334 
STEANGWAYS : HAEROGATE WELLS. 
the hypothesis then, that each class of springs issue from, and are 
confined to, distinct bands of strata throughout the greater part of 
their entire course, it does not seem difficult to account for the 
difference in quality of each of these groups ; but if on the other 
hand, we suppose that there is a common repository for all the wells, 
and that the water reaches the surface by faults and fissures in the 
strata, why is it that there is so much difference between these 
four classes of water ? for surely if the supply were drawn from all 
sorts of strata indiscriminately, the chemical peculiarities would 
become mingled, and we should have nearly the same constituents 
in all the springs. Again, if the chemical impregnation of the water 
took place in its passage to the surface through joints and fissures, 
the sources from which it would derive its supply of salts must be 
comparatively near the surface, the amount would be but limited, 
and the quantity dissolved by the water would perceptibly diminish 
in course of time. But we know this is not the case, for several of 
these wells are recorded to have flowed for hundreds of years, and 
are known to give off an enormous amount of saline matter ; Mr. 
Thackwray's wells alone producing as much as fifteen tons of salt 
in the year. 
The stores from which these springs derive their saline matter 
must extend over a large area, and such an area is afforded by the 
Yoredale Measures, which occur at a short distance below the surface 
west of Harrogate. There are throughout this area undoubtedly 
several instances of the thinning out and alteration of the different 
beds, but they would probably occur at some little distance from 
Harrogate, and would in no way affect the distinct qualities of the 
water, which would not have been acquired until they had become 
confined to distinct channels. The chemical peculiarities of the 
water are such that we have no reason for supposing any source 
other than what these shales could supply when exposed to the 
action of water, especially if the water carried with it a certain 
proportion of the oxygen from the atmosphere. Mr. Hudleston in 
his paper before this Society, speaking on this point, says, " there is 
abundant evidence, both in this neighbourhood and elsewhere, of 
the quantity of organic matter, chiefly of vegetable origin, locked 
