Philip,
    Your description of the Newfoundland wells is quite fascinating, 
particularly
your description of emptying a well.  We have a 17th century description 
of drawing brine from the well "until the pump will go no more" - from 
which I deduce there was no more water to pump.  I never quite undertood 
that, though I guessed it might happen if the pump was faster than the 
brine emptying into the pit !...as you now confirm.

There were three sites in this town where three brine springs erupted at 
the surface but the quantity of brine available at each was not the same. 
 Nor was the quantity of brine available.  However, it is clear that the 
quantity is not governed by the number of springs emptying into each pit 
(which varies).  
    When they attempted to dig wells (actually pits through which they 
then sunk boreholes to deeper levels to reach the underground stream), 
they did not always succeed to tapping the stream.  

Bea 

     

On 3/30/99 6:22 AM Philip Hiscock writes:

>
>On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Bea Hopkinson wrote:
>>    Was interested in your comment that the water had to be completely
>> drained and I wonder how you would do that given that the well was tapping
>> a groundwater source tht couldn't presumably be shut off?  Any thoughts on
>> this?
>
>Bea,
>	The wells in which Newfoundlanders often put trout are usually
>groundwater wells, though a highly prized well will tap a spring.  (In
>searching for a good place to dig a well, a knowledge of "underground
>streams" and a facility for divining their presence are also highly
>prized.)  Draining a well of this sort is not _very_ difficult, though
>somewhat time-consuming:  it consists of taking a lot of water out as
>quickly as possible.  I had to do this once about twenty-five years ago.
>We used five-gallon buckets at first and smaller ones later.
>	The water immediately starts coming into the well again, causing
>it to be very cloudy and filled with gritty bits for a time, but most
>well-owners seem to feel this process is good periodic maintenance anyway
>for exactly the reason that it cleans up the sides of the well.
>	The term "spring well" here is often used to refer to a more open
>pool of water, the headwater of a small stream, and usually only after it
>has been cleared and opened by someone. The term is used sometimes in
>contrast to just "well" (meaning a hole in the ground collecting
>groundwater or collecting the water from an underground spring).  Wells
>are usually kept covered while spring wells are open to the weather.  I
>was talking last week to man who lives about 10 miles outside St John's
>and who has a little brook running through his property, a brook that
>moves perhaps five gallons of water a second.  He told me that sixty years
>ago he and his father opened up the the headwater of the brook at a spot a
>couple of hundred yards up the hill behind his house and discovered it was
>fed by three or four small springs.  They joined the springs together into
>a small open pool that he calls "the river's reservoir."  His reservoir is
>what some people would call a "spring well." 
>	I don't think it would be possible to drain a spring well like
>his. 
>
>				Philip
>
>
>   ============================================================|
>   | Philip Hiscock, PhD    -------   [log in to unmask] |
>   | MUN Folklore & Language Archive (MUNFLA)                  | 
>   | Memorial University of Newfoundland                       |
>   | St. John's, Newfoundland  A1B 3X8  CANADA                 |
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Beatrice Hopkinson 73071,327@compuserve



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