WCP2519

[1]¹

ONE ACRE,

MILFORD ON SEA,

HANTS.

16 June 1913

Dear M^r Wallace,

I have looked up the geology of Worth Matravers², & find that on your land the lower Purbeck Beds³ (impervious shales & shaly limestones) will probably be from 120 to 150 feet thick. Below this you will find the Portland Stone⁴, which ought to yield plenty of good water, though somewhat hard. The water will not rise to the surface.

Some small springs are given out from the thin limestones in the Lower Purbeck Beds, & the one on your tracing is probably one of these. But I should not advise taking this water, for it will be excessively hard, & also it may fail in times of drought, or be liable to contamination [2] from the village.

I am sorry that I cannot give you an estimate of the cost, for though it is quite straightforward work in this case prices vary greatly in different localities. The best way would be to get an estimate from a local well-borer who is accustomed to this class of work — I have not access to a Dorset Directory & do not know who is in business now.

Probably the well-sinker would estimate under these heads — cost of boring not over 150 feet, cost of lining tubes, cost of deep-lift pump. I am afraid that you must reckon on having to lift the water 100 feet, and this pump is a good part of the expense.

Several N. & S. faults are seen in the cliff, and this makes estimates of depth somewhat uncertain, for we cannot trace these faults inland. You may perhaps meet the Portland [3] Beds within 100 feet of the surface; but it would not be safe to reckon on this.

If there is a Swanage⁵ or Corfe Castle⁶ well-sinker, accustomed to these strata, he would probably give a lower price than one from a distance[.]

A dry well is in many respects the most satisfactory; but I am afraid that now- a-days the cost of sinking over 100 feet is too great[.]

I have no official work now; but I find that the main effect of my retirement is that I commence work at 9 o’clock instead of at 10. We have in hand a most interesting Pliocene⁷ flora from Holland, of somewhat earlier date than the one already examined. [A] Great part of the plants belong to eastern Asia, not to Europe & we keep finding living Japanese & Chinese species. Unfortunately the contemporaneous fauna is utterly unknown at present; but the plants bring out strongly the fact that the Palearctic⁸ region is all one, & formerly was much more uniform. We are now trying to make out what has caused this wholesale extermination of Chinese & Japanese trees & shrubs in Europe. It is not merely a question of increasing cold.

We are doing a monograph on this flora (at least 150 species) & have a number of photographs to take. As soon as this work is more advanced I must try & run over & see you. Please give my kindest remembrances to M^rs Wallace & your daughter.

Yours sincerely | Clement Reid⁹ [signature]

I send for your acceptance a copy of my little book¹⁰, just out.