498 APPENDIX. 



soi-ines must if possible, be detected; and one single drain or ditch judiciously 

 iisnosed may lay a great extent of land dry if it cuts off the springs before they 

 run into the soil. Abundant springs which flow continually generally proceed 

 rom the outbreaking of some porous stratum in which the waters were con- 

 fined or through natural crevices in rocks or impervious earth. A knowledge 

 of the geology of the country will greatly assist in tracing this, and the springs 

 may be cut off with greater certainty. But it is not these main springs which 

 give the greatest trouble to an experienced drainer; it is the various land 

 .springs which are sometimes branches of the former, and often original and 

 independent springs arising from sudden variations in the nature of the soil 

 and subsoil. The^annexed diagram representing a section of an uneven sur- 

 face of land will explain the nature of the strata which produce springs. 



Suppose A A a porous substance through which the water filtrates readily; 

 B B a stratum of loam or clay impervious to water. The water which comes 

 through A A will run along the surface of B B towards S S, where it will 

 spring to the surface and form a lake or bog between S and S. Suppose another 

 gravelly or pervious stratum under the last, as C C C bending as here repre- 

 sented, and filled with water running into it from a higher level; it is evident 

 that this stratum will be saturated with water up to the dotted line E F F, which 

 is the level of the point in the lower rock, or impervious stratum D D, where 

 the water can run over it. If the stratum B B has any crevices in it below the 

 dotted line, the water will rise through these to the surface and form springs 

 rising from the bottom of the lake or bog: and if B B were bored through and 

 a pipe inserted rising up to the dotted line, as c o, the water would rise, and 

 stand at o. If there were no springs at S S the space below the dotted line 

 might still be filled with water rising from the stratum C C C. But if the 

 boring took place at G the water would not rise, but on the contrary, if there 

 were any on the surface, it would be carried down to the porous stratum E C C, 

 and run off. Thus in one situation boring will bring water, and in another it 

 will take it off. This principle being well understood will greatly facilitate 

 all draining of springs. Wherever water springs there must be a pervious 

 and an impervious stratum to cause it, and the water either runs over the im- 

 pervious surface or rises through the crevices in it. When the line of the 

 springs is found, as at S S, the obvious remedy is to cut a channel with a suffi- 

 cient declivity to take off the water in a direction across this line, and sunk 

 through the porous soil at the surface into the lower impervious earth. The 

 place for this channel is where the porous soil is the shallowest above the 

 breaking out, so as to require the least depth of drain; but the solid stratum 

 must be reached, or the draining will be imperfect. It is by attending to all 

 these circumstances that ELKINGTON acquired his celebrity in draining, and 

 that he has been considered as the father of the system. It is however of much 

 earlier invention, and is too obvious not to have struck any one who seriously 

 considered the subject. In the practical application of the principle, great in- 

 genuity and skill may be displayed, and the desired effect may be produced 

 more or less completely, and at a greater or less expense. The advice of a 

 scientific and practical drainer is always well worth the cost at which it may 

 be obtained. 



When there is a great variation in the soil, and it is difficult to find any main 

 line of springs, it is best to proceed experimentally by making pits a few feet 

 deep, or by boring in various parts where water appears, observing the level 

 at which the water stands in these pits or bores, as well as the nature of the 

 soil taken out. Thus it will generally be easy to ascertain whence the water 

 arises, and how it may be let off. When there is a mound of light soil over a 

 more impervious stratum, the springs will break out all round the edge of the 



