266 
On Artesian or Overflowing Wells. 
[Sept, 
in a suburb of Vienna, if new bores do not lead to unsatisfactory results 9 . In the 
environs of Modena, Rammazini has already made us acquainted with one of the 
oldest spring-wells of this kind 1 0 ; and from Shaw, we learn, that, even at Algiers, 
in the village Wad-Reag, appearances, exactly similar to those in the Comt£ 
d’ Artois, are to be sceen 1 1 . 
The number of these examples might certainly be increased; only the few 
which are already adduced, and the frequency of the geognostic relations, which 
we have seen to be conditions to the boring of Artesian wells, will sufficiently 
justify the conclusion, that wherever these relations occur, we may calculate on 
meeting with a spring of water. By no means, however, ought the vain hope to 
be indulged, which has been published within this short time in a very uncritical 
essay in the Bibliotheque Universelle, t. xxxix. p. 193 and 204, that, in every part 
of the earth, where we bore skilfully, a fortunate result may be expected. 
Even in a district of the proper constitution, the meeting with these springs 
depends, in some measure, on accident. Where, for example, we must sink into 
the limestone itself, the result is naturally dependent on our meeting in time with 
a vein of water or not. Thus Gamier mentions, that an inhabitant of Bethune, 
after he had penetrated through 70 feet of alluvium, and 30 feet of limestone, met 
with a spring which ascended to the surface ; while a neighbour, whose shaft 
almost touched that of the former, met with no water, although he had penetrated 
70 feet of sand and clay, and then 105 feet into the limestone, so that he was 
altogether 75 feet deeper than his neighbour. In the citadel of Calais, they were 
obliged to carry the shaft to the depth of 1 10,5 yards before pure water was found ; 
what was met with before this, was saline and brackish. The same is the case in 
England, where, at least near London, they are not sunk to the chalk ; the depth 
of the stratum which leads the water is very different. Mile-end is 36, Tottenham 
1 0, Epping 340, and Hunter’s-hole 410 feet above the level of the Thames ; and, 
in the first place water was found 70, in the second 60, and, in the third, 80 feet 
above the same level ; hut in the last situation, 130 feet above it. ( Conybeare , n. 
a. p. 36.) It is not unfrequent, again, to cut across several veins of water with 
one boring-shaft. This was the case in a well at the brewery of Messrs. Liptrap 
and Smith, a mile east of London, where, partly by digging, partly by boring, a 
depth of 370 feet was reached. The first spring was found above the London clay, 
the three following under it in the plastic clay, and the last in the limestone, 123 
feet below its upper margin. The springs which rose from the plastic clay, all as- 
cended to the same height, namely, to high-water-mark on the Thames, which is 
there 36 feet under the surface of the surrounding country. — ( Conybeare , n. a, 
p. 45.) 1 2 Likewise, in sinking a well in St. Owen (as mentioned in the Globe, 
No- 54, for this year,) five different veins of water were intersected. 
Of the last case, M. Hericart de Tliury mentions the curious circumstance, that 
an already existing Artesian well, in the vicinity of which the new one was sunk, 
was not at all affected by it 1 3 . Both together yield about 700 cujaic yards of water 
in 24 hours. A similar case, where two adjoining springs do not appear to have 
disturbed one another, is mentioned by the same author, in the Annul de C In- 
dustrie, t. ii. p. 63. At Epinay, near St. Denis, in one of the highest points of the 
park of the Countess Grollier, 16,5 yards above the mean level of the Seine, two 
wells were bored at the distance of a yard from one another, each of which yielded 
from 35 to 40 cubic yards, or from 38 to 39000 litres of water in 24 hours'. The 
source of the first was at a depth of 54,4 yards, and its surface remained 4,55 yards 
under the surface of the ground The same was the case with the second, when it 
•was sunk to an equal depth ; but after the boring was carried to 67,3 yards, the 
water rose 0,83 yards above the surface of the ground. In London, phenomena 
ave even occurred that indicate very distant wells to stand in a certain connexion 
io R n ep k in an a PP endix to the German translation of M. Garnier’s work, p. 162. 
_ -fit F °ntium Mutmensium admiranda scaturigine , of which an abridgment is gi- 
ly spe'ik^on 0 / ^ ru ^‘ °f 1692, p. 505. Also Leibnitz, in his Protogcea , p. 75, express- 
i a jj^himetherie, Thearie de la Terre, t. iv. p. 246 
in the n ° Way rose , 3( ? feot above the' surface of the ground, as stated 
in the appendix to the German translation of Garnier’s work. 
Even ;’,l n °,V t ; an8 ' C \ that ’ aS . WaS lie ' e tbecase ) the boring-iron was strongly magnetic, 
much more nmstTt 10 P er Pendicular position, become magnetic; how 
jectod to Wo£S; .wtS e m an operation, when, in this position, it is sub- 
mon appearance, R ? ^ ma * aet,c P™perty of the boring-iron is a very com- 
