462 UNDERGROUND WATER SUPPLY 
inaugurated more than twenty years ago, did sound pioneer work in this 
field. A Committee on underground circulation in the New Red Sandstone 
and Permian was started in 1874, the scope of which was extended in 1881 
to the permeable formations of England and Wales. Dr. Howarth, the 
Secretary of the Association, has kindly supplied me with a note on the work 
of this Committee, as published in the Annual Reports of the Association 
down to 1895, when the Committee lapsed. The moving spirits in this 
work were De Rance and Whitaker, and a great mass of information was 
collected during those twenty years. ‘Towards the end of that period, 
De Rance made a digest of all the previous reports, but up to now the 
whereabouts of this summary has not been traced. Some of the records 
of this Committee have been subsequently incorporated in the Water 
Supply Memoirs of the Geological Survey, and others extensively used by 
water authorities and experts. 
Another Committee on the ‘movements of underground waters in 
north-west Yorkshire ’ worked in conjunction with the Yorkshire Geological 
and Polytechnic Society, and published its last report in 1905. 
Whatever be the outcome of the conferences now being held by various 
engineering societies and the Ministry, prompted at the moment by the 
shortage of water due to the drought, there will remain the urgent need of 
investigation and patient research on underground water, and the accumula- 
tion of properly sifted data and records, published in such a form and with 
such authority that they can be utilised for further inquiry, and made 
available ultimately for the public good, whether through regional bodies 
or a central authority. Are we in a position to help forward this work ? 
