supply of remarkably clear and brilliant water, particularly soft, and which is consequently adapted to every domestic purpose. The depths of the wells have varied from about 110 to 140 feet; and when the water was arrived at in sinking some of them, it rose with such great rapidity, as to overtake the well-digger before his escape could be well effected. Yet, although some of the inhabitants of Tottenham obtained good supplies of excellent water from deepsunk wells, there were a great proportion who were obliged to buy water of the carriers, who procured it from a well on Tottenham-green, which was dug, and a pump erected, at the expense of the Lord of the Manor in 1791. However, in the summer of method of boring through the clay to the main-spring, at his farm in Broadlane, Page Green, Tottenham ; where he obtained a copious and constant supply of water, from a depth of 120 feet, which rises eight feet above the surface, and, flowing over, forms an elegant little cascade, and it has neither increased nor diminished since. Having succeeded on his own premises, he thought a similar experiment might be tried with equal success on the public waste ground; and, this suggestion being made to the vestry, it was acceded to on behalf of the parish, and the work commenced. It was completed under the direction of the above gentleman, by Mr. John Goode. The ground was bored to the depth of 105 feet, when a fine spring of water issued forth, which rises six feet above the surface of the ground, through a tube within a cast-iron pedestal, and, flowing over the lip or edge of a vase, forms a bell-shaped continual sheet of water, inclosing the vase as in a glass case. It is collected and again conducted downward through the pedestal to the place of its discharge, out of the mouth of a dolphin, about eighteen inches from the ground, for the convenience of placing a pail or pitcher under the stream. The quantity of water thrown up and discharged is at the rate of fourteen gallons a minute. (See the Engraving.) The peculiar advantages of boring the ground for water, instead of digging, particularly at great depths, renders the former method of great importance to the public; since water is obtained by boring at a small expense, as is exemplified by the following table of Mr. Goode's, which shows the Tottenham prices of boring, at every ten feet of depth, and shews the cost of well-sinking to be from 3 to 7 times greater, according to circumstances: Price of Well-sinking. £1 5 Depth in Feet. Price of Boring. 10...... £0 3 4 180...... 28 10 0 190...... 31 13 4 200 . ...... ... 99 109 5 0 55 0 120 O The curious and important fact, that subterraneous fountains of water could be tapped in certain situations, was by accident long ago brought to light, in different districts in this kingdom, viz. that there are situated below the surface, in many low situations, certain porous strata of open-grained sand or fissured stone, charged with a supply of water, in such a pent or confined state,* that on the sinking of a well, or making a bore-hole, down through the superincumbent strata, to reach any such water-charged stratum, the water therefrom would rise through such new opening, and overflow on the surface. Many such overflowing wells have long existed in and near to London, and in various other parts of the kingdom; and we are enabled to mention the following instances, viz. in the Adelphi (George's); in Addle-hill, Thames-street (Rudd's); in New Bond-street (No. 110); in Park-lane, Putney (Daniel's); in Richmond town; at Twyford (Wilan's); at East Acton (Overy's); at Knotting-hill, or Kensington Gravel-pits (Vulliamy's); at Tottenham (Forster's, J. and W. Rowe's, Smith's, &c.); at Tottenham High-Cross (Wilkinson's, &c.), &c.At the New-Inn, south of Silsoe, in Bedfordshire; at Cambridge city (east part), and at Wimpole, in Cambridgeshire; at Alford, in Lincolnshire, and at numerous places in the adjacent coast-district of that county, viz. at Saleby, Sutton, Trusthorpe (Hill's, Taylor's, &c.), &c.-At Duncehill, north-west of Hull, and near Leeds (Gott's, Marshall's,) in Yorkshire; in and near Derby town (several), and at Oakthorpe, in Measham (an old coal-pit), in Derbyshire, &c. &c. Bore-holes, made by the large augers used by colliers and others, for deeply penetrating and examining the strata, have at various times, and in The elevated ranges of chalk-hills, flanked by sand, which surround London, (except eastward,) and in a depressed form underlie its thick clay strata, explain the sources of the subterraneous waters, and the cause of their tendency to rise in the deep wells of the London Vale; see our 23d volume, p. 212. many places, been the means of tapping springs of water, concealed and confined beneath the surface, as abovementioned; which water has afterwards risen, and continued to overflow the tops of such deep bore-holes. Accidental discoveries of this kind have also been made at Husbands-Bosworth, in Leicestershire; Sprinks in Ednaston, in Derbyshire; at Toton, Dirty-Hucknal, and Kirklington, in Nottinghamshire; at Leighton's-mill, near Wakefield, and at Bridlington, in