Page:Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 1837, volume 1.djvu/428

 424 have long been used in Italy, in the duchy of Modena; they have also been successfully applied in Holland, China, and N. America. By means of similar wells, it is probable that water may be raised to the surface of many parts of the sandy deserts of Africa and Asia, and it has been in contemplation to construct a series of these wells along the main road which crosses the Isthmus of Suez.

I have felt it important thus to enter into the theory of Artesian Wells, because their more frequent adoption will add to the facilities of supplying fresh Water in many regions of the Earth, particularly in low and level districts, where this prime necessary of Life is inaccessible by any other means; and because the theory of their mode of operation explains one of the most important and most common contrivances in the subterraneous economy of the Globe, for the production of natural springs.

By these compound results of the original disposition of the strata and their subsequent disturbances, the entire Crust of the Earth has become one grand and connected Apparatus