VOLUME 2.
Devoted to the Seaboard Air Line, and the Agricultural and Industrial Interests of the South.
PORTSMOUTH, VA„ NOVEMBER, 18%.
NUMBER 8.
THE POISON IN THE WELL.
By
»'•
J- McGee. V. S. Ucological Survey.
A clear, cold spring bubbling from moss covered
rocks in a shady dell was the dream of the pioneer.
Sleeping and waking, this vision haunted his brain, as
the brain of one of the lirst of his kind was haunted by
the dream of a fount of perpetual youth. From the
mysterious sunset land rumors of game tilled wood¬
lands. broad rivers and sparkling trout brooks,
awaiting transformation Into fertile llelds and ways
of commerce and mill powers, floated away with the
west wind and fanned into flame the home seeking
spirit smoldering in a thousand breasts: yet. while the
home seeker thought and sjs.ke and dreamed of fertile
fields and busy mills supplying lines of water craft,
with interludes of rod and gun. the refreshing and
I supply these, and the river in which the waters go
I down to the sea. all flow on a definite surface the sur-
■ face of the land. This surface is not a plane, and is
never, save in isolated spots, horizontal: it curves
under the stream to form its channel, and rises gently
or steeply in shelving shore or cliffy bank: it expands
on one or both sides of the waterway Into the nearly
level "bottom land" or flood plain fashioned by the
rushing flood of the freshet: beyond the flood plain it
rises in rounded hills, or battlemented bluffs, or but¬
tressed salients, according to the type of the country,
and these higher lands arc cleft here and there by the
ways of larger eflluents which maybe gentle valleys,
! precipitous ravines or rugged gorges again, according
to the type of the country: finally the surface rises
into divides or water partings, sometimes nearly flat,
commonly rounded Into gently undulating hills, rarely
A HISTORICAL LANDMARK, PORTSMOUTH. VA., ONCE THE HEADQUARTERS OF LAFAYETTE. OF I.ATE
YEARS USED AS OFFICES BY THE SEABOARD AIR LINK.
health giving spring was a feature in every picture. |
often the central feature about which all others clus- |
tcred. So the stalwart invader of the red man's
domain looked first for a land to his liking, and then
sought among its hills and valleys for the clear, cool
spring of his dream: and when he found it. there his
household gods were enshrined. Then children grew
up. neighbors
саше,
and the cabin became a house¬
hold. and later the nucleus of a settlement. In this
way 10,000 American settlements were located: and
many hundreds of these have become towns, and some
of them great cities.
The pioneer accepted the spring as a gift of bounti¬
ful providence or as the meed of patient search, to be
enjoyed without ingrate question; and the origin of
the water was a half sacred mystery. Ignorant of the
source of the crystal flood, he neglected the precau- j
lions necessary to preserve its purity, even to prolong
its existence: so the fountain was sometimes jsilluted. ,
often dried up hundreds of cases of typhoid fever ;
have been traced to the waters of erstwhile healthful j
rising into the sharp crests characteristic of ‘bad
lands" and mountains— but from the uttermost rim of
the drainage basin to the river's mouth all parts of the
surface slope, gently or steeply, but ever downward
and inward, toward the petty tributary, toward the
brook, toward the river, eventually toward the sea:
the whole surface. Indeed, being one of delicate mold¬
ing by the running waters of rills, brooks and rivers,
expressing in all lts parts the marvelous harmony of
interaction between active storm and passive soil
but that is another story. In like manner the subter¬
ranean stream flows on a surface, albeit less definite,
less uniform and less harmonious than that of the
land a surface of water or saturated rock. Of such
surfaces there are two distinct types, giving character
to different kinds of springs.
The prevailing type of subterranean flowage sur¬
face Is closely related to the land surface. When the
rain falls on the land a part gathers In rills, rivulets
and
Ьгоокн.
and flows away to the sea. while another
ESMEHELDA INN, ONE AND A HALF MILES WEST OF CHIMNEY ROCK. N. C.. SEABOARD AIR LINE.
springs, and half the springs known to the first settlers
have ceased to flow. The pioneer dreamed of the
spring: his children cherished it until It dwindled away
or |K»isoned their systems: his grandchildren sought
the source of the waters, that the supply might be re¬
newed and purifled. Thus the nature of the spring has
become known.
