Reviews — Water Supply of Northampton. 229 



considerable difficulty in classifying the subdivisions of the Hastings 

 Series. The Chalk, which is 790 feet thick at Chichester, has been 

 proved to a depth of a little over 1,000 feet at Goodwood, and its full 

 thickness there is reckoned to be about 1,200 feet. A map of the 

 underground water- contours in the Chalk between the River Cuckrnere 

 and Eastbourne, is reproduced from a paper by Mr. H. M". Whitley ; 

 and although it represents observations taken between 1885 and 

 1889 it is interesting in showing the curves and fluctuations in the 

 water-table. 



Along the coastal Chalk tracts the level of the underground water 

 rises and falls with the tide ; and in some cases, as at Portslade, 

 brackish water has been tapped by boring. 



Dr. Mill remai-ks that " The distribution of average rainfall over 

 the county corresponds very closely with the configuration of the 

 ground, which in turn is dictated by the geological structure ". The 

 Alluvial tracts near Rye annually receive 25 inches of rainfall, 

 the South Downs more than 30 inches, and near Upper Waltham 

 probably more than 40 inches. Ashdown Forest, again, has a rainfall 

 of 35 inches or more. It is noted that October is the wettest month, 

 November, December, and January or September coming next. Thus, 

 as remarked by Dr. Mill, so much rain falling during winter months, 

 the county is favourably situated for accumulating a large quantity of 

 underground water. 



Apart from the many records of well-sinkings and borings, 

 Mr. Whitaker contributes notes on springs, bournes, and swallow- 

 holes; and also discusses the important question of contamination of 

 waters, a subject exemplified by reports of cases dealt with by the 

 Local Government Board. 



2. Water Supply of Northampton. — -Mr. Beeby Thompson, who 

 as one of the authors of the Geological Survey Memoir on the Water 

 Supply of Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire (1909) contributed 

 a particular account of the old wells and other sources of supply for 

 Northampton, has published an interesting, instructive, and more 

 elaborate history of the town springs, wells, and water schemes (Journ. 

 Northants Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. xv, 1909-10). The work is well 

 illustrated with map, plans, and pictorial views of wells, pumps, 

 conduits, and other structures connected with waterworks. It is 

 noted that the "Scarlet Well" probably derives its name from the 

 reputation of its water for giving to cloth a brilliant scarlet with the 

 appropriate dyes in use in the thirteenth century or before. [We learn 

 that the work can be purchased at Northampton from Mark & Co., 

 price Is. 6^.] 



3. The Influence of Underground Waters on Health is a subject 

 that was brought before the Royal Sanitary Institute (Journal, 

 vol. xxxi, p. 457, 1910) by Mr. Baldwin Latham. Thus "Typhoid 

 fever lias been shown to break out not unfrequently after heavy 

 rain ", when the ground- water has been low. The rain then washes 

 out the impurities from the porous strata as it descends to feed the 

 ground- water from which domestic supplies are drawn. "When 

 there is a large quantity of water in the ground we have healthy years, 

 except when such high water follows a period of very low water."' 



