ARTESIAN WELLS. 509 
these wells along the main road which crosses 
the Isthmus of Suez. 
I have felt it important thus to enter into the 
theory of Artesian Wells, because their more 
frequent adoption will add to the facilities of 
supplying fresh Water in many regions of the 
Earth, particularly in low and level districts, 
where this prime necessary of Life is inaccessible 
by any other means ; and because the theory of 
their mode of operation explains one of the most 
important and most common contrivances in the 
subterraneous economy of the Globe, for the pro- 
duction of natural springs. 
By these compound results of the original dis- 
position of the strata, and their subsequent distur- 
bances, the entire Crust of the Earth has become 
one grand and connected Apparatus of Hydraulic 
Machinery, cooperating incessantly with the Sea 
and with the Atmosphere, to dispense unfailing 
supplies of fresh Water over the habitable sur- 
face of the Land.* 
Among the incidental advantages arising to 
Man from the introduction of Faults and Dislo- 
cations of the strata, into the system of curious 
arrangements that pervade the subterranean eco- 
* The causes of intermitting Springs, and ebbing and flowing 
wells, and many minor irregularities in the Hydraulic Action 
of natural vents of water, depend on local Accidents, such as the 
interposition of Syphons, Cavities, &c., which are scarcely of suf- 
ficient importance to be noticed, in the general view we are here 
taking of the Causes of the Origin of Springs. 
