C. A
0.
30601
¡REC?
Reet 17 AUG 03
No. 7, Cartafet Street
12
Westminster, S.W.
August 1908.
To the Crown Agents for the Colonies,
Downing Street, S.W.
469
I
Gentlemen,
RB HONG KONG 26471.
TYTAM WATERWORKS
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of
your letter of the 5th August and beg to state that I do not
think any inconvenience will result from the salt in solution
in the sea-water, contained in the interstices of the sand,
forming the bed of the new Tytam reservoir. In the first
place, the salt is, in itself perfectly harmless, provided
that it does not exist in sufficient quantity to make the
water brackish and unpalatable.
The presence of chlorine in upland waters, especially that of shallow wells, is assumed to be indicative
of sewage-contamination; for, most of the common salt consumed by man passes away in the urine. Consequently, when
an upland well water contains a large dose of chlorine, it
may be looked upon as suspicious, and it should be carefully
examined, especially as to the surroundings of the well.
If no possibility of sewage contamination exists, then a
reasonable dose of chlorine, is absolutely harmless.
Water of wells, sunk below sea level, always contains a considerable proportion of chlorine,
The
Again, the salt dissolved in the sea-water which
now saturates the sand will diffuse upwards very slowly.
I had numerous examples of this in Malta. In one case some
slightly brackish well-water was pumped, by mistake, into a large tank containing rain water. It sank to the bottom, so much so, that the surface-water was normal, whilst a
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