124 WELLS ON FOWLNESS ISLAND.
well was 430 feet deep. I remember the distaste we of the
Rectory had for the water therefrom, at such times as the
exhaustion of our rainwater tanks compelled dependence on our
neighbour's supply. In 1872, a wellsinker named Purkiss
furnished me with the following record, from memory, and
therefore not trustworthy enough for official publication.
I used its total in the compilation of my map of the underground
contour of the Chalk (Essex Naturalist v., pl. iii., 1891), now
demonstrated to require correction in respect of the neighbour-
hood of Fowlness. Purkiss' account was:—Mud, sand, &c.,
20ft.; sandy clay, 15ft.; sand, 15ft.; gravel, 16ft. ; blue clay,
350ft. ; sandy clay, 50ft. ; green sand, 4ft. ; shells and pebbles,
8ft.; total 478ft. The alluvial total of 66ft. is practically a mean
between the 56ft. of the Gibson well and the 75ft. 6in. of the
well of 1886, of which the section follows:—
I should perhaps apologise to Mr. Whitaker for trespass on
his prerogative of publishing well-sections, but the interest of
the above lies so much in the detail of the alluvial deposits, that
they hardly come into the category of such as he makes his
speciality, viz., extending to more than one of the older