A spring is simply the opening or embouchure of a
subterranean stream: and in many ways the subter¬
ranean stream is very like the brook flowing on the
surface. Like the brook it makes for itself a bed: like
the brook, too, it is led by tributary rivulets and trick¬
ling drops, and increases In volume with the number
and size of these effluents; again like the brook, it
drains a definite area or drainage basin: and as
among brooks, so in subterranean streams, the volume
varies in a general way with the area of the drainage
basin. So the small spring commonly represents the
drainage of a small area, and the larger spring a
larger basin: the waters of a small spring may all
come from within rifle shot, while the sources of the
water of larger springs arc more remote, sometimes.
Indeed, quite distant.
In one way the subterranean stream and the brook
arc partly alike, partly unlike. The brook, with its
l’ I >ut ary rivulets, the storm born rills by which they
are fed and the trickling waters of the hillsides which
part is absorbed into the earth: and the absorbed
water percolates downward through the porous soil in
which it remains long enough to form a reservoir on
which growing plants draw at will, but Anally the resi¬
due finds its way into the deeper subsoils and porous
rocks, which are thereby kept perpetually moist. This
perpetual moisture Is commonly known as "ground
water" ; for above its level the earth is commonly too
dry to yield water, while within the moist horizon
water circulates freely, and soon fills natural or arti¬
ficial openings.
The depth of the ground water horizon varies with
! the rainfall, the steepness of slopes, the porosity of
soils and rocks, and many other conditions: but in
I general It is fairly uniform throughout each surface
drainage basin, and accordingly the land surface of
each drainage system has a subterranean double,
which, albeit ill-dellned and variable, imitates the ma¬
jor features of its model. The chief difference be¬
tween the land surface and the ground water surface
is one of individuality; the land surface rises into
higher and sharper crests, sinks into deeper and
sharper ravines, than the ground water surface. Ac¬
cordingly. when the land surface is exceptionally rug¬
ged it sometimes happens that its deeper ravines in¬
tersect the ground water surface, when the moisture
exudes in the bottom or trickles down the sides of the
ravine. This intersection of land surface and moisture
surface most commonly occurs when the latter is
raised by persistent rains, and is the explanation of
the long continued but gradually decreasing flow of
temporary streams as summer advances or as the
drought is prolonged.
• • •
Now when the land Is rugged and the ground water
horizon is permanently above the level of the surface
stream, the moisture exuding from the porous rocks
gradually opens passages or channels extending into
the hills, and with the elongation and bifurcation of
these passages they are gradually
transformed into subterranean
streams with tributaries flowing In
I from right and left, and to sonic ex¬
tent from above and below, but all
! marking approximately the horizon
of the ground water : In this way
there is gradually developed a sub¬
terranean drainage system simulat¬
ing. albeit in vague and variable
fashion, the surface drainage system;
and the embouchure of the subter¬
ranean stream is the spring of which
the pioneer dreamed.
So the spring whose source Is the
ground water derives Its supply from
the rains which supply also the sur¬
face stream of the same drainage
basin: when the hills are deforested,
a larger proportion of the storm wat¬
ers runs off in freshets and
л
less
proportion percolates into the earth,
so that the ground water level is
lowered and the spring dwindles or
fails; so. too. when the land surface
is polluted with noxious fertilizers,
or when stables and shambles are
located on the slopes above tin- 4|,Tlng.
| its waters are polluted : and while
the percolating waters may be partly
purified in passing through the porous
soil and subsoil, some part of the poi¬
son often remains the nectar of the
! pioneer Is hemlock for his children.
