74 VREDENBURG : RECENT ARTESIAN EXPERIMENTS IN INDIA. 



purposes during abnormally dry seasons. I venture to suggest that 

 this difficulty will only be met with in comparatively shallow wells, 

 which are constructed in the tertiary (eocene) beds and which, as 

 we know, contain a great deal of salt in the form of strings and 

 pockets and even in well-defined layers. I believe that borings sunk 

 to below the cretaceous marls will meet with sweet water in 

 sufficient abundance to neutralize the presence of the more brackish 

 springs near the surface. None of the older bore-holes have gone 

 to any great depths, and I believe that the deepest bore-hole (near 

 Broach) made by Lieut. Fulljames in 1836 to 1839 did not reach 

 400 ft., so that it would be premature to pronounce against the 

 possibility of obtaining an artesian supply of sweet water within 

 Guj£r£t proper." 



A very interesting occurrence is recorded in a report by 

 Flowing pipe in the Mr - F - D - Campbell, Executive Engineer on 

 bed of the Mahi River. Special Duty, dated qth February 1885. It is 

 described as " that of the pipe now discharging in the bed of the Mahi 

 river which was lately sunk at the time when some work connected 

 with the foundation of the railway bridge piers was in progress. 

 The end of that pipe entered at some depth a highly porous stratum, 

 and the supply of water in it is so constant, that a jet or fountain, 

 6 feet high above the low water-level, is obtained, and, according 

 to Mr. Crosthwaite's report, this water will rise in a pipe to 15 feet 

 above that level ; but this would still be go feet below that of the 

 surface of the country, and would probably correspond with that 

 in the wells not far from the river banks.''' The action in this case 

 is properly speaking artesian, although not regarded as such by 

 Mr. Campbell. Whenever the surface of the land is deeply cut into 

 by the channel of a river, the level of saturation of the ground sinks 

 rapidly in the neighbourhood of the river banks on account of the 

 flow of undergound water towards the channel. Owing to the ir- 

 regular disposition of permeable and impermeable layers common to 

 all alluvial formations, one of the water-bearing strata underneath 



( 74 ) 



