374 Artesian Wells in North and South Dakota. 



The flow of water from the Dakota sandstone at Devil's 

 lake is found exactly at the sea level, but the top of the sandstone 

 formation is 39 feet higher. At Jamestown the flow rises from a 

 depth of 76 feet below the sea level, indicating that the top of the 

 Dakota sandstone there sinks slightly lower than at Devil's lake. 

 Along the distance of eighty-five miles from north to south be- 

 tween these points, its level is probably nearly constant; and 

 boring at intervening towns, as New Rockford and Carrington, 

 will doubtless find artesian water at or slightly below the sea 

 level. Farther south, the top of the sandstone and its water 

 supply are found throughout a large district of South Dakota and 

 the south edge of North Dakota, at a plane 250 to 450 feet above 

 the sea. Continuing still southward, from Woonsocket to the 

 Missouri river, the water-bearing stratum rises to altitudes from 

 558 feet to 818 feet above the sea, the highest levels being at 

 Meckling and Vermillion, the most southeastern localities of this 

 list. 



The same southeastward ascent of the Dakota sandstone 

 reaches to its outcrops on the southwest side of the Missouri in 

 Dakota county, Nebraska, whence its name is derived, opposite to 

 the southeast corner of South Dakota. There and at other ex- 

 tensive outcrops in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska, having 

 approximately the same elevations as the surface at Vermillion 

 and Yankton, the water coursing through this sandstone finds 

 outlet in springs; and these avenues of discharge explain the 

 gradual reduction of the altitude of the head of the water above 

 the sea level, as the series of wells is followed from north to south 

 and from west to east. Somewhat uniform altitudes of 1,619 to 

 1,743 feet are recorded as the heights to which water would rise 

 in pipes for all the wells, where pressure is reported, from James- 

 town to Huron and Woonsocket, excepting those west of Huron, 

 which will be considered later, and the well at Ashton, where the 

 reported pressure is probably erroneous, lacking 100 pounds or 

 more of its true amount. At Hitchcock the head of water has a 

 computed altitude of 1,743 feet above the sea; eighteen miles to 

 the south, at Huron, it is 1,691 feet; twenty-two miles further 

 south, at Woonsocket, it is 1,661 feet; and eighty miles still 

 farther south, at Yankton, it is only 1,325 feet. 



Equally distinct gradients of the plane of water head are 

 found descending from west to east on and near the latitudes of 

 Huron and Yankton. Thus at Highmore, sixty miles west of 



