/ 
GLEANINGS 
IN 
SCIENCE. 
JYo. 21. — September, 1830. 
I . — On Artesian or Overflowing IV ills. 
[From the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal.] 
In some districts of France, England, and North America, the want of good 
spring-water is supplied very successfully, by boring to a considerable depth into 
the ground : when a great quantity of very pure water rises to the surface, and, m 
many cases, is even projected to a considerable height above the surface ot the 
earth. Wells of this description are called, in England, Overflowing W ells, and in 
France Fontaines jaiilissantes , Puits force's , or Putts Artesiens. The latter name is 
derived from the circumstance of their having been long in very extensive use m the 
district of Artois. From thence these wells were introduced into other parts of 
France, yet, in general, much more sparingly than might have been expected from 
their acknowledged utility, and the peculiarly favourable nature of these districts 
for their employment. For this reason, for these ten years past, several scientific 
societies, as the Societe d' Encouragement pour V Industrie national , and the 
Societe royule d' Agriculture , have offered prizes, to diffuse this useful disco- 
very throughout France ; and in consequence of these endeavours, several treatises 
and publications have of late drawn our attention to this interesting and important 
circumstance. It will not, therefore, be misplaced, to give a short exposition of the 
scientific information which we may derive from artesian wells ; at the same time, 
it will, perhaps, he in our power to correct some of the erroneous notions upon the 
mode of origin of subterranean waters, and upon the possibility of discovering them. 
We owe the most complete and authentic information on Artesian wells to 
M F Gamier His work, De V Art du Fontainier sondeur et des Puits Artesiens , 
which was crowned, in the year 1821, with the prize of 3000 francs, by the 
Sacietl cT Encouragement, and which has been printed at the expense of the French 
Government, and of which a second edition has since appeared in 1826 1 , contains 
not only clear directions for boring these wells, with plans of the requisite 
instruments, but also such sound views regarding the origin of subterranean 
aqueous reservoirs, and so well founded on facts, that we cannot be far wrong in 
supposing every where the same, or similar relations, wherever we have hitherto 
succeeded in conducting to the surface these collections of water. We therefore 
think that the subject cannot be better introduced to the attention of those who 
are yet quite unacquainted with it, than by shortly communicating the substance 
of the above-mentioned Essay, apart from all technicalities. 
The observations of M. Gamier were especially directed to the department of 
the Pas-de-Calais. The constitution of this district, with the exception of some 
primitive ridges in the vicinity of Boulogne, consists essentially of two portions ; 
of a limestone plateau, called the High Land, intersected by many small valleys,— 
and of alluvial deposites, which extend in an immense plain as far as Holland, and 
the north of Germany. The limestone, only very thinly covered with soil, is stra- 
tified, full of fissures, and the same with that which forms the basis of Picardy, 
Normandy, and Ckampaigne. The line of junction of the limestone and alluvial 
1 A German translation of the first edition, by Waldauf V. W aldenstein, appeared 
at Vienna, in 1824. 
