418 
FAIR LEY : BLOWING WELLS. 
I may say that the meters were tested and stamped by the 
gas meter tester in London, and when unpacked in my presence 
at Solberge, they were in good working order. 
I have rejected the results up to April 2nd as incomplete and 
imperfect. Taking the results from April 2nd, 1879, to April 6th, 
we have : — 
No current, meters at rest at midnight on the 2nd and 3rd; 
barometer at 29-34. 
Current exhausted on the 6th at 4-36 p.m. ; and barometer at 
29.08; fall of bar. 0.26. 
Out-current observed in meter, 83,900 cubic feet ; volume 
29-08 
of cavity = 83,900 x = 9-984 millions cubic feet ; or ten 
0-26 
millions of cubic feet nearly. 
In the in-current from April 6th to 10th, the results are 
vitiated by the leakage observed from crevices round the stone- 
flags covering the well, and in the out-current following upon that 
the meter was thrown out of gear and ceased to register. 
When this meter was taken down after returning it to Messrs. 
Glover, they informed me that the diaphragm and working parts 
of the meter were covered as with a dew from moisture condensed 
in the meter, showing that the out-current was saturated with 
aqueous vapour. 
With reference to the probable position in the strata of the 
cavity, whose existence is the simplest explanation of these obser- 
vations, it is, of course, more a geological question than a chemical 
one. I have, however, analysed the sandstone taken from 
the side of the fissure in the shaft, 15 yards below the surface. 
It will be observed that this sandstone contains about 7 per cent, 
of carbonates of lime and magnesia. So far, this fact suggests 
that the magnesian limestone which underlies this sandstono may 
at this point be at a comparatively limited distance below the 
