PAKT 2 .] 
King: on the Artesian Wells at 'Pondicherry, 
115 
is very poor, ijnt it is hopeful, nevertheless, the other wells having also shown 
similar sheets with such a low liyclrostatic level. 
A fifth well has also been started by Mr. Cornet, one of the proprietors of the 
filatures, in his own compound within the city and much nearer to the sea shore- 
My latest information on this boring is that a stratum of rising water had been 
struck at 200 feet. The water is not yet very abundant, and it is only of middling 
quality. 
Some trials have also been recently made elsewhere in this part of India.- 
which it is just necessary to notice here. Mr. A. do Closets, C.E., of Madras, 
reports as follows :—“ A trial well I ihad boi-cd in Madras at the then Napier 
Ii-on Works through strata of blue clay and sands alternately, reached at 30 yards 
an ascending water sheet of brackish water, above a stratum of a greenish kind 
of sandstone.” This well was, I believe, abandoned on financial grounds. Again, 
in another boring now under operation in Madura, Mr. do Closets has been pierc¬ 
ing alluvial strata with the hope of meeting a water sheet, but as yet without 
success.’■ 
On the completion of the boring in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, the subject was 
bi’ought to the notice of the Jladras Government through an extract* from the Mom- 
teur 0£Mel of the French Settlements in India, and an enquiry was then instituted 
as to the expediency of sinking such wells, and as to whether any suitable local¬ 
ities for artesian w'ell-sinking were known in the Presidency. At (his time I had 
only the data supplied in Mr. Carriol’s report, and had not seen Pondicherry or 
its neighbourhood for nearly 22 years, so could mdy suggest the possibility of 
such wells being found in similarly jrhiced alluvial flats, while I hazarded the 
speculation that the gush of the water might be due to the pressure of superin¬ 
cumbent alluvial strata. The interest attached to these wells is, however, so 
great that a personal inspection of them became necessary, and I was enabled to 
visit Pondicherry in December last, when the materials for this paper were 
collected. 
The Savana Boring. 
Mr, Poulain, though much interested in the strata passed through in this 
Ko very detailed obseiv- working and that at Oo|)allem, has unfortunately not 
alions extant. given very detailed accounts of them in his papers, 
neither did ho preserve an orderly series of specimens of the rocks. Indeed, 
his paramount interest and object were rather to get at the hoped-for rising sheets 
of water, one of which should be of a sufiicient quantity and of a .suitable 
quality for the mills which had hitherto been supplied with well-water given 
to depositing a coating in the boilers. The following tabular section (Table 1) 
has, however, been constructed fi’om the papers he read before the Commission ; 
it is arranged after the model of those kept at the Government borings, so as to 
give the details at a glance, and facilitate any correlation which may be made 
between the other borings. 
1 In Northern India borings for water have been made to 481 feet (Calcutta), and to 701 feet 
(Uniballa), without .cticcess. See Manual of the Geology of India, p. 397, 
2 See Appendix 1. 
E 
