proposed to apply the heat o f ascending springs
to the warming o f green houses. Artesian wells
have long been used in Italy, in the duchy o f
M od en a ; they have also been successfully applied
in Holland, China,* and N. America. B y
means o f similar wells, it is probable that water
may be raised to the surface o f many parts o f
the sandy deserts o f A frica and Asia, and it has
been in contemplation to construct a series o f
* An economical and easy method of sinking Artesian Wells
and boring for coal, &c, has recently been practised near Saar-
bruck, by M. Sellow. Instead of the tardy and costly process
o oring with a number of Iron Rods screwed to each other, one
heavy Bar of cast Iron about six feet long and four inches in
diameter, armed at its lower end with a cutting Chisel, and surrounded
by a hollow chamber, to receive through valves, and
bnng up the detritus of the perforated stratum, is suspended from
the end of a strong rope, which passes over a wheel or pulley
xed above the spot in which the hole is made. As this rope
is raised up and down over the wheel, its tortion gives to the
Bar of Iron a circular motion, sufficient to vary the place of the
cutting Chisel at each descent.
When the chamber is full, the whole apparatus is raised
quickly to the surface to be unloaded, and is again let down by
the action of the same wheel. This process has been long practised
in China, from whence the report of its use has been
rought to Europe. The Chinese are said to have bored in this
manner to the depth of 1000 feet. M. Sellow has with this instrument
lately made perforations 18 inches in diameter, and
several hundred feet deep, for the purpose of ventilating coal
mines at Saarbruck. The general substitution of this method
for the costly process of boring with rods of iron, may be of
much public importance, especially where water can only be
obtained from great depths. J
these wells along the main road which crosses
the Isthmus of Suez.
I have felt it important thus to enter into the
theory o f Artesian Wells, because their more
frequent adoption will add to the facilities of
supplying fresh Water in many regions o f the
Earth, particularly in low and level districts,
where this prime necessary o f Life is inaccessible
by any other means ; and because the theory o f
their mode o f operation explains one of the most
important and most common contrivances in the
subterraneous economy o f the Globe, for the production
o f natural springs.
B y these compound results o f the original disposition
o f the strata and their subsequent disturbances,
the entire Crust o f the E arth has become
one grand and connected Apparatus o f Hydraulic
Machinery, cooperating incessantly with the Sea
and with the Atmosphere, to dispense unfailing
supplies of fresh Water over the habitable surface
o f the Land.*
Among the incidental advantages arising to
Man from the introduction of Faults and Dislo cations
of the strata, into the system o f curious
arrangements that pervade the subterranean eco-
* The causes of intermitting Springs, and ebbing and flowing
wells, and many minor irregularities in the Hydraulic Action
of natural vents of water, depend on local Accidents, such as the
interposition of Syphons, Cavities, &c., which are scarcely of sufficient
importance to be noticed, in the general view we are here
taking of the Causes of the Origin of Springs.