THE GEOLOGY OF MINEEAL SPRINGS. 
•209 
formation in tlie sea_, at the back of the Isle of Wight. But 
the unfaYonrable hypotheses were still unexhausted. Even if 
water were obtained at this depths it was open to doubt whether 
it would be fit for domestic use. That obtained from an 
Artesian bore^ which had been made at Chichester and carried 
down to a depth of 1^054 feet_, was so strongly impregnated 
with carburetted hydrogen as to be repulsive both to taste and 
smell. Or it might be saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, 
which was, if anything, worse. Under any circumstances it 
was certain, if the evidence, not only of natural springs, but of 
other Artesian borings, was to be relied on, that its tempe- 
rature would be high,- probably as high as 80° F., possibly 
much higher. Now water at 80° may be very pleasant to wash 
with in winter, and may be adapted for boiling, but it is 
decidedly unfit, not only by its temperature, but from its want 
of air, for drinking, and before it could be used would require 
to be both cooled and aerated, which would involve additional 
cost. Under these circumstances, and notwithstanding the 
advice of the late Dr. Buckland and other eminent authorities, 
who, at the meeting of the British Association in the town in 
1846, encouraged the prosecution of the work, it is not to be 
wondered at that the corporation of Southampton began to 
halt in the enterprise, and ultimately determined to stop boring 
at once and to look for water elsewhere. The well was, 
therefore, closed up, and a heap of stones, a solitary sapling, 
and the interest of the money expended, are the only relics left 
to record the fate of one of the most costly and interesting 
experiments in well-making ever perpetrated. 
It has been before observed that Artesian wells can only be 
successfully bored where porous strata are intercalated between 
impermeable ones. Where the intercalation is often repeated, 
several distinct sources of water may supply a single well. In 
that at Bruck, near Erlangen, there are three such sources ; in 
that at Dieppe, seven ; whilst the well at Dulmen, in W^est- 
phalia, is supplied by no less than thirteen strata, in a depth of 
380 feet. The great distance from which the water of an Artesian 
well may be derived, was well shown by a boring near Tours, 
from which, when the borer was withdrawn, quantities of sand 
and small snail-shells were ejected, which must, without doubt, 
have found their way there from the mountains of Auvergne, 30 
miles distant. A curious proof of the occasional direct com- 
munication of Artesian borings with superficial accumulations 
of water was given by wells of this description at Bochum 
in Westphalia, and Elboeuf in France, in the water from both 
of which eels and small fish have at times been found. 
Amongst the unfavourable conditions for the prosecution of 
the Southampton well, was mentioned the possible drainage of 
VOL. IV. NO. XIY. p 
