'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎211] (344/458)

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TRESH WATER BEDS. Q
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contains, wlien full, nine million cubic feet of water. Within a couple of
hundred yards of this, a magnificent tank, thirty feet in depth, and one
hundred and fifty feet eacli way, has been excavated by Sir Jamsetjee
Jejeeldioy, expected to contain 400,000 cubic feet of water. When
almost completed it was discovered that a great rush entered it near the
bottom, and the water so brackish as to be useless except for bathing
purposes, containing half the salt of ordinary sea water, though at a
distance of more than half a mile at the nearest point from the sea. It
is probable that this may either be built out or got rid of by other
means by and bye. It is a singular fact that it should appear in such
profusion, evidently not coming directly from the sea from its modi
fied degree of saltness ; yet from its uniform flow at the driest periods
of tbe year, being derived apparently from some ample but tainted source
of supply. Nearly all the wells in the Flats are more or less brackish,
as may be expected from the amount of salt with which the clav
around is impiegnated. Fiom Matoonga to Sion, over a large tract of
ground, water is generally to be procured at a depth of from ten to
twenty-five feet; and it gives us a sad view of the neglect of agriculture
on the island that, with a rich soil and a profusion of manure and
water, the land should remain barren for eight months of the year, the
cultivator being content with a single rice crop raised during the rains.
The vegetables and fruits in most demand in Bombay are all brought
from Saisette, or the islands to the north of it,—-reversing in this way the
usual economy of countries where agricultural productions of difficult
transport are raised in the neighbourhood of the point of consumption;
the rice and grain, which may be carried at a moderate charge, are
grown close by, while vegetables are brought from the interior,
and the state of matters prevails up to the very enclosure of the
gardens of the Agricultural Society. A regular register of wells
is kept by the Board of Conservancy, and a return of their condition
made periodically to the Magistrate of Police. Some years ago a
chemical report on their waters was prepared by order of the Medical
Board ; and an extension of this, so as to include all tbe wells of the
Island, would form a very valuable document.
Calcareous and siliceous spars are tbe most abundant, of the Minerals
found in Bombay, some of the latter being found in great beauty in
quarries near the Railway, near Parell, in Baboola and Pydonee Tanks