And I knew a manufacturer, too, who went to bore an Artesian well for water, and hired a regular well-borer to do it. But, meanwhile he was wise enough to ask a geologist of those parts how far he thought it was down to the water. The geologist made his calculations, and said:
"You will go through so many feet of Bagshot sand; and so many feet of London clay; and so many feet of the Thanet beds between them and the chalk: and then you will win water, at about 412 feet; but not, I think, till then."
The well-sinker laughed at that, and said, "He had no opinion of geologists, and such-like. He never found any clay in England but what he could get through in 150 feet."
So he began to bore--150 feet, 200, 300: and then he began to look rather silly; at last, at 405--only seven feet short of what the geologist had foretold--up came the water in a regular spout.