FROM THE CHALK OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 
157 
requirements of the metropolis, the London Yestries and the Cor¬ 
poration of London are promoting bills for the purchase of the 
London water companies and the augmenting of the water-supply 
by means of additional deep borings in the Chalk at Rick mans worth 
and Leatherhead. Powers are sought by the London Yestries not 
only to take water from Rick mans worth, but also “to inspect and 
investigate the causes of pollutions of rivers in the watershed of the 
Thames and the Lea, and ther ivers of the adjacent districts, and to 
cause such pollutions to be removed, 5 ’ with the evident intention 
of draining the catchment-basin of the Lea to a still further extent 
than it is now being drained by the New River and East London 
Companies. The bill of the Corporation of London includes pro¬ 
visions for acquiring the right of taking water within the watershed 
of the River Lea, and any rights, powers, and privileges of any 
water company or of any other public authority therein. 
It is thus proposed in both these bills to augment the water- 
supply of London by drawing further upon the resources of our 
county, already overtaxed. As they are rival schemes we may 
have a better chance of success in opposing them than we otherwise 
should have had, and they certainly ought to be opposed.* 
This question may seem to have little practical interest to 
residents at Hitchin and other places in North Herts in the 
catchment-basin of the Great Ouse ; but we cannot be certain that 
the underground water-level will not be affected even here in 
course of time; for although the water-parting above ground 
between the catchment-basins of the Lea and Ouse is to the south 
of this district, underground it is either immediately under it or to 
the north, for the water is held up in the Chalk by the Totternhoe 
Stone, and below that by the Chalk Marl, and still lower, the 
water which percolates through these rocks is upheld by the Gault 
Clay, all of which strata crop out in succession to the north. 
Hitchin is therefore, by reason of these strata dipping to the 
south, most probably in the hydro-geological basin of the Lea. 
It may, however, be a long time before the north of Hertfordshire 
is affected by the withdrawal of water from the Chalk from such 
a distant point as Hertford or Ware, and I would insist upon 
nothing further than the assertion that the interests of the whole 
county, since the institution of the County Councils, are identical. 
Instead of more water being taken from our county for the supply 
of London, we ought to endeavour to get the amount now taken 
reduced, and this can only be done by the New River and East 
London Water Companies, or the new Authority by which they 
may be supplanted, being restricted in the amount that may be 
abstracted, to which amount at present there is no limit. 
* Since this was read both hills have been thrown out by the Select Committee 
appointed to consider them, and this result is in great measure due to the 
opposition of the Hertfordshire County Council. The resolutions passed at the 
three meetings of our Society (at St. Albans, Hertford, and Hitchin), at which 
this question was brought forward, requesting our County Council to take action 
in the matter, will appear in our ‘ Proceedings.’ 
