THE ARTESIAN WELL AT PASSY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 96, 7 March 1862, Page 6

THE ARTESIAN WELL AT PASSY.

On the subject of the new artesian well for Paris, Mr. Dumas has read a;i interesting- paper to the Academy of Sciences, in which he gives a history of the undertaking, arid of the difficulties with which tiie engineer, Mr. Kind, has had to contend. The idea of boring this welli witli the necessity of providing pure au:l' wholesome water for tiic population of Pa. It, which iua short time, had increased, from 1,200,000 souls, to ],700,000, thus materially augmenting the causes of infection to which the waters of the Seine urc necessarily subject. The successful boring of the well of Crenelle hart established the fact that the water which the local sands received from a distance, might bo made to rise to the surface, and even from 30 to 40 metres above. But the experiment had only bee3i tried for bores not exceeding a diameter of from 20 to 30 centimetres, yielding a supply of from 2000 to 4000 cubic metres of water per.day. Mr. Kind came forward with an offer to bore a well of a diameter of GO centimetres, yielding 13,300 cubic metres at an altitude of 25 metres above the highest point of the IBois de Boulogne. After a series of difficulties had been surmounted, water was found for the first time at 577.J metres, but remained a few metres below the level of the orifice. On the 24th September last, however, Mr. Kind saw not only his promise fulfilled, but evea his more sanguine hopes to .a certain extent realised, Mr Dumas here quotes Mr. Michal, inspecto-general of the works of the city, who has arrange, in a table the relative variations experienced up to the 2nd October in the yield of the two wells of Passy and Grenelle, but on this score we have a later account, stating that the decrease in the latter does not exceed one-fourth of its yield prior to the 25th penulto. On the 2nd ultimo that oft: : well at Passy was 20,000 cubic metres in "d hours. Mr Dumas, according to Gali«nani attributes the diminution of the yield at"Grenelle to a diminution of pressure ; and he is inclined to ocheve that when the tube at Passy shall have : icen brought to its normal altitude of 78 metres .-. >ove the level of the sea the yield at Grenelle will again rise to its former figure or nearly so. Whether other wells may be bored elsewhere in Paris without injury to the two existing one is a question which experience alone can decide. The we?l at Passy has cost nearly 1,000,000f. and will vleld water sufficient for the wants of 500 000 inhabitants. In an address "On Current Topics" read before the Boyal Institute of British Architects by Mr

Tito, the following passage occurs respecting the artesian well at Passy, and the attempts which have recently bean, made in various parts o( Kngland to procure nn abundant supply of water by similar means :— ''The success of the artesian well of Passy is ,ii subject of -irene interest to all who are called iipjn to dual with the supply of water to delachcd mansions, or even to small towns ; and to us Englishmen it is more interesting on account oi the recent failure to astablishsimilar wells at High gate and Jlarwich, as well as Calais and at Ostend. The boring at Passy, after passing through the same beds as had previously been traversed at Grenelle, reaching the water —bearing stratum at a depth of 1797 feet 0 inches from the surface, and the water rose to a height of 13 feet from the ground. The lower diameter of the well is about ■2 feet 4 inches, and the quantity of water it delivers has, after some oscillations, settled to about 3,791,000 gallons, per 24 houvs. At present, the sand and clay brought up by the water are in such proportions that the water is not fit for use — a f ;l ct which was also observed at Grenclle during the first year after the completion of the borings, the water rises at about 80° Fahren. One efiect of the well has been to diminish notably the yield of the Grenelle well ; and it must, therefore, for somp. time to come remain an open question as to whether or not the water-bearing stratum under Paris will be able permanently to maintain these two springs. The discussion of the failure of the attempts to obtain water in a similar manner, to which I have above referred, would extend to so great a length that I must pass it over slightly at present ; but the great lesson to be learned from it seems to me to be. that at the present day our acquaintance with the laws of geology is only sufficiently advanced to enable us to say with certainty what we shall not find beneath the surface ; in districts which have not been exposed to violent subterranean disturbances, they are utterly incapable of telling us what wo shall find. At London, Harwich, Calais, and Ostend, the lowest member of the subcretaceons formations, from which the wells f Passy and Grenelle derive their supply, is entirely wanting."

