SPRING. 



bed. Thus, fimilar cuts will be requifite lower down the 

 defcent, fo far as the fame fprings and appearances continue 

 to injure the ground, which may produce a quantity of water 

 fufficient to irrigate the lower ground, or wliich may be ufe- 

 ful in fome other refpecls and manners. 



In iome hills, the llrata of wliich they are formed lie fo 

 regular, that it is prafticable to extradl the water from either 

 fide on tlie fame level, which would be a very confiderable 

 advantage in draining the one fide, and in irrigating and pro- 

 curing water for the other ; for there is often found on the 

 one fide a wet fwamp, and on the other the loil is too dry. 

 This is owing to the bed of clay that upholds the water not 

 lying horizontally, but dipping more to the one fide than to 

 the other, and by the one (the dry) fide being overlap! by 

 a covering of clay, whereby the water is forced to iilue at 

 the open fide ; but if an outlet is given to it on the i!ry fide, 

 by means of a drain lower than that from which it flows on 

 the wet fide, the courfe of the fpring may be eafily diverted. 

 The oppofite fide being porous, and covered with fand, will 

 aft as a refervoir, to receive the rain-waters, which will after- 

 wards flow through the opening made in the clay. This 

 may be of great ufe in fupplying a houfe with water that is 

 fituated on the dry fide of the hill, and fave the additional 

 expence of conveying it in another manner. Care mult, 

 however, be taken in condufting the drain for conveying 

 water to fupply a houfe, &c. not to cut it or bore in it fo 

 deep as to reach a porou", llratum, otherwile the water that 

 may have been found at one place, may, by the fame means, 

 be loft at another. Puddhng may, it is fuppofed, in fome 

 degree, fecure it, but not in every cafe. 



A fpring in a low fituation, adjacent to higher ground, 

 may be raifed to fupply a houfe, or for any other ufeful 

 piirpo'e, although much below that level, by confining it in 

 a pipe, or brick chimnev. The refervoir from whence the 

 fpring or outlet of water is fupplied being confined, and 

 pent up between two impervious Itrata, and the upper part 

 of it extending perhaps to a confiderable height and diilance 

 in the high ground, it is evident, that if a perforation be 

 made through the fuperincumbent ftratum into the tail or 

 lowcft part of the porous Itratum containing the fpring, the 

 water may be raifed by confining it nearly as high as the 

 level of the head of the refervoir. Of this kind there have 

 been, it is faid, feveral inltances in aftual praftice, where 

 the water procured from draining low grounds has been 

 raifed to a confiderable height above the level of the drains. 

 The drains in fuch cafes (hould be clolely built with brick, 

 and puddled above with clay, to prevent the water from 

 oozing through the joints. It is thus made to rife, through 

 fome fort of confined pallage, to the height which is required, 

 by the preifure which it receives in the high ground. The 

 advantages of fuch operations, it is remarked, muil be very 

 great in many fituations, and may often be accomplilhcd with 

 luccefs, where many would think them imprafticable. Of the 

 pradlicability of this, however, and that water may often be 

 railed to a very confiderable height, by means of its preifure 

 in diftant ground, the lollowing remarkable occurrence, 

 which happened lately in digging a well in the vicinity of 

 London, is a proof: earl Spencer, for the prefervation of 

 his noble manfionhoufe at Wimbledon againit fire, and to 

 be well fupplied with water, ordered a well to be dug at a 

 little diftance from the houfe, which was funk to the amaz- 

 ing depth of nearly 600 feet, before any fpring was found. 

 It was begun on the 3 lit of May, 1795 ; and on the 12th 

 of Auguft, 1796, the man who was employed in the under- 

 taking, gave a fignal to the perfon above to draw him up, 

 as he had found the fpring, and was imir.erfed in water fo 



deep, that his life became endangered. In the fpace of four 

 hours the water rofe to the height of 350 feet, and during 

 two days following its increafe was more than a foot an 

 hour. The water, proceeding from a rock, is remarkably 

 fine, and, from the Itrata it pafles through, is ftrongly im- 

 pregnated with mineral quahties. As there is no extent of 

 higher ground near that where the well is funk, and as the 

 depth of it is fome hundred feet below the bottom of the 

 Thames, the fource of the refervoir from whence the fpring 

 is fupplied, mult be fituated at a very great diitance, and 

 mull contain a very large body of water to raife it fo fud- 

 denly to fuch a height. 



There are many other cafes of wetnefTes in the deep 

 moory or heathy grounds, which often take place and oc- 

 cupy the bafes of the narrow vallies at the bottoms of fuch 

 hilly lands, hang on the (loping furfaces of their fides, or 

 fpread over the more flat lands which lie at their feet. 



The moll fimple cafe of this kind is probably that in 

 which the more fuperficial parts of the foil are of an imper- 

 vious or porous nature, the fubfoil of the abforbcnt porous 

 kind refl;ing upon a repellent impervious bafe or bottom ; 

 the porous fubfoil part being uniformly charged with the 

 defcending waters, which are conveyed or brought down 

 from fome internal higher fource, by a fubitratum of the 

 gravel or other precondufting kind. In thefe circumllances, 

 where the under foil is fufficiently free and open, a fingle 

 drain, properly made or cut acrofs the lower margin or edge 

 of the rifing ground, may be fully equal to the prevention, 

 even of the flatter lands below it, from being furcharged 

 with water. But though this may be the cafe, fuch an eafy 

 mode of removing the wetnefs may not always be the moft 

 fuitable or proper, but mult be decided upon by the full and 

 mature confideration of the particular cale ; as it is in cafes 

 of this nature that waters for different ufeful purpofes arc 

 to be procured, and the higher they may be drawn off, 

 the more capable they will, for the moll part, be of becom- 

 ing beneficial in fuch ways : bcfides, where the ablorbent 

 porous itratum of the lower lands is not fufficiently open to 

 permit the waters of a wet feafon to pals fo freely through 

 them as to prevent a temporary furcharge, a threefold bene- 

 fit, it is thought by fome, may poflibly arife, by cutting 

 and taking off" the internal defcending waters at the foot of 

 the Hoping ground. As, in addition to the advantages al- 

 ready fuggelled, another good cff'cdl may be produced ; 

 which is that of taking off the lueight of the waters which 

 are pent up in the higher grounds from the lands below ; 

 and thereby relieving them from a common difeafe or com- 

 plaint to which lands fo fituated are very liable ; and which 

 is occafioned by the water, thus comprefl'ed, being forced 

 up, through fome fifl'ure or defeft in the foil, to the furface 

 of the ground in fome particular part or parts. But by a 

 fuit.-.ble fully efficient drain, made all along the upper mar- 

 gin of the flatter declining grounds, they may be entirely 

 relieved from fuch internal defcending waters, and become 

 in a healthy produftive ilate. It may, however, be added, 

 that a drain fo made, is in general more difficult and ex- 

 penfive in cutting, than one which is formed at the lower 

 part of the more flat declining land; the foil at the foot 

 of a flope being commonly of n greater depth than it is 

 either above or below that part; befides the additional la- 

 hour and trouble in cutting and finking the trench when to 

 be foughed or filled, and llill more in keeping an open drain 

 free, by reafiin of the greater prefs> of water in that part. 

 The upper fide of the trench too, in fuch cafes, is liable to 

 flioot in ; efpecially if it be funk in a wet feafon, the water 

 adling the molt forcibly there. Bcfides, unlefs the trench 



be 



