50 VREDENBURG : RECENT ARTESIAN EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



The- fallowing extracts are from a report of the Public Works 



Department, dated 28th July 1885: " Government accepted 



an offer from M. Cornet, a French Engineer, to make the experiment 

 of sinking an artesian well at Madras. The maximum depth named 

 for the experiment was 120 metres, or 393 feet; and it was expected 

 that, if the result proved favourable, three months would suffice to 

 complete the work. The approximate estimate of the cost of the 

 well was put down at ££15,475. 



"The People's Park having been suggested by Dr. King, of the 

 Geological Survey of India, as a locality likely to prove favourable 

 for such an experiment, a site was selected therein, and work was 

 commenced on the 24th March 1885. For a depth of 58 feet the 

 boring was through soil consisting of clay, marl, sand, etc., below 

 which a granitic formation was met with, into which the boring 

 proceeded slowly, the rock being of excessive hardness. 



" In order to ascertain whether the rock which had been encoun- 

 tered was a detached boulder, or an extensive underlying bed, a trial 

 boring of small diameter was made at a distance of some 50 yards 

 south of the first site. In this second boring, granite of precisely 

 similar character was reached at the same depth, a result which 

 went to show that the bed was continuous. M. Cornet then pro- 

 ceeded to examine three artesian borings which had been attempted 

 in the vicinity of Madras by private enterprise. From samples of 

 the strata through which these borings had passed, M. Cornet arrived 

 at the conclusion that, from Fort St. George to a distance of six or 

 seven miles north, and a mile or two inland, the underlying strata are 

 everywhere identical and consequently unlikely to yield an artesian 

 supply of water." 



The chances appear to be more promising in the alluvial plain 



Eorings in the Kortalayar of the Kortalayar river, situated further north. 



Plam- The alluvium occupying this plain has been 



deposited partly by the Kortalayar ; but formerly a larger river also 



contributed to its formation, the PaT1r, which now flows in a different 



( 5o ) 



