IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 63 



bed of several feet in thickness was passed through. In this 

 gravel deposit well preserved bones were found. They were 

 crushed into fragments by the drill, but a number of pieces, 

 from one inch up to three inches long, were brought up in the 

 wash. I saw these fragments about a week after they were 

 discovered, and they had the appearance of having belonged to 

 a living animal not longer ago than that time. Mr. Jennings, of 

 New London, Iowa, who had charge of the drilling, told me 

 that the bones had quite a fetid odor when first brought up. 

 It was difficult to determine from what particular bones the 

 fragments were, but I would place them as parts of the leg 

 bones of some animal of slender build. Below the gravel bed 

 the drill passed through a black deposit, which the well drillers 

 call "sea mud," and which rests directly upon the blue shale 

 of the Kinderhook, 231 feet below the surface. 



A quarter of a mile north of the Aspelmeier well the rock 

 bed is reached at a depth of less than thirty feet. It is the 

 hard, compact limestone of the Upper Barling ton. This shows 

 a drop of over 200 feet in within a distance of 80 rods. 



Half a mile south of the Aspelmeier well, on the farm of 

 Fred Timmerman, there is another deep well which reaches a 

 depth of 184 feet without striking rock. The bottom of the well 

 is in a gravel deposit, which partakes of the nature of a forest 

 bed. From it much woody matter was brought up. 



A half mile still further south, making a mile south from 

 the Aspelmeier well there is still another deep well. It is on 

 the place of H. C. Timmerman. It reaches a depth of 188 feet 

 without striking rock. It likewise terminates in a gravel bed 

 containing much woody matter. In the two Timmerman wells 

 the water rises seventy- five feet. When last heard from the 

 Aspelmeier well was not furnishing a satisfactory supply. 



These wells indicate an old channel of great depth, and of 

 not less than a mile and a quarter in width. The width is 

 probably much greater. Mr. Frank Leverett suggests that 

 this ancient river bed was the water outlet of part of the ter- 

 ritory now drained by the Skunk river. 



