theoretical grounds. When he reached the depth of 1,640 
feet, at an expense of 263,000 francs, they stopped these sup- 
plies ; but so great was the faith of M. Mulot in the correct- 
ness of the principle involved, that he determined to continue 
the work at his own charges. On the 26th of February 1841, 
the borer suddenly fell several yards, and immediately, from a 
depth of 1,800 feet, there sprang from the orifice a huge column 
of water, cold at first but warm afterwards. It now steadily 
yields more than 740,000 gallons per day. At the first burst 
the supply was greater.* 
These are some of the subjects to which geology lends its aid 
in promoting our material prosperity, comfort, and health. But 
its bearings in many other directions extend far and wide. 
Physical geography, for example, is in reality a branch of 
geology, for the present forms of sea and land are but the result 
of all the geological changes to which our globe has been sub- 
ject, and existing forms of vegetable and animal life are to the 
present world what the fossil forms in the rocks (and many 
more unpreserved, or that may never be disentombed,) Avere to 
the scenery of the host continents and islands of bypast epochs. 
Viewed in this light, geology connects itself with the more 
graceful arts that at once adorn and elevate society, and that 
quite independently of the beautiful mineral substances yielded 
by the rocks for purposes of art. It becomes of value to the 
artist, for it cannot be quite unimportant to him that he should 
be ignorant of the origin of the infinite diversities of scenery, 
of the great operations that have given distinctive features to 
every plain, and hill, and mountain crag. In many a depicted 
scene, however skilfully coloured, the geologist who has an eye 
for art sometimes detects improbable forms or combinations. The 
sculptor and the historical painter may not safely be ignorant of 
anatomy, and on the same principle it cannot be a matter of small 
moment, that, merely copying externals, the landscape painter 
should be utterly ignorant of the inner anatomy of the scene ; 
for I cannot but believe, that a certain knowledge of this 
* See Le Puits Artesien de Grcnellc, par M. Key. Paris, 1843. 
