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WELLS IN THE SILURIAN ROCKS. 



The Bone Well, from a sketch by Mr. B. W. Evans. 



Wells in the Silurian Rocks. 



Having explained that the jointed structure of these formations often renders them 

 permeable to water, the natural springs are in such cases to be looked for only at low 

 levels. Thus in Ludlow Castle the artificial well by which the garrison was formerly 

 supplied is sixty-six feet deep, the rock being perforated to nearly the level of the 

 river Teme. The usual sloping position also of the Ludlow rocks, whilst it desiccates 

 the higher parts of the ridges, tends to produce natural springs near the foot of these 

 inclined planes, wherever the strata are affected by faults near the junction of the rock 

 and Old Red Sandstone. At such points also the low country is often loaded with clay, 

 which sustains the descending surface-water and increases the supply, which serves for 

 the welhpeopled tracts on the. outward slope of the Ludlow formation, and along its 

 junction with the Old Red Sandstone. The faults or dislocations, however, act more 

 particularly as dams to the water and occasion springs. One of the numerous 

 sources due to this cause is the "bone well" near Richard's Castle, about five miles 

 south-west of Ludlow, which has long been a wonder in the minds of the inhabitants. 

 Even in the early part of the 17th century, Drayton thus notices it in his Polyolbion : 



" With strange and sundry tales 

 Of all their wondrous things ; and, not the least, of Wales ; 

 Of that prodigious spring, (him neighbouring as he past) 

 That little fishes bones continually doth cast." 



London Edition, Folio, 1622. p. 105. 



