ON AN ANCIENT SEA-DEACII. 71 



included several foreign geologists, after the meeting of the Geological 

 Congress in London. 



Your Coniraittee ask to be reappointed, without grant, for the imme- 

 diate purpose of arranging for the determination and disposal of tho 

 specimens. 



Fifteenth Report of the Comviittee, consisting of Drs. E. Hull and 

 H. W. Ckosskky, Sir Douglas Galton, Professor Gr. A. Lebour, 

 and Messrs. James Glaisher, E. J3. Marten, G. H. Morton, 

 \V. Pexuelly, James Plant, J. Prestwich, I. Egberts, T. S. 

 Stooke, G. J. Sy.mons, W. Toplev, Tvlden-Wright, E. 

 Wethered, W. Wihtaker, and C. E. De Range (Secretary), 

 appointed for the purpose of investir/ating the Circulation of 

 Underground Waters in the Permeable Formations of England 

 and Wales, and the Quantity and Character of the Water 

 supplied to various Towns and Districts from these Forma- 

 tions. (Draion up by C. E. De Eance, Reporter.) 



Since your Committee were appointed at Belfast, fourteen years ago, the 

 recognition of the great value of our underground water stores has made 

 wide progress, as affording efficient supplies of water to corporations, 

 local boards, and public companies, free from organic impurity, regular 

 in quantity during periods of drought, yielded at a constant temperature 

 throughout the year, and obtained, as a rule, at a smaller cost than gravi- 

 tation supplies, and almost invariably at a less cost as regards legal or 

 Parliamentary expenses. The publication of the results already obtained 

 by your Committee has been greatly appreciated by engineers and con- 

 tractors, and has undoubtedly helped and supported recommendations 

 of water supplies from underground sources. As time goes on, a large 

 number of borings are annually made, and there being no other recording 

 agency of the results obtained than tliose collected by your Committee, 

 they ask for reappointment ; but they note with satisfaction that numerous 

 provincial societies, represented by delegates to the Association, are giving 

 attention to this subject, and publishing results, as the Liverpool Geolo- 

 gical Society, the Hampshire Field Club, and the Hertfordshire Natural 

 History Society. 



Looking to the comparatively small circulation of the Transactions of 

 these societies, your reporter has thought it well to include the more im- 

 portant results so obtained in the present Report, as they were obviously 

 the outcome of the suggestions made by Section C as to inquiries that 

 might be taken up with advantage by provincial societies. 



Your Committee, in the present Report, almost entirely follow the 

 lines of their first instruction, to inquire into the waters yielded by the 

 Permian and Trias, following those formations from Teignmouth in Devon- 

 shire to the mouth of the Tyne in Northumberland. 



Your Committee think it advisable to combine the results obtained 

 during the past two years, as to the clfcct of rainfall on tho varying 

 height of wells, and to publish them in a graphic form in their Report 

 next yeai', should they be reappointed. 



Your Committee this year have to ask for a grant of 5Z., should yoa 

 approve their reappointment. 



