44 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



classes. That they are all muriated and sodic. Some are calcic and 

 magnesic, one or both. Some are lithic, bromic, iodic, one or several. 

 Practically all of importance are carbondioxated. 



VARIATIONS IN THE WATERS 

 In the course of the last seventy-five years there have been vari- 

 ations in the waters as shown by the analyses and by the experience 

 of owners of springs. Even if we allow for differences in the 

 accuracy of chemical methods, and of chemists themselves, through- 

 out this long stretch, a solid substratum of sound inference remains. 

 Several instances will be of interest, but it is not only important but 

 necessary to understand the possible modifying factors. 



In the early years of settlement and utilization all the springs 

 issued from natural crevices in the rock, possibly, as in the case of 

 the High Rock, coming to the actual surface through gravel, bog, 

 calcareous tufa, etc. In order to protect and maintain the flow it 

 soon became customary to sink a pit through the overlying loose 

 materials to the bedrock, and cement tightly to the rock around the 

 actual vent, a pyramidal or conical wooden tube, prolonged in a 

 pipe, within which the mineral water reached the surface, undiluted 

 by admixtures of surface waters, so far as these stood in the 

 gravels etc. 



As time went by wells were drilled into the rock, either to restore 

 old and dying springs or else to develop new ones of which there 

 might be no surface indications. If successful these bore holes 

 would strike a productive crevice. If they were continued below it, 

 without additional supplies, the hole might later be plugged below 

 the productive point. Above the productive crevice, the hole would 

 be cased by a larger pipe, fitted tightly into the bore hole with a 

 gasket at its lower end. A smaller pipe having been introduced 

 within the casing, it also had a gasket above the supply point. The 

 waters thus rose in the inner pipe. The casing kept out the higher 

 and of course weak ground waters, and maintained the strength of 

 the deep-seated mineral spring. If, however, the casing should rust 

 through as was the experience in seven years' service of one pipe in 

 a well on the property of the New York Carbonic Gas Co., this 

 protection would no longer be afforded and weakening of the waters 

 might follow. There are also some unsuccessful holes in which 

 casings may or may not be left, and down which surface waters are 

 tapped by a relatively large inlet to the productive horizons. In 

 one case, that of the Ainsworth well, a charge of explosive was set 



