102 
Account of a Boring for procuring Fresh Water. 
IV. — Some Account of a Boring, made in Fort William, for the Purpose 
of procuring a Supply of Fresh W uter, with Remarks on the Nature 
of that used in Calcutta, for domestic Consumption. 
Sir, 
To the Editor of Gleanings in Science. 
Having had occasion to look over some papers connected with the borings, re- 
corded in the 12th Vol. of the As. Res., “ in search of a spring of pure water, ”1 
found the -accompanying analysis, by Dr. IV. Hunter, of the water of a well, in the 
vicinity of the spot where the borings were made : the well was about 32 ft. deep, hut 
borings had been carried down within the well to 75 ft. from the surface, and the 
springs from that depth raised the water in the well to 13 ft., from 4 ft. the average 
quantity of water previously in the well. The water of this well was described as by 
no means worse than that of other wells in the neighbourhood. 
As no analysis of the kind has been published, that I am aware of, this may 
not be unworthy of a page in the Gleanings. F6r all common purposes, I presume 
Dr. Hunter’s analysis sufficiently correct, and I shall he happy, if it draw attention 
to a subject of no small importance, and lead some of the able chemists we now 
have in Calcutta to give a further and more complete examination of the waters in 
daily use by the inhabitants of this city. 
A high authority (Dr. Ure) speaking on the analysis of waters, says, “It cannot 
but be an interesting subject to ascertain the component parts and qualities of the 
waters daily consumed by the inhabitants of large towns and vicinities. A very 
minute portion of unwholesome matter daily taken may constitute the principal 
cause of the differences in salubrity which are observable in different places. And 
with regard to manufactures, it is well known to all artists of how much conse- 
quence it is to them that this fluid should either be pure, or at least not contami- 
nated with such principles as tend to injure the qualities of the articles they make.” 
The water generally used by the European population of Calcutta is taken from the 
large tanks, and is in great measure free from the saline impregnations of well water, 
they being dependant on the rains for their supplies of water, and the salt springs 
below being prevented from rising into the tanks by the mud lining their sides and 
beds. The water from a fresh dug tank is not drinkable, and the precaution of pud- 
dling never being had recourse to in Bengal, it is only in the course of years, as the 
mud precipitated forms a coat impervious to the springs from the salt strata, that the 
tank waters become palatable. And in proof of this,' l think it will be found, that 
the tanks most in repute amongst the natives for good water are such as have 
been longest dug, I know of two adjoining tanks, one of winch has been dug 
about d 0 years, and is about 15 ft. deep, the other was excavated two years ago, and 
carried down to the depth of nearly 40 fret. The strata were beds of sand and san- 
dy loam, and clay intermixed with the usual decayed and charred vegetable matters; 
and all the springs were salt, and tlic tank continues now very brackish and useless, 
or rather, perhaps, pernicious, for the water is used by many of the poor, from their 
being no better water obtainable in the immediate neighbourhood. The water in the 
old tank was not affected by the inferior level of the new and larger tank, and though 
the salt, sandy strata must be common to both, its water is considered the best with- 
in a considerable distance, so much so, that the supply being insufficient for the 
numbers who came to the tank, its proprietor has been obliged to limit access to it. 
tn some parts of Calcutta, and generally in the suburbs, there is a great deficiency of 
goo c can tanks, and it. is out of the power of the poorer classes to go anv distance 
to™ a . v and no person who has seen the filthy holes to which they are frequently 
• J? la 'l e recourse, but must apprehend, that much of flic sickness they oc- 
n y suffer may be attributable to the water they are in the constant habits of 
in £> especially in the three months preceding the rains, 
is lpri°t * observat ' ons a PPeided to the account of the borings before noticed, one 
tirelv t! ‘ at tll ° “primary object of getting at springs of fresh water en- 
...i, ■ “ » but > from a perusal of the papers connected with the undertaking, this 
T , uslon appears to me by no means to be borne out. 
Calcutta wk , t0 u e . a , b ! e , to suhrmt U) y° u seTC F al abstracts of borings made in 
met with rnfift l “”’ k 11 J ? to b r int, ' rre,l > , that a 11 the springs that are to be 
depth than °,n r > 7 °, fn f from l . hc surfac ? salt > hut that there are at no greater 
depth than 120 to 140 feet springs of fresh water, which may be obtained in an 
