462 ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



mouths of artesian wells because the source of the water is at a 

 higher altitude. This is not always so. Sometimes water has 

 been stored in great reservoirs, somewhat similar to petroleum or 

 natural gas. Where the water area is very large, and the overhead 

 or ceiling rock is also of great length and breadth, and the enormous 

 pressure from above has led the overhead rock to press down upon 

 the water, as surely as that water is reached by a drill-hole, just 

 as surely will there be a flow of water from its mouth until that 

 pressure is relieved. Many of the flowing wells that we have, can 

 have the continual flowing accounted for in no other way. 



GLACIAL, ACTION. 



Perhaps no state has more evidence of a one-time glacial action 

 than Pennsylvania, and this accounts for boulders in fields and other 

 places made up of constituents found nowhere else in the vicinity. 

 Some of these were carried to our State ages ago on floating ice, and 

 deposited as the ice melted. I have noticed evidences of glacial 

 action as far south as Albemarle county, Virginia, or near the cen- 

 tre of that state. To glacial action is due some of the marked 

 changes in soil, sometimes in a single field; though, as a rule, the 

 changes are due to the decomposed rock beneath, or, it may be, of 

 the hills nearby. 



VOLCANIC ACTION. 



During the past two years, much has been discovered in Mifflin 

 and Bedford counties to lead to the belief that at one time there 

 was volcanic action in that part of the State. About one mile 

 north of Saxton, Bedford county, along the Raystown Branch, there 

 are two small craters apparently of volcanic origin; while four miles 

 west of McVeytown, Mifflin count}', there are large deposits of rich 

 brownish, breccia-like rock, seemingly also of volcanic genesis. The 

 samples exhibited herewith are certainly interesting, mottled with 

 such a contrast of yellow, whitish and brownish angular pebbles 

 as are seldom, if ever, found anywhere. 



CONCLUSION. 



While some of the geological features of this report may seem to 

 bear somewhat remotely on the subject of agriculture, I think, 

 upon close investigation, that they will be found to have more to 

 do with the welfare of the farmer than might appear from only 

 casual thought. The first paragraph on building stone may cause 

 him to investigate to see if he has not something on his own farm 

 quite as good, if not better; and the other subjects may lead to an 

 investigation at home which may throw still more light on the com- 

 plicated geological make-up of the rocks and soils of our State. 



The CHAIR: You have heard this paper read. What action shall 

 we take on it? 



MR. BLYHOLDER: I move that the paper be received and filed. 

 The motion being seconded, it was agreed to. 

 On motion, the meeting adjourned to 1.30 P. M. 



