Mr. VIGNOLES said, this subject was one to which he had paid great attention for many years, and he would make a few remarks, rather by way of explanation than of criticism, excepting that he would demur to the definition the Author had given in styling the ' Ii'auvelle' system a Chinese system. The Chinese syst,em, with which he was familiar, and that of Fauvelle' were distinct. The principle in boring used by the Chinese, as appeared from records of 1,500 years ago, was simply that of percussion; the borer, having been drawn up to a certain height by a rope passing over a, pulley, acted by its weight, and the rotary action of the rope enabled the tool to fall successively on different parts. To this system Fauvelle added the contrivance of introducing a stream of water to force up the debris and avoid the necessity of using the shell pump. On a small scale that contrivance had proved successful.A t the meeting of the British Association at Southampton in 1846,' he read a description of that system, and when he was at Perpignan, eighteen years ago, he saw it in operation, and in the strata which the apparatus had then to work in, it did well.He agreed with the Author, that in boring for water it was not always possible to get a supply to work the machine, but the quantity required was so small in comparison with the results, that he thought the Fauvelle system might be advantageously adopt.ed.With respect to the machinery introduced by M. Bind, the principle of it had been well known in Germany for many years.It was now between twenty-five years and thirty years since he examined into that principle, in the coal-fields near Zweibrucken, at which time holes of 18 inches diameter were being bored. Since that period it had been carried to such an extent, that in October last, in the Moselle coal-fields, on the eastern frontier of France, wells were bored at least 9 feet in diameter. The practice was, to make a beginning with an interior cutter of a smaller size, and immediately follow it by a larger concentric one, of' the kind described in the Paper; and he believed a depth of 500 feet or 600 feet had been successfully reached through the rock. The average rate of working was half a m'etre, or about 20 inches per day.The system of boring in Paris, and elsewhere, might be divided into two parts-first, the method, and the precautions adopted in passing through the upper and softer strata, to prevent the falling of the material into the tubing ; and then the application of the system of boring described in the Paper.He thought the two were distinct. The peculiar system introduced by the