Yorkshire; at Willoughby, near Sleaford, in Lincolnshire, near Comlongon Castle, Dumfrieshire, &c. The inhabitants of the coast-district of Lincolnshire, above-mentioned, from having long observed certain forcibly-rising fountains of water, which are there called "Blow-wells," and having noticed also the modern overflowing wells, which have been alluded to above, have ingeniously conceived the practicability, of saving the expense and trouble of a well; and accordingly began, twenty years since or upwards, to substitute a borehole, penetrating to the spring; into which perforation a leaden or tin pipe was inserted, and tightly fixed therein, by a close stopping of tempered clay, rammed into the hole round the pipe. A wooden pump-case, of the usual construction, (except wanting a slit for the sweep or handle,) was then erected around the pipe; and, through the ordinary perforation for the spout, the top end of the bore-pipe was turned horizontally, and mostly produced ever afterwards, a fine stream of water therefrom. A correspondent of this Miscellany, in 1807, examined several of these ingenious substitutes for wells and pumps in use in the vicinity of Alford, viz. at Sutton (Wilson's), at Trusthorpe (Wilson's, and others), &c.; and he received accounts, that they were common, almost throughout that coast-district, particularly in MarshChapel, and near Great Grimsby. In some few cases, very near to the sea, the water diminished or ceased to flow from the spout during two or three lowest; notwithstanding the spouts hours daily, when the tide was at the were many feet elevated above highwater level. The modern discoveries regarding the strata of England, which we were the first to announce and to recommend to the attention of our readers, (see (see our 11th volume, p. 525, our 40th volume, p. 379, &c.) are now so far matured and known to many practical engineers, as to leave nothing wanting in regard to the principles, by which the local extents of the districts capable of this improvement, in the place of wells and pumps, may be previously determined. And, fortunately, the great variety and extent of our mining and well-sinking operations have reared a class of practical men, fully equal to the executing of the necessary works, without its being necessary for the public to listen to the pretensions of affected new discoveries, or to tolerate mystery on the subject. To such men it must be left to determine, by examinations of the neighbouring strata, how far the operation will be successful. It can hardly be expected that the water will ever rise higher than its subterraneous reservoir, unless by lateral pressure, on the principle developed by Bolton in his water-raising apparatus. But these considerations are complicated; and, before any gentleman, company, or parish begins the operation, it may be proper to obtain the opinion of practical men, just as in the case of mining, or other similar operations. Nor can the expense be reduced to a certain scale; for it will depend on the nature of the strata to be passed through, and, in some cases, the best tools repeatedly fail. An expensive experiment has been recently made, without due regard to circumstances, by Mr. Laycock, of Isfington, and has hitherto been without success. Mr. L. with much public spirit, has persevered; and we delayed the publication of the present article, till we could announce the result of his operations. The curiosity of the public having, however, been excited by our former articles, and many of our readers being impatient for details, we have judged it better to present them with these observations, than longer to defer them. [Since the previous article was written, we have been favoured with the following letter from an eminent practical engineer, and we hasten to lay it before our readers, as tending to complete their information on the subject.] To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, recommends the extension generally of borings for water, in preference to the sinking of wells, has remained unnoticed by your many able correspondents; and having observed that the principle on which the "genuine spring," as S. S. calls it, which has lain concealed under the village of Tottenham and its vicinity, is capable of rising, through a well or bore-hole, and overflowing on the surface, is not adverted to, and apparently is not known to that writer; and conceiving that a right understanding of the principle alluded to, is of the utmost importance, towards preventing many persons from incurring the expenses of borings, in other and higher situations, and afterwards experiencing the mortification of finding, that the water will not there rise to the surface through a bore-hole; although, on the same spot, it might rise and stand permanently, at a useful height, in a well. I am on these accounts desirous of showing, in your instructive pages, that there is, in the principle I have alluded to, nothing of mystery or difficulty: it is simply this, that the water contained in the legs of a crooked pipe, in the form of a U or a V, or of an inverted syphon, will rise or flow to the