e 
1833.] Experiment in Fort William. 373 
There is no reason, however, why trials should not be made meanwhile at 
the Government foundery, to model and cast some of the tubes, as, if success- 
ful, there would be ample employment for them in various parts of India. 
Much of the delay experienced in the latter borings has been attributed to 
the shortness of the jointed rods, and the necessity of unscrewing them so 
often. It has occupied, onan average, five hours to lift 170 feet of rod, and 
the daily progress at that depth has consequently been seldom more than a 
foot: although a gradual improvement has taken place with the growing 
experience of the workmen. Thus to bore the first shaft of 175 feet, con. 
sumed two years: the second of 164 feet was completed in one year, and 
the third, of 170 feet, in less than six months. Colonel Garsrin’s operations 
seem to have been much more rapid, but the time, it must be remembered, 
augments in a geometrical ratio with the depth. That officer had, further, a 
more efficient establishment at his command. 
A new set of stronger and longer boring rods might facilitate operations, 
but these and all such other details may safely be left to the discretion of an 
experienced Superintendent, such as Serjeant Reid, whose ingenuity will 
supply expedients as accidents may occur to necessitate them. 
Should the Government undertake the experiment, it may perhaps be 
deemed of sufficient importance by the Honorable the Court of Directors, to 
send out engineers especially versant in the art of boring the earth. At any 
rate we venture to suggest the advantage of having all men, intended for 
their Sapper and Miner service, instructed in the practical part of the opera- 
tion as a part of their professional education at Chatham. 
With all these precautions, we do not anticipate the recurrence of any 
further insurmountable impediments to the auger, until it may reach the 
actual rock. 
4. With regard to the expence of a new experiment, we have been in- 
formed that six hundred feet of tube may be provided for less than £150. 
‘The Society has expended on three protracted operations, including the cost 
of wrought iron tubes, &c. about Rupees 3,000. We cannot therefore esti- 
mate that one steady experiment, tubes included, will cost so much as these 
three unsuccessful attempts. And in the hands of a Government, which has 
the power of deputing its own officers and men to conduct the work on duty, 
nothing beyond the small contingencies for repairs of rods, wear and tear of 
ropes, &c. can properly be set down to the charge of the experiment. 
Should nothing further be elicited after penetrating 500 feet, or even “to 
the rock,” than the knowledge, that a spring of fresh water is not thus pro- 
curable, it will in our opinion be knowledge cheaply bought ; and although 
geological research is not to be put ona par with the direct and political 
object of providing wholesome water to the garrison of Fort William, still 
an acquaintance with the depth, variety, and nature of the alluvial deposits, 
which separate us from the rocky crust of the globe, and of the coincidence 
of the subjacent strata with some of the rocks which have been developed to 
our view above ground, by geological or physical causes, cannot but prove 
