Nouveau Traité des eaux souterraines

Abstract

IN M. Martel's treatise, stress is naturally laid on what he has styled “spelæology.” For him, subterranean water moves in a fascinating world of caves. The conception of a general water-table in permeable rocks does not appeal. His conclusions as a follower of water by sheer hard climbing and exploration underground are supported by the very varied results of borings made near one another in beds regarded as porous by the engineer. M. Martel believes, with much justice, that subterranean rivers do not etch out their own way; they are determined by pre-existing crevices, the diaclases of Daubrée. In the case of limestone, solution obviously widens the original fissure; but it must have been generally recognised that the long-continued dominance of the joint-system is again and again revealed in the plans of sinuous caves.

Nouveau Traité des eaux souterraines.

Par E.-A. Martel. Pp. 838. (Paris: G. Doin, 1921.) 50 francs.