same height (with respect to the horizontal plane) in each of its legs. Now the open and connected joints or cracks (that may be witnessed in any chalk-pit,) of the vast stratum of chalk which underlies London, and whose northern edge rises from under the London clay, and forms an ele vated chalk country in Hertfordshire, may be conceived as forming, by its connected open joints, one of the legs of a great subterraneous syphon, of which the other leg may be conceived to be, any well or bore-hole, opened down to the chalk, or even down to the loose sand stratum, which usually lies immediately upon the chalk, and rather obstructedly suffers the chalk water to rise up through it, whenever the superincumbent pressure is locally removed, as has recently been done by the perforations made at Tottenham, and had previously been done by numerous deep wells in other places near London; the source or supply of this water, being the rains and dews, which fall on the chalk-hills surrounding London. On this first view of the subject it and hills, on every side of the London might seem, that, as the chalk downs clay, except on the Essex and Suffolk coast coast, including parts of the adjoining counties, between Cromer on the north, and Reculver (or Sandown) on the south, rise higher, for the most part considerably higher,-than the surface of the London clay; that therefore the water from the joints of the chalk, might be expected to rise and overflow the top of a deep well or borehole, in any part of the London clay district; which evidently seems to be the opinion of your correspondent Mr. S. S. and of some others who have written on the subject. But it is necessary to take into the account, several very deeply excavated valleys on the borders of the London clay, where the clay is reduced to a thin edge, in the bottoms of such valleys; through which excavations the chalk waters, overflowing there at the surface, are enabled spontaneously to flow, on to and across the clay strata, in their course towards the tidal estuary of the Thames; the principal of which excavations is that for the Thames itself, just below the town of Maidenhead; those for its southern tributary streams are,-for the Wey, about three miles below Guilford; for the Mole, about two miles below Leatherhead; for the Wandle, about a mile above Mitcham, &c. For the northern branches of the Thames, the principal excavations on the edge of the clay strata are only two, viz. for the Coln, near Uxbridge; and for the Lea, about a mile below Ware. The two last natural outlets for the northern chalk waters, enable a great part of the Hertfordshire chalk-waters to escape, and flow on to the Londonclay strata, in their way to the Thames; the main bodies of these waters proceed in their natural courses to the Thames, at Staines and at Blackwall: but other parts of each of these streams have been diverted by art, at no great distances from their outlets, and are conveyed towards London, from near Uxbridge by the Grand-Junction and Regent's Canals, and from near Ware, by the New River. On the south-east of the town of Islington, the former of these artificial conduits, for the overflowings of the chalk waters, has been lately made to pass in a tunnel, under the other of these conduits; and thereby we are furnished, with the ready means of roughly comparing the height of the water in these two conduits, not only where they cross, as above-mentioned, but at their sources Uxbridge and near Ware. near Allowing for the rise of four locks, which occur in the Regent's Canal between the Islington tunnel and the Regent's Park, and for two other locks which occur on the Grand Junction, between Bull-bridge and the Uxbridge outlet; and allowing, in like manner, for the elevation of the New. River water, above the water in the tunnel beneath it, and for the very easy rise which the surface of the New River (as a very slowly-running stream,) presents, from Islington to its source near Ware: it will hence appear, that these two principal natural vents for the chalk-water, on the north-west and north of London, are nearly on one level; and the course on the map, of these two artificial water-conduits, meeting at Islington, furnishes a visible and important line of demarkation across Middlesex, for distinguishing (with some few local exceptions, where these conduits are either embanked, or deep-cut, or tunnelled,) the places, situated southward of such line, as lying below the chalk-water level, (as Tottenham is situated below the course of the New River,on the eastof the latter,) from those other and higher-lying places, to the northward of this line of demarkation; where, consequently, there can be no reason for expecting that a well or a bore-hole should overflow on the surface; and where, in point of fact, none do overflow, as far as I know. In this district of Middlesex, situated above the chalk-water level, there are numerous modern wells, of great depth most of them, in which the water has risen, and a supply of it permanently stood, a great many feet above the places, where such waters were first tapped, by the augers used in the