52 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Jdly 18, 1884. 



water supply as an example of special interest to the in- 

 habitants of this vast metropolitan centre. The eight water 

 companies, whose graceful pavilion in the Exhibition we 

 shall visit ere long, derive their water almost wholly from 

 the Thames district. Five of them draw upon the Thames 

 and its tributaries directly, two have recourse to the river 

 Lea, whilst the Kent company resort to deep wells in the 

 chalk for its supply. 



The sixth report of the Rivers' Pollution Commissioners 

 states that the " catchment basin " of the Thames is one of 

 the finest which has ever come under their notice. Of an 

 area of 6,000 square miles, more than one-half consists of 

 cultivated porous soil, its yield of water being delivered 

 chiefly through springs. The remaining impervious super- 

 ficial strata consist chiefly of meadow and pasture lands, 

 and from them the rain-water drains ofl' into the runnels 

 which feed the river and its tributaries. 



The extreme western tributary of the Thames, called the 

 Churn, arises in the " Seven Springs," situated about four 

 miles from Cheltenham, on .the road to Cirencester. These 

 springs rise from the clay beds of the Lias, the water having 

 accumulated through the porous formations of the inferior 

 oolitic limestones, which contain large underground reser- 

 voirs ; they yield about 1.50,000 gallons of water daily. 

 About four million gallons of water, which have passed 

 through similar formations, are derived daily from the 

 Syreford spring, at the head of the river Colne. Three 

 million gallons are daily pumped up at the Thames' head, 

 from a depth of 33 feet, to the level of the Thames and 

 Severn canal ; this water passes through the lower oolitic 

 formations, known as the Bath or the Great Oolite, to be 

 stored by the marls and clays of the so-called beds of the 

 Fuller's earth. Other springs of importance which originate 

 in the Fuller's earth are those of Boxwell, Ewen, and 

 Ampney. Minor tributaries of the Thames derive their 

 supply from the Gault clays, which underlie the beds of the 

 Upper Greensand, the jiorous collecting-ground of which 

 consists of siliceous and calcareous sands, with green grains 

 and chert nodules. 



With the exception of the river Loddon, which is 

 supplied from the Bagshot sands resting on the London 

 clay, nearly all the rest of the water of the Thames is 

 derived from the chalk formations. Of this character are 

 the supplies of the Kennet, wliich culls its waters from the 

 downs near Marlborough and Hungerford, the Colne, and 

 the so-called New River. In addition to all these sources, 

 the Thames is largely fed by springs which arise in its own 

 bed, the most famous examples of which are situated 

 between Reading and Wallingford. 



From what has been stated it may be gathered that the 

 water of the Thames is essentially a calcareous water, all its 

 chief sources of supply being derived from limestones and 

 calcareous sands, witb the single exception of the river 

 Loddon, wliich flows through the ferruginous and other 

 sands of the Bagshot series. The Kent Company's water, 

 which is obtained from deep chalk wells, is even more 

 calcareous than the Thames water ; so that we may here 

 make the general statement that the most characteristic 

 feature of the London water is its hardness. 



The class of workmen who have been actively employed in rail- 

 road construction for the last few years have probably, suffered 

 more from want of work than other classes (in America) during 

 the comparative quiet that has lately existed in many industries. 

 This has been especially the case with Italians and other foreigners 

 who came to the country in large numbers during the flush labour 

 times, but are now in large numbers without employment in 

 Chicago and other large cities. Their want of knowledge of any 

 other labour but railroad work tells against them. — Railway Review. 

 (Chicago). 



BEITISH SEASIDE RESOETS, 



FROM AX UXCONVEN'ilOXAL POINT OF VIEW. 



By Percy Russell. 

 I. 



IT was the favourite idea of the author of the " History 

 of Civilisation " — that imposicg fragment of a grand 

 conception — that a people would correspond psychologically 

 to the nature of their immediate physical environment. 

 The idea is in itself in no way new, and has been universally 

 found to furnish the key to all the peculiarities of national 

 temperament, and thence it may, I think — passing from 

 the abstract to the concrete — be fairly assumed that the 

 love of the sea in general will be found jiroportioned to the 

 extent of coasts in any particular country, and very espe- 

 cially in proportion to the sinuosities and general accessi- 

 bility of the coast itself, while, of course, the question of 

 average temperature and other meteorological conditions 

 are necessarily important, and sometimes determining factor& 

 in the creation of a general national fondness for "blue 

 water." 



For one thing, it is diflicult for the average Eoglishmau 

 to understand the utter indifterence of the mass of the 

 inhabitants of Central Europe for the ocean in any of its 

 aspects, and the njtion of a " seaside season," which is with 

 ourselves a matter of course, would be an idea really 

 impossible to convey adequately to the normal mind of a 

 dweller in Central Europe. 



It may, perhaps, however, be news to some that the 

 number of islands, great and small — many very small indeed 

 — composing what is known as the group of the British Isles, 

 exceeds five thousand. It is true, certainly, that many of 

 these are mere shelves of rock, but still the fact remains 

 that the geographical term, Great Britain and Islands, 

 implies an archipelago of over five thovisand islands. Irre- 

 spective, too, of the mass of the outlying islands, fi-om the 

 Scilly group to the Orkney and Shetland Isles, the total 

 length of the coast-line from Berwick to the South Foreland, 

 thence to the Land's End, and from the Land's End to 

 Berwick again, apjiroaches two thousand miles, taking bays, 

 inlets, and harbours into account, and thus it is possible for 

 the excursionists around our own shores to accomplish a 

 distance equal to a fourth of the actual diameter of the 

 entire globe ! 



These are very rudimentary facts indeed, but they escape 

 many among us who are commonly reckoned, and probably 

 justly so, as being well informed generally. They are, 

 however, I think very suggestive facts, and, for one thing, 

 unquestionably furnish the clue to the undoulitedly strong 

 passion of Englishmen for the sea, which was, curiously 

 enough, much more intense as a passion before the epoch 

 of iron ships began. 



Whether or no our maritime character is becoming 

 considerably modified by the various material influences and 

 altered conditions of our present complex civilisation, it is 

 not my business to inquire in this place, but it may be 

 safely said that the normal Englishman, Englishwoman, 

 and child are longing for the sea in summer, and directly 

 the mercury rises in the thermometer to a certain point, 

 that very large class known as the social " Everybody," 

 begins to hasten coastwards, and the seaside season fairly 

 sets in. It goes without saying that, as a general rule, 

 English people are not remarkable for method or thought 

 in their pleasures and recreative arrangements, and 

 thence it is that, in general, comparatively a few water- 

 ing-places are thronged and packed with visitors for a 

 season, and a large proportion of people made very un- 

 comfortable, and not a few exceedingly ill, simply because 



