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Abstract Report of the Proceedings of the Committee appointed to 

 superintend the Boring Operations in Fort William, from their 

 commencement in December, 1835, to their close in April, 1840. 

 Several attempts have at different times been made to supply the 

 deficiency of good water in Fort William, by boring through the 

 strata on which it stands, in search of subterranean springs. The pre- 

 sent operations, which form the most recent of the series, were origi- 

 nally commenced in December, 1835, but the site then selected was 

 shortly afterwards abandoned in consequence of the operations having 

 been impeded by a dislocation of the joints of the metallic tubes 

 lining the bore. As all attempts made to rejoint the dislocated 

 tubes proved unsuccessful, the Committee selected a new locality 

 closely adjoining, however, to that of the original bore, no advantage 

 being anticipated from any change of site within the limits of the 

 Fort, the succession of strata, and the circumstances of their disposi- 

 tion, being alike within so small a space. 



On the 2nd of April, 1836, the operations of the Committee were 

 resumed, by commencing the excavation of a shaft, ten feet in 

 diameter, ten feet in depth, interiorly rivetted with good masonry, 

 and having its bottom strongly planked, with masonry continued 

 over the planking. A boarded floor with a central trap door moving 

 on hinges so as to admit of access to the shaft, as occasion might re- 

 quire, covered the top. A large gin (Sketch No. 1) filled with the 

 necessary tackling for working the rods and tools, and having a 

 wooden platform supported by massive timber uprights, on which 

 a heavy weight of guns was placed to give the requisite stability, was 

 erected over the shaft. The rods, &c. were originally worked with 

 ropes, but the expenditure of these became so serious as to lead to 

 their being replaced by strong chain cables, which were found in 

 every respect superior. Two chains attached to the ring of a brace- 

 head passed subsequently through a triple block fixed to the apex of 

 the gin, and were then led to two powerful crabs, firmly bolted to 

 large fixed sleepers, at about fifteen or eighteen feet from the gin. A 

 chain was attached to each crab, and on the screw of the upper rod 

 being entered into the brace-head, the crabs were worked simultane- 

 ously, and the power of both thus brought to bear in raising the mass 



of the rods, or in any other necessary manner. 



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