• Troy@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The hydrologist in me always asks: why dig a well at the top of the hill? Surely that is more effort than digging it at the bottom of the hill where the water table is closer to the surface.

    But I guess wells like this predate modern hydrology. And outhouses and such could be polluting the water as it flows down gradient. So the water at the top of the hill was likely cleaner and safer to drink…

    I’d wish for clean drinking water in every well. ;)

    • ADTJ
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      1 year ago

      Conjecture: if you assume people also live on the hill, it would be easier to carry pails back down than to carry them up from the bottom of the hill.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Only in a 2D world with the directions being limited to “up” and “down”. Carrying it laterally around the circumference of the hill would be equally probable.

    • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      Wishes flow best in vuggy volcanic strata, so well location is based on luck hitting a vug or interconnected seam. Any wishes in sandstone were used up millennia ago for plants to eat or, apparently in one case, death by meteor.