THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
56 
little water left in the Marlstone. Many old wells are quite 
dry, and in all the water level is very low. As I shall have to 
refer to the Marlstone a good deal later on, it is scarcely 
necessary to say more here. 
The Trias Springs.— After passing through the Upper, 
Middle, and Lower Lias in this district the upper part of the 
Trias is usually met with, and it has, in every case where it 
has been entered, yielded a supply of very salt water, the 
chief salts being the carbonates, sulphates, or chlorides of 
sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. At the present 
time this salt water fills the old Kingstliorpe shaft to within 
270 feet of the surface, which, assuming the pit has a depth 
of 967 feet, as the record gives it, means 697 feet of water. 
The nearest place where this water could find an inlet lies 
considerably to the north-west of the county, and well within 
Warwickshire, so that were it possible to use this supply, it 
seemed probable that it would be copious and fairly permanent. 
Pumping tests, however, showed that at Northampton it 
would only yield about 200,000 gallons per day,and at Layton, 
where it stood twenty feet higher, less than 100,000 gallons.* 
The water at the Kettering Road well contained 1,200 grains 
of solid matter to the gallon, and the amount of Chlorine 
determined was 349*7 grains per gallon. That at 
Kingstliorpe and Gayton respectively was very similar, 
but each contained a rather larger percentage of solids. 
The whole of the Trias has such frequent alternations of 
sand and marl that water may be obtained from it at very 
various horizons, and so it does not follow as a necessity that 
the water at Northampton and Gayton is from the same bed, 
though most likely it is. 
It is known that the Waterstones of the Lower Keuper 
often yield an abundant supply of good water, and since the 
existence of the Trias had been proved by the trial shaft for 
coal at Kingstliorpe, about two miles to the N.N.E. of 
Northampton ; when the Marlstone supply had got so low as 
to compel the Water Company to look for other sources, 
acting on the advice of their engineer, Mr. John Eunson, 
C.E., F G.S., and after consultation with Mr. R. Etheridge, 
F.R.S. and Professor Judd, F.R.S., they decided to make a 
boring to reach, if possible, the Waterstones, which their 
advisers thought might perhaps be reached within a reason¬ 
able distance from the surface. The boring was commenced 
from the bottom of a well previously sunk into the Lower 
* “ The Range of the Palaeozoic Rocks beneath Northampton,” by 
Henry Jno. Eunson, Esq., F.G.S. Quarterly Journal of Geological 
Society, August, 1884. 
