Vol. 59.] WELL-SECTIONS IN SUFFOLK. 49 



happily at an end, he thought, as cable-messages received only the 

 previous day were understood to announce the break-up of the 

 drought. 



Mr. Hopkinson, referring to the President's remark that there 

 were other counties for which the well-sections had not been 

 published, instanced Bedfordshire as one without a Natural History 

 Society to publish them. At Sandy, in that county, the Lower 

 Greensand forms a hill rising about 120 feet above the plain, in 

 which, 2 miles to the south-west, a boring passed through 104 feet 

 of Boulder-Clay resting upon the Oxford Clay. The only evidence 

 that the Upper Lias underlies the county is to be found in unpublished 

 well-sections at Sharnbrook ; and he knew of two wells in the 

 Lower Greensand at Clophill, within 30 feet of each other, one of 

 which yielded excellent drinking-water, while the water from the 

 other was utterly unfit to drink. He thought therefore that the 

 Author would find sufficient points of interest in the well-sections 

 of Bedfordshire to bring before the Society. 



Capt. J. McK. Knight said that he had not found any evidence of 

 old valley-beds in the Chalk yielding a supply of water, but believed 

 that it came through fissures. He could instance one brewery 

 on which a well 380 feet deep existed; within a short distance a new 

 well was sunk. He was there at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when 

 the cylinders had been driven 2 feet into the Chalk, which had been 

 reached at 202 feet : the stuff which was being lifted was milky. 

 On the men coming to work the next morning, it was found that 

 there was 80 feet of water in the well. It was thought that a 

 pocket had broken in, and the pumps were sent for, but after pumping 

 for a fortnight they could only reduce the water by 6 feet. It was 

 therefore good enough to leave it alone. At another brewery he 

 had sunk a well, and had had to go 580 feet before sufficient water 

 was reached. 



Dr. W. M. Tapp, while regretting that he was no geologist, stated 

 that he was deeply interested in wells and well-sinking, and had 

 been himself instrumental in starting the Woodbridge well. He 

 felt the greatest difficulty in understanding why from their second 

 well an abundant and pure supply of water should have been 

 obtained, when it was surrounded by a ring of wells all producing 

 indifferent water ; this seemed to show how impossible it was to 

 define the course pursued by underground water. Again, the 

 tubes in the well referred to had stuck, owing to the presence of a 

 hard siliceous rock, the nature of which was a mystery to him ; the 

 strength of the rock was shown by the fact that it held the tubes, 

 which parted under the strain from hydraulic jacks capable of 

 exercising a pressure of 130 tons. 



The AtttuoPv, in the first place, desired to express his thanks to 

 all who had assisted him by so readily supplying information. He 

 pointed out that at Woodbridge not only Drift-beds, but Crag and 

 Eocene beds, had to be dealt with. He knew of no case in which 

 Eocene deposits filled up deep valleys, nor of any really deep 

 * gouges ' in the Crag. As to the so-called ' Plastic Clay ' of Bret- 



Q. J. G. S. No. 233. e 



