22 VREDENBURG : RECENT ARTESIAN EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



as the provinces where occasional failure of rain can bring about 

 appalling disasters. To a still greater extent is this the case with 

 actual deserts, where it may happen, it is true, that the only existing 

 cultivation is from artesian sources, but such countries can only 

 support the lives of some hundreds of men, not of millions like 

 those whose unfortunately precarious condition has just been dis- 

 cussed. 



In those regions, on the other hand, where rainfall is always 

 Artesian resources in abundant, artesian reservoirs lose all importance 



regions of abundant rain- . . c 



fail. " as sources of irrigation, but may still be ot 



great use in secondary though by no means unimportant questions, 

 such as a supply for manufacturing or for drinking purposes. 

 Thus confined within reasonable limits, the question of artesian 

 supply is of the greatest interest, and is fully justified in attracting 

 the attention of private enterprise or of public bodies such as 

 municipalities. 



It cannot be said that very much has been done in this line in 



Present state of the India, and it is doubtful how much can be done. 



question. It may be safe j y asserted t h at throughout the 



length and breadth of India there is no artesian reservoir compar- 

 able to the Dakota sandstone of North America, or the regularly 

 disposed basins of London and Paris. This has been clearly 

 recognised since the day when the main features of the geological 

 map were delineated. But the Geological Survey with its small 

 staff of Officers has not yet been equal to the task of carrying out 

 a detailed examination of that immense area to such a degree of 

 minuteness as would allow of a definite opinion on the possible re- 

 sources cf underground reservoirs, whose performance might be 

 small perhaps as compared with the examples just quoted from 

 Europe and America, but which yet might prove very useful and 

 welcome for local needs. Not only are there many portions of 

 India proper which are " terrse incognitas" in a geological sense, but 

 enormous areas have been thrown open to geological observation 



( 22 ) 



