Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1908-11-20
ARTESIAN WELLS.

If g. man cuts his foot it bleeds, and
If the earth is cut sufficiently deep il
bleeds water. The spring in the desert
is but the overflow of water supply
deeper or shallower as the case may be,
but the flow comes always from some
subterranean stream. Whence comes
this supply, neverfailing, everlasting?
The earth is full of water-currents.
Probably there are great many more
streams underground than above-in-
deed this seems certain, and in some
parts of our country, as in certain
locations in Florida, holes suddenly
appear in the earth and deep rivers are
seen-fresh-water rivers. One of the
most curious of these is seen 10 miles off
the Florida coast, near the town of st.
AIMS, where great spring of fresh
water boils up in the oceap-a stream
half mile wide. From this ocean
spring Confederate cruisers used to
obtain their water when access to the
land was impossible.
The most arid plains, the most parched
deserts, if the proper steps are taken,
yield water in abundance. The great
Sahara. that trackless and sandy waste.
is found to give water in abundance by
tapping the ground with an artesian
well, and places not few in that sandy
plain have been made to blossom as
the rose" by the boring of an artesian
well; and palm trees grow and flourish
and green grass springs up where sand
and drought existed.
Here, in our own neighborhood, good
artesian water is found at comparatively
shallow depths. In Essex county good
wateris gotten at 200 feet or thereabouts.
Here. nearer the Bay, the depth is con-
siderably greater, but in no case perhaps
is LOCO feet needed. The quantity is
regulated somewhat by the size of the
bore, but the quality of the water is
fairly uniform.
1t is stated by writer's that in india,
the land of famine, water can be reached
almost any where at easy depths, and
that wherever well exists the land
tiller is in no fear of starvation. The
land is fertile and the water from his
well waters his little crop and he is safe.
The apathy of the natives is such that
they will not take the trouble to drive
wells and so perish, with relief under
foot.
Lately the great plains of Australia,
frequently subject to the most destruct-
i've droughts, have been found to contain
immense water supplies at no great
depth-rivers Of water, miles wide, it is
stated-fiowing freely. When these
streams are availed of, that country will
become one of the first on earth.
The difficulties of boring wells is
sometimes insuperable. One of the
hotels in Washington undertook some
years ago to bore a well to supply the
establishment with water, but after
going down about 1900 feet the tool
was broken off and it was found impos-
sible to recover it, and the well was
abandoned. This luck however is un-
usual. and does not deter the well-borer
from success.
Evidently water that rises in a well
and flows out of the top must have a
source at some point higher than the
wells mouth, and considerably higher
in most cases. The deepest artesian
wells in this vicinity probably rise in the
Appalachian range, hundreds of miles
distant, certainly well above our table
lands of the Rappahannock Valley.
But wells such as that of Grenelle, in
France. 1,797 feet deep, must have sour
ces far away indeed. This well, one of
the deepest in the world, pours out
800, ,OOO gallons in "a hours. There is
another near by, 1923 feet deep, which
has flow of $500. 900 gallons daily.
Although the Grenelle well has been
in flow since 1841 the stream has not
diminished.
There is well at Bourne, in England.
which though but 90 feet deep, yields
557. 900 gallons Of good water day.
There is one at st. Louis which is 2, 1893
feet deep and only yields rs gallons per
minute. and this is not drinkable. One
at Louisville, KY, is 2,O86 feet deep,
gives 100000 gallons day, while one
at Chicago 700 feet deep has flow of
4S2.0 900 gallons a day. In Iriquois
county, Ill. there are 200 wells within
range of 20 miles, and although the
average depth is not over 70 feet, the
aggregate flow of water is estimated at
So, 600. 900 gallons daily.
So the earth bleeds, is full of the life
giving fluid. and man only has to tap
it to sufficient depth to find water,
water everywhere.
The time will come when our country
springs, SO long considered absolutely
healthful, will become contaminated as
the population grows denser, and our
only source of pure water will be down,
down in the deuths of the earth And