104 Hugh J. L. Beadnell — Flowing Wells, Kliarga Oasis. 



different layers of the sandstone vary greatly in water-holding capacity, 

 there is almost certainly an intimate connection between all parts of it, 

 as no definite bands of shale or other impervious strata have been met 

 with. Where alternating shales and sandstones occur at or near the 

 junction the latter are usually charged with water under feeble 

 pressure, yielding flows at the surface of from one to five gallons 

 a minute. On drilling into the sandstone proper, increments in the 

 flow are generally obtained at fairly frequent but very irregular 

 intervals of depth. At times the flow is seen to increase slowly but 

 steadily, while a particularly porous bed is being passed through ; at 

 others the rate of increase is so rapid as to suggest that a fissure filled 

 with freely flowing water has been struck. Hard bands of sandstone, 

 acting locally as confining beds, frequently overlie the best water- 

 carrying layers ; while loose and uncemented sands, which continually 

 ' cave,' that is, run in on all sides, and which form one of the greatest 

 difficulties with which drillers have to contend, may be encountered 

 at any time, though they do not seem, as might be expected, to 

 coincide with marked increases of flow. 



Of twenty bores finished in this district none have failed to strike 

 water, though three have yielded such small flows that they must be 

 regarded as comparative failures ; of the remainin<.x seventeen the 

 average flow on completion was approximately 100 gallons per minute, 

 the maximum being 350 and the minimum 65 gallons per minute. 



By far the most important factor determining the volume of flow is 

 the absolute ground-level at the mouth of the well. The floor of the 

 oasis in the district under description lies between 53 and 61 metres 

 above sea-level,' the general slope being to the west in the opposite 

 direction to the dip of the water-bearing sandstones. Although the 

 actual difference of level is so little, amounting only to 7 or 8 metres, 

 the difference of flows from wells of equal depth on either side of the 

 area averages iuMj 100 per cent. This indicates that we are on this 

 area very near the static head or limit to which water will rise from 

 bores of this depth, and this is borne out by the observed pressures, 

 which even in one of the best wells when first completed and flowing 

 about 217 gallons per minute only amounted to just over 8 lbs. to the 

 square inch. 



In the neighbouring oasis of Dakhla there are a number of wells 

 whose temperatures are from 90° to 100° F. ; some few even exceed 

 the latter figure, the highest temperature recorded being 105° F, in 

 Bir el Dinaria, a well sunk fifteen years ago and the deepest and most 

 northerly bore in the oasis. The temperature of the Kharga wells 

 average considerably less ; of thirteen new bores measured in the 

 headquarters district two have temperatures of 87° F., the remaining 

 being one degree lower. 



One of the most noticeable features of the wells is the highly 

 effervescent character of the water as it reaches the surface. In some 

 cases it resembles the contents of a newly opened bottle of aerated 

 water, in others the gas reaches the surface in a slow continual 



1 The datum used being a point on the Western Oasis Railway, the value of which 

 must be regarded as approximate only. 



