CLVIII. ECONOMIC ASPECT OF ARTESIAN BORING IN N.S.W. 
huge ocean of sand, but sunk by the primitive means avail- 
able to the Arabs and cased with hollowed palm logs, they 
have not been lasting, and in time have caved in, the flow 
has ceased, all vegetation has perished from the lack of 
water, and in some of the cases have disappeared in toto. As 
far back as 1856, the French engineer, M. Jus, commenced 
operations in the Oued Rirh, a district of the Sahara, in 
the province of Constantine, and obtained a well yielding 
the enormous supply of 1,278,000 gallons daily. This well 
is called by the Arabs “‘ The Fountain of Peace.’’ The 
energy of M. Jus and the military authorities have been 
untiring, and it is reported on 1st October, 1885, that there 
were in existence 114 artesian wells belonging to the French 
military authorities and 492 belonging to the Arabs, yield- 
ing the enormous aggregate supply of 80,975,000 gallons | 
daily. The oases are again fertile. The wealth of the 
Oued Rirh has increased five-fold since the first well was - 
drilled, and the production of dates is enormous. In seven 
years three villages and oases have sprung into existence | 
at Ouriz, in the north of the Oued Rirh, at Sidi Yahia, and 
Ayata watered by nine flowing wells, yielding a supply of. 
8,477,000 gallons per diem, and it may be stated that 56. 
miles of ditches are formed for the utilisation of these : 
supplies. The transformation produced by artesian water: 
upon the sandhills of Algeria is described by the distin-. 
guished French engineer, M. Tournel, as amazing. In. 
Austria, Roumania, and Galicia, boring has been carried 
on to a very large extent, and many of the practical drillers 
now in the State have gained some of their experience in 
those countries. The conditions are, I understand widely 
different, and the boring for the most part undertaken in 
search of oil. 
AMERICAN BORES. 
In America the petroleum industry speedily brought 
boring to the front, and directed the attention to the vast 
eee en 
