January 2, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
579 
going to be a very large one, the facilities of railways 
bringing it early to markot, and this is likely to 
become more a feature in the future. In New York 
we see that prices remain steady, the quotation of 
Santos being about A a cent below that of Rio. — South 
American Journal. 
ARTESIAN WBLLS- 
The third pj 
Survey of Indu 
tains a very a 
of late years, I 
at first, with I 
with great succ 
paper on the u 
which artesian 
curence in ordini 
whenever, as f 
once to a higher 
When the asce 
water up to or a 
from the provinc 
have been used 
source can be I 
it by a boring, 
cordiug lo tbe 
ical 
Records of the Geol _ 
ly been received, and con- 
•n Artesian Wells, which, 
prominent notice in India, 
) encourage, but of late 
lote from Mr. Medlicott's 
g but 
enon to 
mon oc- 
I wtaer : 
manifestly sufficient to tap 
isions being regulated ac- 
equired, 
: two classes of conditions, — 
;>f this action, and indeed 
many books,*' is somewhat 
special case of the required 
ibe be filled with water and 
or curve ; if then the tube 
side, the water will spout 
proportional to the position 
sition, or as induced 
Such features are. 
allowed to hang in a looi 
be punctured no its uppi 
tip from the hole with fore< 
of the puncture below tl 
stands in the tube. This il 
given of artesian conditii 
stratum lies in a basin, ' 
conformation of the area 
by disturbance of the de 
however, of the rarest, i 
the word basin. Most of 
or more sides wanting, and are, in fact, compound in- 
olined planes. This popular view of artesian borings 
would not even prima facie apply to the majority of 
cases, nor to any trials that have been made in India 
The fiction and'its misnomer may, however, be retained 
to - denote the important class of cases where the artesian 
conditions have been largely produced by disturbance, 
causing partial upheaval and visible bending of the 
strata, in contradistinction to the other great class in 
Much the simple inclined (flatly curved) plane of original 
deposition is the prevailing condition, although the 
only examples of complete 'basins' would be found in 
this hitter class, in the caso of tilled-up and dried-up 
basin. 
" '1 lie primary conditions : as produced in nature. — 
The essential conditions of the phenomenon are ful- 
filled whenever a body of water confinod in an inclined 
channel, of whatever dimensions, is arrested or re- 
tarded by a total or partial obstruction in its progress 
to it« point of discharge, so as to bo pressed back 
above thai level; a state of pormanenco being attained 
BMP the in create of pressure so produced causes a dis- 
charge eqiiHl to the supply of water at the upper end, 
or when overflow taken place there. Theso conditions 
•re produced continually in nature by the ordinary 
process of formation of sedimentary rocks, independently 
of any turning up of the strata cither from the original 
form of the floor of deposition or by subsequent .li. 
turbancu. Even in an open water basin the formation 
b • As in the latest edition of the Encyclopedia I 
Britaunica. 
of strictly horizontal deposits is 1 
curonce, for there is always gre; 
side from which the sediment is 
in the case of depo-its formed al 
the action of rain and rivers, of 
extensive instances in India ; ace 
most rapidly in the border z'.n< 
action of these agencies changes 
and thus do alluvial plains pn 
creasing slope from the sea-marg 
uplands whence their materials 
way the first condition of artes 
ncntan 
ry exceptional oc- 
deposition on the 
vcd. It. is similar 
water level by 
ich wo have cueh 
lation takes place 
iere the denuding 
3 one deposition ; 
t a constantly in 
3 the foot of the 
derived. In this 
springs is estab- 
in the pre- 
listurbance 
if slope or 
boriginally 
ribution of 
hshed originally in n] 
vailing slope of dei 
would generally incr 
' fall.' The other cor 
provided for in strati 
coarse and fine depoi 
covering the former, the confined water channel is 
produced ; aud the usually greater accumulation of the 
coarser materials at and near the higher ma>giual 
zone of the so-called basin ensures the retarded discharge 
and the consequent accumulation of water at a higher 
level, which is the active factor in artesian springs. 
In 1864, anxious enquiries were made by the C4o- 
vernment of Madras as to the prospect of artesian 
borings in districts liable to drought, but, in the places 
pointed out, the proposals were not adopted from 
want of funds. 
In two out of the three places, the hill district, as 
well as the ground beneath, consisted of crystalline 
metamorphosed rock similar met with in Ceylon, and 
in the third place of slate and quartzite- 
Mons. Pouliau.t' e enterprising manager of the Savana 
factory, undertook experiments at Pondicherry with 
entire confidence, aud was rewarded with success. 
There are now three artesian wells in continuous opera- 
tion, within a circle of 600 yards' radius and close 
"Special condition of tin 
call attention to a'secor 
these Pondicherry boriu 
prolongation of the depo: 
under the sea, whereby 
-It is inportant to 
;iou of success in 
r the continuous 
siderable distance 
\ter of these spi ings at 
the shore line lias still to force its way for many 
miles before finding an escape. It is, I think, evident 
from the experiments described in paragraph 0, that, 
all else, remaining as now, the springs at Pondicherry 
would cease to deliver water at the surface if the sea 
were to excavate a moderately deep channel near the 
"Altered condition of the thores.— The frequent mention 
of vegetable matter, and 'decayed wood ' at all depths 
in these borings is certainly suggestive of shallow 
waters or even of terrestrial conditions, and therefore 
os continuous subsidence of the ground ; yet it would 
not be safe to insist on th ; s, for it is scarcely known 
to what extent water-logged vegetable debris may form 
an ingredient of free deposition in the immediate vicin- 
ity of land densely covered with forest, as no doubt 
was the condition of the Coromandel until comparatively 
recent times. Nothing of the kind could occur now ; 
but changes of the surface confirmation, effected by 
the destruction of forest, arc no doubt as marked here 
as in the upland alluvial areas already described : the 
line between land water was probably then far less mark- 
ed than now : instead of the sind dunes that frill < this 
present shore at many places, there would have been 
everywhere an imperceptible passage through swamp 
vxgetation into the actual tea." 
Wo have our dry and thirsty parts in Ceylon dis- 
tricts, at auy rate, where artesian wells would be a 
great boon, viz., the northern and eastern parts of the 
island. 
Wo have no natural basins of any extent but nu- 
merous inclined planes. Theso two sources of artesian 
