Cinciunati Society of Natural History 



ACCOUNT OF A WELL DRILLED FOR OIL OR GAS AT 

 OXFORD, OHIO, MAY AND JUNE, 1887. 



By JosKi'H F. Jamks, M. Sc, Professor of Geology and Botany in 

 Miami Univcrsitv. 



(Read June ytli, 1S87.) 



The prevailing fever in Ohio and Indiana at the [^resent time, 

 is for searching the earth's crust for natural gas, or for oil. vScarcely 

 a town of any size in Western Ohio or Eastern Indiana but has the 

 fever. The result has been the expenditure of an inimense 

 amount of money, aggregating millions of dollars, and a consider- 

 able addition to the stock of knowledge of the geological structure 

 of this part of the world. We are familiar, through Prof. Orton's 

 "Report on Petroleum and Inflammable Gas of Ohio," with many 

 facts connected with the oil and gas regions of Northwestern Ohio; 

 but since this report was issued, many new wells have been bored, 

 and new facts are constantly being brought to light. A good 

 oj^portunity has lately been afforded the writer to study the strata 

 of southwestern Ohio, by means of sann)les secured from a well 

 drilled by the Oxford (ras and Oil Company. The present paper 

 deals with the results of this drilling. 



The place selected for the well is close to the Oxford station 

 on the C. H. & I. R. R., 39 miles from Cincinnati, and about 900 

 feet above the sea level, and therefore about 465 feet above low 

 water mark in the Ohio River at Cincinnati. The drill penetrated 

 the soil and drift, composed of gravel, sand, and water worn rocks^ 

 to a depth of about forty feet, possibly more, for a fragment of 

 water worn limestone came from a depth of forty-eight feet, though 

 this may have fallen from above. 



Immediately below the drift the bed rock was struck. This 

 consisted of layers of solid blue limestone, such as are met with in 

 various exposures at the surface, inter-stratified with beds of 

 indurated clay or .shale at various depths. The rock came up 

 generally in small, angular fragments, often of the size of peas,. 



