&2 VREDENBURG : RECENT ARTESIAN EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



A considerable portion of Bur m ah is occupied by alluvium, and 

 it is probable that there are places where the 



Wells at Rangoon. L 



conditions are favourable to artesian action. 

 The " tube-wells " sunk in the alluvium of Rangoon appear to be 

 partly artesian in their characters, although in none of them does 

 the water overflow. They are situated close to the banks of the 

 Rangoon river and the Poozoondoung creek, and as the water in the 

 deep-seated water-bearing sands appears to flow very freely from 

 the direction of the higher ground round the Shway Dagon pagoda 

 hill towards the river banks, the pressure is not sufficient to cause 

 any overflow in such a situation: the water does not rise to within 

 less than 5 to n feet from the surface. Mr. Oldham, who has written 

 an account 1 on the subject of these wells from which the present 

 information is gathered, was of opinion that flowing wells might be 

 obtained further inland, though the rise of the ground is so slight 

 that no great increase of the pressure can be expected. As to 

 any scheme of supplying the town with water from this source, 

 Mr. Oldham pointed out that the yield of the wells is not very large 

 (the wells then in existence gave amounts varying from 2,500 to- 

 70,000 gallons a day), and that, owing to irregularities common in- 

 all alluvial formations, a certain number of the proposed wells are 

 sure to be failures : hence " a large number of wells will 

 therefore have to be sunk if the requisite supply of water is to be 

 obtained, and it seems probable that, when the estimates are made 

 out, it will be found that the cost will be nearly if not quite as great 

 as for the construction of a storage reservoir, while the cost of 

 maintenance and uncertainty of success will be much greater." 



Some of the wells go down to depths of as much as 320 feet. 

 The strata encountered belonging to the " newer alluvium " above,, 

 and the " older alluvium " below, as defined by Mr. Theobald in 

 his survey of the geology of the district. The fact that below a 



1 Note on the alluvial deposits and subterranean water-supply of Rangoon. Rec. Geol- 

 Surv. Ind., Vol. XXVI, pp. 64-70. 

 ( 62 ) 



