

CB. XVII.] 



ARTESIAN WELLS. 



393 





SB 



OB 



Of 



x 







waters circulate. Thus, at St. Ouen, in France, five distinct 

 sheets of water were intersected in a well, and from each of 

 these a supply obtained. In the third water-bearing stratum, 

 at the depth of 150 feet, a cavity was found in which the 

 borer fell suddenly about a foot, and thence the water as- 

 cended in great volume.* A similar falling of the instru- 

 ment several feet perpendicularly, as if in a hollow space, 



has been remarked in England and other countries. 



At 



Tours, in 1830, a well was perforated quite through the chalk, 

 when the water suddenly brought up, from a depth of 364 

 feet, a great quantity of fine sand, with much vegetable 

 matter and shells. Branches of a thorn several inches long, 

 much blackened by their stay in the water, were recognised, 



some 



roots 



same 



in a state of preservation, which showed that they had not 



more 



than three or 



months in the water. 



Among the seeds were those of the marsh-plant Galium 

 uliginosum ; and among the shells, a freshwater species (Pla- 

 norbis marginatus) and some land species, as Helix rotundata 

 and H. striata. M. Dujardin, who, with others, observed 

 this phenomenon, supposes that the waters had flowed from 

 some valleys of Auvergne or the Vivarais, distant about 150 

 miles, since the preceding autumn. f 



An analogous phenomenon is recorded at Reimke, near 

 Bochum in Westphalia, where the water of an Artesian well 

 brought up, from a depth of 156 feet, several small fish, 

 three or four inches long, the nearest streams in the country 

 being at the distance of some leagues. J In some Artesian 

 wells sunk by the French in the north-eastern part of the 

 desert of the Sahara, small fish have been frequently brought 

 up alive, with the first gush of water, from a depth of 175 

 feet. M. Desor informs us that in January 1863, he saw 

 some of these fish in a well in the Oasis of Ain-Tala. They 

 were of the genus Cyprinodon, not blind like those taken 

 from the underground caverns of Adelsberg or Kentucky, 



* H. de Thnry, p. 295. 



t Bull, de la Soc. Geol. de France, 



torn. i. p. 93. 



J Ibid. torn. ii. p. 248. 



