454 W. J. Harrison — Deep-Boring in Kewper Marls. 



or by the County Boards which it is proposed to establish, the cost 

 being defrayed by a small tax levied on the landowners of the district. 



The work of the Geological Survey has given us some information 

 as to the probable thickness of the Eed Marls. Prof. Jukes, writing 

 of South Staffordshire, 1 says : — " The total thickness of this sub- 

 formation cannot be much less than 600 feet ; " and Mr. Howell, 

 speaking of this very district, 2 states that " south of Birmingham the 

 Keuper Marls attain a thickness of nearly 600 feet," and again adds 

 " in this district, the Bed Marl attains a maximum thickness of about 

 600 feet." However, he gives a section of a boring on the Lindley 

 Hall Estate (four miles north of Nuneaton), about which, although 

 a depth of 660 feet was attained, he says, " it does not seem certain 

 that they got through the Bed Marl series ; some of the lower beds, 

 however, may belong to the Lower Keuper Sandstone." In a deep 

 boring for water, at Bugby, after passing through 400 feet of Lias 

 and seventy feet of Bhastic Beds, the New Bed Marls were pierced, 

 and found to be 670 feet in thickness; at a depth of 1140 feet the 

 Keuper Sandstone was reached, and a rush of water flooded the 

 bore-hole; unfortunately this water was so impregnated with salt 

 and with gypsum as to be unfit for domestic purposes. 



About eight or ten years ago the Birmingham Corporation put 

 down a bore-hole in Small Heath Park (a southern suburb of Bir- 

 mingham), in search of water for certain hatha and wash-houses 

 which it was proposed to build there. A depth of 440 feet was 

 attained, entirely in the Keuper Bed Marls, before the boring was 

 abandoned. I have seen numerous specimens of fibrous gypsum 

 obtained from varying depths in this bore-hole. 



Early in the present year Messrs. Bates, of the King's Heath 

 Brewery, three miles south of Birmingham, resolved to make a deep 

 boring for water through the Bed Marls on which their buildings 

 stand, at a distance two miles to the east (down -throw side) of the 

 line of fault already described. They entrusted the work to Messrs. 

 Le Grand and Sutcliffe, of 100, Bunhill Bow, London, who have 

 successfully carried out similar undertakings in many parts of the 

 country. The work has been rapidly carried forward, and the latest 

 statement of results is as follows : — 



Contractor's Notes. Depth in Feet. Geological Notes. Feet. 



Dug well 



Eed Sand 



Eed Marl and Pebbles 

 Eough Ballast 



Eed Marl 



Eed Marl and Gypsum 



Marl and Shale 

 Eed Stone and Shale 



3 ^ | Post-glacial Sands 36 



12 

 158 K 

 131 



| Boulder Clay 20 



Marl, Shale, and Gypsum ... 309 )> Keuper Marls 611 



31. 

 9*J 



Total depth reached ... 667 667 



There is no thick bed of gypsum, but this mineral occurs per- 



1 Warwickshire Coalfield, Survey Memoir, 1859, pp. 41-44. 



2 South Staffordshire Coalfield, Survey Memoir, 1859, p. 4. 



