Note 177 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Water is found at the depth of a few feet, in Fezzan (Afr. Assoc. Q. p. 96: O. p. 146). The same is said by Pliny, concerning this quarter of Africa; lib. v. c. 5. But farther to the NW, on the edge of the Desert, and in the country of Wadreag in particular (Shaw, p. 135.), wells are dug to an amazing depth, and water mixed with fine sand, springs up suddenly, and sometimes fatally to the workmen. The Doctor tells us, that the people call this abyss of sand and water, “the sea below ground.” Exactly the same state of things exists in the country round London, where the sand has in several cases nearly filled up the wells. (See Phil. Trans. for 1797.) The famous well lately dug by Earl Spencer (at Wimbledon), of more than 560 feet in depth, has several hundred feet of sand in it.