THE MIDDLE LIAS OF N OKTH AMPT ON SHIRE. 
205 
2.— It is ho local condition of tlie Maidstone to be porous, 
and to yield water. In Northampton itself, at least five wells 
have been made reaching to the Maidstone and yielding 
water. Two were made by the Waterworks Company—one 
at their chief pumping station, and the other near their 
reservoir; one at the County Jail; a fourth at Messrs. 
Brettell’s Foundry ; and a fifth at the Barracks. Besides 
these, in the districts west and south-west of Northampton 
there are probably some hundreds of such wells ; there may 
be ten or twelve in a moderately-sized village where the 
Maidstone is not deep. 
8.—Northampton has been taking more than its share of 
the Middle Lias water; hence, many of the near wells, not 
quite so deep, have ceased to yield water. This is the case 
with three out of the five wells mentioned above as formerly 
existing in Northampton. I believe, too, that without 
exception the water level in the Maidstone wells of the 
county has been gradually sinking—an absolute proof of the 
general continuity and porous nature of the bed. 
4. —I believe it is rare for a single well in any formation 
to yield more than 1,000,000 gallons per day, unless aided by 
headings, or supplied by more than one spring. Without 
these aids the Middle Lias at both Northampton and Kings- 
tliorpe has yielded water at the rate of 800,000 gallons per 
day, an amount, it will be seen, approximating to the maximum 
supposed to be obtainable from a single well. Such being 
the case, and bearing in mind the distance away of the 
Middle Lias catchment area, it must be pretty evident that 
some of the nearer dumb-wells would be able to impound 
something like 1,000,000 gallons per day, supposing that 
amount of water to be available, and the head of water at 
the pumping station to be kept low. Direct experiment 
confirms this. 
5. —It is extremely improbable that definite underground 
channels for water primarily exist in porous beds like the 
Marlstone, or the sinking for water would be a very pre¬ 
carious operation ; yet, in the neighbourhood of springs and 
wells such channels are gradually developed, because water 
will flow most freely in the direction of least resistance, and 
in doing so will gradually reduce that resistance if there is 
anything capable of being dissolved by water. 
A rock which is continuously used as a water-bearing one 
gets more porous, for all the water which comes from such a 
bed is charged with mineral matter dissolved out of it. As 
an instance, our Maidstone water contains rather more than 
50 grains of solid matter to the gallon. Supposing that for 
