AS SOURCES OF WATER-SUPPLY FOR TOWNS. 257 



lie as close as may be to the coal-fields without actually 

 standing on them — an advantage only to be fully appreciated 

 by those doomed to pass their lives between collieries on one 

 side and factories on the other. Besides this advantage, 

 there is that of dryness. The New Red Sandstone is ex- 

 tremely porous j rain rapidly sinks into it, leaving a dry soil. 

 The formation also yields building- stone, suitable for all 

 kinds of rough or ornamental work. The sandstones of the 

 Bunter are largely employed for the former ; those of the 

 Keuper for the latter. Nearly all the best freestones used 

 in ecclesiastical or secular structures — from the Anglo-Nor- 

 man period downwards — in the central counties, have been 

 hewn from quarries in the Lower Keuper Sandstone. The 

 last advantage to which I shall allude is one which is often 

 unwittingly enjoyed or neglected by many towns — that of 

 water-supply. Under and around all the towns built on 

 this formation (or on the Permian) there lie natural re- 

 servoirs of pure water, which are often overlooked in the 

 search for this most necessary element of manufacturing 

 industry and ordinary existence. And thus most of the sites 

 occupied by such towns as Manchester, Liverpool, Stockport, 

 Macclesfield, Leek, Nottingham, Derby, Wolverhampton, 

 Birmingham, and Kidderminster unite in themselves the 

 advantages of easy access to coal, water, and building- stone. 

 To those who are acquainted with the difiiculties and 

 expense to which many of these towns, and others simi- 

 larly situated, have been put when in search of water, it 

 may appear strange that they have often overlooked, or 

 failed in taking full advantage of, the supply of pure water 

 which Nature, that thrifty housewife, has pent up in the 

 rocks. Such, however, is the case ; and just as the ques- 

 tion of the supply of coal below the New Bed Sandstone is 

 every day becoming more important, so is also the question 

 of the supply of water within the same formation receiving 

 increased attention. 



SER. III. VOL. II. s 



