62 Dr. Lathrop’s account of the springs and wells in Boston. 
and soft, and without any fetid smell or taste, after some time was 
found to be less pleasant, and less fit for general us e. However, as it 
rose so near the surface, curiosity led the proprietors to let down a proof 
glass, to taste the water, and it was feund much better, when taken thus 
from the top, than when pumped from the bottom of the well. Although 
from the same fountain they did not take “ salt water and fresh,” in the 
same well they found sqft water and hard, sweet water and fetid. The 
small pump was then placed by the side of the large one, which, enter- 
ing but a little way, took water fit for every use, and free from any un- 
pleasant smell. Whether the water becomes unpleasant by a subtle 
mephitick vapour, which finds its way into it, or by being covered up, — 
as wells comuionly are, and thus deprived of oxygen from the atmos-. 
s worthy of careful examination. I would just observe, the 
proprietors of the well last mentioned were led to exercise great cau- 
tion in carrying on the work, by an accident which happened very 
near them a few years before. A few years before, an attempt was 
made to dig a well about twenty rods to the east, near the sea. Hav- 
ing dug about 60 feet in a body of clay, without finding water, prepa- ‘4 
ration.was made in the usual way for boring ; and after passing about. 
40 feet, in.the same body of clay, the auger was impeded with stone. 
A few strokes with a drill broke through the slate covering, and the 
water gushed up with such rapidity and force, that the workmen with 
difficulty were saved from death. The water rose to the top of the 
well and ran over for some time. ~The force was suchas to’ bring tip. 4 a | 
a large quantity of fine sand, by which the ness filled up many feet. ree 
The workmen left all their tools behind, which were buried in the 
sand, and all their labour was lost. ‘The body of water, which is con- 
stantly passing under the immense bed of clay, which is found in all 
‘the low parts of the peninsula, and which forms the bason of the har- _ 
