STEANGWATS : HAKEOGATE WELLS. ' 331 
first collected. Now the effect of this would be, that the water 
would traverse many different beds of strata in its course, but its 
final exit would be from the same as that in which it first existed. 
There is another circumstance to be taken into consideration, 
and that is the thinning- out of some portion of the strata. The 
effect of this would be, that in the case of thinning out occuring 
towards the west, a stratum of water entering the ground in that 
region would become divided by the wedge-like nature of the rocks, 
so that two or more springs might still have had the same source in 
the first case, but have become gradually separated in their passage 
eastwards. Supposing on the other hand, that the thinning out 
took place in the opposite direction, the effect of course would be 
exactly the reverse ; so that the water which entered the ground by 
several channels, would become united into one stream by the 
gradual dying out of the intermediate rocks. 
One great proof of the separation of the several springs at 
Harrogate, is that the water in wells, often only a few feet apart, 
stands at totally different levels, and that the pumping from one well 
does not effect another. Whereas if there was a common source for 
the water in the immediate neighbourhood, the same pressure would 
be exerted in all cases, the water would stand at the same level in 
all the wells, and the pumping of the water in one well, would in an 
equal degree affect all the neighbouring wells. If this be true then, 
that each spring is confined throughout its entire course to the same, 
or nearly the same geological horizon as that from which it issues, 
its origin will be where the same strata came to the surface in the 
high ground to the west. The passage of the water will be after 
the manner of an inverted syphon ; pressure will be exerted by the 
superior elevation of the strata to the west, which will force water 
up through the highly inclined rocks at Harrogate. The supply of 
water then, is derived from that which percolates the ground where 
the same strata, that is, the Yoredale Measures, come to the surface 
to the west of Harrogate. This is, as we have noticed before, along 
the valley of the Wharf e, near Bolton and Appletreewick, and 
beyond, being about twenty miles or more due west of Harrogate. 
Dr. Bennett and other observers have noted that the quality of 
