Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/180



150 TO THE COLONIA AND BUENOS AIRES.

Las Barracas has its curio, an artesian well which, despite the predictions of the learned Dr. Burmeister, suc- ceeded, the water rising four metres above the soil, which it ought not to have done. Another attempt made in Calle Piedade of the city obligingly failed ; the boring tool had reached the granite gneiss, or whatever the floor rock may be, when the funds gave out.* From Las Barracas, Mr. William Wheelwright, of whom more presently, is laying down rails to Ensenada, the " Bay,^^ heir apparent to Buenos Aires, and distant thirty-eight miles. The present line begins perilously near the washing, splashing river, through

Bordeaux and Lyons : â€”
 * Section of the Barracas artesian well (June 1, 1862), sunk by MM.

Metres.

1. Sand 4 33

2. Clay (very sandy) 8-02

3. Clay (muddy) 1-05

4. Clay (plastic dark blue) 2-90

5. Tosca (with calcareous nodules) 2*30

6. Yellow sand fine and fluid, quartz, pebbles, and fluviatile

shells 28-60

7. Green clay, more or less plastic and calcareous, iron py-

rites, sea shells, nodules of lithographic limestone, part

of glyptodon's shell 20*30

8. Greensand, shells, and quartz 0"80

9. Calcareous shell stratum 0'45

10. Calcareous argile ........ 2*00

11. /Shelly grit 025

12. Green clay (sandy) 2*00

13. J Shelly grit 0-30

14. I White sandy grit 0*70

15. Very compact sandy clay 2*25

16. VCommon grit 1*40

17. Green clay, fine and fluid, shells, and quartz. . . 2*35

Total. . 80 metres. Section of the artesian well in Buenos Aires : â€”

1. Humus.

2. Argillaceous sand.

3. Compact sand.

4. Plastic clay.

6. "Tosca.

6. Fluid sand.

7. Plastic clay.

8. A mixture of several rocks.

9. Red clay to 180 metres.