Brack.—On a Deposit. in the Shaft of the Pumping Association. 457 
the deposit and cut their hands, the skin being worn through, as they 
were actually working with tools encased in stone. At this time it also 
formed in the lines of the skin on the men’s hands and arms, and took a 
great deal of cleaning and rubbing to get rid of. 
It speedily began to act upon the working of the pumps, and castings 
had to be got specially constructed to disconnect the pump bucket from the 
rods below, as it would not come up the column, and as time went on the 
column had to be chipped the whole length inside to keep the water space 
clear ; this was done by slinging five or six men at a time on to a rope and 
lowering them down into the column, which they chipped with chisel- 
pointed hammers. This operation would take about three days, but it wa 
not all performed at the same time, one part of the column would be done 
when we had to change a bucket, and another part was done at next 
changing of bucket, and so on, and by this means the lift was kept clear. 
The twenty-five inch lift was cleared its entire length by this means 
three different times, and the working barrel at the ends of the stroke had 
to be chipped fortnightly. 
The deposit was very irregular while forming, with regard to hardness. 
Sometimes it would form hard, sometimes soft; when it did form soft there 
. was always more of it; sometimes it would form three-eighths of an inch 
in a week; when so, for two or three hours after the bucket came to the 
surface the incrustation was quite soft, but it hardened very soon on 
exposure to the atmosphere. | 
There is a peculiarity in the deposit, viz.,—it always forms in layers, 
and these layers change colour without any apparent cause—one layer 
may be white, the next one red, and it would keep changing in shade from 
pure white to a dark brown. œ 
Where the water was hottest the deposit^was most, and in some parts of 
the workings, on the thermometer being held in the stream as it issues 
from the rock, it will rise to 108? Fahr. ; 100° is quite usual. 
Since the erosseuts have been driven on both sides of the shaft the 
deposit has ceased forming in the pumps, and it now forms on the sides of 
the drives. The drives north and south for a distance of 300 feet on both 
sides of the shaft being now all coated with it, it also forms in the shoots in 
which the water is conveyed after it leaves the pumps on the surface. This 
deposit is not like what is formed below, being quite soft and having more 
of an earthy appearance, : 
There is an old shoot on the surface not now in use, along which a small 
quantity of water has been running ; this shoot is about eight inches square 
inside and it has completely filled up with deposit during the last two 
months. 
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