xlviii 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
dormouse and field-mouse were fast following in their track. 
Many insects were rarer than they used to he, and our fish were 
gradually being driven to greater depths by the increase of steam- 
navigation. It seemed to him that they should establish Gardens 
where all these things could be exhibited, and he believed they 
could be made attractive and remunerative. There was no limita¬ 
tion to the interesting experiments and observations which might 
be made. He thought it possible that some day they might be able 
to have an institution of this kind in Watford. 
[In the course of the lecture Mr. Stradling gave a large amount 
of information as to the cost of the animals which were purchased, 
the expense of keeping them, and the nature and quantity of their 
food.] 
Ordinary Meeting, 27th January, 1891, at Hertford. 
Bichard B. Croft, Esq., B.H., E.L.S., etc., Yice-President, in 
the Chair. 
Mr. Eobert P. Barclay, High Leigh, Hoddesdon; Mr. B. H. E. 
Daltry, Queen’s Eoad, Hertford; and Mr. E. A. Hawks, Spring- 
field, Hertford, were proposed for membership of the Society. 
The following paper was read :— 
“ On the Abstraction of Water from the Chalk of Hertfordshire.” 
By John Hopkinson, E.L.S., E.G.S., E.E.Met.Soc. ( Transactions, 
Vol. YI, p. 129.*) 
Mr. E. M. Campbell said that there were a few points which the 
County Council and the public ought to bear in mind. Within four 
and a quarter miles of the course of the Hew Eiver there were 
five deep wells from which there were headings. These headings 
were six feet high and four and a half feet wide, and penetrated 
into the chalk with the object of taking the water from the chalk 
to those deep wells. But these cuttings or tunnels came across 
springs, and the water from these was discharged into the wells 
instead of rising to the surface, and the result was great damage to 
watercress beds. It was not, however, a question of damage to 
these only, but it was a question of the water-supply throughout 
the whole Lea valley so far as agriculture was concerned. Those 
who had seen how the water put on the surface at the sewage-farm 
sank when the neighbouring pumps were working, would form 
some opinion as to the very trying condition those wells had pro¬ 
duced in the soil, so far as trees, herbs, and crops all over the 
district were concerned. What was feared was that sooner or 
later the fields in the agricultural districts might be reduced to the 
condition of a dry, hard, common, turnpike road. That was no 
exaggeration. The only way by which to stop it, was to find some 
means of preventing the abstraction of water from the great basin 
which supplied the water to the Eiver Lea. That was a matter 
* Incorporated in the paper on “Water and Water-supply.” 
