The practice of sinking wells by excavating, for the purpose of obtaining water, is as ancient as any operation on record ; the pick, spade, bucket, and windlass, were the tools employed ages ago, and the well-sinker of the present day can boast of little more. But the art of Boring small holes from the surface of the ground, in order to release the pent-up water of porous strata lying at any depth below, is of more recent date. The demand for pure water has increased all over Europe as

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... tion has extended and cities have multiplied ; and as such development is always accompanied by the pollution of rivers, it has become more and more a necessity to resort to the art of boring wells, in order to obtain an adequate supply of pure water. The mineral resources of all countries have also been heavily taxed during the present century; and this has opened a large field f w the operations of sinking shafts. The first method of Well-Boring known in Europe is that called the Chinese system, in which a chisel suspended by a rope and surrounded by a tube of a few feet length is worked up and down with a jerking motion by means of a spring pole or lever at the surface. The twisting and untwisting of the rope prevent the chisel from always striking in the same place ; and by its continued bIows the rock is broken and pounded. The chisel is withdrawn occasionally, and a bucket is lowered having a hinged valve a t the bottom opening upwards, so that a quantity of the debris becomes enclosed in the bucket and is then drawn up by it to the surface ; the lowering of the bucket is repeated until the hole is cleared, and the chisel is then put to work again.