312 The American Geologist. November, 1902 
of its head; the great springs here arc indeed nearly at the 
same level, and are prohable outlet? of the underground 
channels. 
The conclusions "that a well deep enough to furnish an 
inexhaustible supply of water will also on the other hand, re- 
ceive any amount of water that may l)e poured into it" and 
that "in any case, of course, the well must reach an aquifer or 
water bearing stratum" are in the main true but are not direct, 
I think, to the line of cause and effect. Those conditions may 
be met in the deeper drift covering by wells reaching only 
some gravelly layer iii the drift and in such cases they may 
be good at first but later they may fail as in very wet seasons 
the gravel beds tend to overflow or backwater, they having 
no good outlet. Also the gravel beds not being of lime the 
well can not be expected to improve with age. It also floods 
into the aquifers which are used most by wells supplying 
drinking water. Again a well passing into the channel-bearing 
limestone in some places may reach air-filled, cavities as good 
as water-filled ones. 
To what great extent this system might be developed re- 
mains to be seen though in any case it must be limited to 
favorable conditions in the underground iiere, especially to 
those of the Kinderhook formation, the extent of which under 
the glacial clays needs to be systematically followed out. This 
may be done in course of time owing to economic advantages. 
The system of drains into sinks obviates the otherwise 
necessary waste of land by open ditches, but more than that 
the attractive feature of it seems to me to lie in the ameliora- 
tion of river floods. The water which is turned underground 
goes into reservoirs so large on the aggregate that flooding at 
the inlets probably afl:ects very slightly and slowly the flow 
from the outlet springs. The rivers are reUeved of just so much 
flood which the}' would receive from ditches and they are 
augmented thereby at low stages. Xear the sinks the water 
for drinking may easily be taken from a higher or lower 
aquifer into which the water from sinks can penetrate only 
bv thorousfh filtering-. 
