On Abyssinian Tube Wells. 9 



be opened, and thick water would come again ; but the flow 

 improved gradually. After nearly an hour's pumping, it 

 yielded a gallon every seven or eight seconds, and after that 

 it required four or five hours' pumping before there was as 

 full a flow of water as the pump was capable of throwing. 



The third of the pumps which Mr. Danks has made for 

 me, has been down twice without getting on a spring. It 

 came once on rock at twelve feet from the surface, where 

 there was no spring ; next it came on rock at a depth of 

 twenty-one feet. Here there was no water either. So great 

 is the pressure of the pump at the bottom, when the pump 

 is tried to see if it will open any springs, that it drew mud 

 up into the tube to a height of nine feet. It is of course no 

 fault of the pump that it cannot get water everywhere. In 

 these two cases, the loss was only that of three men working 

 four or five hours, whereas sinking two wells and slabbing 

 them, of twelve feet and twenty-one feet respectively, would 

 have been a serious loss. The putting down of the pipe for 

 one of these • pumps is less labour than boring, and one 

 ascertains for certain whether there is water or not. 



There is not much difficulty in lifting the pumps. Get a 

 piece of quartering for a lever, say 15 feet long; put a 

 bullock-chain round the pipe, with the hook to run on the 

 chain ; roll the other end round the lever. When the end 

 of the lever is lifted, the chain tightens on the tube so 

 thoroughly that it will not slip, and the tube will draw with 

 a strong lift of the lever. When the end of the lever is 

 lowered after the first lift of the pipe, the chain round the 

 pipe will slip down ; and when the lever is again lifted, it 

 will tighten round the pipe, so that it will take the pipe up 

 gradually without any re-adjusting or re-fixing of the chain. 



I have heard it stated that tube wells collapse or cave in 

 after a time. I think, however, considering how clear the 

 water is which comes up in those I have down, that it would 

 take a long; time to bring about such a result. Neither can 

 I see why, if any falling in took place, it should not be 

 pumped out as well as the mud and sand were in the first 

 instance. But even if either of those I have did cave in 

 after a few years, it is only a forenoon's work to lift them 

 and drive them again a few yards off — which, of course, I 

 would do, having ascertained that there was abundance of 

 water there. At the worst, only the labour of driving the 

 tube is lost, as the pump tubes can also be put down in an 

 ordinary well if required afterwards. The piping is a little 