bottoms of such wells, by the well-sinkers; and perhaps, where these operations have been judiciously and well performed, the water has in general risen, to the level of the natural outlets above-mentioned. The heights of two others of the before-mentioned natural outlets of the chalk-waters, viz. that near Maidenhead, and that below Guilford, are probably not greatly different from the height of those two northern outlets already described; but this being a matter of great practical importance, towards demarking the entire district around London, to the westward and southward, wherein overflowing wells or bore-holes might reasonably be expected to be obtained; I beg to sug gest gest the propriety, of tracing out, by a pretty accurate levelling, and the mapping, of a level line on the surface, (such as a canal without any locks might occupy,) from the outlet near Maidenhead, eastward, to intersect the Colne river; ascertaining, at the same time, any difference of level and distance there may be, between this point of intersection and the lowest place of outlet for the chalk-water in the vale of the Coln, near Uxbridge. In like manner, should the same level line be traced and mapped, south-eastward from Maidenhead, to intersect the Wey river; comparing the same, as to level and distance, with the lowest chalk-water outlet in that valley; and so on, eastward, with respect to the Mole and the Wandle rivers, and their respective lowest chalk-water outlets. In this, as in almost all other classes of natural phenomena, some anomalies occur, which complicate the matter, and require the aid of science and research, for their elucidation: here, for instance, the Castle of Windsor is seen standing on a detached mass of chalk, rising higher than the surface of much of the surrounding Londonclay; in which last, on nearly all sides, I believe, deep modern wells have been sunk, without reaching the chalk, except, perhaps, by the noses of some of the augers, which have let up the springs into these wells. It appears to me probable, that this Windsor mass of chalk, is surrounded on all sides by those dislocating fissures, which the miners usually call faults, and has been lifted or thrust up 200 or 300 feet from its former position; but, without these fissures around the Windsor chalk, giving vent, as far as I know, to any remarkable or large springs of water, from the great water-charged mass of chalk which they intersect, and from which this mass seems to have been clevated. Another anomaly attending this overflowing-well district around London, occurs in the vale of Ravensborne, in the north-west corner of Kent, wherein the chalk strata lie bare, down as far as Deptford; and the edge of the London clay is in this valley, little, if at all, elevated above the level of the Thames; and yet without this place producing any very great or notable springs of water, or without the district to the west of this valley, being unfitted for producing overflowing wells, as I understand; which circumstances may, I think, have arisen, from a water-tight fault or fissure, filled with clay, crossing the vale of the Thames, near to the Ravensborne valley on the west, and elevating the strata on its eastern side. But having already somewhat extended this letter, and having a wish to mention several other matters, the results of my professional engagements and inquiries, relative to wells and borings, in the vale of the Thames, and many other places, I must reserve these for a future communication. Howland-street; July 8, 1822. JOHN FAREY, Mineral Surveyor. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. A SIR, CORRESPONDENT, who signs "Fact," in your last month's Magazine, has taken the title of a work which I have lately published, on the present method of constructing ships, as practised by Sir Robert Seppings, as a text, for the purposes of abusing the inventor, and of conveying to your readers the notion, that all the improvements which he has introduced are due to the ingenuity of others. It is pretty evident, that he has only read the title of the work in question; for, if he had perused the book, he would most probably have saved himself the trouble of writing, and me the pain of answering such incorrect and malicious observations; and which are calculated only to make an impression on those who have not studied the subject. 1st. As to the mode suggested by Capt. Cowan, in the year 1805, "of filling in the timbers, and making all solid." Filling-in and caulking the frames of ships, as high as their floorheads, has been practised in this country as long as England has possessed a navy of any strength; and you will find, on reference to my work "On Preserving the Navy," (page 60,) that "Mr. Kirby, of Chatham-yard, proposed in the year 1763 to fill-in and then caulk the frames of ships, from their keels to the water's edge.' This did not rest, prior to Capt. Cowan's proposition, upon recommendation only; for Admiral Schank built in 1800 a vessel, in Mr. Dudman's yard at Deptford, with a solid frame. 2dly. The proposal of "omitting the foot-waling, and substituting diagonal riders," |