Saint Quentin Salt.—Captain Joseph Emery, of the barque Onward, has shown us a sample of excellent salt obtained by him at San Quentin, on the western coast of Mexico, in latitude 3022 north, and in longitude about It) west from Greenwich. The locality In which this indispensable article is found may be thus generally described. Sailing down south from San Francisco you pass Saint Martin's Island (a vory remarkable one), not far north of the entrance of San Quentin in latitude 30*20 north. Enteringthe inlet, yon find yourself then in a large bay, bounded, easterly, by laud of a considerable altitude, with a remarkable white bluff oh the same, and so pass on, between the sandy beach opposite to the bluff, and an intervening sand bank (dry at low tide), in a channel about five miles long with from four to eight fathoms of water. Having got so far, the visitor then finds the channel trending easterly through a sand-swash, about a half-mile wide and three-quarters of a mile loi:g, at tl c termination of which the water again lecpens. an I ranges froia four to live fathoms, until, by rounding a low point on the left (with high land at the back), you reach a terminus in a north-west direction. After this the visitor must follow easterly a narrow course (in about four fathoms) for a quarter of a mile, and then proceed north-west for a quarter of a mile further, when he will reach a bend distant about two miles from the permanent anchorage in two and a half fathoms of water. Prom this spot—the anchorage ground—the landing place of the lighters is about one mile and three quarters distant. The place where the salt is deposited is three miles and a half distant from the landing place. The salt here produced would be invaluable for the Sydney market, being specially adapted for curing* meat for long sea voyages. It is rather coarse, but beautifully white, and so_ strong that it has been found when tested to contain from ninety to ninety-five per cent.—the Liverpool salt not usually running, we believe, much above seventy per cent. The San Quentin salt is found on a, comparatively speaking, narrow neck of laud, lying between the head of the Salt Water Creek and the ocean, and is caused by the percolation of salt water at certain seasons of the year. The water, at such times, never attains to much more than a few feet in depth, and the salt is deposited by it in crystals through the evaporation caused by tbs ardent rays of the sun. There are two large natural reservoirs in which the salt is thus left, and in such quantities that it is collected in wheellur.ows and placed in large heaps for the convenience of transmission on board the lighters. The works belong to Mr. Porter, of San Francisco, whose agent on the spot is a Mr. Collins. The number of tons exported from San Quentin annually is about 1500 tons. At times when salt is in particular demand at Sydney, or at any other of the Australian colonies, it would be a areat saving of time to fetch what was urgently required from San Quentin instead of proceeding for it to Em-ope. Captain Emery has been trading, we understand, for many years, in the tropical latitudes, and has there repeatedly satisiied himself by actual experiment of the very superior quality of this salt. Beef cured in it has boen opened and kept perfectly good when it has become, under similar circumstance's, absolutely necessary to start beef cured in Liverpool salt overboard. Captian Emery is ready to afford every information on this subject which may "be desired. His vessel (the Onward) is consigned to the firm of Macnaniara, Phillips, and Company.— Sydney Paper. , What the Federal Prisoners are Doing at Richmond.—We find the following in a letter to the Charleston Courier, dated Hiclimund, August 19,1801 :— '■'The headquarters of the Yankee prisoners still continue to be the picture gallery of tin; town. You may iilways find there a crowd of idlers staring' at the guard "windows on cither side of the street, studying human nature and speculating audibly as to the"various incidents of the hour. Sortie of the "fellows hnve no change of linen, and neefssarily must go shirtless while that useful article mvJersroos the drying process after a wash. Those who have the means are allowed the privilege of remedying this want. Those who have not, have, in somo instance, been voluntarily provided from the wardrobe of our own men. The officers occupy au apartment by themselves, and fare, perhaps, more comfortably. Cougrfssmiim Fly, they say, grows fat upon his diet. The'others are in good health. Among their amusement are those of card playing, psalm singinu-, cursing, and debating. The latter is almost nightly the occupation of the officers—Fly acts as the moderator of the meeting, or occasionally takes a hand himself. Huson, his Congressional competitor, a jolly, good-natured soul, by the way, fat, funny, interesting—is the leading speaker, and the smaller guns predominate in the intellectual battery according to their various calibres. The subjects are anything and everything you can imagine, ranging of ithe gamut from the'solemn to the ridiculous., . Their ' subiect last evening was derived from the following simple incident:—A newsboy who had been in the habit of selliug his newspapers at three, suddenly rose his price up to five cents, and on malting his accustomed sale in the morning to one of the prisoners, the latter refused to ' come down.' The young vendor was equa'ly inexorable, and finally carried his point and received the amount of his demand. This nss in stocks was reported to the Yankee conclave, whereupon the question was raised whether it was right for the boy tojew the man or the man to jew the boy. The discussion thus commenced in the social circle was carried into the debating society, and after the usual pros and cons, it was finally settled by the Honorable Speaker, Ely ; that the boy being tho sole aud undisputed owner of tho property, and the said property not being contraband of war, and no concatenation of circumstances having arisen to obstruct the right thereby vested in the original possessor of the aforesaid vehie'e of information, the right was undoubtedly inherent in the a.lolessent merchant to iloterminc for himself the incipient value of his goods, and to charge for the same accordingly, ad valorem duties to the coutrary notwithstanding. Exception was taken to the ruling of the chair, and Mr. Huson proceeded to quote Shakspeare, and Byron, and Tom Moore, in support of his position. Others followed in the Senatorial burlesque, quoting, amid shouts of laughter, scraps of' Latin, French, aud Irish, telling stones and even singing songs until bedtime arrived, when the party retired to their blankets. ' There's a sweet for every bitter..' the poet says, and the prisoners are doing all they can to extract, it. I have observed a number of them at large on the street. One of these was a New York Zouave, sporting, large as life, his fireman's badge, and drinking at one of the public bars, with all the gusto of a new fledged freeman, to the success of the Southern Confederacy. Some gentlemen asked him how he came there 1 ' Oh!' was the reply, 'my friends have some influence with Gen. Winder, and I am allowed privileges the others don't enjoy.' . So it seemed. Another of these worthies at large is named Connelly—a sergeant. His father, fortunately,! has made half a million or more out of the Richmond people, and on this account he is allowed the freedom of the city while the poor civilians who were taken after the battle are still closely escouced. You see there is yet a good deal of truth in the homely adage that ' money makes the mare go.' . The officer in charge of the prisoners is Major Todd, a brother-in-law of Lincoln—so, at least, I have been informed.