Twentieth Annual Meeting. 



face. At Geuda Springs, in Cowley county, and in several other places farther 

 west, brine springs often occur. 



A company was formed at Ellsworth the past summer for the purpose of boring a 

 well. The drilling was begun on August 30. The following is a record of the strata, 

 as reported by Col. H. G. Johnston, the contractor: 



SURFACE. 



Feet. I Feet. 



Yellow clay 40 Light-gray slate 5 



Sand and gravel 12 Dark shale 5 



Red clay 35 i Medium-dark shale 20 



Gray soapstone 53 



Gray sand-rock 25 



Blue clay (impregnated with iron pyrites) 10 



Gray soapstone 25 



White sand-rock (artesian water) 50 



Gra}' sand-rock 15 



Light-red shale 40 



Dark-red shale 165 



Gray shale 60 



Red shale 20 



Gray shale 10 



Rock salt (salt) 50 



Gray slate 5 



Rock salt (salt) 90 



Light and dark slate 30 



Gypsum 30 



Gray slate 45 



Light-gray slate 15 



Dark shale 40 



Light shale , 5 



Dark slate 15 



Light slate 15 



Dark slate 10 



Light sand 5 



Light-red shale 65 



Dark-gray sand (gas) 20- 



Gray sandy shale 100 



Light sand-rock (salt water) 20 



It will be seen by reference to this record that at a depth of 730 feet rock salt 

 was struck in two layers, one fifty and the other ninety feet in thickness, with five 

 feet of gray slate intervening. The salt bed is therefore 140 feet thick. The salt 

 is hard, dry and crystalline, and has the following composition: 



Per cent. I Per cent. 



Sodium chloride 95.76 ! Ms-gnesium sulphate .09 



Water 19 ! Potassium chloride 67 



Calcium sulphate 1.21 : Insoluble matter .27 



Calcium chloride 99 Calcium carbonate a trace. 



The sample examined was taken up with the drillings, and was of course some- 

 what contaminated with scrapings from the slate and shale above. If we consider 

 the potassium chloride as salt, for in most analyses it is so reckoned, it will be seen 

 that the total impurities amount to about three and one half per cent. This be it 

 remembered, is not a manufactured article, nor is it quite as pure as the original salt 

 beds from which it comes. A little of the salt was dissolved in water, filtered, and 

 evaporated to dryness. No attempt was made to separate any of the insoluble ma- 

 terial from this. This process gave the pure white sample in the bottle marked No. 

 2. This contains about %1^ per cent, of salt. 



I have compared this analysis with that of some samples of manufactured salt 

 reported by Dr. Motte, Prof. Goesmann and others. These manufactured salts rep- 

 resent much labor and fuel. They are usually made from salt waters, and the more 

 insoluble impurities have been allowed to crystallize out. Sometimes solar heat is 

 used for evaporation, and sometimes the brines are evaporated by steam or over an 

 open fire in kettles. Notwithstanding this process the per cent, of salj is only the 



following: 



Per cent. I Per cent. 



Higgin's 97.8 1 Deckin's 97.5 



Onondaga 97.7 ! Worthington 97.4 



Ashton's 97. G 



So it will be seen that the Ellsworth product compares very favorably with these 

 and it can be obtained with only the labor of mining and hoisting to the surface. 

 The drilling of the well has been continued. At 1280 feet considerable gas was 



