SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—C. 309 
Co-operation and co-ordination in this manner will give valuable informa- 
tion, at present obtainable in only a few cases, and so be of much economic 
value to the country. 
It is important to get evidence of the character of the hidden Chalk in 
the London basin, more particularly with regard to the function of the 
joints and fractures, which may divert the water falling in the Chilterns 
to the surface as springs, or may give rise to local storage-basins underground. 
With regard to additions to supplies of water in the London basin, the 
speaker suggested continuous diversion into boreholes in the Chalk at 
suitable places of small portions of the streams flowing in the valleys, after 
the water had been sterilised. Such refilling of the basin would counteract 
the tendency to draw polluted Thames water into it, to the great detriment 
to health, but a very real danger owing to the greatly lowered level of the 
water under London. 
Prof. W. G. FEARNSIDES, F.R.S. 
The underground water problem as it affects the industrial regions of 
W. Yorkshire and the S.E. Pennine area is discussed. "The importance of 
joints in the Carboniferous and older rocks for water storage within the 
formations, and for conducting unfiltered water to particular borings, shafts 
and wells, is stressed. ‘The influence of rock composition and rock texture, 
more especially inter-grain porosity, on the water-bearing properties of 
the newer geological formations, is noted, and the author refers to the 
distribution of geological structures and their effects upon the disposition of 
wells and troublesome waters in the coal mines of the exposed coalfield area. 
Reference is made to the special precautions taken when sinking shafts 
through the Magnesian Limestone and Trias which lie above the Coal 
Measures in the concealed portion of the field that is now being developed. 
The composition of the water obtained from certain of the Bunter wells of 
the Midlands, more particularly those which must be increasingly exploited 
as the Doncaster coalfield and its industries expand, is discussed. 
Prof. G. HIcKLING. 
Mr. L. H. Tonks. 
Dr. S. W. Woo.LpRIDGE. 
The marked variations of rainfall which have occurred in the past, and 
which will certainly recur in the future, enforce the urgency of a systematic 
investigation of underground water resources. ‘The great drain on water 
supplies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has occurred during 
a period of generally high rainfall, not to be regarded as representing 
average conditions. Even though underground water cannot, in the long 
view, be regarded as an alternative to a water grid fed from the wetter west, 
it will: always be capable of affording supplementary supplies. But the 
exploitation of these latter will demand a much more detailed knowledge 
of regional hydro-geology than can be gathered from existing data. Some- 
thing more than the useful records of the Water Supply Memoirs of the 
Geological Survey is required. These are largely records of past attempts, 
successful or unsuccessful, to find water. For vast areas of country there 
is practically no hydro-geological information of any kind available. These 
blanks can be filled only by deliberate investigation carried out concurrently 
with a greatly accelerated 6-in. primary geological survey. The sinking 
