PROBLEMS OF THE ARTESIAN WATER SUPPLY OF AUSTRALIA. IL'O 



Singularly enough, in a subsequent paragraph of his book, 

 (page 317) Professor Gregory states that the water from 

 this well is "charged with carbonic acid." 



It has already been stated that the Helidon wells 

 (Queensland), the waters of which are also charged with 

 carbonic acid gas, are outside the artesian basin, and it 

 is probable that they also penetrate Permo-Oarboniferous 

 rocks underneath the Triassic. The Maria Creek bore 

 (Queensland), from which there were emissions of marsh 

 gas, and from which the flow of water was intermittent 

 and finally ceased, is undoubtedly in the Permo-Carbon- 

 iferous rocks, and well outside the artesian basin. Another 

 bore from which both marsh gas and petroleum were 

 emitted is situated at Roma, in Queensland, and here again 

 it seems probable that the gas and oil, which are not 

 characteristic of the ordinary artesian wells, may emanate 

 from underlying Permo-Oarboniferous rocks penetrated by 

 the bore. In a bore which was put down at Grafton (N.S. 

 Wales) with the object of testing the Triassic sandstones 

 of the Clarence River basin for water, only a small supply, 

 which rose level with the mouth of the bore, was met with 

 between 40 and 100 feet from the surface. The bore was 

 continued to a total depth of 3,700 feet, and at 3,100 feet 

 a considerable volume of marsh gas was given off, and 

 burned at the mouth of the well. Marine beds of the 

 Permo-Oarboniferous system are known to occur at Drake, 

 to the north-west of Grafton, and it seems probable that 

 the fresh-water coal-bearing beds of that system also 

 underlie the Clarence basin, and that the gas which was 

 met with in the Grafton bore emanated from them. 



With regard to the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen in 

 artesian water, Mr. Hamlet, Government Analyst of N.S. 

 Wales, stated (in a report to the Works Department, dated 

 30 January, 1901) that he had failed to detect gas at three 



