PALMOZOIC ROCKS BENEATH NORTHAMPTON, 483 
At this point (a depth of 967 feet having been attained, and about 
£30,000 expended), the enterprise was abandoned.” 
The surface of the shaft is 374 feet above sea-level. 
2. A boring was also carried out about the year 1846 by the 
London and North Western Railway Company at their Bridge- 
Street Station, to obtain water for their locomotives. The strata 
met with were as follows (fig. 2, p. 496) * :— 
feet 
Superficial accumulation consisting of detrital gravels, dark 
tenacious clays with erratic boulders...............cees.ssssee 46 
Lias blue clay with bands of stone .........2...00.s.ceecesasseorens 550 
Meryvhard: pyritous rock: Aisa fesesedns-csseerscnnse vcs tanec tae te 1 
Variegated Sandstone, viz. red, green, and white with 15 
EOL) OL MIMEBEONEN was sd aster wise cok onemecuoe esate deetae aaneactacens 46 
\LONg RSC RI(S FS Se he ine eA ED AP Ce RR Ob ee ni te oe 3 
NUR EMCSIA DMNA ES LOMO shay racece.s dwiainds con resenesicos ocdusenclaweeens 4 
Total... 650 
No supply of water was met with until reaching 650 feet, when 
a spring of salt water rose to within 8 feet of the surface, con- 
taining in solution chloride of sodium, carbonate of soda, and sul- 
phates of magnesia and lime. 
The situation of this boring is in the valley of the Nene, and 191 
feet above sea-level. From a well lately sunk in the immediate 
neighbourhood the ailuvial gravels &c. may be taken at about 
26 feet in thickness. 
This was all the information then obtained regarding the under- 
ground geology. The Liassic series had been pierced, and below 
it beds of sandstone, marl, and conglomerate had been met 
with. There was then little doubt that these deposits were the 
upper beds of the Trias, which was thought to extend some distance 
eastwards under and beyond Northampton, attaining there some 
considerable thickness, about 500 feet, but not, however, reaching 
far beneath the Chalk of Cambridge or Bedfordshire. 
In the year 1878 the Northampton Water Company, when con- 
sidering a further source of water supply, were advised by their 
Engineer, Mr. J. Eunson, F.G.S., Assoc. Mem. Inst. C.E., to bore 
through the Lias clays and the upper beds of the Trias, and to 
penetrate, if possible, the “ Water-stones” which it was thought might 
extend as far eastwards as Northampton. The advise of Mr. R. 
Etheridge, F.R.S., and Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., was obtained, who 
gave a favourable opinion upon such an undertaking, at the same 
time pointing out some of the reasons which might result in the 
non-success of the scheme. To these gentlemen I am greatly in- 
debted for their kind assistance in preparing this paper. 
It is from this boring and two subsequent ones, that we have the 
interesting discovery of the Palsozoic rocks so near the surface. 
* A-Report on the drainage of the Nene Valley by the Rev. C. H. Hartshorne, 
printed by Jas. Butterfield, Northampton, 1848. 
Tt Hull, ‘ Coal-fields of Great Britain,’ 4th edit. p. 530. 
