SOME FLORIDA' LAKES AND LAKE BASINS. 
73 
day. The well continued spouting without interruption for a little 
more than a week and until shut off by the owner. 
Various fanciful theories have been advanced to account for the 
spouting, including supposed occurrence of gas and oil, and the 
supposed influence of recently formed sinks in the interior of the 
State. The true explanation is evidently much more simple. At 
the present stage of the lake the well is receiving water at less than 
its full carrying capacity and as the water enters the vertical pipe 
it forms a suction carrying a large amount of air into the well, 
which doubtless collects in a chamber or cavity along the side or 
at the bottom, of the well. As the well continues receiving water 
the air accumulates under pressure in this chamber until ulti¬ 
mately the pressure under which the air is confined is sufficient to 
overcome the weight of the overlying water and hence rushes out 
with considerable force carrying the column of w?ter with it. 
The fact that the well when first drilled did not spout and 
afterwards began spouting doubtless indicates that the essential 
conditions were subsequently developed either by caving or by 
other changes in the underground conditions. 
The spouting of the well is therefore on the principle of the air¬ 
lift pump in which air under pressure is conveyed into the 
well through a special tube for that purpose and being liberated in 
the well lifts a column of water to the surface. In this spouting 
well, however, the air pressure is developed within the well. This 
well may, therefore, be classed as a self pumping well. 
When partly shut off so that only a limited amount of water 
enters, the air taken into the well is able to return to the surface 
freely. Under these conditions spouting ceases. It is probable 
that if an elbow is placed on the well, allowing the water to enter 
laterally instead of vertically, the amount of air taken into the well 
will be so far reduced that the spouting will cease. Likewise 
when the lake rises so that the water stands several feet above the 
top of the pipe entering the well it is to be expected that the spout¬ 
ing will cease, since the pipe will then be carrying water at its full 
capacity, and little or no air under these conditions entering the 
well.* 
The drainage wells are themselves remarkable and found in 
such perfection only under geological conditions similar to those 
existing in Florida. Of the many peculiarities of these wells, 
*Since the above was written very heavy rains attending the storm of 
October 17, 1910, caused the lake to rise 18 or 20 inches, and Mr. Unis writes 
that when the water rose in the lake the well ceased spouting. A similar well 
at Albany, Georgia, is reported by McCallie. Science, XXIV, p. 694, 1906. 
