348 
On the Chiru or 
[Nov. 
be in vain to bore : but should tbe surface of the district below, have a sub- 
stratum of clay or marl to a moderate depth, an aperture made through the clay, 
to the confined water below, will allow it to rise to the surface, and, in some in. 
stances, to rise many feet above the surface, up pipes properly fixed for that pur- 
pose 1 . 
At Cambridge, where this practice is very common, the substratum, after pass- 
ing through the alluvial gravel and soil, is the chalk marl, or what is commonly 
called, in that place, Gault , and is about 120 to 130 feet in thickness, resting upon 
a stratum of sand saturated with water, the out crop of which is at a considerable 
distance, and much above the level of Cambridge : any opening, therefore, through 
this marl or Gault, will allow the confined water to rise ; but if no further pre- 
caution was used, it would reach the surface indeed, but coming to the alluvial 
ground, would be diffused in that reservoir of water constituting the more superfi- 
cial springs, which are often, without any good reason, called land springs : there- 
fore, to secure a supply at the surface, it is essential to cut off all communication 
with these higher springs ; and this is usually done by inserting an iron pipe se- 
veral feet into the water-tight stratum, and puddling or ramming strong clay round 
the lower pipe, and continuing the pipe, by additions, as maybe required, until it 
reaches the intended place of delivery. The hole is then bored through the clay, 
with an auger of about four inches in diameter ; and when cleared of the mud and 
softened clay, produced by the operation of boring, a tin tube, as large as the hole 
will admit, is passed from the top to the bottom, to keep open the aperture first 
made, and afterwards the fountain head is fixed upon the iron pipe. 
The boring rods are generally about one inch square, of bar iron, screwed together 
in lengths of from 6 to 12 feet. — Sets of joints may be obtained at any general iron 
factory, and welded to bars of any length. — The cost of rods and joints, ready for 
use, will be about 5s. a yard ; and the total expense of the operation, including the 
use of all the implements, and iron and tin pipes, to holes of 130 feet deep, is 
about £ 25 . 
It occasionally happens, that thin beds of rock are formed, in boring, too bard 
for the auger ; these are cut through by a piece substituted for the auger, in the 
shape of a chisel ; worked continually round, in a stamping motion, until the rock 
is perforated : thi3 tedious process sometimes requires 2 or 3 days to pass a rock 
of 8 or 9 inches in thickness. 
The quantity of water produced at one of these apertures, lately made at Cam- 
bridge, is regularly 12 gallons per minute ; and another finished this week, full 
1 1 gallons per minute. 
I am, Sir, &c. 
B. B. 
V • — On the Chiru or Antilope Hodgsonii. 
To the Editor of Gleanings in Science. 
Sir, 
My attention having been recently called to a notice of the dntilope Hodgsonii 
(the Chiru of Tibet) which appeared, in the 5th number of the Gleanings, so long 
ago as April 1829, and the person who was kind enough to direct me to this notice, 
having expressed a doubt as to the forthcomingness of the description and skin of 
that most rare and beautiful animal, which were furnished several years hack to 
l)r. Clarke Abel-, I have been induced to search for the rough notes whence the 
description given to Dr. Abel, was taken, and to put those notes into shape again, 
for your Journal, in case you will do me the favor to publish them. 
So long ago as 1816, 1 think. Captain Latter, of Titalia, surprized the world with 
the announcement, that the “ Unicorn” of Scripture existed in Tibet, where it was 
J It is wot th remarking, that this is the exact state of the case in Calcutta, where 
V, , c * a ? *?() or 70 feet in thickness lies below the upper springs — while the level 
t le place is lower than any part of the country. — E d. Gl. 
e • . r * q Abel was at that time Secretary to the Physical Class of the Asiatic 
tinna^r" 5somet,me before his death, he haa nearly ready for publication, descrip- 
a great number of birds and animals. What is become or Dr. Abel’s papers ? 
