| Show artesian wells I 1 for some years past we have occasionally seen par paragraphs g arapis inthe in the papers about boring for fur water in charleston si uth carolina which is still pur pursued aed with great perseverance pers perse verance under many many difficulties we understand that over 1200 feet of tubing have already been let doia down ent eni and the boring is still being conducted although wili with great difficulty through a very hard sand stone twenty four gour feet of which have alread already been penetrated an artesian well is is now being bored at the suar suar t i ficery finery of bei Bel belcher cler cier st L luis luib aill ulli and has attained the great depth of 2200 feet without re reat ahing hing the pure element deep wells of small diameter made by boring for water have received the general name of asian wells a name derived from artois in france where the first one in hat that country was constructed some general account of these wells welley ancient and modern may be interesting to our readers the following account of artesian wells in amsterdam was given in in 1846 by M de thury inspector general of mines in france amsterdam on the amstel at the extremity of the derzee is situated upon modern al luv deposits of marine argillaceous sand alternate of unknown thickness hut but not be less than from thirty to fort metres and this thi hs h s rendered necessary for the foundation of iti its churches palaces and pub public sad c monuments piles driven very deep and solid the city required good water the first attempt to attain it by boring bonne was in 1605 when wiep they reached he the depth of feet the second att ampt was made in 1840 how deep they went we are not informed but some old men ay thirty to forty metres A meter is a little less than thirty nine and a half inches the third attempt was made in 1837 1827 to 1842 when they attained a d ath of maties the director of the observatory of utrecht says that after having pie pierced r ced through a bed of sea shells they entered a bed of very hard black fossil wood which some compared to the ancient piles of old london bridge others compared them to lignite below this bed they found sand alternating with beds of shells curfs turfs numerous remains of marine animals but they do not say at what depth they found these bones of animals or buried forests moro crave an engineer desired my opinion in 1845 as to the depth at which we could attain good water which would rise to the surface or above it from my observations and theories I 1 hid bid aid raid that probably at the depth of at at least metres water would be found good and corre to the surface but that it might require a depth or metres the art of boring for water ascends to the most remote antiquity it was practised practiced with great success in egypt arabia persia china india armenia greece italy and arid finally in france such buch artesian wells have been called chinese wells egyptian wells greek wells lombard wells modenese dlo Alo denese wells A great number of such wells amon among 0 others those in in the oases of the deserts of africa africa are merely artesian wells like ilke our own they went down to ahra the arabs styled he the subterranean sea in many of these the waters r rise I 1 se still above the surface of the ground forming foun bains of more or less elevation the stations of the caravans are fixed about these fountains the perpendicular direction and small diameter of these wells decide the question they were bored mechanically as we now do but we cannot say at what period they were bored or to what pi people ople opie they are due the modern artesian well in paris at the grenelle crenelle was bored by mulct to the depth of metres and the water rises in it 33 metres above the surface of the earth we are indebted to judge meigs of the american institute for the following additional facts 0 who flourished in alexandria about tile the middle of the sixth century states that when wells are duc dug in the oases of africa to the depth of two hundred three hundred and sometimes five hundred yards rivers of water gush out from heir their orifices and agriculturists use the waters to irrigate their fields the oldest artesian well known in in france is in the ancient convent of the chartreuse a celebrated monastery the capital of one of the convents of the monks at lillers Lill ersin in artois whence the name artesian Arte sion seven miles from Gree noble in old dauphiny the old is in one of the most admired and romantic situations in the whole range of the alps this artesian well is believed to have been made in the year 1126 others of great antiquity exist in stuttgart Stutt gard in the chinese are said to have made such wells i for thousands of years A at to the supply of water at great depths it was long ago believed that the water of seas entered the lower ower sainta of the earth by infiltration aristotle seneca cardan and descartes supposed that waters asare are driven drive up to the earths surface by the central heat of the globe the most natural explanation is the fail fall of rain rain which finds is i s way down and through certain strata like so many inverted siphons hons return returns to the surface the tiie celebrated fountain of van cluse comes forth a consid considerable lerable river at all seasons and gives in the driest times cubic culie feet in a minute but after great rain rains three limes that quantity the well is is in the middle oran of an ex plain where not the most insignificant hill is to be seen eu U S dia Ala magazine azine |
