It may therefore be assumed that, owing to the entire absence of both ancient and modern wells, the sandstones of this district were practically fully charged with water at the time the first bore was sunk. The junction of the Artesian-water Sandstone with the grey shales above is usually fairly abrupt, the first flowing water being obtained as soon as the drill strikes the top of the sandstone. Where alternating sandstones and shales occur at or near the junction, the former are generally charged with water under feeble pressure, yielding flows at the surface of from 1 to 5 gallons a minute. Sometimes, indeed, the piercing of these thin bands, prior to the main body of sandstone being entered, merely results in a rise of water in the bore-hole, without actual flow. On drilling into the sandstone proper, increments of the flow are obtained at fairly frequent, though irregular, intervals of depth. At times the discharge is seen to increase slowly but steadily, while a particularly porous bed is being passed through; at others the rate of increase is so rapid as to suggest that a fissure charged with freely flowing water has been struck. As a rule, hard beds of sandstone, (the ‘shells’ of American drillers) overlie the best water-carrying layers, and though these act locally as confining beds, there almost certainly is, nevertheless, an intimate connection between different parts of the sandstone, as no persistent argillaceous bands have been met with. Loose uncemented sands may be encountered at any time, but do not seem to coincide with marked increases of flow. These ‘quicksands’ form one of the greatest difficulties with which drillers have to contend, and many bores have perforce to be discontinued owing to the impossibility of drilling through them. The loose sands ‘cave’—that is, run in from all sides—the whole wall of the bore at times falling in, throughout a length of 5 or 10 metres. The only remedy against caving is the insertion of casing, but this is generally undesirable, as it may effect the shutting off of water already obtained from the upper bands of the sandstone; in some cases, however, perforated lining may be satisfactorily employed. Of thirty-one bores finished in this district, none has failed to strike water, though three have yielded such small flows that they may be regarded as comparative failures. The average flow of the thirty-one wells, the measurements being made in each case a week or two after completion, was approximately 100 gallons a minute, the maximum being 315 and the minimum 18 gallons per minute. All bores have shown a marked decline in discharge for some time after completion, when, if isolated, they have settled down to a fairly steady flow, or at least to a flow which decreases at a constantly diminishing rate.