284 ODLIXG : CORRELATION OF THE UPPER AND MIDDLE OOLITES 
Appendix I. 
ON AN ARTESIAN WELL AT OSWALDKIRK. 
BY PERCY FRY KENDALL, M.SC, F.G.S. 
A boring was put down under my direction near the village of 
Oswaldkirk, in 1912-13, in the expectation that the " Kellaways Rock " 
would be found beneath a cover of Oxford Clay and that, as its outcrop 
near Wass and Kilburn is at high level, water would be obtained under 
an artesian pressure. 
The site chosen was on the north side of tlie high road from 
Ampleforth to Oswaldkirk, at the foot of a lofty escarpment of Corallian 
rocks, and within a few yards of the northern fault of the Coxwold- 
Gilling trough. The ground falls somewhat steeply from the site to 
the little Syke Beck, which gives good exposures of Kimmeridge 
Clay. At Oswaldkirk Hall there is a well 35 ft. deep which, by the 
description given in the Geol. Survey Memoirs, may be in Kimmeridge 
Clay ; another at the opposite end of the village is 50 ft. deep. 
The section (Plate XXXI.), drawn roughly to scale, shows the suc- 
cession of strata encountered. Down to a depth of 178 feet a good deal 
of water was met with at intervals, but all ran away into the numerous 
fissures — ^some a foot wide — that were found to exist in the rocks. The 
base of the Coralhan was at 180 feet, and until the boring had reached 
178 feet, water had to be provided for the lubrication of the boring tool. 
It is a very remarkable circumstance that all this water, as well as that 
yielded by the strata pierced, ran away at 178 feet, for the level of the 
ground, which is about 330 O.D.at the well-head, does not descend to 
an equivalent level (330 — 178=152 ft.) for a considerable distance. 
When the Oxford Clay was pierced at 308 ft., water rose with 
considerable violence, and overflowed near the gromid-level at the rate 
of about 200,000 gallons per diem. The pressure was estimated to be 
sufficient to raise the column of water 92 feet above the gi-ound level. 
Several months elapsed before the requisite valves and other machinery 
could be fixed in position to bring the v^-ater under control, and some 
apprehension was felt that the hydrostatic pressure would run its head 
off," but I pointed out that not only does the Kellaways Rock " 
provide an enormous reservoir that it would take many years to de- 