* • ®
The second type of underflow sur¬
face sometimes merges into, some¬
times independently coexists with,
the first, though its essential features
are widely different. The lands
of the earth are not allkj^ from the
surface to the depths, but are made
up of beds or layers which are di¬
verse In texture and variable In
thickness. These beds represent sheets of sediment
laid down in the sea or in lakes or bays during earlier
ages of earth building. Originally they were nearly
horizontal, and here and there this attitude persists:
but commonly they are more or less Inclined, some¬
times vertical, sometimes indeed overturned in mount¬
ainous regions. Now while a part of the storm waters
sink Into the earth and percolate Into the deep lying
rock formations, they circulate more freely in the open
textured porous layers than in the close textured lay¬
ers lying between: and if the strata incline uniformly
in one direction the moisture gradually finds its way I
down the inclination until the porous strata are satu- '
rated. In this way the varying texture of the strata
comes to be represented by varying
moisture, and each porous bed be- j
comes what is known among hydro¬
logists as a "phreatic** horizon, which
is measurably Independent of surface
drainage and closely dependent on
Structu le.
Whenever such a porous bed is in¬
tersected by a ravine the waters ex-
ude and gradually form a subterra- j
nean channel with tributary channels
dividing into seepage passages, event- I
ually Into a complete subterranean
drainage system, and the embouchure |
isa spring: and the waters of such a !
spring may come from a long dis- j
tance, ami if the distant margin of
the Inclined porous stratum opens to I
sun and storm well up among the I
hills or on the mountain side, the I
waters may have a strong "head."
and gush forth In a natural fountain, i
The subterranean phreatic
streams of tills type (and to
some extent those of the
ground water type) vary in
form, size and extent with the
character of the materials
through which they percolate.
If the porous material is sand-
stone or unconsolidated sand,
the waters trickle slowly and
seldom f-*rm large passages,
and the stream may be little
more than a mass of moisture
working its way adown the
sloping strata at measured
and nearly uniform pace;
while If the material is lime¬
stone, it is gradually dissolved
and the original openings are
enlarged Into channels and
eventually Into great tunnels
ever lengthening and bifurcating until the hills
are honeycombed with caverns and pitted with
" sinks."' and in some cases (as in the Hlue Grass
region of Kentucky) subterranean streams take
the place of surface drainage, and sometimes
burst forth. Juno-like, in full-sized rivers like
the elfin Silver spring of Florida and the en¬
chanting Oklawaha river in which Its shining
waters are slowly darkened.
So the ” phreatic ” spring, whose source Is in
I the deep lying porous stratum, derives itssup-
| ply from a distance, and its flow Is little affected
I by local deforesting, and its waters are seldom
polluted by local causes ; the fortune of the
pioneer who found such a spring is handed
down from generation to generation with un¬
diminished value, and the nectar of the father is nec¬
tar for his children.
The pioneer enshrined his lares and penates be¬
side the spring, and his followers sought other springs
in the same and neighboring valleys until every natural
fountain of the woodland marked a household shrine:
and when all were taken. later comers crowded around
the springs of the early comers, and settlements grew
up with a well trodden path connecting each house
with the nucleal fountain and this was the first stage
in the conquest of the American woodlands stretching
from the seaboard to the Mississippi and from the gulf
to the great lakes. But even when the springs were
utilized to the full, the stream of settlement contin¬
ued to flow; It was found that the uplands a)>ovc the
ground water level, above the reach of the gurgling
spring waters, yielded more readily to the plow and
produced more abundantly than the steep hillside and
the bosky dell, and accordingly the sparse population
of the pioneer stage grew over the divides; then roads
were made, forests were cleared, towns were built,
and all but the most Intractable acres were put to the
plow or turned Into pasture— and this was the second
The prevailing type of well Is simply a reservoir
excavated in the ground water horizon forming the
subterranean double of the surface drainage basin.
Commonly the reservoir is filled by the exuding moist¬
ure from the pervious subsoil, so that when little used
the water marks the ground water level, though it may
easily be pumped out. If the subsoil Is exceptionally
p:»rous the exuding moisture may gradually open
passages through which the water trickles or even
streams Into the reservoir, when the well is a strong
one. competent to supply stock or engine boilers as well
LOGAN HOUSE. THREE MILKS EAST OF CHIMNEY HOCK. N. G\. SEABOARD AIR LINE.
stage In the conquest of the American wilderness.
