122 



CONSERVATION 



work at the present time, but a begin- 

 ning has been made by selecting the 

 Kanawha drainage basin for special 

 study, and during the next year, if the 

 ap])ropriations to be made by Congress 

 will permit, the work will be extended 

 to adjacent basins, such as the Monon- 

 gahela. Kentucky, Green, and Cumber- 

 land. 



The Ohio Valley is commercially the 

 most important of all the interior river 

 countries, and as this valley has been 

 visited by extremely destructive floods, 

 the work of the Survey will be of 

 great value. It is also becoming evi- 

 dent that the enormous amount of 

 water power available in this area has 

 not been generally realized and a part 

 of the Survey's work will be to deter- 

 mine more accurately the extent of 

 this power and the points at which 

 it may be advantageously utilized. 



&' «t J^ 



Deep Well'drilling 



FOR many months a big well-drilling 

 machine had been boring into the 

 dry ground of the Black Hills region of 

 South Dakota alongside the track of 

 the Burlington Railroad at Edgemont. 

 Down went the drill — 500, a thousand, 

 2,000, 2.500 feet— until the native on- 

 lookers won('ered whether the railroad 

 company had fixed no limit to the bore 

 and was simply "going it blind" in- 

 definitely. The company's intention 

 was very definite, inded. Its officials 

 had been informed by a geologist of 

 the United States Geological Survey 

 that a good supply of water would be 

 found in a certain stratum of rock that 

 lay at a depth of about 3,000 feet. This 

 geologist had made a study of the sur- 

 face outcrops of the rocks of the re- 

 gion, and had based his prediction on 

 that .study. And having faith in the 

 jjrophecy, the company determined to 

 drill to that depth. It was not neces- 

 sary, however, to bore quite to the 

 depth of 3,000 feet, for when the drill 

 had gone down 2,980 feet water 

 gushed out at the rate of 350 gallons 

 a minute and the faith reposed "in the 



judgment of the geologist was justified. 

 This water supply fills a need which is 

 so urgent that if anything should hap- 

 pen to destroy this well, the railroad 

 company would not hesitate to bore its 

 counterpart. 



That appeal should be made to the 

 science of geology to state positively 

 the occurrence, location, and charac- 

 ter of various deep-lying formations 

 and from a study of only the surface 

 formations to designate a water-bearing 

 stratum at a depth so great as this 

 well was driven seems incredible to 

 the lay mind ; but such determinations 

 are common. Extensive areas have 

 been thus mapped underground by 

 the Geological Survey, and the maps 

 have been accompanied by descrip- 

 tions of the character and age of the 

 dififerent rock and earth strata so defi- 

 nite that it would seem as if the regions 

 so surveyed must have been sampled 

 with a core drill at frequent intervals. 

 The great Dakota artesian basin, 

 which extends over an enormous area, 

 has been accurately mapped, as have 

 also many other smaller but hardly less 

 imi)ortant basins. 



Water is the most useful and neces- 

 sary of our mineral resources. Unlike 

 most of the others, it is renewable and 

 can be utilized over and over, again 

 and again, by man so long as the phe- 

 nomena of evaporation and precipita- 

 tion continue ; but this does not mean 

 that the conservation of the resource 

 is not necessary. River supplies can 

 be largely diminished through the de- 

 struction of the sources by forest 

 denudation and otherwise, and arte- 

 sian basins also can be exhausted or 

 seriouslv injured through wasteful 

 misuse. Local statutes that require 

 the capping of wells when not in use 

 should, if necessary, be enacted and 

 strictly enforced to prevent such 

 waste — such statutes as have been 

 enacted in many sections for the pre- 

 vention of waste of natural gas and 

 petroleum. Artesian basins are of 

 especially great value, since many of 

 them are located in regions where the 

 surface water supply is very scant. 



