ADEN PENINSUAL. 11 



Captain Playfair writes that "watei' of good quality, but in limited 

 quantities is found at the head ot the valleys within the crater and to 

 the west of the town. As the wells approach the sea^ they become more 

 and more brackish, and those within the town are unfit for any purpose 

 save ablution. The wells within the town have an unlimited supply at 

 from 30 to 40 feet, but the water contains as much as 10 parts of saline 

 matter in 2,000 and is therefore unfit for drinking/' 



Thus the available area for good water (the very best well water in 

 Aden still having a perceptibly brackish taste) is limited to the low 

 ground immediately at the foot of the plateau, the sites naturally 

 selected as yielding most water, being where the watercourses from the 

 plateau debouch into the plain. Of such nullas there are three: that 

 which supplies the Tawella tanks ; the one which debouches above the 

 Residency, the water of which it is proposed to collect by bunding, and 

 that of the Khusaf valley, up which the wells extend for a considerable 

 distance. Altogether according to Captain Playfair "' these (the wells) 

 are in number about one hundred and fifty, of which probably fifty are 

 potable, and yield an aggregate quantity of about fifteen thousand gallons 

 per diem. They are sunk in the solid rock to a depth of one hundred and 

 twenty to one hundred and eighty-five feet, and in the best one the 

 water stands at a depth of seventy feet below the sea level. The Banian 

 well, the best in Aden, is 185 feet deep, the bottom is 70 feet below the 

 level of the sea, and before being drawn it contains about 4,000 gallons. 

 The temperature of the water is 102° Fahr., the specific gravity '999, 

 and it contains 1-16 parts of saline matter in every 2,000."' This 

 Banian well, as I was informed by Captain Prideaux, yields 3,000 

 gallons a day after the longest drought. 



In endeavouring to increase the supply from the available area, 

 one of two courses would have to be adopted : either the number of 

 wells might be increased, or some of the existing ones might be enlarged 

 and sunk deeper. 



( 267 ) 



