122 REPORT — 1875. 



The New Red Sandstone in the Liverpool and Preston district consists of 

 the following subdivisions : — 



feet. 



1. Lower Keuper Sandstone 400 



2. The Upper Mottled Sandstone 600 



3. Pebble-beds 800 



4. Lower Mottled Sandstone 100 



Permian beds thin and unimportant. 



In a section first described by your Reporter in the railway-cutting at 

 Orrcl, near Waterloo, the upper beds of the Keuper Sandstone consist of 

 beds of fine-grained sandstone, separated by seams of grey marl, throwing 

 out springs, maintaining the characteristic which gives to the Keuper Sand- 

 stone in the Midland counties the name of " waterstones ;" between these 

 water-bearing beds and a patch of overljdng Keuper Marls let in by a fault 

 a conglomerate bed occurs similar to that occurring at the base of the 

 Keuper. A small well at a private house to the S.W. yields a good supply 

 of water from the water-bearing bed ; but it is probable that a large well 

 sank into these rocks would afford a valuable auxiliary supply for "Waterloo 

 and Seaforth. 



The Upper Mottled Sandstone consists of rather hard j-ellow sandstone, 

 sometimes used for building, which yields a good supply of water in a well 

 at Scarisbrick, of the Southport Waterworks, 70 feet above the sea-level. 

 Nearer Ormskirk are two other shafts sank, by the direction of Mr. Hawksley, 

 in the lower beds of the Upper Mottled Sandstone ; in one of these, the Pilot 

 shaft, a good supply of water is obtained ; but in the other, a few yards 

 distant, no water was obtained, and the Company are now engaged in driving 

 a heading in hopes of finding some. 



At Ormskirk Brewery a powerful spring, known as the " Bath Spring," 

 supplies not only the brewery but the town itself. The top of the well is 

 about 134 feet above the level of the sea, is 36 feet in depth, and yields 33 

 gallons per minute. 



The late Mr. Robert Stephenson, reporting on the supply of water to 

 Liverpool in 1851, considered the New Red Sandstone of that district, which 

 consists of hard Pebble-beds and Upper Mottled Sandstone, to be generally 

 very pervious, deep wells drawing their supplies from distances of more than 

 a mile ; and he appears to have considered the whole mass as nearly equally 

 permeable in every direction, except when fissures or faults filled with ar- 

 gillaceous matter divide the field into water-tight compartments; and he 

 showed that the yield of no well can be permanently increased by sinking, 

 tunnelling, or boring, except .so far as the contributing area is thereby 

 enlarged. 



The mass of the Liverpool wells draw their supplies from the sandstone at 

 a level between high- and low-water mark ; and when the uniform pressure 

 of the column of fresh water, which prevents any ingress of the fluctuating 

 tidal water, is interfered with by excessive pumping, the general top-water 

 level is lowered, and Mr. Stephenson pointed out that a reverse action ensues 

 and the brackish water obtains a slight advantage. 



As larger and larger quantities of water are pumped, the current of 

 brackish water gains in head ; and it appears to be gradually reaching further 

 and further inland ; the wells at Bevington Bush, Soho Square, Hotham 

 Street, and other places have had to be abandoned ; but whether it will be 

 able to penetrate the faults which divide the Liverpool area into a series 

 of different water-bearing belts is exceedingly doubtful. 



