DE RANCE : UNDERGROUND WATERS IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 
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ment, often locally known as the " Cliff," ranging nearly north and 
south, while the beds dip gently eastward. Small springs are thrown 
out at various points along the outcrop, as at the Burton Mill spring, 
issuing from six feet of ironstone. 
From the variable character, small outcrop, and the widespread 
presence of iron, I consider the Inferior Oolite Basement Beds to be 
of no value for w T ater supply purposes. But the upper part of the 
Inferior Oolite or Lincolnshire Oolite is an important water-bearing 
stratum ; it has a wide area of absorption, and is exceedingly porous, 
or, more correctly, it is much traversed by fissures, which afford a 
ready passage to rain water flowing over them from high levels, and 
readily discharging the same as springs at low levels. 
The Lincolnshire Limestone, south of Lincoln, is remarkable for 
having, from its water-bearing properties given rise to two lines of 
villages, the one at its base or the foot of the escarpment, where the 
water is supported by the underlying impermeable Lias clay, the 
other on the east, where the porous limestone dipping under imper- 
meable clays, leaves no escape for the contained waters, the rock 
being water-logged up to the top of the overlying clay, the overflow- 
ing springs being the water absorbed over the whole porous area; 
The Lincolnshire Limestones of this area generally consist of : — 
1. White Limestones. 
2. Whitish or Buff Limestones, with Oolitic grains. 
3. Hard Grey Limestones (hydraulic). 
Seams and partings of calcareous marls crowded with fossils occur at 
various horizons, and have the effect of dividing up the water con- 
tained into several distinct sheets, but none of these shale beds are 
absolutely continuous, so that the various sheets of water intermingle 
at certain points. The upper beds are well seen at Blankney and 
Metherington, between which issue very powerful springs. 
At Great Spring Head the line of permanent saturation occurs 
more than a mile west of the overhanging lip of impermeable rocks. 
The water issues from fissures in a pink limestone with fine sandy 
grains. These springs are derived from the rain falling over the 
area lying between Harmston and Coleby, Dunstan Pillar, and the 
