep well, of 



