Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells: With Geological Considerations and Examples of Wells ExecutedSpon, Ernest
Science
Water Supply: the Present Practice of Sinking and Boring Wells: With Geological Considerations and Examples of Wells Executed
Spon, Ernest
Boring; Water-supply; Wells
In this latter section the mottled clays have nearly disappeared, and
are replaced by beds of sand with thin seams of mottled clays. At
Twyford, near Reading, and at Old Basing, near Basingstoke, the mottled
clays again occupy, as at Hedgerley, nearly the whole space between the
London clays and the chalk. Near Reading a good section of these beds
was exhibited in the Sonning cutting of the Great Western Railway; they
consisted chiefly of mottled clays. At the Katsgrove pits, Reading, the
beds are more sandy. Referring back to Fig. 6, it may be noticed that
there is generally a small quantity of water found in the bed marked 1,
in parts of the neighbourhood of London. Owing, however, to the constant
presence of green and ferruginous sands, traces of vegetable matters and
remains of fossil shells, the water is usually indifferent and
chalybeate. The well-diggers term this a slow spring. They well express
the difference by saying that the water creeps up from this stratum,
whereas that it bursts up from the lower sands 3, which is the great
water-bearing stratum. In the irregular sand-beds interstratified with
the mottled clays between these two strata water is also found, but not
in any large quantity.
[Illustration: Section at Pebble Hill.
Fig. 9.]
Fig. 9 is a section at the western extremity of the Tertiary district at
Pebble Hill, near Hungerford. Here again the mottled clays are in
considerable force, sands forming the smaller part of the series.
The following lists exhibit the aggregate thickness of all the beds of
sand occurring between the London clay and the chalk at various
localities in the Tertiary district. It will appear from them that the
mean results of the whole is very different from any of those obtained
in separate divisions of the country. The mean thickness of the deposit
throughout the whole Tertiary area may be taken at 62 feet, of which 36
feet consist of sands and 26 feet of clays; but as only a portion of
this district contributes to the water supply of London, it will
facilitate our inquiry if we divide it into two parts, the one westward
of and including London, and the other eastward of it, introducing also
some further subdivisions into each.
MEASUREMENT OF SECTIONS EASTWARD OF LONDON.
+---------------------+-----+-----+
|Southern Boundary. |Sand.|Clay.|
+---------------------+-----+-----+
| | ft. | ft. |
|Lewisham | 65 | 26 |
|Woolwich | 66 | 18 |
|Upnor | 80? | 8 |
|Herne Bay | 70? | 50 |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| +-----+-----+
| Average | 70 | 25 |
+---------------------+-----+-----+
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