SPRINGS AS A GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCE 511 



The township contains no extensive areas of outcropping coal meas- 

 ure or Pennsylvania]] formations, save in the south central portion ; 

 elsewhere disintegration has left only outliers. In the area west of 

 Mary Ann Furnace, covering several square miles, and another along 

 the eastern border of the township, there are eighteen houses, three of 

 which, now occupied, have springs. For the entire township, the 

 average number of houses per square mile is about eight; for the hori- 

 zon of the coal measures, it is less than two. That springs are rare 

 is not the sole cause for the discrepancy; the bleakness of the upland, 

 and the unproductiveness of the soil are contributory factors. 



About ten per cent, of the homes with springs are built on glacial 

 deposits. The drift is localized chiefly in the valleys. The ice-sheet 

 covered approximately two fifths of the township, but left scarcely a 

 veneer of drift on the intervalley areas. While fourteen springs have 

 been mapped as belonging to the drift, it is quite probable that a good 

 fraction of these are fed by water courses from the Black Hand forma- 

 tion. Of the wells noted, fifty-six per cent, are in glacial deposits. 



Still another evidence of the influence due to springs is seen in the 

 fact that of the eight deserted houses in the township one is in the 

 Black Hand formation, one in the Logan and six in the coal measures, 

 the horizon practically without springs. It is noted also that twenty- 

 two per cent, of the dwellings are off highways, an isolation due entirely 

 to springs. Furthermore, dairying has always been carried on in this 

 region because in the summer season the springs furnish cool water for 

 handling milk. 



