The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-03-09 00:00:00

however, we must di

...cr Companies, or
either of the two projects for bringing our supply from
a distance. We wish solely that the Corporation
and the town, in order to preserve themselves from
the disastrous consequence of a false step, should
pause and weigh leisurely their position ; and, at
least, that they should, before going to Parliament,
possess themselves of more sound data in support
of their favourite scheme than they appear at pre-

leanings, either towards ti

sent to possess.
It cannot have escaped the notice of any one, who
has read the repOrt of the last Council proceedings,

that there is something in the result of the steps
taken by the Health Committee with respect to the
Pike scheme, which is reserved from the public eye.
In the report which they have just published, we
have, of engineering evidence, the opinion of Mr.
Hawkesley. Has no other Engineer examined the
country, with a view to give an opinion as to the
cost and feasibility of Mr. Hawkesley's work ?
We have Prof

,sor.Ansted'

s report as to'the geolo-

gical fitness of the country. Mr. Cunningham,
however, was selected by the Committee them-
selves ; but his report cannot be squeezed out of the
Committee. We have ProfcssorPlayfair's analysis of
the water; but at least as competent an authority—
Dr. Brett—also made an Oalysis. This is neither
given in the report, nor produced to the Council.
There is som .• irery unsatisfactory in all this.
It may be the pa
,pf an acute lawyer to afford as
little clue as possi ele to his opponent, with respect
to the weak point of his case. This, however, is
not a matter for legal subtlety to be exercised upon
It is a public oil

a national question

The pAlic require the best procurable supply of
water,—

not a victory merel

f the promoters of

the Rivington seheine over th
—and they demand the oppori

Vkrater Companies,
city of forming a

nt-with the whole case before them.
adverted to the refusal of the Health
Committee to furnish Mr. Cunningham's report ;
and, although we have not such ':report authorita-

We have

Lively before us, we hay
from other sources Of drift

ation in givin

t gentleman's

Cunningham, we understand, went
I first inspected th J lity of
the lower reservoir in the Alorwich ey, where
the filteiing tanks are to be constructed. The
strata he found tubelong to the lOwer division of
the coal formation, and the upper' eds of the mill-
stone grit. The latter is, throughout, extremely.
'fissured ; anti even allowing that, possibly at con-
siderable expense of puddling, the shale foundation
may be made impermeable as a reservoir, the mill-
stone grit, from over which the water will have to

views

'l' the district

be collected, will, Mr. Cunningham thinks, permit
lerable body to escape before reaching
In the

$ very eons',

the Rivington
.e so numerous, that the

such reservoir

scheme c

Pike range the fractur
strata resemble basaltic columns
The locality around the Anglesark Reservoir is
upon the mill-stone grit formation, which is seri-
ously fractured and very ill calculated to retain

water. A portion of the Reservoir itself is upon
the coal measures ; but it is doubtful how far they
partake of the dislocated character of the neighbour-

r-
ing strata. A Reservoir, in such a locality, must
be. puddled at a large expense, to ensure its safety as
the depository of the large body of water proposed
to be collected in them. The extent and expensive
character of this puddling may be judged of, when
we see from the section, that one, the Rivington
Reservoir, is to contain a column of water of 52
feet at its lowest point, which gives a pressure of
24 lbs. to the square inch ; and that the Anglesark
Reservoir is at its lowest point 32 feet deep, which
gives a pressure of nibs. to the inch. And this
too mon a bed, a part of which is known to be

llv unfavourable for the ret

the rest suspected of being gre-`1
Ruddlesworth B
bad strata upon

!ntion of water, and
y fissured. In the
ly situated as to the
to be formed, the

hich they

olumn of water is to be, in the West 81 feet; and
n the East 88 feet

Ttain, that a very.
.1 to for the pur-

expensive process must be res
pose of securing their retentive power, if indeed
such a result can be achieved at all. The strata
unon their ban'

moreoi

re very bad. Upon

••• ry --- 7 r
the whole the opinion of Mr. Cunningham, with
respect to all these Reservoirs, with the exception
of the lower one, is, we are informed, unequivo-
cally unfavourable. The lower Reservoir may be
secured ; but it is not certain that the country
around can supply it with the body of water which

it is calculated- to contain.
Mr: Hawksley calculates in his report of the 30th
January, contained in the pamphlet just published
by the Health Committee, that 10.400 acreP
mountainous water shed, he ,
mOdcrate estimate, 231- million of gallons per diem

;hall derive, at a

-1-31cii. will allow for 800,000 pc

per head per diem

VicabA