180 Reviews — Water Suppli/ of Kent, NortJiamj^tonshire, etc. 



IV. — The "Watke Supply op Kent : with Records of Sikkings and 

 Boeings. By William "Whitakek, B.A., F.U.S.; with contributions 

 by H. F. Parsons, M.D., H. E. Mill, LL.D., and J. C. Thresh, 

 M.D. 8vo ; pp. V, 399, with rainfall map, 8vo ; cloth. 85. &d. 



The "Water Supply op Bedpoedshike and jS'orthamptonshiee, fkom 

 underground sources : with e.ecords of sinkings and borings. 

 By Horace B. Woodward, F.E,.S., and Bkebt Thompson, F.G.S., 

 F.C.S. ; with contributions by H. R. Mill, LL.D. 8vo ; pp. vi, 

 230, with two rainfall maps, 8vo ; wrapper. 4s. Qd. Publi-shed 

 at the Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton. 



DUE.OG the past ten yeai's the Geological Survey has issued 

 memoirs on the Water Supply of Sussex, Berkshire, Lincolnshire, 

 East Yorkshire, and Suffolk ; and previously in Mr. Whitaker's Geology 

 of London, vol. ii (issued in 1889), there was printed a record of the 

 strata passed throuo;h in wells and borings over a large area in and 

 around the metropolis and in the lower part of the Thames Valley. 



We have now before ns the two memoirs above noted. That on 

 Kent is probably the most complete work on local water-supply ever 

 published. As we are reminded by the Director of the Geological 

 Survej^, the author, Mr. Whitaker, took a large share in the original 

 geological mapping in that county, and has since added very much to 

 our knowledge of its underground structure. 



So greatly, indeed, has this knowledge been increased by the results 

 of recent borings that the county has now perhaps a fuller list of 

 formations than any other. At the surface there is considerable variety 

 of Recent and Pleistocene deposits, some remnants of Pliocene, a nearly 

 complete series of Eocene formations, and a continuous series of Upper 

 and Lower Cretaceous rocks; below ground all the Jurassic divisions, 

 as well as representatives of Trias, Coal-measures, Devonian, and 

 Silurian, have now been proved. 



The information which Mr. Whitaker has assiduously gathered for 

 many a year is methodically arranged and tabulated in his volume. 

 He gives full particulars relating to springs, swallow-holes, and the 

 intermittent streams known as Bournes or Nailbournes — all matters 

 that have considerable geological interest. The water-bearing capacities 

 of the formations from the shingle of Dungeness to the Hastings Beds 

 are duly described, and the supplies taken from springs and wells are 

 separately indicated. Maidstone and Folkestone are the only places 

 which take large supplies from springs, and these supplies are supple- 

 mented by well-water. The greater part of the water-supply of Kent 

 is drawn from the Chalk; the Kent Water Company (now part of the 

 Metropolitan Water Board) supply a population of more than 680,000 

 people, pumping from wells between 18 and 19 millions of gallons of 

 water daily. As Mr. Whitaker points out, this is the largest supply 

 in the world obtained from underground sources. 



The records of the strata passed through in shafts and borings are 

 arranged in three divisions : those for water, those for coal, and those 

 for sundry other purposes (various trial-borings). 



Of special interest are the borings for coal, and details of the 

 Secondary strata at Ottinge, Hothfield, Penshurst, and Old Soar, 



