Cape Breton's Magazine

ters--rock blisters and openings in the rock--and when the world cooled off, it cranked, and all these waters are running. The world travels at 666 miles an hour-- the outer rim of the earth, that is. Now, this water below gets a vent as the world turns and it comes to the surface. You know now the scientists and smart guys are getting on to this. They call it an arte? sian well. An artesian well is not a well unless it overflows by itself. I'll take you down to Herring Cove and show you one of the prettiest wells you ever saw in your life. The guy is thinking of making a fish pond. The water's overflowing by it? self, about 8 or 9 gallons a minute. That's not the only one. There's quite a few of them around here. (What do you do if someone asks you to find water for them?) First of all, I'd look around if there was a highway close by and the rock cut or bedrock showing, and I'd get the angle of the rock. I have a degree rule compass for that. You hold the compass about 6 inches above the rock. It's not a magnetic compass. It's not boxed in and it's very tender. It'll show you. Maybe it'll shift 10 or 12 degrees. Don't put the hole there. You got iron ox? ide in the rock. Check it, follow it along. You may find the water running on the neighbour's lot, I've often done that-- found the water on the neighbour's lot. You put the well there, if thfe neighbour agrees on it. If not, the guy's got to go good for it. It may cost him a thousand dollars more to drag a well on a lot that's got no water till you get down-- till you get this angle I'm talking about. There's so much to it! You're learning eve? ry day about it. It's interesting to go back on wells that you did 10 or 20 years ago and find out how the water system is now and how does it taste. Especially in March, because the ground is still frozen and the fresh rain water hasn't seeped in so you get a true picture of the quality of the water. (How can you explain the reaction of the wires when you're near water?) The water's got nothing to do with it. It's the gamma rays that's coming up from the bowels of the earth--some of the cranks that's down below. The gamma rays and the atoms--now they've proven there's atoms and molecules that float on the water and in the water-- come up like fog, although the naked eye can't see it. In 1645, when the first monk who was over in France found water with di? vining rods, the priests thought he was possessed by the devil. But he was very good at divining.... The water is coming up. Say there's 10 feet of clay on top of the bedrock with the crank in it here. Now, this water's got pressure on it. Now, the best place to put the well is where the strata crosses-- where it all crosses from north to south and east to west. You follow this and you put little pegs in the ground where the wires work and you keep moving till they open again. That way you find the width of it. Then you can tell how many seams there are. If there's 9 or 10 seams--that's ver? tical seams--you follow these till you come to the intersection--"where the street is crossing the avenue." Well, there's where the business is! There's The 'ulfofSiJ'wrence T>yHarry'ruce WayneBarreH andJlnneMacK'y One of the last accessible places left in the world for those who relish a sense of history and of nature at the same time. 128 pages, 96 colour photographs $19.95 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS h;STOR-Y OCiE S BOOKS BFSTSei WS4 |(Q2> VSS'riini Hilt LERS nCT.ON . ARTIST S SI • SOUVENIRS nd NONFICTION THE BOOK SHELF WE ACCEPT ORDERS BY MAIL OR PHONE .WE MAIL ORDERS ANYWHERE Inter Continental Restaurant & Lounge SALADS * STEAKS * SEAFOOD Open Year Round 7 A • M. to 10 P.M. 'r .'..i'l'V'-'.,, . ,;?? , , ',JJg* CEILIDH Nightly - Phone 562-6614 to Inquire Round & Square Dancing, Best Cape Breton Fiddlers AUTUMN & WINTER: SATURDAY AFTERNOON 2 TO 5 Talent Show - All Musicians Welcome Cape Breton Plaza - Sydney River (55)