MINERAL WATERS. 
323 
rock, coal-measures, and mountain limestone " ; * and this view is 
probably correct. JuJging from their temperature, Prof. Prest- 
wich has ca'cnlated that the waters rise from a depth of about 
3,500 feet ; t in this case they may be supported by the Lower 
Limestone Shales. 
It may be mentioned that in sinking a. pit in search of coal at 
Batheaston, warm saline chalybeate waters were encountered.^ 
The sinking was carried through Middle and Lower Lias, and 
the water from the Lias rock, together with that let up by boring 
the Red rocks beneath, ascended to the .-atrface. I am informed 
by Mr. W. Topley that, at the present time (1891), the flow from 
the adit of the old works amounts to about 57,000 gallons a 
day (40 gallons per minute). The temperature is 62. 
Saline waters have been met with in many localities around 
Cheltenham, as well as beneath the town. 
The Original Spa at Cheltenham " owes its discovery to a slow 
spring being observed to ooze from a strong thick bluish clay 
or mould, under the sandy surface of the soil, which, after 
spreading itself for a few yard.-, again disappeared .leaving much of 
its salts behind ; flocks of pigeons being daily observed to resort 
hither to feed on these salts"; and it \vas "remarked, that when 
other springs were fast bound by the frost, this continued in a 
fluid state." Thus the water attracted attention about the 
year 1716. In 1718 the ground was railed in, and the water 
sold as a medicine. The water for many years was obtained from 
a well about six feet below the surface, and about 58 gallons were 
daily pumped up. In 1808 the well was enlarged to 12 feet deep 
and 6 feet wide. 
The temperature of the Cheltenham water varies frjm 55 to 
60, and it contains the following ingredients : 
Koyal Old Well. 
Pittville Spa.|| 
Chloride of sodium 
590-33 
481-19 
magnesium - 
Sulphate of soda ~ 
Carbonate of soda 
8-00 
94-94 
llo-82 
20-15 
magnesia 
lime - - 
Bromide or iodide of sodium 
6-80 
17-0*5 
3-50 
11-39 
7-70 
3-29 
Silica 
2-75 
2-77 
Organic matter, &c. 
Grains per gallon 
18-39 
3-85 
741-77 
646-16 
* See Memoirs of W. Smith, pp. 64, &c. 
f Geology, Chemical and Physical, p. 166. 
J Memoirs of W. Smith, pp. 64, &c. ; C. Moore, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. 
xxiii. p. 496. 
G. A. Williams, New Guide to Cheltenham, pp. 20-23, 66, 67. 
|j The original or Royal Old Wells are now closed. They M'ere situated in Mont- 
pellier Street. The analyses given, were by Abel and Rowney; see Prestwich, 
paper lead before Ashmolean Soc., Oxford, 1876. A small quantity of potash salts 
in the Pittville water, is included with the cMoride of sodium. 
x 2 
