1830 .] 
On Artesian or Overflowing JVelh. 
267 
with one another. Neither is it striking, that on the sea coast, where ordinary 
springs are often regulated by the ebb and flow of the sea, wells of this description 
should be subject to a similar disturbance. M. Hericart de Thury mentions this 
of a well bored to the depth of 17 yards atNoyelle-sur-Mer. — {Annul de V Industrie, 
t. ii. p. 66.) At time of ebb, its level is 2 yards under ground, while at flood, it is 
on a level with it: a very ingenious valve has, therefore, been constructed, to 
maintain the well even during ebb at the higher level. Similar oscillations also 
occur in the Artesian wells at Abbeville, besides others at Dieppe, Montreuil, De- 
partment of Calvades, and the United States. 
What extensive fissures the water here and there must fill, is not only demon- 
strated by the magnitude of many of these springs, but also by a circumstance 
mentioned by M. Gamier, on the authority of M. Hericart de Thury. In a brewe- 
ry at Paris, near the barrier towards Fontainble.au, a well, 20 yards deep, ceased 
to yield any more water. They, therefore, resolved to sink the shaft deeper. But 
a depth of 19 yards was scarcely reached, when suddenly the borer sunk down into 
a crevice for more than 7 yards, and would have been inevitably lost, as even then 
it did not reach the ground, if fortunately a ci’oss bar of wood had not been 
passed through the eye at the top of the instrument. The boring machine was 
tossed to and fro, as if it was moved by a large body of water, and when, after 
much difficulty, it was drawn up to the opening, the water suddenly sprung 
10 yards above the heads of the workmen, so that they could scarcely escape quick- 
ly enough, and were obliged to leave all their implements in the well. Ever since, 
the water has stood 12 yards above the circle, which serves as a foundation to the 
wall of the well. 
This irruption of the water, on first piercing these subterranean reservoirs, is 
often very violent, and is no small proof of the copiousness of many of these 
wells. Some striking examples of this are quoted from England in the Biblio* 
theque Uuiverselle, t. xxxix. p. 199. A Mr. Brook had sunk a bore in his garden 
360 feet deep, and 4,5 inches in diameter, from which the water was discharged so 
copiously, that it not only overflowed the whole yard round the house, but also 
submerged the adjoining cellars. The damage was so great, that the neighbours 
lodged a complaint, and the police were required to interpose. Two men now tried 
to close the bore with a wooden peg, but they were constantly driven back by the 
violence of the water, even when a third came to their assistance. They were 
equally incapable of restraining the water by an iron-stopper. At last they took 
the advice of a mason, and planted several tubes of small diameter over the bore, 
and thus succeeded at last in mastering the water. 
At a Mr. Lords’s, in Tooting, where a bore had been closed, the water worked 
with such violence under the ground, that it burst forth in a space 15 yards in 
circumference, and certainly the walls would have been brought down if free vent 
had not been given to it. This spring, say the informants, on account of the height 
of its jet, and the quantity of water (600 litres per minute,) is worthy of being in 
a public square. 
The stream of a well belonging to a neighbour of Mr. Lord, drove a water-wheel 
of 5 feet in diameter, and this again set a pump in motion, which carried the water 
to the top of a three- storied house. 
Even in the north-east of France these overflowing and springing wells are by 
no means rare, as is seen from M. Hericart de Thury’s notice in the Annul de 
V Industrie. At Kreutzwald, in the department of the Moselle, one has been sunk 
60 metres ; at St Quentin, in the department of the Aisne, there are two similar 
ones which flow over their brinks ; further, at Prix, near Mezieres, there is one 
143 yards deep, which rises about 0,5 of a yard above the ground. At St. Amand, 
in the department of the north, were three wells, bored to a depth of 45 yards, the 
water of which sprang a yard out of the ground, and has never diminished 
since 14 . 
14 A remarkable circumstance, although not immediately connected with Artesian 
wells, is related by Hericart de Thury, of the sulphureous spring of Bouillon, near St. 
Amand. In the year 1697, when they began to repair the reservoir of this spring for 
receiving the freshwater, such a sudden disengagement of sulphuretted hydrogen took 
place, probably from another direction being given to it by the masonry, that an im- 
mense mass of water, mud, and sand was projected. It was curious enough, loo, that 
several coins of different Roman emperors appeared at the surface, and more than 200 
images, sculptured in wood. Most of these were much defaced by lying long in the 
water, yet M . Bottin believes, from his memoir in the Memo i res de la Societe Royal 
des Antiquaries de France , that, at the time of the introduction of Christianity into these 
places, they were thrown into the well from fear of the zeal of the holy Amand, 
Bishop of Tougres. 
