ARTESIAN WELLS--NOT EVERYWHERE ATTAINABLE. The popular theory prevailing a few years since that ar tesian wells might be obtained anywhere by penetrating the earth's crust to a sufficient depth received its refutation in the grand experiment made in 1858 by the legislature of Ohi at the capitol of that State. Artesian wells are obtained by boring into the earth's crust until subterranean reservoirs or streams of water are reached ; but unless these supplies have their sources at an elevation higher than the mouth of the wells the water cannot rise to the surface. These subterranean reservoirs
ARTESIAN WELLS--NOT EVERYWHERE ATTAINABLE. The popular theory prevailing a few years since that ar tesian wells might be obtained anywhere by penetrating the earth's crust to a sufficient depth received its refutation in the grand experiment made in 1858 by the legislature of Ohi at the capitol of that State. Artesian wells are obtained by boring into the earth's crust until subterranean reservoirs or streams of water are reached ; but unless these supplies have their sources at an elevation higher than the mouth of the wells the water cannot rise to the surface. These subterranean reservoirs are not lakes or large bodies of imprisoned waters but beds of sand or porous rocks saturated with water capable of motion. Such borings have produced an abundance of water at Paris and other South Carolina and other States in our own country. Now to understand why one district will yield water in every boring made to the proper depth while another will yield none we must examine the difference in their geological characteristics. Geological science only can solve the mystery. Surrounding Paris at a considerable distance from the city there appears at the surface an immense bed of porous silicious rocks through which water easily percolates and which rests on strata impervious to water. The strata of this porous bed of rock dip from all directions toward the city indicating that they pass beneath it thus forming a vast basin having a depth of about fifteen hundred to two thousand feet at its center. This basin is filled by the rocks of the chalk and ter tiary formations so as to bring the surface of the country to nearly a common level—the outer rim of the basin however tion rests upon the porous silicious rocks and is impervious to water. The tertiary formation overlies the chalk and the two together have a thickness of many hundred feet. The rains falling upon the outer margin of the basin sink freely ing the strata constant'y saturated with water create a pressure of that
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