AS SOURCES OF WATER-SUPPLY FOR TOWNS. 271 



quarter of a mile from the river, became useless through 

 the filtration of salt water. This has also occurred in 

 several other cases here and at Birkenhead. 



Several successful wells and borings have been sunk 

 under the direction of Mr. Bateman and Mr. Cunning- 

 ham for the supply of Birkenhead and the neighbourhood. 

 One of them, at Flay brick, reaches a total depth of 360 

 feet, and yields upwards of 2,000,000 gallons per day. 



St. Helens is supplied from a well sunk on Eccleston 

 Hill, 70 yards in depth in New Ked Sandstone, at a height 

 of 260 feet above the sea. 



The towns of Southport and Ormskirk are also supplied 

 from the same formation. 



At Preston Junction, on the London and North- Western 

 Railway, an abundant supply of very pure water is obtained 

 from a well about 40 feet in depth. The water answers 

 well for engine boilers. 



Manchester District. 



Gorton Waterworks.— ^wo wells, at about 50 feet from 

 each other, communicating by a tunnel. Depth of the 

 pumping-well, 210 feet; 12 feet in diameter. From the 

 bottoms of the wells tunnels are driven out, all in New Bed 

 Sandstone. Yield, 864,000 gallons per day. Not in con- 

 stant use. 



There are in Manchester and Salford from 60 to 70 

 deep wells driven through the New Bed Sandstone and Per- 

 mian formations, and yielding probably 6,000,000 gallons 

 per day ■^. The water is employed in bleaching, dyeing- 

 works, and breweries ; and though harder than that which 

 is supplied from the Yorkshire moors, is well adapted for 



* The strata pierced by some of these wells and borings are described by 

 Mr. E. W. Binney, F.RS. See Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. i. ; and the same au- 

 thor, " On the Permian Beds of N.W. England," Mem. Lit. & Phil. Soc. 

 Manchester, vol. xii. 



