SPRING. 



wetnefs of the land, where neceffary, may be taken away, 

 where the depth of the drains do not reach it, by making ufe 

 of implements of the auger kind, fo as to bore down, and 

 tap or let off the water of the fprir.gs which lie ttill lower. 



It is conllantly neceffary in this, as well as other kinds 

 of draining, to pay great attention to the direftion or mode 

 of condufting the drains, and likewife to the application of 

 the tools which are employed for tapping or drawing off the 

 fprings. It is perhaps principally in the fuperionty of 

 management in thefe refpeds, that the excellence of Mr. 

 Elkington as a drainer of land confiils. But though the 

 mode of tapping fprings by means of the auger, and letting 

 off the water from the bottom parts of the drains, without 

 the trouble and expence of more cutting and digging, was 

 unqueftionably brought to praftical perfeftion by this able 

 drainer, its ufe for other fimilar purpofes had long been 

 known and experienced ; as it has been aflerted, that in at- 

 tempting to difcover mines by means of this tool, fprings 

 have been tapped, and the adjoining wet grounds, in con- 

 fequence, drained or laid dry, either by letting the water 

 down into a porous fubitratum below, or giving it a vent 

 and exit at the furface. The fame tool has alfo been em- 

 ployed in bringing water into wells, by boring with it in the 

 bottoms of them, to fave the expence of more digging. 

 This is fuppofed to be the cafe more efpecially in Italy, 

 where it is probable that the praftice is of great antiquity, 

 as Buffon has Hated in his Natural Hiitory, that in and 

 t about the city of Modena, whatever part is dug, when the 



depth of fixty-three feet is reached, and five feet deeper 

 bored with this tool, the water fprings up with fuch force, 

 ^ that the well is filled in a very fhort fpace of time. It is 

 likewife noticed, that, in thefe cafes, the tool often bores 

 through large trunks of trees, &c. which give great trouble 

 to the workmen. This is confequenily a tool which is not 

 only well calculated for the purpofes of fpring-draining, in 

 many initances, but for a great variety of different other 

 rural ufes and applications. 



The porous rocky chalks are excellent condudors of 

 water, it has been obferved, where they have only a thin 

 covering of an abforbent loamy material, as they imbibe, 

 after the furface-foil has been faturated, every particle of 

 water that may come upon them in the form of rain or 

 otherwife. This is feen to be the cafe in many hilly fitua- 

 tions formed chiefly of fuch matters, in the fouth-weil parts 

 of the kingdom, as in the counties of Wilts and Dorfet. 

 The water which is abforbed and taken up by fo porous a 

 fubftance as chalk, it is faid, foon efcapes the power of eva- 

 poration, and continues to defcend, in the manner of that 

 which paffes through a filtering-ilone, until it meet with an 

 impervious or non-condufting flratum or laver, upon which 

 it coUeAs ; and if this furface, on which it is coUetted, 

 Ihould lie above the level of the fea, or other colleAion of 

 water, it forces its way out, in the manner of a fpring, or 

 more copious fountain ; not always in one conilant ftream, 

 but often periodically : the fprings of chalk-hills differing, 

 in this refpcft, from thofe of the more open condufling 

 kinds ; which is a h&, it is thought, that is entitled to be 

 more fully and philofophically inveftigated. The aftion or 

 operation of the waters of chalk-hills, it is fuggefted, is 

 mofl clearly feen on the fea-coalts, where the bafes of the 

 chalk-cliffs reft upon an impervious or non-condu£ling 

 Itratum or bed, which being foftened and worn away by the 

 impreflion of the waters coUefted upon it, the cliffs are 

 undermined, and the faces of them thrown down. Where 

 the bafc of the chalk dips beneath the furface of the fea in 

 low tides, the whole coUcftion of water regains its " native 

 home," it is faid, unfeen. And it is not doubted but that 



much rain-wrater, pafling through other ftrata, finds its way 



to the fea in a fomewhat fimilar manner. 



Rocks of the open kind, it is fuppofed, when they are 

 examined as conduftors of fubterraneous water, will be 

 found to have various effefts in producing the necelTity of 

 this fort of draining, according as there may be a difference 

 in their natural properties. Sand-rock, where it is prefent, 

 always afts, in the manner of chalk and loofe fand, as a 

 filter, letting the water freely through it. There are many 

 different parts of the kingdom in which it is found in con- 

 liderable quantity and extent, the furface-foil being moftly 

 dry in quality. Where the rock is of the nature of fiate, 

 from being of an argillaceous or clayey quality, it is often 

 in a high degree impermeable to water ; but as it in ge- 

 neral abounds with cracks, tiffures, and flill finer crevices, 

 efpecially near the furface, water readdy finds its way 

 into it, and either filtrates or percolates flowly through it, 

 or finds a Tent and exit in the clefts or feparations of the 

 mafles ; and, coUeAing in fuch parts, forces its way to the 

 furface, as a fpring ; or continues to defcend, until it meet 

 with a more compaft flratum, which dips towards the face 

 of fome hill or fiielvirg ground, where, reaching the furface 

 or outer limits of the rock, it either forces its way through 

 the foil, and feeds a fountain, or, if the quantity of water 

 is too fmall, or the thicknefs and texture of the foil are too 

 powerful to permit it to efcape in a body, fprcads itfelf be- 

 neath the furface materials or thicker covering, and pro- 

 ducer watery land. A fhelf of flate-rock, under thefe 

 circumflances, operates, it is believed, as a flratum of fand 

 or gravel. Rocks of this nature are common to many dif- 

 ferent parts of the country, as to the counties of Devon, 

 Cumberland, and Weflmoreland, to Wales, and the weflern 

 Highlands of Scotland ; being, it is imagined, peculiar to 

 the more weflern parts of the ifland. 



Limeflone rocks, which are mofl various in texture and 

 arrangem.ent of parts, are met with in many places as a fub- 

 ftratum of foils. The foft and granulous kind, of which 

 the Cotfwold hills may be faid to be compofed, as well as 

 thofe which arife in the environs of the city of Bath, and 

 which are found in fome places in Yorkfhire, Northampton- 

 fhire, and probably in fome other parts of the kingdom, is 

 of a porous abforbent texture ; water afting upon it as upon 

 chalk. But the more ordinary lort of limeflone, which 

 may be faid to be met with in almod every department of 

 the kingdom, is of a more clofe texture. It is, however, 

 commonly either divided and parted out into large blocks, 

 or broken into fragmejits, though fometimes found diftri- 

 buted in continuous mafles. Still more frequently, the blocks 

 feem as if they had been thrown together in a fortuitous 

 manner into their prefent fituations, being feparated by ir- 

 regular interfpaces, either filled with earth, or other fofTile 

 fubftances, or forming open fiflures, cracks, and chafms of 

 different widths ; and, in a few inoicii inflances, form caves 

 or openings of extraordinary dimenfions. This clafs of 

 limeflone rocks may, it is fuppofed, without rifk, be con- 

 fidered as the moll free and extenfive conduttor of internal 

 waters of any in this counti-y. There are other kinds of 

 this fort of rocky fubftrata, which have direftly the con- 

 trary quality and effeft in refpeft to the diftribution of 

 water in foils. 



The next fort of material, which difplays the moll fimple 

 explanation of the effefls which are produced by water 

 falling or coming upon land, is that of land, and efpecially 

 where the lands are of the deep fandy kind, fuch as the 

 county of Norfolk is chiefly compofed of; fand, it is re- 

 marked, being of a more open and porous nature than chalk, 

 and the hills fonned by it, or the more depreffed raafTes of 



it. 



