SUPPLY OF WATER. 



17 



attached to existing machinery, such as 

 mills, &c, and the water propelled 

 through pipes to any distance, and to any 

 reasonable altitude. Wells may be sunk, 

 and the water pumped up by steam, 

 manual labour, or horse power. 



Artesian wells may be bored, and not 

 only an abundant supply of water be 

 obtained, but even that water at a consi- 

 derably elevated temperature, as is the 

 case at Sion House gardens and else- 

 where. A curious and simple mode of 

 this operation is described by the late Sir 

 Andrew Halliday in his work on the 

 West India colonies. Excellent practical 

 directions for obtaining water by this 

 means will be found in " The Engi- 

 neers' and Mechanics' Encyclopaedia," 

 art. "Boring," and in various works on 

 civil engineering. 



In situations where water cannot be 

 got from higher levels so as to be brought 

 by its own gravity into the garden, or 

 where circumstances prevent the collect- 

 ing a sufficiency of rain water, hydraulic 

 or steam power may be applied : in de- 

 fault of all these, boring the stratification 

 and forming artesian wells must be had 

 recourse to. This art, comparatively new 

 amongst us, has for centuries been in 

 operation in China, and for ages in the 

 south of France and Italy. We believe 

 that there are few situations where a 

 supply of water may not be obtained 

 by this means; but the water will not, 

 in all cases, flow to the surface, and 

 this particularly tends to occur in flat 

 countries. From this cause the value of 

 these wells is greatly lessened. Sometimes 

 it will rise to within 20 or 30 feet of the 

 surface: in such cases a well must be 

 sunk, into which the water will flow 

 and form a reservoir, and from this 

 it must be brought up by means of a 

 pump. At other times, it will rise to the 

 surface and flow into a basin or pond, 

 and sometimes it will rise to a consider- 

 able height above it, and form a jet or 

 fountain. Various theories have been 

 propounded with regard to these wells — 

 the one most generally entertained, how- 

 ever, being that of the perforation reach- 

 ing a bed of gravel or other porous stra- 

 tum, with which communicate, from a 

 higher level, subterranean sheets of water, 

 fed and supplied by the continual filtration 

 of water, dew, snow, &c, from the surface 



VOL. I. 



of our globe. " The theory of these in- 

 terior streamlets," says Dr Ure, " be- 

 comes by no means intricate. The waters 

 are diffused, after condensation, upon the 

 surface of the soil, and percolate down- 

 wards through the various pores and 

 fissures of the geological strata, to be 

 again united subterraneously in veins, 

 rills, streamlets, or expanded films, of 

 greater or less magnitude or regularity." 

 Fig. 8. 



Fig. 8 " represents the manner in which 

 the condensed water of the heavens dis- 

 tributes itself under the surface of our 

 globe. Here we have a geological sec- 

 tion showing the succession of the seve- 

 ral formations, and the sheets or laminae 

 of water that exist at their boundaries as 

 well as in their sandy beds. The figure 

 shows also very plainly that the height 

 to which the water reascends in the bore 

 of a well depends upon the height of 

 the reservoir which supplies the sheet of 

 water to which the well is perforated. 

 Thus, the well a having gone down to the 

 aqueous expanse a a, whose waters of sup- 

 ply are derived from the percolation m, 

 will afford rising waters which will come 

 to the surface; whilst in the well b, sup- 

 plied by the sheet b b, the water will 

 spout above the surface ; and in the well 

 c it will remain short of it. The same 

 figure shows that these wells often tra- 

 verse sheets of water which rise to differ- 

 ent heights. Thus, in the well c, there are 

 five columns of ascending waters which 

 arise to heights proportional to the points 

 whence they take their origin. Several of 

 these will be spouting or overflowing, but 

 some will remain beneath the surface." 



When water is thus obtained, it should 

 be allowed to flow into a reservoir or 

 pond, sufficiently capacious to hold a 

 supply, in which it may become softened 

 by exposure to the sun and air. The 

 application of the hydraulic ram, or the 

 process of boring or forming an artesian 

 well, although rather expensive in the first 



c 



