402 



KEPOET 1878. 



At Bicester, an artesian boring is described by the Geological Survey- 

 as reaching a good spring at the base iof the Great Oolite, 244 ft. from 

 the surface. 



It is an interesting fact, that three years before Sir Hugh Myddleton 

 bought the Hertfordshire chalk springs by the New River to London, 

 one Otho Nicholson, of Christ Church, Oxford, brought the water of a 

 small spring to Carfax Cross in that city, issuing from the base of the 

 Coralline Oolite, on the hills above North Hincksey, a distance of two 

 miles across the valley of the Isis. The spring still yields 10,000 

 gallons daily but the supply was cut off and the cross removed in 1787. 



The following are some of the more important springs in the Oolite 

 district, about Oxford, given by Messrs. Pole and Bravender in their 

 evidence before the Royal Rivers and Pollution Commissions. 



Gallons. 



Ablington 2,000,000 



Ampney, near Cirencester 12,000,000 



Bibury 10,000,000 



Bourton, Eyeford, and Donnington, 



near Stow-on-the- Wold 25,000,000 



Boxwell, near Cricklade 1 ,200,000 



Ewen 1,000,000 



Seven Springs, near Northleach 500,000 



Seven Wells 2,000,000 



Syreford, near C heltenkam 4,000,000 



Professor Prestwich gives the following abstract of the beds passed 

 through, and compares them with the thicknesses of the oolitic strata'of 

 the neighbourhood, estimated by Professors Phillips, Hull, and Green. 



Thicknesses of Strata at Wytham boring. 



Beds. Oxford Clay :— Ft. in. 



No. 25 9 6 



26-32 , | 38 



33-50 V 131 6 



51-55 J 14 6 



Wanting: — 



56-59 170 6( + ) 



» 



At Charbury, Woodstock, and Enslow Bridge. 



Feet. 



Oxford Clay 



Cornbrash 9~| 



Forest Marble 25 | ft. in. 



Great Oolite, Upper 60 i- 179 6 



„ „ Lower 70 



Inferior Oolite 15_ 



Upper Lias 8 



Marlstone and Lower Lias 400? 



The boring was followed by another a few years later, in the hope of 

 obtaining water, at St. Clement's, but unfortunately a salt spring was 

 reached at 420 ft., which is still flowing. The beds passed through, 

 according to Professor Prestwich, were probably the Oxford Clay and 

 Great Oolite, and the analysis- of the water from the artesian well at 

 St. Clement's, Oxford, by Mr. W. F. Donkin, February, 1876, was pub- 

 lished by Professor Prestwich. 