With the increase in population ami the clearing
of forests, the flowing springs became too few and
then shrunk until a half dried up; so one and another j
of the pioneers, and at last nearly all ot the settlers
were driven to well digging. At first the failing spring
was deepened as the level of ground water lowered,
and the spring became a well: then other wells were
located on spots whose moisture indicated the prox¬
imity of ground water; still later well sites were
chosen at random, and some yielded bounteous supplies
of cool, refreshing waters, while others were barren.
So well digging went on apace, until no homestead was
complete without its well, until the husbandman came
to dream of the "old oaken bucket" as his father
dreamed of the clear, cool spring, until it came about
that the water supply of the country was no longer
dipped from the natural spring, but drawn from the
artificial well. ...
The spirit of the pioneer who accepted the spring
as a guerdon of the gods clung to his descendants, and
some of them, groping blindly for water lore. Invoked
the aid of magic in locating their wells, and the plague
of the water wizard fell on the land; and from county
to county, from settlement to settlement, from house
to house, the craze of water witching spread, deluding
thousands and delaying knowledge. Blinded by the
glitter of phantasm, the settler of the third generation
knew even less of the source of the earth given waters
than the pioneer: so he. too, neglected the precautions
necessary to preserve the purity and prolong the life
of the crystal flood, and the wells were often polluted,
sometimes dried up. But when the water wizard
failed, ami failed again and again until he fell Into
deserved contempt, when the physician traced the out¬
break of typhoid fever to the well, and when the waters
as human consumers. But whether weak or strong,
the ground water well depends for its supply on the
rain falling in its Immediate vicinity: so the supply
waxes and wanes with the wetness and dryness of the
season, and falls when the neighboring hills are de¬
forested; and the waters are polluted by local poisons
coining from ill-used fertilizers, Ill-placed barn yards,
ill-designed out-houses.
The clear, cool spring of the pioneer was pure, and
the ground water well of the early settler was nearly
as pure; but with increasing settlement and with the
manifold attendant transformations of natural con¬
ditions the earth beneath barns, houses, gardens, even
fields Is gradually charged with the noxious by¬
products of organic activity, and year by year these
are washed deeper and deeper into the soil and event¬
ually pervade the ground water horizon. The poison
finds its way into spring and well alike; but in the
spring it Is diluted and washed away in the flowing
waters, while in the well it. gathers as a grisly leaven
which infects the reservoir and its contents and
changes the erstwhile healthful flood into festering
tilth; and curiously- -and herein lies the greatest dan¬
ger — as the flllh increases the waters become pellucid,
sparkling, even brilliant to the eye, sweet and palat¬
ably salt to the taste, so that the appetite of the habit¬
ual user craves the poison and rejects the pure.
• • •
How far the ground water wells of the country are
already polluted no man may say: but certain It is that
whole countrysides are annually swept by typhoid
fever, that hundreds of towns and villages suffer out¬
breaks of the same disease during every dry summer,
and that each epidemic is traceable to the wells; and
It may fairly be questioned whether every ground
water well in city or town is not a source of Imminent
ILVEK LAKE, NEAR GRKYSTONE, N. C.. SEABOARD AIR LINE.
dried uj)
fourth g.
fathers i
the wa'te
came kne
A wcl
of its sup
danger c
natural >
types, cc
" ground
• long summer, the husbandmen of the
Ion profited by the experience of their
•rc wisely sought to renew and purify
г
supply; and thus the nature of wells be-
>wn.
1 is simply an artificial spring, and in the laws
►ply. In its evanescence or permanence. In the
>f contamination It is very much like the
tprlng gurgling cheerily in the shady dell,
gly, the wells of the country belong to two
responding to the two kinds of springs,
water " and *' phreatic."
danger, and whether any such well located hard by
village house or country barn is safe. So the groaning
sweep and creaking windlass, once beacons of health
and the inspiration of the poet, are become signals of
danger.
The well of the second type derives Its supply from
deep-lying strata In which the slow moving moisture
or subterranean stream is carried miles or even scores
or hundreds of miles from the hills or mountain sides
on which It originally fell; if an impervious bed over-
(Conllnucd on Second
Роус.)
